Landscape Architecture News

LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE NEWS

News and updates from The University of Texas at Austin School of Architecture's Landscape Architecture Program.

Three faculty headshots in a row, separated from one another with a white line.

Congratulations to our Newly Promoted Faculty Members

The University of Texas at Austin School of Architecture celebrates promotions for three faculty members, Aleksandra Jaeschke, Katherine Lieberknecht, and Allan Shearer.
Lectures & Exhibitions graphic

Fall 2024 Public Programming

The University of Texas at Austin School of Architecture’s Fall 2024 Lecture Series builds on the school’s ongoing exploration of issues vital to the study and practice of architecture, design, and the built environment. 
Sutton Hall ceiling mosaic

2023-2024 Design Excellence Winners

Design Excellence awardees represent an exceptional level of accomplishment across our design disciplines.
Faculty wearing regalia on stage at commencement

Congratulations to the Class of 2024

At the School of Architecture's 111th commencement ceremony, we celebrate the accomplishments of this year's graduating class. What starts here changes the world!
Students presenting during final reviews.

Spring 2024 Visiting Reviewers

Practitioners and academics from across the country join The University of Texas at Austin School of Architecture for our Spring 2024 final reviews, Wednesday, April 24 – Friday, April 26.
Three images in a grid, two individual headshots and a photo of two people.

Spring 2024 Visiting Faculty

Two sets of visiting faculty members are teaching Advanced Studios this spring, including Lisa Iwamoto and Craig Scott of Iwamoto Scott and Walter Meyer and Patricia Martin from LOCAL Office Landscape Architecture and Urbanism.
Adrianne Kartachak headshot

Adrianne Kartachak, MLA '20

Meet Master of Landscape Architecture student Adrianne Kartachak.
Laura Brusson Headshot

Laura Brusson, MLA '20

Meet Master of Landscape Architecture (MLA) alumna Laura Brusson.
"Muslin-draped bathing houses float at the foot of gardens, and the limpid little stream is in high favor as a refuge during the heated term." Frank H. Taylor, "A Journey through Texas," Harper's New Monthly Magazine, October 1879.

Water in Cities

Associate Professor Michael Holleran considers public space through the lens of water, exploring the systems that make and shape cities, and the expressions of water in landscape and culture. This article originally appeared in the 2023-2024 edition of Platform, "Civics and Placemaking."
Several women sit on a panel in front of an audience

In Support of Transgressive Practices: Cultivating New Landscape Imaginaries

Assistant Professor Maggie Hansen explores the ways in which landscape architects can shape social and ecological relationships by embracing "transgressive practices" that exhibit a deep commitment to place. This article originally appeared in the 2023-2024 edition of Platform, "Civics and Placemaking."
Kevin Jeffery Headshot

Alum Profile: Kevin Jeffery

Master of Landscape Architecture alumnus Kevin Jeffery discusses the importance of nature-based public spaces and his professional focus on waterscape quality, design, and planning. This article originally appeared in the 2023-2024 issue of Platform, "Civics and Placemaking."
Landscape architecture students drawing as they look out over a water feature in Austin, Texas

Landscape Architecture Designated a STEM Discipline

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s designation of landscape architecture as a STEM discipline recognizes the high degree of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics inherent in the education and practice of landscape architecture.
Andrew Lesmes' project rendering

MLA Students Receive Texas ASLA Awards

Projects by Franny Kyle and Andrew Lesmes explore how carbon farming can transform the design and planning of the urban realm while also creating a more equitable and resilient city.
UT Tower reflected in the Turtle Pond

Celebrate Earth Day 2023

A sampling of work from across the School of Architecture related to sustainability, our impact on the Earth, and how our disciplines can help build a better future.
Everett Fly on-site at the Texas State Capitol as landscape architect in charge of the Texas Capitol Extension Project in 1992.

Alumnus and Landscape Architect Everett Fly named 2023 School of Architecture Commencement Speaker

Fly’s career-long study of the origins and evolution of places and landmarks designed and built by Black Americans has resulted in the documentation of more than 1,200 Black settlements, burial sites, gardens, streets, and agricultural landscapes around the country
Meadows Symposium graphic

2023 Meadows Symposium Explores Landscape Architecture's Potential to Shape a New Socio-ecological Ethos

Featuring Diane Jones Allen, Alison B. Hirsch, Catherine Seavitt Nordenson, and Margie Ruddick.
A row of students seen interacting with employers at 2023 Career Fair

What Starts Here: Highlights from Career Fair

Hundreds of students, employers, and alumni build connections as students explore internship and employment opportunities at the 2023 Career Fair
Outlines of buildings drawn on a prairie landscape with silhouetted figures

Redrawing Connections: Design Advocacy in Section

Assistant Professor Maggie Hansen considers the overlap of policy and design in landscape architecture, using recent design studios as a case study. This article originally appeared in the 2022-2023 edition of Platform, "Teaching for Next."
Shadows from large oak trees are seen on the ground in front of Sutton Hall

Celebrate Earth Day 2022

This Earth Day, we’ve rounded up a sampling of scholarship and resources from across the School of Architecture that not only explores our relationship to Earth and the built environment but also how we can help build a better future for our planet.
First page spread of Landscape Architecture Magazine's story about the Green New Deal Superstudio

Hansen’s GND Superstudio Profiled in Landscape Architecture Magazine

Among the hundreds of studios addressing the topic, Assistant Professor Maggie Hansen’s Spring 2021 studio “Prairie Time: Growing Dallas’ Green Quilt” was one of only three studios covered in-depth by the article.
Student team giving the "Hook 'em Horns" hand signal

Students Win National Urban Design Competition

The team advanced from an initial round of 93 applications from more than 50 universities, and placed ahead of three other finalist teams from Harvard University, a joint team from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University, and one from the Georgia Institute of Technology.
The Stack Site Plan

Student Team Advances to ULI Competition Finals

Now in its 20th year, the annual ULI Hines Competition offers graduate students the opportunity to form their own multidisciplinary teams and engage in a challenging exercise in responsible land use.
Rendering of diverse school aged children on the edge of a meadow with heavy machinery and piles of industrial materials in the background

Texas Landscape Project Selected to Represent Nationwide Green New Deal Superstudio Initiative

Landscape architecture student Kristin Witte's project "Rooted Rubble" selected to serve as a representative sample of the Green New Deal Superstudio initiative.
View of the central Italian countryside, with groves of olive trees seen behind an older structure.

Phoebe Lickwar Awarded Prestigious Rome Prize

Phoebe Lickwar, associate professor of landscape architecture in the School of Architecture at The University of Texas at Austin, has been awarded the 2021-2022 Rome Prize, one of the most highly regarded awards in the arts and humanities.
Black and white collage of faculty headshots from top left clockwise, Ulrich Dangel, Kory Bieg, Mirka Benes, Ming Zhang, Danelle Briscoe

Announcing Leadership Changes at the School

The School of Architecture announces new program and leadership appointments effective Fall 2021.
Seven people sit around an oval conference table in front of a projector screen, on which you can see a man in headphones speaking on a Zoom call

Q&A with 2021 Design Futures Forum Student Participants

Five students reflect on the 2021 Design Futures Students Leadership Forum
Allan Shearer Headshot

Allan Shearer Named to ASLA Council of Fellows

Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture Allan Shearer recognized for his contributions to the profession of landscape architecture
Taylor Davis Headshot

MLA Student Selected as a Finalist in the 2021 Olmstead Scholars Program

MLA student Taylor Davis (MLA '21) a finalist in the Landscape Architecture Foundation's 2021 Olmstead Scholars Program
Taylor Davis working in studio wearing a Black Lives Matter shirt

Meet MLA Student Taylor Davis

Q&A with Landscape Architecture student Taylor Davis
View of the central Italian countryside, with groves of olive trees seen behind an older structure.

Phoebe Lickwar Awarded Prestigious Rome Prize

Associate Professor Phoebe Lickwar receives the prestigious Rome Prize to study remnant and lost practices of traditional agroecology.
Overhead map of Franklin Park, indicating racial, social, and economic disparities surrounding the park

MLA Student Xiao (Phoebe) Cheng Receives National ASLA Honor Award

MLA student Xiao (Phoebe) Cheng receives American Society of Landscape Architects Honor Award
Stack of copies of ISSUE XVI against a white backdrop with the orange spines prominent

ISSUE XVI Awarded the Douglas Haskell Award for Student Journals

ISSUE XVI receives AIA New York’s Center for Architecture’s 2020 Douglas Haskell Award for Student Journals.
Lands End Lookout, San Francisco, CA

Lord & Wyllie to offer Advanced Landscape Architecture Studio, Fall 2020

James Lord and Roderick Wyllie of Surface Design Inc., teach an Advanced Design Studio titled Planting Justice that will examine the potential for the landscape to be a tool and forum for activism, remediation, advocacy, and restoration.
Older couple, one in a wheelchair, looking out onto one of Austin's waterways

Landscape Architecture Alumnus’ Blue Index Investigates Relationship Between Waterscapes and Mental Wellbeing

Alum Kevin Jeffery (MLA '19) presents findings from Blue Index research project
A gif of the spreads and pages of Phoebe Lickar's article in Landscape Architecture Magazine

Associate Professor Phoebe Lickwar Featured in Landscape Architecture Magazine

Associate Professor Phoebe Lickwar's new book "Farmscape: The Design of Productive Landscapes" featured in June 2020 issue of Landscape Architecture Magazine.
Los Tres Enlaces project image

Two Student Teams Awarded ULI Hines Competition Honorable Mention

Teams include students within the School of Architecture’s Urban Design, Landscape Architecture, Community & Regional Planning, and Architecture programs, as well as students from the McCombs School of Business.
Gina Ford headshot

Visiting Landscape Architecture Professor: Gina Ford

Gina is teaching an advanced landscape architecture studio with Assistant Professor Maggie Hansen titled "A Feminist Lens on Franklin Park"
Students sitting across tables from employers in a well-lit and welcoming hallway in the WMB

Our Students Get Hired

Three of our design disciplines are ranked as among the “Most Hired From” programs in the country within our size group: Architecture at #1, Interior Design at #3, and Landscape Architecture at #4. 
Gina Ford headshot

Introducing Spring 2020 Visiting Faculty

Join us in welcoming these scholars and practitioners to UTSOA, where each of them will be teaching an advanced design studio this semester.
Student engaging with reviewers during architecture final review

2019-2020 Rankings: Three Programs Within Top Five

We are committed to preparing our students for life outside our halls – and we recently got the rankings to prove it.
Yi Song's Proposed Plan

Landscape Architecture Student wins National ASLA Student Award of Excellence

The project was completed in an advanced landscape architecture studio exploring sustainable social and environmental modes of development in the coastal region of the Yucatán Peninsula.
Maggie Hansen, Assistant Professor of Landscape Architecture

Introducing New and Visiting Faculty, Visiting Fellows for 2019-2020 Academic Year

Each brings a wealth of expertise that will diversify and enhance our academic research, leadership, and curriculum.  
Kevin Jeffrey

Kevin Jeffrey Selected for River Network's Inaugural Emerging Leader Award

The Emerging Leader Award recognizes someone early in their professional career who deserves attention for their work at the intersection of water and equity.
Cincinnati United team: Caroline Tate (Leader, MArch), Nian Chen (MSUD), Yang Yang (CRP) , Andrew Jacobs (MBA), John Mark Devlin (CRP UD)

Interdisciplinary Student Teams Present Urban Design Solutions for Cincinnati in National ULI Hines Competition Finals

UT Austin student teams advance to the finals in the 2019 Urban Land Institute Gerald Hines Student Competition.
Mayors and CSD team meet at tables in board room overlooking downtown Austin

CSD Helps Mayors Understand Role in Urban Design and Community Building

Center for Sustainable Development & Austin Mayor Steve Adler Host 7 Mayors at MICD East 
Into the Woods Site Plan

Into the Woods wins the Prix de la Création at the Festival International des Jardins

Into the Woods offers an experience of being lost in the forest of the future. Visitors are invited to follow a meditative path through dense plantations of young saplings which obscure the presence of others within the garden.
Sara Zewde headshot

Sara Zewde Appointed Race and Gender in the Built Environment Fellow

A thought-leader, landscape Designer, urbanist, and public artist, Zewde will cultivate innovation in teaching and research
Black and white headshots of Phoebe Lickwar and Aleksandra Jaeshke

School Welcomes New Faculty in Landscape Architecture and Sustainable Design

Phoebe Lickwar and Aleksandra Jaeschke join the school’s faculty this fall.
Austin South Shore Waterfront Redesign Proposal. Courtesy Texas Urban Futures Lab.

Shaping Our City: Urban Design Students and Faculty Contribute to Nationally Acclaimed South Central Waterfront Project in Austin

Graduate students worked with faculty and the American Institute of Architects (AIA) to provide impartial planning expertise for Austin’s waterfront areas along Lady Bird Lake
Blue Index

"Blue Index" Captures Emotional Reactions to Water to Enhance Community Well-being

Blue Index will collect citizen-reported data from 30 waterscapes around Austin to form a set of proposed narrative criteria on outdoor space for the City of Austin.
LBJWC 1

Vertical Studio Visits the Wildflower Center

Collaborating with the Wildflower Center and other design professionals provides access to site research and background, diverse knowledge sets, client and community perspectives, and professionals in the field.
Theme Gardens at Wildflower Center

Wildflower Center Named Texas State Botanic Garden & Arboretum

The Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center is the largest all-native garden in the state, with 279 acres of gardens and natural areas that feature more than 800 native plant species from the mountains of West Texas to the Coastal Prairies.
Street lateral, Figueroa Street, Los Angeles, c. 1900

Landscape Afterlife of the Urban Ditch: GIS Investigation of Persistent Infrastructure

This project traces the role of ditch systems in cultural heritage, urban design, and recreation and open space planning in five U.S. cities
stiphany_sowell_siaa_sobradinho_competition

Sowell and Stiphany Receive Honorable Mention in Brasilia Housing Competition

The competition submission proposed sustainable strategies that integrate participatory processes with architecture, public space, and landscape for adapting to three different sites in Brasilia’s Sobradinho district.
Living Wall

Opening Ceremony Announced for the Living Wall Project

All are invited to the opening ceremony and celebration for the Living Wall Project, an initiative of the School of Architecture at The University of Texas at Austin in collaboration with the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center.
gabriel diaz montemayor

Gabriel Diaz Montemayor, Faculty

In this SOA Voices, we speak with Landscape Architecture faculty member Gabriel Diaz Montemayor.
detial of the Living Wall

Visit the Living Wall!

Students from UTSOA and volunteers from the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center recently installed a 10 x 25 foot living (or green) wall along the architecture school’s northwest corner.
Glow

Poetics Of Building // 2015 ASLA Student Award Ceremony

Congratulations are in order for UTSOA's Fall 2014 "Poetics of Building" Advanced Design Studio, winners of a 2015 ASLA Honor Award.
Photo of Patrick Newman in garden

New Executive Director Joins Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center

Patrick Newman brings leadership and passion for North American landscapes to the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center.
 National Humanities Medal. Photo courtesy of the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH)

President Obama Awards National Humanities Medal to Alumnus Everett L. Fly

Alumnus Everett L. Fly receives National Humanities Medal for preserving the integrity of African-American places and landmarks.
Tenting in Campground of Badlands South Dakota

$162,396 Grant Awarded to CSD & Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center

The National Park Service selects UTSOA to create a planning and management framework for the Cedar Pass Developed Area cultural landscape of Badlands National Park in South Dakota. 
Photo of Luci and Ian Family Garden at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center.

SITES Rating System Acquired by Green Business Certification Inc.

SITES was developed through a collaborative, interdisciplinary effort between the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA), and the United States Botanic Garden