\u201cSo you do gardening?\u201d That\u2019s usually the response Ashleigh Bancel gets when she tells people she studies landscape architecture. Bancel is a senior in the Landscape Architecture program (LA), a major offered by the Department of Plant Science and Landscape Architecture.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of people just don\u2019t know what we do,\u201d says Peter Miniutti, associate professor of landscape architecture. \u201cArchitecture: oh, they build buildings.\u201d But that isn\u2019t right either. \u201cA lot of people feel that landscape architects are landscape contractors.\u201d Also not quite right.<\/p>\n
So if they aren\u2019t gardeners or architects or contractors, then what is a landscape architect and what do they do?<\/p>\n
\u201cWe design the landscape, everything except climate-controlled structures,\u201d says Miniutti.\u201d Think green roofs, gazebos, urban farms, college and corporate campuses and outdoor shopping malls. Even the new Storrs Center Town Square was designed by LA faculty, students and alumni.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a continuum from the simplest work we do, which are people\u2019s backyards . . . to the most complex, which is management of ecosystems, millions of acres,\u201d says Miniutti.<\/p>\n
The LA program gives its students an opportunity to explore all that and more through science courses, landscape architecture seminars, design studios and a myriad of real-world landscape architecture opportunities.<\/p>\n