History of the Department

The first professional program in landscape architecture in the Pacific Northwest was established at the Oregon State Agricultural College (now Oregon State University) in Corvallis, Oregon in 1928. The program offered a four-year Bachelor of Science in Landscape Architecture. At the beginning of the 1932-33 academic year, degree granting in landscape architecture was transferred to the University of Oregon in Eugene where it was expanded to a full five-year Bachelor of Landscape Architecture, B.L.A., degree program. The Master of Landscape Architecture, M.L.A., degree was established the following year in 1933-34.

For the next fifteen years, U of O students traveled to Corvallis for all their third year classes, taking advantage of the horticultural and soil science offerings of the land grant college. Third year design was offered at both institutions. Since 1947, all five years of the B.L.A. program have been taught at the University of Oregon. The Committee on Education granted the program full accreditation in 1949. At the University of Oregon, landscape architecture became a program within the School of Architecture and Allied Arts, which did not reorganize into departments until 1964-65. From 1955-67 the title of the landscape architecture curriculum was Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning. Urban Planning became a separate department in 1967, and is now part of a department of Planning, Public Policy and Management.

Fred Cuthbert, who joined Arthur Peck and the landscape faculty at OSAC in 1929, became program director and later Department Head at the University of Oregon beginning in 1932-33. Cuthbert also served as Dean of the school. For many years the faculty was composed of Cuthbert and Professors (now emeritus) Mac Ruff (who died in 2000) and George Jette. After Cuthbert, Jerome Diethelm served as Head from 1971-1981; Kenneth I. Helphand FASLA served form 1981-1987; Ronald Lovinger from 1988-90; Robert Z. Melnick, FASLA from 1990 to 1995; David Hulse from 1995-2000; Cynthia Girling from 2000; and Stanton Jones is the current Department Head . Melnick was Dean of AAA (School of Architecture and Allied Arts) from 1995-2005. Frances Bronet is the current Dean of AAA.

For over 50 years, the principal objective of the landscape curriculum has been sound educational preparation for the work of the profession. This has meant, from Cuthbert forward, a proper balancing of professional and liberal arts education. There is a broad sense of the profession and recognition that students need to be exposed to that breadth while simultaneously becoming skillful entry level professionals. Oregon has a long history of educational experimentation in design. Beginning with the Ellis Lawrence studio courses have been ungraded and a cooperative, non-competitive educational environment has been fostered, exemplified in our system of 'reviews', not 'juries.' A climate of informed inquiry is basic to the school's programs. A major strength of Oregon's program has always been its rich liberal arts setting and its direct associations with architecture, planning, art, art education and art history in a School that describes itself as being about the history, teaching and practice of the arts. Reconfigurations in the school have included the creation of departments of Planning, Public Policy and Management (formally City and Regional Planning) and Arts Administration (formerly Art Education). In recent years additional units such as the Institute for Sustainable Environments and the Center for Housing Innovation have become important components, as well as a significant research presence. The school, and department, have a long history of providing service to the state and local communities. What is now termed service learning has a legacy from built work to planning studies. The state and local community have been national leaders in environmental legislation and awareness, and we have capitalized on our regional landscape as part of the educational experience.

In the 70's the undergraduate curriculum, which had been relatively stable for over 40 years, was revised in response to a rapidly expanding profession, new environmental awareness, an enlarged meaning of the concept of landscape, and challenges within the state to professional licensure. New courses were added in landscape planning analysis, landscape history and theory, and an environmental geologist joined a fundamentally design-oriented faculty to help 'design with nature.' An expansion of the M.L.A. program added new dimensions of experience and maturity to the undergraduate educational environment. In the 1990's the teaching of landscape ecology had become central to the curriculum along with the use of digital tools at all levels. Currently, there is a breadth of faculty experience both academically and professionally. Two faculty joined the department in the 1960's, two in the 70's, four in the 80's, two in the 90's, one in 2001, and two in 2005. The growing strength of the present program is a reflection of the talents and unique contributions of this group which includes individuals with diverse backgrounds and experience. Good management, an innovative and dedicated faculty, a reputation as a thinking person's design program, successful grantsmanship, and well-received efforts at community service have kept the department from losing its resources during a period of consolidation and retrenchment in the state.

In spite of its West Coast and small city location, the department continues to compete well on an international basis for qualified students. Increasingly, this group includes students with a first degree in a non-design field who have discovered landscape architecture as the ideal professional means of applying their particular interests. About half of the students studying toward the M.L.A. at the present time have other degrees. For them, this first professional degree is the First Professional Masters of Landscape Architecture, instituted in January 2002 and accredited in the spring of 2005. The department also offers a two-year Post-Professional Masters of Landscape Architecture degree for students who enter the program with an accredited degree in Landscape Architecture. The post-professional Masters program also provides a group of more experienced students who act as peer teachers, teaching assistants, and teaching fellows. The department has also just established a Ph.D. program that will build upon the expertise of the faculty and upon the program and resources currently extant within the school and university.

Building upon our traditions, expertise and the opportunities present within of the university and region, we have continued our tradition of a thoughtful and incremental evolution of the program. These are reflected in the curriculum, faculty composition, studio projects, research and community programs. These include curricular revisions of our technology program, changes in studio requirements and options, the institutionalizing of design-build studios, expansion of the activities of the Urban Farm, the evolution of the computer as a tool for informed inquiry in virtually all courses, a renewed concern for sustainable development, and the hiring of a landscape ecologist to provide a sound scientific basis for work in design and planning. In addition, the faculty are all active in research and practice, which effects students directly in course work and in opportunities to assist in these enterprises. Recently, the faculty have been very successful at receiving grants and have been the recipients of state and national awards, and have a superb record of published research and built work. The ASLA student chapter is active and fostering superb connections to the professional community within the state.

Landscape Architecture at the University of Oregon faces its next period of development with a particularly able faculty, an improved physical educational environment, an updated curriculum, an active student body, a highly supportive School and university administration, healthy relations with Oregon practitioners, and good contact and financial support from alumni. Regional and national conditions are growing increasingly favorable to the interests of the field. We are engaged with landscape architectural issues that represent the continuity of our concerns as a department and a profession, while simultaneously engaging in the significant landscape questions of our time.