Landscape architecture is at its best. The recent proof: Last week, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security decided to accredit the field with its prestigious STEM designation. As part of the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) educational disciplines that fall into this category, landscape architecture students can now spend 24 months instead of 12 seeking employment and training after graduation in the United States. The degree also promises more prestige for graduates, higher entry salaries, and greater career flexibility. Torey Carter-Conneen, CEO of the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA), calls the development a significant advance for the “education and practice of landscape architecture, and that’s great for America and the global community.”
The news corresponds to a growing emphasis on landscape architecture as a fundamental practice around the world in recent years, a practice that is closely related to notions of public health, environmental design, biophilia, sustainability and reforestation. It also underscores the intimate relationship between technology and discipline. Landscape proposals increasingly rely on advanced science and technology to predict how ecological interventions may alter an existing terrain and determine which measures will produce the greatest benefit to both humans and nature. The contemporary ideal of wild grasslands and biodiverse forests may exist free of outside influence, but the path to get there from an urban starting point requires assistance.