The purist practitioner of landscape design is the landscape architect. A bachelor’s or master’s degree in landscape architecture usually is necessary for entry into the profession. A bachelor’s degree in landscape architecture takes 4 or 5 years to complete at a traditional university. There also are two types of accredited master’s degree programs.
The most common type of master’s degree is a 3-year first professional degree program designed for students with an undergraduate degree in another discipline. The second type of master’s degree is a 2-year second professional degree program for students who have a bachelor’s degree in landscape architecture and who wish to teach or specialize in some aspect of landscape architecture, such as regional planning or golf course design.
Forty seven states require landscape architects to be licensed or registered. There is a national exam; the Landscape Architect Registration Examination which is a two day process administered by the Council of Landscape Architecture Registration Boards. These are the professionals that do the landscaping you see around urban building complexes, resorts and elaborate hotels and first rate architecture of all kinds in this country.
