Design research

The 2026 All Department Charrette has come to an end. This year's event successfully bridged the gap between academic theory and professional practice, focusing on the future of the university's own landscape. Students from all levels, from freshmen to ph. D. candidates, worked in vertical teams, fostering a unique mentorship environment between the BLA and MLA programs. This year's team was guided by six distinguished practitioners from GGN, Scott Byro & Co., and Tgda, providing students with direct access to industry leaders. The team pivoted from community-adjacent sites to focus on internal campus priorities, specifically the 2022 campus landscape master plan and the rainwater management program.  

Congratulations to PhD in Landscape Architecture candidate Alexandre Champagne, who successfully defended his dissertation, “Mobilizing Landscape Architecture against Urban Precarity: Framing an Applied-Philosophy Approach through the Works of Henri Maldiney, Paul Ricœur, and Jacques Rancière,” earlier this week. Alexandre’s doctoral committee members include Prof. Elen Deming (Landscape Architecture), Prof. Brenda Farnell (Anthropology), Prof. Jennifer Monson (Dance and Landscape Architecture), and Prof. Deni Ruggeri (Landscape Architecture, Univ. of Maryland), with Prof. David Hays (Landscape Architecture) serving as chair. Last September, Alexandre began a full-time appointment on the faculty of Landscape Architecture at Boston Architectural College.

We are pleased to announce that alum Bruce Dvorak has been named a Fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects.

Three members of our department community—faculty member Kelley Lemon, current student Ana Valderrama, and alum Sonal Mithal—have been awarded prestigious grants from the Graham Foundation.