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Landscape architecture vs. urban planning

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EveTree

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Hello everyone! I'm thinking about grad school, and I'm heavily leaning toward landscape architecture due to its heavy emphasis on design (I'm passionate about visual art ) and its potential for working with outdoor spaces. However, what I want to make sure of is that I enter a field that has a capacity for sustainable design, particularly with urban agriculture. Are there opportunities for urban argricultiral planning and design within landscape architecture? I know it all depends on the firm you end up working for, but I just wanted to know if what I'm describing sounds more like an urban planning career.

Thanks a ton!
Eve :)
 
EveTree said:
Hello everyone! I'm thinking about grad school, and I'm heavily leaning toward landscape architecture due to its heavy emphasis on design (I'm passionate about visual art ) and its potential for working with outdoor spaces. However, what I want to make sure of is that I enter a field that has a capacity for sustainable design, particularly with urban agriculture. Are there opportunities for urban argricultiral planning and design within landscape architecture? I know it all depends on the firm you end up working for, but I just wanted to know if what I'm describing sounds more like an urban planning career.
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We all know LArch people are moving in to the planning field for (fill in your reason here: ____________). I'd caution you, however, that a constant frustration with LArch graduates from most programs is their utter lack of knowledge of plants, despite the fact they are supposed to be making designs with plants. Embarrassing, really, that all they are taught is to place a circle on a plan and call it good.

IOW: don't go into LArch without learning something about plants first, because the chances are good you won't learn in LArch school.
 
Moving into the planning field? We often forget that planning practice in the US comes out of landscape architecture in the first place, and the two fields have always been quite interdependent. We have analytical, regulatory, economic-financial and policy capabilities that LA's don't, and LA's have technical, materials, finishing and documentation capabilities that we don't. Both professions have always had rich traditions of doing community outreach and participatory design and planning.

Most of the large corporate LA and planning firms (SWA, AECOM, Stantec, etc) will hire both planners and LAs. Provided that both have the requisite practice skills, many of those large firms don't really seem to care that much whether you have a planning or a landscape architecture degree. Smaller LA firms may prefer to hire traditionally trained LAs, at least by the numbers.. more LAs than planners (Olin, Hargreaves, Field Ops, etc). There is a new generation of planning firm that will generally hire more planners than LAs (WXY, Urban Strategies, PA, etc). My suggestion would be for you to get the degree that most suits your personal interests, checking to make sure that the program you choose as the horticultural and urban agricultural background that you look for (as ColoGI pointed out, many LA and planning programs lack both). One other consideration may be compensation: for some reason, in today's job market, private sector LA jobs seem to pay less than planning jobs and seem to be a bit harder to come by, probably because planners get a great deal of competition from employment from both the public sector and developers.

ColoGI said:
We all know LArch people are moving in to the planning field for (fill in your reason here: ____________). I'd caution you, however, that a constant frustration with LArch graduates from most programs is their utter lack of knowledge of plants, despite the fact they are supposed to be making designs with plants. Embarrassing, really, that all they are taught is to place a circle on a plan and call it good.

IOW: don't go into LArch without learning something about plants first, because the chances are good you won't learn in LArch school.
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Only because you sound more design oriented, I would recommend LArch. Unless you find a good design related planning program. The problem with doing a good urban ag project is understand both the design and the politics behind getting the right buy in to make it work.
 
Depends on what your undergraduate degree was in. I personally had the same issue that I faced while getting my bachelor's degree, so I ended up minoring in LA and majoring in Urban Planning. I echo the response that you will not learn many kinds of plants with this MS as most of it will be expected knowledge going into a master's program. I chose something a bit more broad for my MS so I could take it in more than one direction (Geography with a concentration in Sustainability). All of these fields are interconnected inherently, as land use is the overarching theme in any planning/architecture/agriculture type degree and career. It is more so what you take out of the degree that will be more important to your career path.

I'd say to do a volunteer internship at a LA firm to talk to them about your potential career paths. This will help you to see first hand what you would be dealing with having a degree in LA.
 
I don't think LArch focuses on urban ag per se, but you can definitely tie it in to your projects or do your capstone/thesis on a topic of your choosing. Where I work (public sector planner), there is someone who works in my department whose job title is Open Space Planner and she is the one that mostly handles urban ag zoning. What I would suggest is going to to a school that has both a Landscape Dept and a Planning program, and then filling your electives in MLA with environmental planning or natural resources classes. Some schools may allow you to minor in that as well. What's nice about an MLA is that it is usually 3 years, so you have the time to take some electives.

If you already have a design background and play your cards right, you might be able to squeeze in a dual degree in three years as well (either in planning or natural resources management).
 
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