Landscape Institute
Landscape Institute Courses
BAC: LI Courses
Construction and Site Engineering
Landscape Construction: Methods and Materials
Instructor: Steven Foster
3.0 Credits
Site design is expressed by materials, construction and the methods in which they are applied. This course will survey site construction materials and design considerations for site development. Weekly topics include site utilities, planting design, fences and gates, steps and ramps, flex base and structural base paving systems, free standing walls, retaining walls and wood structures. Topics such as art of construction documentation, cost estimating and writing proposals, ADA guidelines and compliancy, specification writing and state building codes as applied to typical site development will also be covered. Students will have weekly assignments, readings and quizzes to supplement their learning. Prerequisite: Recommended Landscape Graphic Skills, computer skills including word processing, excel, and the ability to navigate the internet.
Tuition: Graduate CE/Certificate Credit: $2,435 Audit: $1800
TM021/AC, 1:00 PM – 4:00 PM, W, Jan. 27 – May 12
Site Engineering
Instructor: Steven Foster
3.0 Credits
Site engineering is an art and a science that is both functional and aesthetic. This course introduces students to the principles and fundamental concepts of landform design and site grading. Students will learn to manipulate contours and direct water flow as it applies to landform design and supports the proposed project activity. Specific topics will include grading principles for terraces and patios, pedestrian and vehicular circulation systems, and athletic fields. Additional topics include construction, industry standards for the design of drain inlets, catch basins and manholes, leaching basins, and the collection and retention of storm water. American with Disability Act (ADA) design guidelines will also be covered. Students will engage site engineering skills through presentations, field trips, weekly exercises and model making. Prerequisite: Recommended Landscape Graphic Skills
Tuition: Graduate CE/Certificate Credit: $2,435 Audit: $1800
TM045/AC, 1:00 PM – 4:00 PM, Th, Jan. 28 – May 13
Design
Design I: Art of Landscape Design
Instructor: Patricia Bales Van Buskirk
3.0 Credits
This studio explores the process of designing a landscape from initial inspiration to finished design. The class begins by abstracting design principles from art. Using landforms as the primary form and space generator, we will explore themes of movement, passage, repose, and threshold. Students are asked to reduce the forms of historical paintings to simple designs which are then "borrowed" to transform a local site. The poetics of painting will guide the design process from the layout of the garden to its details. Students will learn to use sketching and model building not only as a tool for communication, but to explore and further develop their designs. Weekly slide shows and group critiques form the structure of the class and provide inspiration for designs. Prerequisite: Recommended Landscape Graphic Skills
Tuition: Graduate CE/Certificate Credit: $2,435 Audit: $1800
LAC106/AC, 9:30 AM - 12:30 PM, Th, Jan. 28 – May 20
Design I: Introduction to Landscape Design
Instructor: Jean Cavanaugh
3.0 Credits
This course will introduce students to the fundamental principles of landscape design, and the two- and three- dimensional tools necessary to give visual and physical expression to spatial concepts. By exploring the forms, functions and aesthetic attitudes that shape the environment around us, students will learn basic strategies to identify and create beautiful, sustainable, small and medium scale urban and suburban landscapes. In class weekly studio exercises and assignments will be supplemented by instructor lectures and demonstrations, relevant readings, and in-class discussions and pin-ups. Prerequisite: Landscape Graphic Skills recommended.
Tuition: Graduate CE/Certificate Credit: $2,435 Audit: $1800
LAC106/BC, 4:00 PM - 7:00 PM, T, Jan. 26 – May 18
Design II Methods: Design with the Living Landscape
Instructor: Laura Eisener
3.0 Credits
This studio continues to build on basic design principles including graphic expression, spatial definition, proportion and scale. The focus will be on design compositions with an emphasis on natural systems and the living landscape: the special qualities of trees, shrubs, vines, and herbaceous plants in the landscape. Students will hone their conceptual thinking and learn to successfully incorporate the dynamics of the site including soils, microclimates, and adjacent influences into their design thinking. Students will explore form, pattern, texture, tone, and color of plants as landscape elements to shape space. Classes will include slide-illustrated lectures, class discussions, and project critiques. In addition, students will engage in critiques of existing designed landscapes of various ages and dramatic design. Students will explore successful uses of plants to gain insight into the life cycle of gardens and design. Student will design several landscapes including a park and a residential garden. Prerequisite: Design I, Landscape Graphic Skills (recommended).
Tuition: Graduate CE/Certificate Credit: $2,435 Audit: $1800
LAC107/AC, 1:00 pm- 4:00pm, T, Jan. 26 – May 18
Design II Methods: Design with Sustainable Systems
Instructor: Catherine Cardamone
3.0 Credits
Designing for energy efficiency, conservation of soil, bedrock and hydrology, and sustainable practices are the goals of this class. Students will be introduced to green roofs and passive and active solar technologies using plants for heating and cooling. Field trips to specific sites for extensive site analysis will include reading the land, understanding hydrology, geology, and plant communities. The challenges of global warming, exotic invasives and the impact on wildlife will be considered in the design program. Progressive landscape design models that embrace understanding integrated green concepts will be researched. Design theory, especially the use of mass and void, verticals and horizontals, and hidden and revealed views, will be covered. The student's ability to apply these design elements and site analysis skills including environmental considerations will be the criteria for evaluating the assigned projects. Prerequisite: Design I Recommended Landscape Graphic Skills.
Tuition: Graduate CE/Certificate Credit: $2,435 Audit: $1800
LAC107/BC, 9:30 AM – 12:30 PM, W, Jan. 27 – May 19
Design III: Applications
Instructor: Todd Richardson
3.0 Credits
This studio builds upon student’s previous knowledge and understanding of landscape design processes. Through a carefully chosen case study, students will explore theories, principals and methods of landscape design. The semester-long case study will provide an applied opportunity for students to further their design skills across a spectrum of scales from master planning to detailed design. The project will employ many aspects of professional practice including research, site documentation and analysis, legal and regulatory issues, synthesis, program development, concept generation, and design representation, and will include direct interaction with the project sponsor/client as well as with users and town/city officials. Site visits, supplemental readings, and precedent research and visitations will supplement the studio. Prerequisite: Design I, Design II, Recommended Site Engineering and/or Construction Methods and Materials.
Tuition: Graduate CE/Certificate Credit: $2,435 Audit: $1800
LAC108/AC, 1:00 PM – 4:00 PM, M, Jan 25 – May 17
Design III: Applications
Instructor: Lisa Giersbach
3.0 Credits
This studio provides students an opportunity to combine: conceptual design ideas, program needs, and environmental enhancement with technical skills to address a complex of local industrial brick buildings, at the Waltham Watch factory. This former industrial site, near the Charles River requires designer to think in terms of design, the community as well as ecological restoration while addressing the re-programming site. Beginning with a series of sketch problem utilizing the BAC roof garden, and exploration into different sustainable technologies, students will explore creative solutions to sites which have very specific site constraints and challenges. Site visits, collected readings on a range of topics including rain gardens, living walls, roof gardens, and ecological restoration will be enhanced by lectures, guest experts and critiques. The project, currently being studied for development, serves as its own case study for students design exploration and innovative approaches to sustainable design critical to the Charles River Watershed. Prerequisite: Design I, Design II, Recommended Site Engineering and/or Construction Methods and Materials.
Tuition: Graduate CE/Certificate Credit: $2,435 Audit: $1800
LAC108/BC, 4:00 PM - 7:00 PM, Th, Jan. 28 – May 20
Professional Planting Design
Instructors: Nancy Coleman and John Furlong
3.0 Credits
This course will address the distinctive requirements of planting plans for gardens and parks. Students will study design principles and artistic approaches for combining plants to create a palette of trees, shrubs and perennials that responds to underlying ecological implications and reflects sustainable practices. Students will explore techniques for creating planting themes that consider plant structure, color effects and seasonal interest, spatial characteristics, and the mood created by different plant combinations. Examples from existing gardens with particular attention to current naturalistic planting practices will be used throughout the course to clarify ideas and promote discussion. Classes will include lectures, in-class exercises, and critiques. Students will prepare planting designs and a professional planting plan with layout information, plant lists, and details. Specifications, contract preparation, plant tagging, construction installation, and client relations will also be included. Prerequisite: Design I, Recommended- familiarity with design, horticulture and Landscape Graphic skills
Tuition: Graduate CE/Certificate Credit: $2,435 Audit: $1800
AS013/AC, 4:00 PM - 7:00 PM, W, Jan. 27 – May 12
Drafting and Graphic Presentation
Introduction to Landscape Graphics
Instructors: Varies, see below
3.0 Credits
Designed for students with little or no experience in drafting, this studio focuses on the fundamentals of landscape design drawing necessary to communicate design ideas with confidence. Drafting techniques to improve line quality, lettering, rendering, drawn annotations, and organization of information will be practiced. Students will build skills in both illustrative rendering and technical drawing for construction documentation. Specific topics that will be covered are single-view drawing, such as plans, sections, and elevations, and pictorial drawing, such as isometric and axonometric drawings. This is an excellent class to explore the skills required to be a landscape designer and prepare for future studios.
Tuition: Graduate CE/Certificate Credit: $2,435 Audit: $1800
COURSE/SEC TIME DAY DATES
- VS011/AC Patricia Bales Van Buskirk
1:00pm – 4:00pm Th Jan. 28 – May 13 - VS011/BC Steven Foster
9:30am – 12:30pm W Jan. 27 – May 12 - VS011/CC William Trimble
7:15pm – 10:15pm T Jan. 26 – May 11
Methods for Drawing Plants and Gardens
Instructor: Clare Walker Leslie
1.5 Credits
This course, starting in March, provides students with the opportunity to work on methods for drawing plants and gardens. Clients often want to visualize what is to be planted in their garden and a clear profile drawing can be of great use in understanding specifics of composition, species, and seasonal change. Classes will meet at the Arnold Arboretum greenhouse and grounds. Simple drawing tools of pen, pencil, colored pencil, and watercolor will be used. An equipment list and directions to the greenhouse will be sent.
Attention will be given to: accuracy of plant and tree forms, quick sketching garden assemblages, rock walls, water, patios, perspective and creating a design profile composition suitable for any season.
Note: This course meets at the Dana Greenhouse, Arnold Arboretum
Tuition: Graduate CE/Certificate Credit: $2,435 Audit: $1800
VS027/AC, 9:30 AM – 12:30 PM, T, March 30 – May 18
Drawing Landscapes
Instructor: Ellen Schneider
1.5 Credits
This course hones freehand drawing skills through exercises in both the classroom and the field. The goal of the course is to increase drawing proficiency for studio work and professional practice. Techniques to improve sketching ability will be covered. Students will capitalize on spring afternoons to sketch the urban environment as well as spend time indoors focusing on botanical specimens, responding to creative design problems and critique. Classes will begin with pencil work. Other media will then be introduced throughout the course. Assignments will vary in scale from landscape perspective to drawing details. Student of all abilities are encouraged to enroll. Final projects will be determined in consultation with the instructor. This course starts in March so students can work outside and document the arrival of Spring.
Tuition: Graduate CE/Certificate Credit: $2,435 Audit: $1800
VS025/AC, 4:00pm - 7:00pm, F, April 2 – May 21
Electives
Psychology of Spatial Design: Exploring Human Emotions in the Landscape and the Built Environment
Instructor: Susan Pashman
1.5 Credits
What is it in human biology and psychology that accounts for our responses to landscape and other forms of the built environment? Recent research into perceptual psychology indicates that the ways we respond to the landscape is determined by how our species evolved over time. Landscape design speaks to our eyes and brains, to our entire nervous systems, in ways that are shared by all members of the human race. This new research has enormous implications for how we design our environment; it can give us important clues about how spatial design can elicit specific emotional responses. Through trial and error, we may gradually discover what "works" in spatial design, but this new research tells us positively what works and why.
Tuition: Graduate CE/Certificate credit: $1,380 Audit: $950
AS041/AC, 9:30 AM -12:30 PM, Th, April 1 – May 20
History and Preservation
Contemporary Landscape as Art: Light, Time, Sound, and Story-Telling
Instructor: Marie Stella
3.0 Credits
This course focuses on landscape as an art form, examining how we experience the natural world. Historic developments are traced, beginning with the earthwork artists of the 1960s, chronicling the evolution of environmental art and its role in the rehabilitation of degraded post-industrial sites. Light is investigated, from its technical application, to dark-sky solutions for problems of light pollution. Students will analyze creations that use sunlight, shadow, and artificial light to illuminate both public and private space. Light's symbolism, psychological impact, and technical advances will be studied. The passage of time will be explored in the works of Maya Lin and Robert Adzema, as will soundscape design, from Julie Messervy's interpretation of a piece of music in her “Music Garden” to acoustic ecology (the natural sounds of the environment). The literate landscapes of Charles Jencks and Ian Hamilton Finlay, linking time, memory, and events with encoded stories, highlight the use of narratives in professional practice. The contemporary garden, as art and technology, presents us with provocative new perspectives. A weekend site visit to New York City features the work of Robert Irwin, the Dia: Beacon Museum, studio visits, tours of landscape installations, and presentations by designers. Weekly design exercises are required.
Note: A New York field trip is scheduled for April 16th – April 18th. The cost of room, board, and transportation is not included in the tuition. The instructor will discuss options in class.
Tuition: Graduate CE/Certificate Credit: $2,435 Audit: $1800 Req. Lab Fee: $50
HT002/AC, 1:00pm - 4:00pm, M, Jan. 25 – May 10
Cultural Landscape Report for Adams National Historical Park
Instructor: Margie Coffin Brown
3.0 Credits
This studio offers an opportunity to develop a cultural landscape report and preliminary treatment plan for the Adams National Historical Park in Quincy, Massachusetts. The park preserves the birthplaces, homes, remaining farmland, and gardens of four generations of Adamses who resided in Quincy from 1787 to 1927—including two U.S. Presidents and First Ladies. The course will cover the relationship between structures and gardens and nearly 150 years of changing attitudes toward the landscape. While examining the layout of the grounds and the significance and defining features of the landscape, students will develop recommendations for the restoration, long term management, and maintenance of the historic landscape. Assignments will include research, writing, field documentation, analysis of integrity and significance, identifying character-defining features and treatment issues, and developing site specific recommendations. The class will include classroom sessions on manipulating existing digital maps and annotating graphics. Prerequisite: Design I, Landscape history and/or Preservation
Note: This class will meet at the Adams National Historical Park in Quincy, Massachusetts three times during the semester.
Tuition: Graduate CE/Certificate Credit: $2,435 Audit: $1800
HT097/AC, 9:30 AM – 12:30 PM, Th, Jan. 28 – May 20
Creative Stewardship: Design, Planning and Conservation
Instructor: Cathy Ries Neal
1.5 Credits
“When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe.” - John Muir
Environmental sustainability has become imperative for communities across the globe. How can we successfully respond to these challenges while providing creative and desirable design solutions? This seminar will explore design approaches that incorporate creative planning tools and conservation mechanisms, as we consider opportunities and responsibilities of designing for the greater good. Lectures, readings, class discussions and exercises will be enhanced by guest presentations and a field trip. Individual student case studies projects will be compiled as a resource. Prerequisite: Design I
Tuition: Graduate CE/Certificate credit: $1,380 Audit: $950
HT042/AC, 4:00pm - 7:00pm, W, March 31 – May 19
The Culture and Art of Chinese Gardens: Private Gardens
Instructor: YoYi Chen
1.5 Credits
This module explores the literati gardens in Jiang-nan, the lower Yangtze River delta of eastern China where the most plentiful and exquisite gardens still exist through 1700 years of history- in Suzhou, Wuxi, Hangzhou, Yangzhou and Shanghai. Students will learn the basic concepts, elements and conventional designs of literati garden, learn the important role of landscape painting and poetry in the garden making, learn idea and the expression of Taoism, Confucianism and Buddhism and the underlying principles of Feng-Shui. The theories and guidance from Ming garden master Ji Cheng, Yuan artist Guo Xi and contemporary critic Chen Congzhou will be studied. ‘Shan-Shui’, the manipulation of ‘mountain’ and ‘water’ garden architecture and common planting materials will also be introduced. A final project is required.
Tuition: Graduate CE/Certificate credit: $1,380 Audit: $950
HT089/AC, 4:00 PM – 7:00 PM, M, Jan. 27 – March 17
Grant Proposal Writing for Landscape Projects
Instructor: Walter Punch
1.5 Credits
All projects require funding. Whether it is an historic restoration, land preservation, a special garden installation, or an educational program, it will require financing; often more than what is planned for. There are several parts of the proposal to consider. Proposal writing and funding is competitive, tricky, and complex. The proposal writer benefits from an adviser or an interpreter that provides guidance through the proposal process as well as input on the scope of work required for the project’s eventual success.
This course will guide the student through the essential of writing a proposal for submission. Through weekly research and writing assignments students with a proposal idea or in search of a project will find this course useful in pursuing funding. The final project for the course is the proposal itself, written during the duration of the course.
Tuition: Graduate CE/Certificate credit: $1,380 Audit: $950
AS026/AC, 7:15 PM – 10:15 PM, T, Jan. 26 – March 16
History of Landscape Design: Renaissance to 1990
Instructor: Eleanor M. McPeck
3.0 Credits
This course is a comprehensive survey of the development of landscape architecture from the Renaissance to 1990. The principal theme is the integral relationship between architecture and landscape design. Students examine the work of major designers including André Le Nôtre, Capability Brown, Frederick Law Olmsted Sr., and Dan Kiley. Cultural and literary backgrounds are studied in relation to the general development of landscape design in Italy, France, England, and North America. Field trips supplement slide presentations and readings. A research paper is required.
Tuition: Graduate CE/Certificate Credit: $2,435 Audit: $1800
HT050/AC, 9:30 PM – 12:30 PM, W, Jan. 27 – May 12
Historic Landscape Preservation Theory
Instructor: Phyllis Andersen
1.5 Credits
This course tracks the development of landscape preservation from its roots in nineteenth-century theories of monument preservation to the most recent ideas about heritage and landscape. Topics include the restoration of Le Nôtre gardens by the Duchênes, the estate preservation work of the National Trust of Great Britain, the theoretical writings of J.B. Jackson and others on the value of vernacular landscape, and the creation and influence of Colonial Williamsburg and its many imitators. Through guided readings and class discussions, students develop an understanding of the history of the landscape preservation movement and its value in shaping responsible treatment today.
Tuition: Graduate CE/Certificate credit: $1,380 Audit: $950
HT043/AC, 4:00 PM – 7:00 PM, T, Jan. 26 – March 16
Theories of Landscape Design
Instructors: Karen Madsen and John Furlong
1.5 Credits
To quote Garrett Eckbo, "Practice is knowing how to do something; theory is knowing why." Another way to put it is: a theory is a scheme of ideas that explains practice. It serves as the link between the practice of landscape design and the world beyond.
Landscape design continually reinterprets the relationship of humans to their environments in spatial and visual terms, but what should that relationship be? Where do landscape forms come from and what sorts of meaning do they embody? What are the design implications of changing values, social needs, and attitudes toward nature? How can these concerns be synthesized in landscape design? Students will explore these issues through illustrated lectures, student presentations, and class discussions of the readings. Prerequisite: 6 credits in history
Tuition: Graduate CE/Certificate credit: $1,380 Audit: $950
HT038/AC, 1:00 PM – 4:00 PM, W, Jan. 27 –March 17
Horticulture
Identification & Uses of Evergreen Trees
Instructor: Catherine Cardamone
1.5 Credits
Students in this course will focus on evergreen trees and select shrubs that coat the winter landscape in green. Evergreens lend stability and weight to created and natural environments. This course is held at the Arnold Arboretum so students may take advantage of the wonderful conifer and broadleaf collections that are hardly in New England, presented by family. Form, leaf, and bark texture along with other distinctive features are examined through slides, the living collection, and cut specimens. This course meets at the Dana Greenhouse, at the Arnold Arboretum.
Tuition: Graduate CE/Certificate credit: $1,380 Audit: $950
AS023/AC, 9:30 AM – 12:30 PM, Th, Jan. 28 – March 18
Identification and Uses of Shrubs and Vines
Instructor: Laura Eisener
3.0 Credits
This course serves as an introduction to the most commonly planted shrubs and vines in New England, focusing on their distinguishing characteristics and horticultural requirements, and providing suggestions for landscape applications. Species to be studied include old favorites and newly introduced varieties. Students learn to recognize established specimens and to select the most appropriate shrubs and vines for any landscape situation in New England. Height, form, twig and bud characteristics, leaf shape, color and other significant features are discussed, as well as ways of using these plants in design. Twig samples, slide lectures, and field trips aid in learning to identify plants and provide examples of their use. Requirements include weekly quizzes, two exams, and one design project.
Tuition: Graduate CE/Certificate Credit: $2,435 Audit: $1800
AS014/AC, 9:30 AM – 12:30 PM, T, Jan. 29 – March 19
Native Plant Communities
Instructor: Catherine Cardamone
3.0 Credits
In order to preserve and restore New England's unique bio diverse habitats, one needs to know how to identify native plants. This class will study five plant communities. Through a series of field trips the class will examine the native and exotic invasive that are present, and make a list of what is missing based on old field guides. The five ecosystems to be studied are: fresh water interior bottomland plant communities, coastal salt water plant communities, mid-slope oak forest plant communities, plants found at higher elevations (boreal forests); and succession of agricultural land to forest. The New England Wildflower Society collection of native plant material is also studied in order to complete the understanding of missing species. Open book quizzes for all field classes will be required.
Tuition: Graduate CE/Certificate Credit: $2,435 Audit: $1800
AS019 AC, 4:00pm - 7:00pm,Th, Jan. 28 – May 13
Site Inventory for Sustainable Landscaping
Instructor: Marty Michener
3.0 Credits
This course introduces students to the skills they will need to rough-map the existing landscape, beginning with plant identification, native, invasive and cultivated, and progressing to potential habitat indicators. We will explore site hydrology and nutrient flows; understand selected soil parameters, the influences of glacial geology patterns and past site usage. We will combine these observations with everyday digital resources to establish sustainable planting plans, incorporating organic site techniques wherever possible. Students will learn to inventory site topography, vegetation, hydrology, and soil to learn how to develop references for successful planting.
Inventory your site before you commit to a design and installation budget. Become your own "team of experts". Plan for low maintenance by understanding site resources, especially seasonal water movements, and make better-informed plant choices. Know your site to avoid serious problems like unexpectedly and illegally working in wetland zones or unsafely in toxic soils. Know the depth to restriction layers and to the water table. Examine onsite plants to read the essence of a landscape: plant species are constantly interacting with the site conditions, the ones with which your plants will need to cope. Two classes will be daytime half-day field trips outside suburbia, schedule and transportation to be arranged, weather permitting.
Tuition: Graduate CE/Certificate Credit: $2,435 Audit: $1800
AS027/AC, 1:00 PM – 4:00 PM, M, Jan. 25 – May 10
Deciduous Trees: Identification and Uses
Instructor: Laura D. Eisener
1.5 Credits
This course will introduce students to the most commonly planted deciduous trees in New England, their distinguishing characteristics, horticultural requirements, and some suggested landscape applications. The seminar will help students select the most appropriate trees for any landscape situation and recognize established specimens. Height, form, twig and bud characteristic, leaf shape, color, and other significant features will be discussed, as well as ways of using these plants in design. Held at the Arnold Arboretum, we will have frequent forays into the collection to see the species under discussion.
Tuition: Graduate CE/Certificate credit: $1,380 Audit: $950
AS021/AC, 9:30 AM – 12:30 PM, Th, April 1 – May 20