Woodbury University to Roll Out Master of Landscape Architecture Program at San Diego Barrio Logan Campus in Fall 2016

SAN DIEGO, Oct. 28, 2015 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Continuing a multi-faceted expansion of the graduate curriculum at its Barrio Logan campus, Woodbury University today announced a new Master of Landscape Architecture (MLA) program, commencing in Fall 2016.  The MLA joins the established Master of Architecture (MArch) program and the upcoming Master of Interior Architecture (MIA) degree in San Diego, along with a new San Diego-based Master of Leadership program.   

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The Master of Landscape Architecture program in San Diego will train students to design for climate change and a transforming urban landscape. The curriculum will provide students the intellectual and professional tools necessary to work within the contemporary cultural and ecological landscape, and address emerging issues occurring between society and nature. The program's mission is to graduate a new generation of landscape architects who redefine context, content and practice by producing new methods and operations in processes of material organization to form new landscapes while embracing new transdisciplinary knowledge.

Landscape architecture combines science and art in the formation of space, transforming the relationship between nature and society.  Woodbury students, award-winning faculty and collaborators will discover contemporary and alternative ways human culture and ecology construct rich spatial narratives. MLA program graduates will address the ecological, economic, and social challenges of the contemporary world, including rising sea levels, water and resource scarcity, severe weather patterns, wildlife displacement, and human health consequences.  The new MLA program emphasizes the landscape and infrastructure unique to the dryland territories of the Southwestern U.S., with opportunities for design research applicable to climate change-affected regions around the world.

"Our MLA program is distinctive because it engages climate change as an inevitability and an opportunity to reinvent the built environment, specifically in regions of water scarcity," said Ingalill Wahlroos-Ritter, AIA, Associate Dean of the School of Architecture.  Five years in development, the new San Diego program emerged out of a need to research, discuss and practice issues related to climate change, sustainability and society at various scales ranging from architecture to regions.  In addition to courses that conform to accredited LAAB program requirements, MLA students will spend their final year working with the Arid Lands Institute, developing expertise in drylands design.

"Given that many of our existing faculty have long been pursuing these areas of study, establishing a formal landscape architecture program was a natural next step," said Jose Parral, Associate Professor in San Diego. "With a landscape architecture program at the graduate level, we can bring a unique community together within the Southern California/Northern Mexico region to not only pursue issues related to climate change, but begin to imagine what this new world of dealing with climate change will be.  As we witness changes in the urban environment, we need to review this larger neighborhood as our lab."

The San Diego MLA program aligns with the four pillars of Woodbury University education: design thinking, transdisciplinarity, entrepreneurship, and civic engagement.  It follows the School of Architecture's vision of transformation preparing students to ethically engage challenges, prepare and deploy critical research, and contribute as responsible designers to the welfare of the world.

About Woodbury University
Founded in 1884, Woodbury University is one of the oldest institutions of higher education in Southern California.  With campuses in Burbank/Los Angeles and San Diego, the university offers bachelor's degrees from the School of Architecture, School of Business, School of Media, Culture & Design, and College of Transdisciplinarity, along with a Master of Business Administration, Master of Arts in Media for Social Justice, Master of Architecture (MArch), Master of Interior Architecture (MIA), Master of Science in Architecture (MSArch), and Master of Leadership.  The San Diego campus offers Bachelor of Architecture and Master of Architecture, Master of Leadership, Master of Interior Architecture and Master of Landscape Architecture degrees, as well as an MSArch degree with a concentration in Real Estate Development.  In 2014, Woodbury ranked 15th among the nation's "25 Colleges That Add the Most Value," according to Money Magazine and is a 2014-2015 College of Distinction.  Visit woodbury.edu for more information.

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SOURCE Woodbury University

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