For the last four years, Associate Professor and Department Chair Ken Yocom has brought an interdisciplinary group of students out to the Olympic Peninsula for a summer course titled “Reading the Elwha.” During a week of hiking, observing the landscape and field meetings with local scientists, land managers, and tribal members, students explore concepts of Nature and the evolving human relationship with the environment in a watershed marked by the largest dam removal project in US history. Monica Taylor, a student in the course and recent BLA graduate, shared some of her experience in this reflection.
Category: Student Experience
Auburn Alleyway Activation: MLA Project
What happens when you turn an uninviting alleyway lined with dumpsters over to UW Landscape Architecture students? The city of Auburn, Washington discovered these possibilities for such a space when three 2018 MLA graduates (Allison Ong, Sylvia Janicki, and Jack Alderman) developed a proposal for an alleyway in historic downtown on an independent study project through UW Livable City Year.
Pollinator Network: MLA Capstone
Yuchia Jan received his Master of Landscape Architecture in 2018. For his capstone project, he created a concept design to explore networks of pollinators including Monarch butterflies and Rufous hummingbirds in South Seattle and along Chief Sealth Trail.
BLA student on her experience transferring to UW
BLA student Jessica Chandler answered some questions about her experience as a transfer student in the Landscape Architecture program for the Fall 2017 Transfer Newsletter.
MLA Students Participate in Architecture Summer Design-Build
Two L Arch students (Nina Mross and Jiyoung Park) took part in a summer design/build project with the Architecture Department addressing food prep in Seattle’s homeless communities.
Garden Cities: An MLA Student’s Experience
David de la Cruz is from South Central Los Angeles. His experience growing up in this neighborhood – pollution, poverty, cultivation of local foods, and community – inspired him on a path that led to a Master of Landscape Architecture.
Building a Healing Garden: BLA Design-Build 2016
In winter and spring quarters of 2016, students from the University of Washington Department of Landscape Architecture designed and built a therapeutic garden for the Puget Sound Veteran’s Affairs Hospital in Seattle. Prof. Daniel Winterbottom guided the students through this design/build capstone project. The Garden of Earth and Sky opened in June 2016.
UW LArch alumnus Harley Pan’s Floating Wetlands documentary
For the past two years, MLA student Matthew MacDonald (2016) has been studying the viability and effectiveness of floating wetlands to improve local water quality. The research has been conducted in partnership with UW Larch / UW CBE and Green Futures Lab, with support from King County, Washington Conservation Corps, and Society of Wetland Scientists. The video was directed and produced by Harley Pan (MLA 2012).
Improving the Lives of Syrians
by Malda Takieddine (MLA Candidate ’14) As a Syrian, I’ve spent the past three years struggling to accept what is happening in Syria. In particular, I’ve been trying to find a way to contribute and help the people of my country, while I am more than 6000 miles away. As a landscape architect student at the UW, I chose to focus my thesis on improving the lives of Syrians in a refugee camp. In particular, I’m focusing on children and…