The Landscape Architecture Associate in Arts degree program provides students with the basic foundation and skills to pursue a career or further education in Landscape Architecture. Course topics include design process and principles, site analysis, site planning, planting design, construction, topographic form, graphic representation, computer-assisted design, and professional practice. Students with this degree will fulfill three objectives: Meet the minimum educational requirement to take the California Landscape Architects Registration Exam (LARE); obtain basic skills necessary to start work in a professional landscape design or design-build office; and get basic preparation towards transferring to a four-year or graduate program in landscape architecture.

To qualify for the Associate of Arts in Landscape Architecture degree, students must satisfactorily complete the Degree Major requirements specified below and the local AA/AS General Education requirements. See the Associate Degrees section of this catalog for more information on the local AA/AS overall requirements and the local AA/AS General Education requirements.

CAREER OPPORTUNITIES

The major criteria for professional success is a state-issued license, and an AA degree in landscape architecture provides the minimum educational requirement (in addition to a 5-year internship) to sit for the licensing exam, an exam that allows you to practice legally. The coursework would also prepare a student for an entry-level job in a landscape architecture office, enabling him or her to fulfill the internship requirement for licensing.

PROGRAM LEARNING OUTCOMES

Students who complete the degree will be able to:

- Design landscapes that provide basic human comfort and livability.

- Design landscapes that respond to and support regional ecology.

- Design landscapes that meet client functional and financial objectives.

- Design landscapes based on foundational principles of composition.

- Communicate landscape design and building concepts to clients, contractors, and public agencies through written reports, drawings, graphic images, and oral presentations.

- Operate a successful landscape design practice based on sound legal, ethical, and business practices.

- Apply for entry to a BA, BLA, or MLA university program in landscape architecture, with a firm grounding in the concepts and techniques required for further study