LAEP seeks associate/full professor in landscape design of the public realm

The Department of Landscape Architecture & Environmental Planning is seeking a new tenured faculty member (associate or full professor) to lead contemporary design discourse on the future of public space, within the department and internationally. The design of public space is facing new pressures to increase urban density, address growing social inequities, and respond to a changing climate, all of which necessitates a shift in professional practice and research. These shifts are occurring while public space continues to perform as an essential medium of social interaction, social inclusion, and economic life, as well as a keystone in urban ecological systems and landscape infrastructure across scales.

The successful candidate is expected to engage in research and design pedagogy that critically examines contemporary design, praxis, and performance issues of public space, including relevant issues of agency, equity, innovation, policy, research, funding, and political contestation. This position will allow the department to carry forward its legacy of leadership in the design of public spaces and engagement with public life. We seek a colleague who can bring to light cultural meaning, functional value, compelling aesthetic engagement, and design process, while expanding the department’s emphasis on future cities as adaptive cultural and environmental systems. This faculty member should be well positioned to engage in cross-disciplinary discourse, teaching, and research regarding the public realm, with a track record of scholarship, public engagement, and/or built works commensurate with expectations for a tenured professor at UC Berkeley.

In addition to excellence in research and teaching, we seek a colleague with the ability to assume leadership roles within the department, college, and university shortly after appointment. This will include the ability and strong desire to serve as department chair within an appropriate timeframe as determined by the dean of the College of Environmental Design.

Applicants should have documented experience in academic leadership roles within public and peer institutions as well as a comprehensive and forward-looking vision for design discourse, research, and innovation.