Landscape Architecture
Landscape architecture is an environmental design and planning profession of broad scope concerned with the creation, protection, restoration, and management of landscapes. Landscape architecture is founded on an awareness of our deep connections to the natural world and how people and their work are part of the web of life. The profession is deeply attentive to how places serve human needs and support sustainable and resilient cities and other landscapes. A healthy society rests on a commitment to sound landscape design, planning, and conservation that respects the land, its processes, its integrity—and that of human-ecological processes, helping to fulfill human potential.
Both a science and an art, landscape architecture involves creative decision-making based on scientific knowledge of natural processes coupled with awareness of historical, cultural, and social dynamics. The profession also makes intensive use of technologies for landscape construction and environmental management—digital graphics, geographic information systems, and computer-aided design. These are applied to making richly supportive places for people and ecosystems that are beautiful and healthy, responding to human needs and to local natural and socioeconomic systems.
As a profession, landscape architecture includes design at many scales, including ecologically based planning activities, transformation of urban and rural landscapes, service to disadvantaged communities, and design of parks and gardens. As an academic discipline, it provides opportunities for personal development through environmental problem-solving, graphic and oral communication, and project-oriented study in which small groups of students work with instructors to address pressing contemporary problems through detailed development of land and sites.
Faculty
David Buckley Borden, associate research professor, BS, 1998, Northeastern; MLA, 2011, Harvard. (2021)
Kelly Densmore, instructor (plants, planting design, residential design, artist), BA, 1998, Oregon; MLA, 2006, Oregon. (2014)
Elisabeth "Liska" Chan, associate professor (design representation, design theory). BA, 1993, Hampshire; MLA, 2000, Cornell. (2001)
Arica Duhrkoop-Galas, associate teaching professor (plants, planting design, landscape construction). BA, 1998, Portland State; CE, 1999, Cambridge; MLA, 2005, Oregon; reg. landscape architect, Oregon. (2010)
Mark Eischeid, associate professor (landscape history, design theory, critical practice). BS, 1994, Stanford; MLA, 2000, California, Berkeley; MFA, 2010, Edinburgh; reg. landscape architect, California. (2014)
Harper Keeler, teaching professor (civic agriculture, landscape biodynamics, urban farm director). BLA, 1995; MLA 2011, Oregon. (2010)
Ignacio Lopez Buson, assistant professor (computational design, generative design, digital fabrication, landscape urbanism, urban design, GIS, remote sensing, drones, climate change). BARCH, MARCH 2006, ULPGC, Spain; MA, 2012, AASA London, UK; reg. landscape architect, Oregon. (2020)
Daniel Philips, assistant professor, BFA, 2008, Otis, CA; MLA, 2019, PhD, 2021, Michigan. (2024)
Kory Russel, assistant professor (water, container-based sanitation, informal settlements). BS, 2003, MES, 2005, Taylor; MS, 2012, Stanford. (2016)
Benjamin Shirtcliff, associate professor (adolescents, play, environmental justice, urban design). BA, 1999, Oregon; BLA, MLA 2006, Penn State; PhD, 2012, New Orleans. (2022)
Emeriti
Jerome Diethelm, professor emeritus. BArch, 1962, Washington (Seattle); MLA, 1964, Harvard; reg. architect and landscape architect, Oregon. (1970)
Kenneth I. Helphand, professor emeritus. BA, 1968, Brandeis; MLA, 1972, Harvard; Fellow, American Society of Landscape Architects. (1974)
David Hulse, professor emeritus. BSLA, 1981, Colorado State; MLA, 1984, Harvard. (1985)
Bart Johnson, professor emeritus. BS, 1987, Cornell; MLA, 1992, PhD, 1995, Georgia. (1995)
Robert Z. Melnick, professor emeritus. BA, 1970, Bard; MLA, 1975, State University of New York, College of Environmental Science and Forestry; Fellow, American Society of Landscape Architects. (1982)
Robert G. Ribe, professor emeritus. BS, 1977, California, Riverside; MSLA, 1981, MA, 1987, PhD, 1990, Wisconsin; Fellow, American Society of Landscape Architects. (1988)
The date in parentheses at the end of each entry is the first year on the University of Oregon faculty.