Auburn’s Master of Landscape Architecture (MLA) is designed to teach and model emerging real world conditions.
The mission of the Master of Landscape Architecture (MLA) degree is to equip students with the tools of landscape architecture and to prepare them to contribute meaningfully to society as designer-citizens. Our curriculum, student work, and faculty research is distinguished by a focus on three areas of landscape practice.
Focus Areas
We believe that landscape education and landscape practice begins outside, in the landscape. But we aren’t tourists. When we’re outside, we’re working. We measure and observe, we experiment when called for, we learn to test our assumptions from the studio against the messy (and sometimes thorny) realities of mud, vines, and stone. We fly drones to make our own maps; we draw to understand what we see.
We don’t wait for work to find us. We believe in the value of public interest design, and we seek out opportunities to serve communities. Landscape architects engage the public to shape our work to respond to its needs. We help rally communities around issues. We build constituencies and momentum.
We utilize design as a method for engaging situations and places that stretch us — particularly those places where landscape architecture is needed, but landscape architects haven’t yet gotten involved. Some design is client-driven. Design research is question-driven, which means not only that we work in service of questions, but also that we work on questions. We subject our own motives and means to design investigation. The rich, complex, and messy issues that we focus on require this kind of study: as we jump in, we have to make sure that we are asking the questions that matter.
Fieldwork, landscape advocacy and design research permeate our curriculum, culminating in the Alabama Lab, which students typically work with in their final two semesters.
Curriculum
There are three entry paths to Auburn’s MLA program. Students with no design background are able to complete the degree in just over three years of full time study. Students who have a previous degree in architecture or landscape architecture may achieve Advanced Placement into the program and complete it in two years of full time study. See below for more information.
Alabama Lab is the design research lab of the Auburn University landscape architecture program.
We focus our work on landscape issues that our state is facing, particularly urban industrial legacies, rural land use, and coastal resilience. First and foremost, Alabama Lab is committed to design as a methodology for doing work that addresses issues that matter. We believe in the value of design as a way of engaging rich, complex, and messy situations—in order to imagine and build better futures.
Admissions
Individuals who hold a bachelor’s degree in a major other than one of the design professions can complete the MLA program in six semesters—just over three years of full-time study. These students enter the program in the second mini-mester of the Summer semester.
Individuals who have undergraduate degrees in landscape architecture or architecture can apply for Advanced Placement. Applicants who are granted Advanced Placement can potentially complete the MLA program in four semesters—two years of full-time study, and enter program in the Fall semester. Advanced Placement is not automatic, but will be based on Academic Merit, Transcripts, and Portfolio.
Auburn University offers two accelerated bachelors/masters tracks with the MLA degree. Students in these Pre-Landscape Architecture Tracks complete the final year of their Auburn undergraduate degrees as the first year of the MLA curriculum. Pre-Landscape Architecture students enter the program as undergraduate students in the second mini-mester of the Summer semester. Pre-Landscape Architecture Tracks are in the following programs:
Bachelor of Horticulture
Bachelor of Environmental Design
Interested students should contact the Program Chair for more information.
In all cases, to gain acceptance into the Auburn University MLA Program applicants must submit the following directly to the Graduate School by January 5thof the year in which they intend to enter the program:
English proficiency score (for international students only –minimum score of 90 on TOEFL(iBT) or 6.5 on IELTS)
In addition, applicants must submit the following to the School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape Architecture (to be sent directly to MLA Program Chair Emily Knox at elknox@auburn.edu):
Statement of intent (approximately 500 words) that explains why they wish to study landscape architecture
A resume of educational and professional experience
A portfolio of work (for students applying for Advanced Placement only)
The Master of Landscape Architecture Program offers a limited number of Graduate Research Assistantships (GRA) each year. These GRA positions provide a partial tuition waiver and a monthly stipend along with the experience of working alongside a faculty member on dedicated research during the academic semester. GRA positions are highly competitive and based on available funding. Unfortunately there are never enough positions for all those who apply.
Assistantships are awarded based on merit. The review committee evaluates the applicant’s full program application to assess their merit for the position. In addition to the standard application materials, students who wish to be considered for an assistantship should submit a cover letter to Graduate Program Chair Emily Knox (elknox@auburn.edu). This cover letter should describe particular skills that could be beneficial to the advancement of faculty research, current research interests, and whether the applicant’s participation in the Master of Landscape Architecture Program is dependent on the assistantship.
Though assistantships are most often extended through the entirety of a student’s time in the program, appointments are reviewed on an annual basis and there is no guarantee that all positions will continue. Reappointment will be made based on the student having maintained a high work standard, completed all coursework satisfactorily, and performed well for the faculty members to which they have been assigned. Students who are appointed GRAs are still required to pay the Professional Fee. Assistantships are not offered in the summer semester, and the Master of Landscape Architecture program does not currently offer other scholarships. Further questions about assistantships should be directed to Graduate Program Chair Emily Knox (elknox@auburn.edu).
Program Logistics
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has designated landscape architecture a STEM discipline. The designation recognizes the high degree of science, technology, engineering and mathematics course work required in landscape architecture collegiate programs.
Landscape Architecture is a professional program at both the Graduate and Undergraduate level. The CADC charges a professional fee to partially defray the difference between state funding and tuition, and the actual costs of our professional programs. Within each program, a professional fee charge of $2,160 is tied to enrollment in specific trigger courses. The trigger courses within the Landscape Architecture Program are Design Studios and Workshops.
Through the professional fees, the CADC continues to provide our students with rigorous and relevant academic experiences, which contribute to our programs being recognized as among the best in the nation.
For More Information on Professional Fees and Trigger Courses visit our Professional Fees page here.
The Master of Landscape Architecture program at Auburn University is accredited by the Landscape Architectural Accreditation Board of the American Society of Landscape Architects. It was first accredited in 2003, and is the only accredited program in the state of Alabama.
When Ron Huffman ’83 ‘84 enrolled in Auburn’s Bachelor of Landscape Architecture (BLA) program, he was strongly encouraged to make design studios his top priority.
The School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape Architecture (APLA) is pleased to recognize forty years of Landscape Architecture graduates with an anniversary celebration weekend on April 11–12, 2025.
This past fall, the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR) named Auburn University alumnus Matthew Capps as the new director of Alabama State Parks.
Alabama Meadows: Getting reacquainted with history, textures and biodiversity
Over the past five years, College of Architecture, Design and Construction landscape architecture faculty members David Hill and Emily Knox have been engaged in research exploring native meadow landscapes of Alabama.
Showcase 2025: Spotlighting creative scholarship on campus
A video game about conservation efforts on the Gulf Coast. A dress that’s a mashup of Harley-Davidson and Dior. An Art Deco-style lamp crafted with sustainable materials. A classical music album inspired by Alabama’s cultural history. Design plans for a house that can withstand a 8.0 magnitude earthquake.
With nearly 70% of Alabama’s landscape covered with forest, the growth of the mass timber construction industry is sparking important new questions for the state and region.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is all the rage these days, but some Auburn University faculty believe the term “collective intelligence” may actually better describe the interactions between humans and computers.
Future Students
Schedule an in-person visit or a virtual meeting with the CADC Recruitment Office to learn more about our Master of Landscape Architecture program.
Career Services
The CADC has a dedicated Career Specialist who works with all our Landscape Architecture and Design students. The mission of CADC Career Services is to facilitate meaningful industry engagement opportunities and career development services that lead to internship and full-time positions.
