Below are currently offered courses for the spring semester. For course meeting times and locations, see the UC Berkeley Online Schedule of Classes.

Lower - and Upper-Division Courses

LD ARCH 1 (Sullivan)

Drawing a Green Future: Fundamentals of Visual Representation and Creativity

(5) Course Format: Two hours of lecture and six hours of studio per week. Description: This introductory studio course is open to all undergraduate students in the University, who want to investigate the process of drawing as a method to learn how to perceive, observe and represent the environment. This studio will encourage visual thinking as a formative tool for problem solving that provides a means to envision a sustainable future. The focus will be on the critical coordination between hand, mind and idea.

Extended Course Description

LA 1 is an introductory course on visual representation and creativity, open to all undergraduate students in the University, who want to investigate the process of drawing as a method of learning how to perceive, observe and represent the environment. Our Laboratory will encourage visual thinking as a formative tool for problem solving that provides a means to envision a sustainable future.

Objectives:

to give form to the gesture of thought, and appreciate the role of intuition and imagination in comprehending the dynamic relationship between seeing, thinking, and doing.
to acquire new knowledge of the physical environment through careful observation and documentation using journaling and visual note-taking.
to study proportion, human form and spatial relationships through drawing and painting from nature.
to understand how space is choreographed and perceived by investigating the art of the sequential narrative in cinematography, animation, and graphic novels.

LD ARCH 102 (Kullmann)

Case Studies in Landscape Design

(5) Course Format: Two hours of lecture and six hours of studio per week. Prerequisites: 101 or consent of instructor. Description: This studio stresses the shaping and coordination of ideas from initial concept to complete design product. A product(s) of intermediate scale and complexity (such as a garden, small park, plaza, or campus courtyard) will be developed in detail including the selection of planting, selection of construction materials, and topographic design. Lecture modules on selected professional topics are integrated into this course.

Extended Course Description

This studio stresses the shaping and coordination of ideas from initial concept to complete design product. A product(s) of intermediate scale and complexity will be developed in detail including the selection of construction materials, planting and topographic design. Lecture modules on selected professional topics are integrated into this course.

LD ARCH 112 (Staff)

Landscape Plants: Identification and Use

(4) Course Format: Two hours of lecture and six hours of fieldwork per week. Description: This course is an introduction to the identification and recognition, as well as design applications and uses, of plants in the landscape. Through lectures, assignments, and fieldwork, the course provides class participants with an appreciation of the importance of plants (or vegetation) as design elements. Students will be introduced to a variety of built projects and plants commonly used in Bay Area landscapes.

Objectives

The focus of this class is on plant identification. Students will learn to both identify (by close up examination) and, when practical, recognize (from a distance) approximately 200 plant species. Students are expected to learn plant families (and their salient characteristics), botanical and common names, as well as visual appearance, cultural preferences for optimum plant vigor, and appropriate uses in the designed landscape.

Additionally, basic horticultural principles, as well as discussion about design uses of plants, will be presented through lectures, discussions, and assignments.

Finally, the course will give students the opportunity to apply their emerging knowledge of species characteristics through several structured design problems and associated reviews.

Course Requirements

• Semester-long Sketch Project: Study of a Deciduous Tree
• Minimum of 2 Reports/Sketch Problems
• Plant Resource Notebook
• Field Work: Two hours of hands-on work is required
• Field Quizzes (and Field Final): There will be NO make-up quizzes. The lowest quiz score will be dropped.
Quizzes are cumulative
• Written Midterm: multiple choice, short answer, and essay questions on material covered in the lectures, field
work and reading.
• Final Planting Design

LD ARCH 121 (Yglesias)

Design in Detail: Introduction to Landscape Materials and Construction

(4) Landscapes are constructed. Landscape architects need to understand building materials and methods of construction from their source, extraction, manufacturing, construction, and use to their recovery for subsequent purposes. This course examines the history of a material’s use, explores theories about their properties and qualities, and investigates performative aspects in terms of sustainable and responsible applications in design. Assignments include drawing standard details in computer-aided design format, making construction drawings of built elements, and documenting field trips. You are also expected to do an investigation of your choice on a related topic, such as making a photograph or sketch journal, documenting on-going government and industry research or industry innovations as reported in the media, or working on and blogging about the Blake Garden Project (see Joanna Salem for details).

Landscapes are constructed. Landscape architects need to understand building materials and construction from their source, extraction, manufacturing, construction methods, and use to their potential recovery for subsequent purposes. This course examines the history of a material’s use, explores theories about their inherent properties and varying qualities, and investigates performative aspects in terms of sustainable and responsible applications in design.

Drawing assignments:

1.Standard details using AutoCAD in accepted industry standard format,

2.Construction details of existing built elements

3.A landscape architecture element of your design.

Attending all classes and field trips is required.
Independent project: Review recent online research of a specific material by government agencies and/or industry and give a two minute presentation of your poster.

LD ARCH 122 (Haltiner)

Hydrology for Planners

Course Objectives

This course presents an overview of relevant hydrologic, hydraulic, and geomorphic processes, to provide the planner and ecologist with insight to incorporate these processes into the planning process and coordinate with specialists in the field of hydrology. Relevant government regulations and policies are also reviewed. The course is not intended to duplicate more specialized courses offered in such fields as engineering hydrology, coastal engineering, or geology, but rather to provide an integrated understanding. The course takes a process- and field-based approach to hydrology, and emphasizes interdisciplinary perspectives.

Prerequisite

Prior course in earth sciences and/or some prior exposure to statistics is desirable but not required

LD ARCH 130 (Stryker)

Sustainable Landscapes and Cities

(3) Course Format: Three hours of lecture per week. Description: This course introduces the foundations of sustainability most related to the restoration, design, and creation of landscapes and cities. The underlying principles of ecology, nature, and democracy are concretized in centered-ness, connectedness, fairness, sensible status seeking, sacredness, particular-ness, selective diversity, density and smallness, limited extent, adaptability, everyday future, naturalness, inhabiting science, reciprocal stewardship, and pacing.

Extended Course Description

This course is an introduction to issues of sustainability in the designed landscape and in our cities. It includes environmental history as well as contemporary social, environmental and political issues surrounding sustainable design and activism. The course will stress motives and values expressed through environmental design at various scales – from neighborhood to global. We will examine problems affecting healthy environments and their solutions. We will study the need for protection and restoration of healthy ecological systems within the design of cities and landscapes and discuss ways to enable these systems to thrive. Readings and discussions will focus on means to evaluate, create and advocate for healthy, sustainable environments.

Slides and films will augment class lectures. Guest lecturers from LAEP faculty and the professional design community will complement lectures. A term paper as well as significant field trip to critique designed spaces are required. Short assignments will be given throughout the semester.

Texts:
1. Design for Ecological Democracy, Randolph T. Hester, Jr. available at U.C. Bookstore
2. Course reader, available at Zee Zee Copy, 2431-C Durant Avenue.
3. Various additional articles will be provided during class meetings as handouts.

Objectives:

Attendance
Please attend all lectures and scheduled field trip. More than 3 absences will reduce your final grade by ½ a grade. A severe attendance (more than 5) will earn a failing grade.
Participation
Questions and comments during class.
A class field trip is required.
Minimum of one office visit to me or GSI during office hours/by appointment
Grades will be based on:
A significant term paper; a Mid-term and Final Exam; attendance; in-class participation, field trip and completion of short assignments during the semester.

LD ARCH 140 (Brand)

Social and Psychological Factors in Open Space Design

Social and Psychological Factors in Open Space Design: “Social Needs and Practices in the Landscape: Designing for Difference”

(3) Course Format: One and one-half hours of lecture and one and one-half hours of discussion per week. Description: User-oriented approach to design. Post-occupancy evaluation as a tool for understanding use of designed open spaces. Design as a communication process. Environmental needs of vulnerable populations—children, elderly, disabled, low-income families. Personal and societal environmental values.

Extended Course Description

In a world in which people, social practices and processes interact and intermix with increasing rapidity and fluidity, designers are ever more challenged to understand how people perceive, experience, make meaning and identify with the places and spaces around them. From high-style urban squares to parking plazas, community centers to coffee shops, upscale shopping malls to night markets, suburban single-family homes to downtown artist lofts – designing in a complex world, requires an equally complex set of analytical tools to make sense of the various uses and users of urban spaces.

LA 140 remixes the venerable traditions of social factors analysis to investigate questions about who and what we design for and the norms we apply to design. The course moves towards usercentered approaches that honor the needs, preferences, meanings, experiences, identities, ideas, ideals and various forms of knowledge that people bring to their everyday life spaces. At the same time, it casts a critical lens on the ways in which larger cultural, political and economic processes structure people’s conscientization of various arenas in the urban landscape.

Prerequisites

None. Open to all students in CED (undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral). Satisfies LAEP social factors requirement.

Objectives:

Evaluate traditional social factors approaches in light of recent social science and urban theories
Analyze how changing demographics and identity politics influence design practice
Understand how diverse spatial practices and preferences impact the design of everyday spaces
Explore multiple methodologies for investigating user wants and needs.
Understand how cultural, economic, and political processes influence the users of, relations within, and the design of urban space
Question personal and professional design norms and the ethical implications of designing for difference

LD ARCH 154 (di Tommaso, Shuch, Moffat)

Special Topics in LAEP: Understanding Place Through Design and Performance

(3) Course Format: Course Format: Varies. Course may be repeated for credit as topic varies. One to five hours of seminar per week. Designed to be a forum for presentation of student research, discussions with faculty researchers and practitioners, and examination of topical issues in landscape architecture and environmental planning. Topics will be announced at the beginning of each semester.

Extended Course Description

Landscape Architecture 154

Theater 114

Students from all departments welcome.

Instructors: Ghigo di Tommaso (Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning) Erika Chong Shuch (Theater, Dance & Performance Studies) Susan Moffat (City and Regional Planning)

Tuesdays + Thursdays 2-6 pm, 3 units

The Albany Bulb is a construction debris landfill in San Francisco Bay known for its informal art and performance, spectacular views, and for many years, a longstanding homeless community. The Bulb is now being incorporated into a state park. What will become of the Bulb's creative traditions? Using methods of urban and natural observation and experiments in performance and documentation, students will seek to understand this complex space. Students will map the site and create a site-specific performance that examines and illuminates the nature of the place. This fieldwork-based course fulfills the studio requirement for the Undergraduate Certificate in Global Urban Humanities. Each year, the Global Urban Humanities Initiative offer a fieldwork-based course that allows undergraduates to explore an urban Bay Area site using methods from architecture, city planning, the arts, performance, and the humanities.

Questions about the course may be directed to susanmoffat@berkeley.edu.

LD ARCH 160 (Lozier)

Professional Practice Seminar

(3) Course Format: Three hours of seminar per week. Prerequisites: 161 or graduate standing. Description: Survey and analysis of professional practice in landscape architecture focusing on: the context of professional practice—office structure, public, private and non-profit practice, marketing, project management and delivery; the legal parameters of practice—contracts, codes, planning regulations, project approval processes, liability; and economics—budgeting, profits, project development costs, fiscal impacts, and financing.

Extended Course Description

This course provides instruction and guidance in the professional practice aspect of landscape architecture in the United States. Covering the breadth of the profession, we will learn the professional duties of a landscape architect, and the process of completing a real life landscape architectural project. The goal of this class will be to learn what it means to be a practicing, licensed landscape architect, with the understanding that this is ultimately a construction based, service oriented industry.

With the view of preparing students for the working world, this course will cover the skills necessary for getting a job and will provide the opportunity to construct a portfolio and resume. It will also give an opportunity to understand and absorb the full potential of a landscape architectural education by meeting and listening to a variety of professionals who will describe their job duties and work environment. Lastly this course will allow students an opportunity to hone their practical skills and learn the tempo and pace of a landscape architectural practice by participating in an internship.

Topics Covered:

Introduction to landscape practice

Structure of a landscape architectural consultancy
Design Team Structure, prime and sub-consultants
Project implementation SD, DD, CE, CA
Specifications
RFPs and Proposals
Fee Proposals

Employment

Assembling a Portfolio
Resumes and Interviewing
Salary ranges

Licensing exam

Content
Strategy

Business law

Insurance
Contracts
Licensure

Instructional Methods:

Guest Interviews: Up to 10 landscape professionals practicing in a variety of job positions will be invited to speak and answer questions.
Course Lectures and Discussion: Pertaining to how a practice functions, and projects are brought in and completed.
Internship: Each student will participate in an internship with a landscape architectural firm for a total of 64 hours in the semester.
Readings: Business Law for Landscape Architects by Bill Beery.

Requirements for Credit:

Internship attendance 20%
Portfolio completion 20%
Term paper: “Aspirations for a Career in Landscape Arch.” 20%
Class attendance & contribution to class discussion 20%
Book chapter reports 20%

Successful completion of the internship is a mandatory requirement for the class. As part of this class students will be required to build and complete their school portfolio, write a short term paper, and write and present a chapter report from the business law book. Since this will be a fast paced class, full attendance is highly encouraged.

LD ARCH 170 (Elder)

History and Literature of Landscape Architecture

(3) Course Format: Three hours of lecture per week. Description: This course surveys the history of landscape architecture in four realms: 1) gardens; 2) urban open space, that is, plazas, parks, and recreation systems; 3) urban and suburban design; and 4) regional and environmental planning. The course will review the cultural and social contexts which have shaped and informed landscape architecture practice and aesthetics, as well as the environmental concerns, horticultural practices, and technological innovations of historic landscapes.

Extended Course Description

This course surveys the history of landscape architecture, in four areas: 1) gardens; 2) urban open spaces—that is squares, plazas, parks, and recreation systems; 3) urban and suburban design; and 4) regional and environmental planning. We will emphasize the cultural, social, and economic contexts that have shaped and informed historic landscapes, broadly defined, and the influence of environmental concerns, horticultural techniques, and technological innovations.

Students will complete a midterm, final, and a research assignment, and there will be two pop quizzes during the semester. You are also required to attend a note taking session, a research assignment topic session, and a library research session to prepare for your research paper. Class attendance is absolutely necessary to complete the course with maximum success. Handouts or downloads of site plans, relevant terms and sites will be available for each lecture topic, but no online images or lecture summaries are available for this course.

LD ARCH 197 (Staff)

Field Study in Landscape Architecture

(2-3: PN) Course Format: Hours to be arranged. Prerequisites: Upper division standing and consent of instructor and sponsor. See departmental information sheet for limitations. Must be taken on a passed/not passed basis. Supervised experience relative to specific aspects of landscape architecture. Regular individual meetings with faculty and outside sponsor. Reports required.

LD ARCH 198 (Staff)

Directed Group Study

(1-4: PN) Course Format: Hours to be arranged. Prerequisites: Consent of instructor. No more than 4 units allowed each semester. Course may be repeated for credit. Must be taken on a passed/not passed basis. Enrollment restrictions apply.

LD ARCH 199 (Staff)

Supervised Independent Study and Research

(1-4: PN) Course Format: Hours to be arranged. Prerequisites: Consent of instructor. Course may be repeated for credit. Must be taken on a passed/not passed basis. Enrollment restrictions apply.

Graduate Courses

LD ARCH 200B (Hood)

Case Studies in Landscape Design

(5) Two hours of lecture and six hours of studio per week. Prerequisites: Landscape Architecture 200A. Formerly Landscape Architecture 102. This studio stresses the shaping and coordination of ideas from initial concept to complete design product. A product(s) of intermediate scale and complexity (such as a garden, small park, plaza, or campus courtyard) will be developed in detail including the selection of planting, selection of construction materials, and topographic design. Lecture modules on selected professional topics are integrated into this course.

Extended Course Description

To come.

LD ARCH 202 - 001/101 (Hindle)

Design of Landscape Sites - Detours In Detail: designing the new Californian scenic landscape experience

(5) Course Format: Two hours of lecture and six hours of studio per week. Prerequisites: 201 or consent of instructor. Description: A site design studio stressing the development of design ideas from initial concept to complete design of open space in various contexts. Typical projects will be of an intermediate scale and in an urban setting.

Extended Course Description

Course Overview:

This studio is intended to advance your skills in proposing designs for specific sites. This spring, we will address urban sites that speak to the complexities of urban systems. Project One will focus on public transit and evolving food distribution systems in San Francisco and Oakland. Project Two will focus on design responses to evolving transit options, hydrologic systems and food distribution in Los Angeles. For both projects you will select from three or more assigned sites to propose changes/interventions that respond to these evolving urban networks.

The spring 2018 LDARCH 202 studio, Detours in Detail, explores the role of design enroute along one of California’s most scenic wild rivers. Participants will roadtrip, hike, analyze, and develop site-specific designs that will redefine the contemporary Californian scenic landscape experience. Each student will create a series of detailed site proposals for rest, observation, access, inhabitation, and infrastructure. Design opportunities will range in scale from isolated observation huts and trails, to bridges and ‘wilderness’ experiences. The Detours in Details studio will advance the development of student’s spatial and material design aptitudes along the blurry edge of wilderness, aesthetics, and representation. This real world project will engage community members in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. We will paint, draw, and make stunningly beautiful objects for a stunning beautiful place.

LD ARCH 202 - 002/201 (Hill)

Design of Landscape Sites

Extended Course Description

Course Overview:

“Resilient by Design” is an international design competition that is being held this year in the Bay Area. It's focus is on proposing innovative designs for adaptation to sea level rise. Our College joined a team (the ABC Team), and was selected to design a site.

Kristina's section of the 202 studio will work directly with the ABC Team to propose designs for the community that the team is assigned to partner with. We will know which site by December 8, but right now we hope it will be the Oakland Coliseum area or some part of East Palo Alto. The program will be to link the design of resilient corridors (highways, rail, and habitat) to the design of new mixed-use urban districts that can flood without damage, either by raising them on mounded earth or by floating structures on water. Addressing social equity and ecological priorities will be key to the success of the design.

This will be an exciting studio because students will work side-by-side with professionals on the ABC Team from AECOM, CMG, IDEO and other firms to propose a real project that could become a model for adaptation to sea level rise in the Bay Area and beyond. This project will be highly publicized as part of the RBD Challenge, and will engage directly with elected officials, citizens, and the media. It is an unusual opportunity for students to learn directly from leading professionals, and - at the end - take some credit for developing a genuinely innovative design proposal.

LD ARCH 204 (Meyer)

Advanced Project Design

(5) Course Format: Three hours of lecture and six hours of studio per week. Prerequisites: 201 or consent of instructor. Description: Special topics in the design and planning of the landscape. The focus of the studio varies from semester to semester. Possible topics include community design, educative environments, landscape as art, park design, or energy-conserving design. For current offerings, see department announcement.

Extended Course Description

The majority of the semester will be dedicated to two site specific projects in San Francisco. One will be privately enclosed and the other will be open and public. The first project will be based upon a currently proposed office development that frames an exterior courtyard. Proposed architectural plans will be provided but students will identify tenants and program to inform their concepts. The second project will be dedicated to specific site designs for vacant lots in San Francisco, California. Selection of lots and definition of program will be determined by the students.

This studio has two primary goals. The first goal is that you approach your work conceptually. Instead of being asked to solve multiple problems or address specific program requirements, students will be asked to design landscapes that embody ideas. By utilizing the basics of good design, students will be encouraged to realize their ideas through minimal moves. Students will be encouraged to think about composition more in the terms of being experiential, rather than pictorial. Students will be encouraged to make landscapes that distinguish place, to make them memorable and to go beyond just making them “green”.

The second goal is to pursue the thoughtful execution of ideas to see how they manifest themselves physically. Taking concepts beyond collage and sketch models, you’ll identify a portion of your final studio problem and craft its physicality. Models and drawings, full scale if need be, will be used to explore materials, form, scale, proportion and tectonics.

The majority of our time will be spent in the studio, working together through desk crits and pin-ups where students will convey their work through drawings and models.

LD ARCH 205 (Radke)

Environmental Planning Studio

(5) Course Format: Three hours of lecture and six hours of studio per week. Prerequisites: 201 or consent of instructor. Note: course is open to graduate students in LAEP, and to students in other departments by application and consent of instructors as space is available. Description: Application of environmental planning principles to a complex problem involving a variety of environmental criteria and desired land uses in a complex institutional and political setting. Student teams will identify needed data, assess environmental developmental problems, weigh competing uses, and prepare an environmental management plan.

Extended Course Description

The focus of this studio is creating designs, plans, policy and regulation for sustainable development. The studio deals with a variety of scales: the small site, urbanizing community, and the active bioregion. In the studio, we work as a professional team, developing plans informed by environmental and social science, notably biodiversity and community development. Our plans seek to address economic development and environmental protection as one, and tackle some of the most critical environmental issues of our time – rising sea level, endangered species, unsustainable urban form, risk from natural hazards, and loss of wetlands, agricultural lands and cultural diversity.

For Spring 2016, the course will address three diverse environmental planning challenges, which are still being confirmed, but most likely will include wildlife-urban fire issues in Chile, black-faced spoonbill habitat in China, and long-range planning to convert concrete channels to natural channels in Contra Costa County.

LD ARCH 206 (Mozingo)

Final Project Preparation Studio: Thesis and Reports

(5) Course Format: Three hours of lecture and six hours of studio per week. Prerequisites: 252 and graduate standing. Description: This is a spring studio for students to work on final projects (theses and professional reports). The studio, including lectures by the instructor, is meant to train and assist students in thesis or professional project research and help them in finalizing their thesis or professional report topic. The course includes weekly exercises ranging from writing articles documenting, illustrating, and critiquing landscapes to finally producing a thesis or professional report.

Extended Course Description

This is the final course in the thesis prep series. The meetings are periodic but a schedule with strict deadlines is set to keep students on course with their thesis/professional project. During the semester students will produce a full second draft complete with graphics and citations, and final thesis/professional report for submission to the Graduate Division or LAEP Department. Students present final work to faculty, invited guests, and fellow students during the final weeks of the semester.

Prerequisites:
LA 252 A & B

Objectives:

Ensure completion of thesis/professional report in time to graduate in May.
Introduce fine-tuning editorial, graphic, and layout skills.
Clarify and navigate format rules of the LAEP Department and Graduate Division.
Support student efforts to submit for departmental and college prizes and fellowships.
Present final work to faculty, invited reviewers, students, families, and friends.

LD ARCH 221 (Radke)

Quantitative Methods in Environmental Planning

(3) Course Format: One and one-half hours of lecture and three hours of laboratory per week. Description: Discussion and critique of the application of quantitative methods to environmental assessment, analysis, and evaluation in environmental planning. Topics to include geographical information systems and data bases, remote sensing, and multivariate analysis. This course emphasizes computer applications and data analysis.

Extended Course Description

This course is designed for graduate students in Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning or related disciplines. This course advances a student’s knowledge in the application of Geographical Information Science (GIS) within an Environmental Planning context. The course is designed to give the student the skills necessary to undertake spatial problem solving, spatial analysis and model building. This course emphasizes the interplay of theory and application, with six computer based homework assignments (most involving analyses within ArcGIS 10x). Theory is introduced through lectures and assigned readings, while application is emphasized during in class exercises, homework assignments, and a final project. This course will examine various methods employed in seeking answers to spatial problems. The lecture is structured as a seminar in which the instructor, students and guests will discuss theory, methods and the application of GIS to environmental analysis, landscape modeling and characterization. The laboratory will provide a practical introduction to some tools for design, construction and implementing such systems. We will begin by looking at some simple implementations of models within GIS. Each student will then build their own model and code it in one of two different computer interfaces (Model Builder and/or Python). After undertaking a number of modeling laboratories, each student will define an environmental problem and construct a model within GIS to solve the problem.

Prerequisites:

Prior experience with GIS or desktop mapping is required. LD_ARCHc188/GEOGc188 or CP204c are two courses that are good prerequisites.

LD ARCH 222 (Staff)

Hydrology for Planners

(4) Course Format: Three hours of lecture and two hours of laboratory per week, plus three days of weekend field trips. Description: This course presents an overview of relevant hydrologic, hydraulic, and geomorphic processes, to provide the planner and ecologist with insight sufficient to coordinate with technical specialists in the field of hydrology. In addition, relevant regulations and policies are reviewed.

Extended Course Description

To come.

LD ARCH 226 (Hindle)

Landscape Design Construction

(2) Course Format: Three hours of seminar or field trip per week. Prerequisites: 121 (may be taken concurrently). Description: The course investigates the process of developing schematic landscape design proposals into constructed landscapes. Emphasis will be placed on understanding the durability of materials and design details, the efficient use of materials, and the ability to evaluate how material selection and detailing can impact the environment. Field trips to construction sites, manufacturing facilities, and built landscapes will be the primary format. Brief readings and reports on field trips will be required.

Extended Course Description

To come.

LD ARCH 254 - Section 001 (Hood)

Special Topics in LAEP: Landscape of Memories

(1-5) Course Format: Varies. Course may be repeated for credit as topic varies. One to five hours of seminar per week. Designed to be a forum for presentation of student research, discussions with faculty researchers and practitioners, and examination of topical issues in landscape architecture and environmental planning. Topics will be announced at the beginning of each semester.

Extended Course Description

This seminar course will examine how landscapes in the United States imbue memory through distinct cultural manifestations, particularly built landscapes and objects. Of particular interest is the fictitious and non-fictitious construction of meaning in the landscapes and “who” chooses their maintenance or erasure. Spaces inhabited by African Americans, and other communities of color will be a primary focus. These ideas will be examined through everyday and mundane environments, commemorative objects and spaces, and distinct cultural lifeway’s.

Weekly readings and discussion is the courses primary structure. Students will also be required to examine a particular local landscape and create a temporary typographic installation.

LD ARCH 254 - Section 002 (Cooper)

Special Topics in LAEP: History of the American West

Extended Course Description

3.0 Units - SU - Contact Instructor for consent to enroll.

Much of the global scientific community speculates about the effects of climate change. A central theme in these climate predictions is that vast territories across the globe will become substantially warmer and drier in the coming decades, leading to a proliferation of new and expanded arid landscapes—a reverse ice age. In this new climate regime, the work of planners, landscape architects, and engineers will be vital in grappling with these effects.

Landscape architects will be tasked with creating responsive and adaptive landscapes in arid geographies. Currently, our most effective tools and techniques are best suited for temperate geographies. As a result, we need to devise, develop, and implement new methods for thinking about and designing for dry lands. This graduate seminar will examine the history of the American West; how it has been imaged, designed, and urbanized; and potential openings for creating its future as a resilient and robust socio-eco system.

The course is structured into two parts: first, a critical engagement of the history of the American West through the examination of primary sources, filmic depictions, and cartographic explorations; and second, the creation of a dossier of drawings that describe, analyze, and critique an existing arid landscape case study.

LD ARCH 255 (Hill)

Doctoral Seminar in Environmental Planning

(1: SU ) Prerequisites: Doctoral student or consent of instructor. Credit option: Course may be repeated for credit. Grading option: Must be taken on a satisfactory/unsatisfactory basis. Description: Designed to be a forum for presentation of doctoral student research, discussions with faculty researchers and environmental planning practitioners, and examination of topical issues in environmental planning. Topics will be announced at the beginning of each semester.

Extended Course Description

To come.

LD ARCH 296 (Staff)

Directed Dissertation Research

(1-12: SU) Course Format: Hours to be arranged. Three hours per unit. Prerequisites: Advancement to Ph.D. candidacy. Credit option: Course may be repeated for credit. Grading option: Must be taken on a satisfactory/unsatisfactory basis. Description: Open to qualified students who have been advanced to candidacy for the Ph.D. degree and are directly engaged upon the doctoral dissertation.

LD ARCH 289 (Dronova)

Applied Remote Sensing

(3) This course consists of one lecture and one computer lab per week introducing fundamental principles and methods of environmental remote sensing and their practical applications. We will explore strategies for working with different types of remote sensing data and extracting image-based landscape information for various environmental research and planning objectives. This course focuses largely on local to regional scale applications of remote sensing in ecology, environmental planning and design, civil & environmental engineering and natural resource management. Specific objectives include:

Learn practical skills and techniques to extracting landscape information from remote sensing data as image interpretation, classification, accuracy assessment, mapping and change analysis;
Become familiar with different types of data and instruments in remote sensing and learn how to choose the optimal remote sensing data and procedure for various landscape and environmental analysis applications;
Explore traditional and novel remote sensing techniques and their use in landscape planning, environmental studies and natural resource management;
Develop the capacity to work with different studies.

The course grade will be based on:

Laboratory reports (50%): assigned weekly at each Thursday lab, due at the beginning of next Thursday’s class unless otherwise specified). Your lowest laboratory report score will be dropped for the final grade calculation.
Term paper (20%): a 20-25 page manuscript written as either 1) literature review about specific remote sensing application or 2) your own case study (e.g., analysis for your thesis or dissertation work). Specific instructions and details on this assignment will be provided early in the semester in class.
Final exam (25%): takehome, open-book, written exam assignment that will be based largely on theoretica concepts, practical examples and readings, and will not require the use of remote sensing software.
Class attendance & participation (5%).

LD ARCH 297 (Staff)

Supervised Field Study

(2-3: SU) Course Format: Hours to be arranged. Prerequisites: Graduate standing and consent of instructor and sponsor. Credit option: Any combination of 295 or 297 may be taken for a total of six units maximum toward the M.L.A. degree. Grading option: Must be taken on a satisfactory/unsatisfactory basis. Description: Supervised experience relative to specific aspects of practice in landscape architecture and/or environmental planning. Regular meetings with faculty and outside sponsor as well as final report required. See departmental information sheet for other limitations.

LD ARCH 298 (Staff)

Group Study

(1-4) Course Format: Hours to be arranged. Credit option: Course may be repeated for credit. Description: Special group studies. Topics to be announced at the beginning of each semester.

LD ARCH 300 (Staff)

Supervised Teaching in Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning

(2: SU) Course Format: Hours to be arranged. Prerequisites: Graduate standing and appointment as a Teaching Assistant. Credit option: Course may be repeated for credit. Grading option: Must be taken on a satisfactory/unsatisfactory basis. Description: Supervised teaching experience in undergraduate courses. Regular meetings with faculty sponsor. See departmental sheet for other limitations.

LD ARCH 602 (Staff)

Individual Study for Doctoral Students

(1-8: SU) Course Format: Hours to be arranged. Prerequisites: For candidates for doctor's degree. Credit option: Course may be repeated for credit. Course does not satisfy unit or residence requirements for doctoral degree. Grading option: Must be taken on a satisfactory/unsatisfactory basis. Description: Individual study in consultation with the major field adviser, intended to provide an opportunity for qualified students to prepare themselves for the various examinations required of candidates for the Ph.D.

UC Berkeley
College of Environmental Design

Academics