In many academic design programs the tendency is to separate the technical (building) curriculum from the design (studio) courses. In our program students are asked to consider design through the “application of building” and adapt their designs based on actual experience and scale. Our program philosophy is that the art of landscape architecture is not complete without the act of building and that through their involvement in both design and construction, students develop a balance between the conceptualizing and the making of their design. They gain an understanding of the design process as circular, from idea, to building and back to idea. In this process, the ideas, hands, tools and materials come together—design opportunities are discovered and explored.
Autumn 2025 Design Studio Final Reviews
Join us for the upcoming Autumn 2025 Design Studios Final Reviews!
The Burke Meadow Team & Student Volunteers Plant 1,500 Native Bulbs, Plugs & Bare Roots
The Burke Meadow team, including CBE graduate students Eric Alipio and Marina Figueroa-Rowen, and undergraduates Jazzmyn Witrell (CBE), Kaydance Levesque (SEFS), and Kennedy Stone (Biology) recently planted over 1,500 native bulbs, plugs, and bare roots with help from student volunteers in the College of the Built Environment, the School of Environmental and Forestry Sciences, as well as volunteers from Oxbow Farm. A huge thank you to the team from Oxbow for showing up to fulfill the journey of these plants, many of which were sourced from their farm.
Congratulations to UW 2025 ASLA Award Winners
Congratulations to the Design Build Class of 2024 and Professor Daniel Winterbottom for receiving the 2025 ASLA Student Award of Excellence in Community Design. Their project, Stimulating the Senses: A Calming Retreat in a Skilled Nursing Setting, transformed the outdoor environment at Kline Galland Skilled Nursing Facility. Over two quarters, students engaged with staff and residents to design and build the Quint Family Sensory Garden- a restorative space centered on comfort, accessibility, and dignity.
MLA & MLA/MARCH Autumn ’25 Capstone Presentations
Join us Thursday, November 6th, between 11:30AM & 2:00PM, in Gould Court & Gould 100 for the first capstone project presentation for the MLA and dual major (MLA/MARCH) students. Guest reviewers will be providing feedback and engaging students in conversation around the strength of the proposed project, future project plans, and more!
Growing Food + Community: Youth Agriculture as Resilience
This Landscape Architecture Advanced Studio addressed design of urban agriculture that centers youth learning and agency to advance food justice and resilience in a changing climate.
Landscape Architecture Alumnus Becomes Seattle’s First Indigenous Planner
Tim Lehman (’06, ’16) became Seattle’s first Indigenous planning strategist. Read about how his UW journey led to a career in community-rooted design.
Healing Through Design: Daniel Winterbottom at the Venice Biennale
Professor Daniel Winterbottom’s installation at the 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale invites reflection on exclusion, trauma, and healing.
Green Futures Lab hosts Peking University group
UWLA’s Green Futures Lab (GFL) recently hosted a group of second-year graduate students from Peking University’s landscape architecture program as part of their study tour focused on low impact development (LID) strategies. This visit was integrated into their Landscape Hydrology course, which explores innovative approaches to managing water in urban and ecological systems, which is led by Professor Li Dihua, Vice Dean, College of Architecture and Landscape Architecture, Peking University and Dr. Nian She, Director, Institute of Smart Sponge City Construction…
Daniel Winterbottom at Sketcher Fest Edmonds 7/19-7/20 and ArtSpot 8/03
Professor Daniel Winterbottom will be one of the travel sketchbook artists featured at Sketcher Fest this weekend in Edmonds (Saturday 7/19 – Sunday 7/20). He will also lead an ArtSpot Edmonds Sketching Workshop on Sunday 8/3.
Check out the post for more details!
Green Futures Lab: Past, Present & Prospect Exhibition 2025
On April 9th, Gould Gallery hosted the opening reception of the Green Futures Lab Exhibit. This exhibit was both a retrospective of over two decades of hard work by the UW Green Futures Lab, as well as a prospective glimpse into the future.
Out/In/Front 2025 Galleries Are Live!
OUT/IN/FRONT is a bi-annual exhibition highlighting local designers to share innovative and exciting design work, research, theory and practice culture with students and the larger professional design community. You can find previous Out/In/Front receptions and projects on our Professional Advisory Council (PAC) webpage HERE
2025 MLA Capstone Galleries: Explore Now
2025 MLA Capstone Projects are Live! The 2025 MLA Capstone Studio Gallery is now live on our Portfolio page. Please use the link below to read and learn more about this year’s graduating MLA Class Capstone Studio: Design Manifestos For The End Of Capitalism. 2025 MLA Thesis Projects are Live Now! The 2025 MLA Thesis Studio Gallery is now live on our Portfolio page! Please use the link below to read and learn more about this year’s graduating MLA…
End of Quarter Review Schedule Spring 2025
As Spring Quarter 2025 comes to a close, we have a packed schedule of student work being showcased in the next two weeks! Be sure to catch as many presentations as possible and support our extremely hardworking students!
Thaïsa Way appointed as Director of UBC SALA
Congratulations to Professor Emerita, Thaïsa Way, who was recently appointed as director of University of British Columbia’s School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture! Professor Way will begin her 5-year term on January 1st, 2026. Dr. Way is currently the Director of Garden and Landscape Studies at Dumbarton Oaks, where she leads the Democracy and Landscape: Race, Identity, and Difference Initiative. She is a Visiting Professor of Landscape Architecture at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design, and is Professor…
Two UW Students Nominated as 2025 LAF Olmsted Scholars
Congratulations to Sarah Chu (MLA ’25) and Hadley Masiel (BLA ’25) on their nomination as 2025 Landscape Architecture Foundation (LAF) Olmsted Scholars!
MLA Capstone/Thesis Presentations Spring 2025
Join us this week (5/5-5/7) for UWLA students capstone and thesis presentations! Please find the presentation schedules attached You can also view the project posters outside LA Department Office, room 348. LA 702 Capstone Studio Review: May 5 and May 7 Design Manifestos For the End of Capitalism: Speculative Visions + Narrative landscapes for a Changing Climate UW//LA Thesis + Group Project Capstone Presentations: May 6 Read the Full Thesis Abstracts HERE: SP2025MLA-MAY6-SCHEDULE+ABSTRACTS
2025 Fountain Scholar Finalist – Camille Forest (MLA ’25)
Join us in congratulating Camille Forest (MLA ’25) in being recognized by the Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture’s (CELA) as a 2025 Finalist in the Fountain Scholar Program! The Council for Educators in Landscape Architecture’s (CELA) Fountain Scholar Program recognizes and supports Black, Indigenous, and people of color in landscape architecture with exceptional design skills and who use their skills and ideas to influence, communicate, lead, and advance design solutions for contemporary issues. The winners and finalists were selected…
David Godshall + Dani VonLehe PAC Spring Lecture April 2025
Join us in thanking David Godshall and Danielle VonLehe for presenting the 2025 PAC Spring Lecture! A massive thank you to David Godshall and Danielle VonLehe of TERREMOTO for taking the time to not only give this year’s lecture, but also visit our advanced studios and give feedback on student projects! Thank you to everyone who attended our 2025 PAC Spring Lecture: Doing Right by Land and Each Other; Gardens for the Next World. A big THANK YOU to our…
Green Futures at the Gould Gallery
“The Green Futures Lab is not just about research and design; it’s about empowering students to think critically about how our cities can evolve to be more sustainable and inclusive. Our work is shaped by the belief that the best solutions come from collaboration—between students, communities, and the environment,” says Nancy Rottle, founder of the Green Futures Lab and Landscape Architecture Professor Emeritus.
Professor Daniel Winterbottom on Depicting the Unhoused
University of Washington Landscape Architecture Professor Daniel Winterbottom recently shared his experiences of sketching unhoused populations and overlooked urban environments with Bill Russell of Illustrated Journalism. Professor Winterbottom includes eye-opening stories discussing his interactions with our most vulnerable and often overlooked communities, as well as his process in documenting their spaces, and the current state of support for unhoused populations in Seattle and the United States. Please continue to the link below to view the full collection of Professor Winterbottom’s…
The program, developed in 1995 by Associate Professor Daniel Winterbottom, is offered to undergraduate and graduate students in landscape architecture and related fields.
Our design/build studio format accomplishes two goals. First, it provides an alternative design process, in which thinking and making are integrated. Second, the resulting project provides an amenity for a community in need.
Through our program we seek to develop skills in four main areas: the relationship between thinking and making, collaboration, communication skills and a returning of a benefit to the community. This process is collaborative; building becomes a social as well as a physical art. Students become a team: bringing ideas to fruition and cooperating in the shared act of building. Communication skills are honed and tested through client and community interaction. In this applied teaching model, we provide a critical link between design, building and service learning.
In many of the projects (Varey Memorial Garden, Garden of Eatin’ and Cascade Adopt-a-Park) a larger plan of rebuilding communities through “urban-greening” is addressed. We strive to advance a common societal goal, the improvement of our ecological and social environment. To achieve this we create transferable models in which small degraded “residual” urban parcels of land are redesigned as ecological and social community amenities resulting in an increased quality of life within the urban environment and opportunities for interaction between people and the natural environment. Through the process of community participation and interpretation we develop ecological awareness and social opportunities for interaction and celebration (Santa Ursula Lavandaria, Garden of Eatin’, Cascade Adopt-a-Park, Sandpoint Outdoor Classroom).
Through our work we have attempted to repair unsatisfactory physical relationships by demonstrating alternatives to damaging ecological practices (Lavandaria at Santa Ursula) and addressing unsatisfactory social relationships by bringing opposing groups together. One example can be found in the Garden of Eatin’, where interaction between members of University of Washington and the surrounding neighborhood have been developed and through ensuing dialogue members of both communities have gained a better understanding of each other.
All our clients are community groups and students must work with community members to complete the project, and expose the students to people of vastly different experiences, talents, ages, and often cultures. In an attempt to make our projects meaningful to the communities with whom we work, we have developed an inclusive participatory design process in which community members participate in the conceptualizing and design processes, to create places that are meaningful to all users.
An important feature of our design/build projects is the exploration of sustainable design, which includes reduction of energy consumption, ecological restoration, cultural and historic preservation, community development and resource conservation. Another question posed in the design/build studio, is how can landscape architects make landscapes appropriate to a culture and a place. In this process we build bridges of cultural understanding, both abroad (Lavandaria at Santa Ursula, Mexico) and locally (Cascade Adopt-a-Park) and with children (Sandpoint Outdoor Classroom). These are not only transferable models of sustainable and socially responsible design, but we have refined a process that is transferable to other programs and community groups including Ohio State University which adapting our model for use in their programs.