ATHENS, Ga. – The landscape architecture program in the new College of Environment and Design at the University of Georgia has moved to the top of the rankings recently released by DesignIntelligence magazine. DesignIntelligence has ranked architectural schools over the past decade has examined and rated the eighty-five landscape architecture programs throughout the country for the past two years. In the inaugural ranking, Georgia’s three-year professional masters degree program placed fourth nationally, while its five-year undergraduate program placed second behind Ohio State.
In the most recent rankings, the bachelor’s degree in landscape architecture placed first nationally and the master’s degree placed third behind Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania where undergraduate programs are not offered. UGA’s landscape architecture program is also one of the country’s oldest and, by far, its largest.
“I am immensely proud of the work done for many years by our distinguished faculty and staff,” said John Crowley, the Dean of the College. “This top ranking is representative of a long standing commitment to excellence. The program has been one of the very best for many years. We can now appreciate the formal recognition. This is also a great tribute to our present and former students who prove by their practice why Georgia’s programs are and should be so highly rated. It’s also important because the profession of landscape architecture has matured to become central to the critical contemporary issues of urban and environmental planning and design. We are among the very best at educating practioners in a most important profession.”
DesignIntelligence is the design industry’s news source for trends, strategies, and research. It is a source for publications such as Fortune, The Wall Street Journal, NPR’s All Things Considered and others. Participants included in the survey are the top U.S. landscape architecture firms and practitioners in the public and private sectors. In effect, those surveyed are the “customers” of the educational institutions being rated.
The University of Georgia has offered some form of landscape architectural education since the 1880’s when landscape horticulture was taught — more than a decade before the profession itself was formally recognized in the United States. The first undergraduate degree was approved in 1926. The College of Environment and Design also includes the Institute of Ecology, rated among the country’s top five programs for research and historic preservation, recognized nationally as a premier program in a profession that has yet to initiate ratings.
“We are not only the biggest, but the best as well. Now we must gather a significant and sustainable endowment to underwrite new initiatives building on this excellence just to keep the number one spot,” said Crowley.
For more information, visit http://www.sed.uga.edu.