University of Oregon Landscape Architecture

🦆 Passionate about the built environment around you and how it can be improved? The University of Oregon School of Architecture & Environment stands out nationally for our innovation and sustainability research in the design of buildings, interiors, landscapes, and communities. Students develop a vast and diverse skillset for creation and design through collaborative, experiential learning opportunities led by faculty and industry professionals. Our #OregonDesignDucks learn to address real-world challenges with real-world solutions. #DucksGive #UOArchitecture #UOLArch #UOIArch Please consider giving to the School of Architecture & Environment or one of our programs. To give, click the link in @uoregondesign ’s bio!

Keep an eye out for our McKeown Lecture and workshop next Friday, May 8! The workshop takes place from 9am - 11am followed by a catered lunch at noon and lecture at 1pm!

Reminder! SAE Lecture this Friday April 3rd 1pm Pacific Hall 123 Throughout time people have shaped their environments according to their first-hand experiences and instinctive understandings of natural phenomena; landscape design was informed by the concept of genius loci, or “spirit of place.” Sullivan and Boults maintain that recognizing and honoring the genius loci is the first step in preserving the social and ecological integrity of place when creating spaces for human use and enjoyment. Their research presents a survey of global myths, legends and folklore that are based on a deep understanding of the genius, or spirit, of the land, and presents a new framework for their application and interpretation. #uoregondesign #uolandscapearchitecture #uoarchenv

Join the UO Landscape Architecture Department for the 2026 McKeown Lecture on May 8th in Lawrence 177 from 1-2pm. See details below!! Lecture - just practice; practicing process 1 hour just practice is a collaborative practice started by Amanda Ugorji and Sophie Weston Chien. They will be lecturing on their process and how their experiences and values shape their work as built environment professionals, educators, and textile designers. In addition to sharing their most recent pieces intersecting ideas of environmental justice, the built world, and narrative, they will be sharing how they have navigated collaboration, funding, and working sustainably. They hope for this lecture to serve as a case study for young practitioners imagining what is next. Workshop - practicing process with just practice 75 minutes In this workshop with just practice, we ask you to bring a project you feel most excited about being realized and imagine how to make it real with us. So much of what we do in school is framed as an exercise, but we are interested in thinking about how the ideas (and sometimes derivatives) can show up in your work outside of school. For roughly an hour, we will talk through embedded values, potential collaborators, design agency, and what success would look like to you. We hope to foster a broader conversation with peers. Please submit an image associated with the project and a three-sentence description in advance.

Join the UO Landscape Architecture for the 2026 Helphand Lecture on April 3rd from 1-2pm in Pacific 123. See details below!! Throughout time people have shaped their environments according to their first-hand experiences and instinctive understandings of natural phenomena; landscape design was informed by the concept of genius loci, or “spirit of place.” Sullivan and Boults maintain that recognizing and honoring the genius loci is the first step in preserving the social and ecological integrity of place when creating spaces for human use and enjoyment. Their research presents a survey of global myths, legends and folklore that are based on a deep understanding of the genius, or spirit, of the land, and presents a new framework for their application and interpretation. This is a Helphand Endowed Lecture. A light lunch reception to meet the speakers begins at noon in the Hayden Gallery. The Kenneth I. Helphand Endowed Lecture Fund at the University of Oregon Foundation was established in 2013 to give students the benefit of learning from top scholars for years to come. Professor Helphand, FASLA, is among the elite worldwide in landscape history and theory. A professor of landscape architecture for forty years, he is author of several award-winning books, was editor of Landscape Journal, is an honorary member of the Israel Association of Landscape Architects, and is former chair of the Senior Fellows in Garden and Landscape Studies at Dumbarton Oaks. He retired from full-time teaching at UO in fall 2012. Questions can be directed to [email protected]

Please join us for WITCH HAZEL PERMACULTURE on Monday, Feb 9th at 10:00am to 11:20am by PDX-based permaculture expert Julian Dominic! This event is on Zoom, join with QR code or meeting code 98638248805

Incoming Project. The World Forestry Center and the Center for the Future of Forests and Society at Oregon State University are proud to support Lookout Landscape, a new immersive art installation featuring the work of David Buckley Borden and his interdisciplinary collaborative team of scientists, artists, and designers. The Lookout Landscape installation will play with the iconic lookout tower, trail culture, and backcountry gear as a means to explore the rich (and often conflicting) relationships between forests and the people that call them home. Wildfire, and other landscape disturbances (both manmade and natural) provides a timely context for Borden’s playful, yet critical, approach to environmental storytelling. The exhibition will run from September 2026 to February 2027 and will be supported by a robust public event program with both broad appeal and nerdy, niche interests. Image: Lookout Tower No. 6 to Fire Marshal, sound installation prototype, 4 × 7 × 28 inches, 2026. Collaborators: William Bonner and David Buckley Borden

New Web Update for The Unfinished Book Bureau Project. The birth of the Unfinished Book Bureau can trace its conception to the Fall of 2022 with the publication of Borden’s Ghost Forests Exhibition Guide. This initial short-run artist catalog, created with Trustman Art Gallery curator Helen Popinchalk, organically developed into a series of “zines” documenting Borden’s collaborative work with the HJ Andrews Experimental Forest and the Fuller Initiative for Productive Landscapes at the University of Oregon. The initial zine titles were supported by a grant to Borden from the University of Oregon’s Sustainability Faculty Fellowship for Community-Engaged Learning, PNW Just Futures Institute. The DIY ethos and practice of the Unfinished Book Bureau draws inspiration from community-driven underground music and radical political “zines” of the 1990’s. As such, not-for-profit, short-run, hard copy editions of each publication are offered for sale at cost on davidbuckleyborden.com. Digital copies of most Unfinished Book Bureau titles are available free to the public; simply email a short note with requested titles to [email protected]. #landscape #art #design #ecology #landarch

The 2026 School of Architecture and Environment Career Fair takes place on Thursday, January 29th, from 11 am to 3 pm. The Career Fair is open to all students within the School of Architecture and Environment. Prepare your portfolios, and get ready to network with all of the amazing representatives from firms across the industry. #uo #uoarchenv #uoarchitecture #uointeriorarchitecture #uolandscapearchitecture #uohistoricpreservation

New Land Arch Course. Design-Build for Landscape Engagement. LA 4/550 Winter 2026 This advanced media class will address the timely-demand for “in situ community engagement” through the practice of design-build interventions at a public site. The maker-based workshop format will explore this premise in the context of the MacDonald Research Forest in Corvallis, OR. Students will learn practical approaches to community outreach by collaboratively fabricating a modest installation. This time-intensive hands-ons course will guide students through a self-developed project by way of a hybrid media workflow that engages both digital and analog design-build tools. Motivated students can expect to have a built project and the opportunity to test it with an engaged community. All SAE majors, grad and undergrads are welcome. Course meets in Lawrence Hall fab shop on Thursdays from 1 to 3:50pm. #landarch #workshop #designbuild #community #landsacape #landscapearchitect The full course brief can be found here: https://archenvstudents.uoregon.edu/landscape-architecture/courses/ Images: Exchange Tree, collab with Aaron Ellison et al., @harvard.forest 2017.

DEI Speaker Series 2025: Axcelle Campana Wednesday, 11/19, 12pm in LA206 Come hear Axcelle Campana, Environmental Justice Practitioner, share about his career and work with Knot Studio in Portland. Pizza will be provided!

In the face of biodiversity collapse and climate change, the American Midwest’s agricultural landscapes—marked by monocropping, concentrated animal feeding operations, and ecological degradation—hold untapped potential for transformation. This project explores the intersection of dietary change, ecological rewilding and land justice as mechanisms for reimagining the region’s agricultural and ecological futures. “Feral Farms” charts this pathway through a cartographic cookbook that reimagines the act of eating as a cultural, ecological, and political intervention. Drawing from the stories and practices of Indigenous farmers, foragers, and hunters, the project weaves together case studies that demonstrate how rewilding agriculture is already happening. These stories are coupled with actionable recipes that empower individuals to embrace dietary choices that foster biodiversity, sequester carbon, and support Indigenous-led stewardship of the land. . . . . . #universityoforegon #forbeslipschitz #uoarchitecture #uoartdesign #uolandarch #uospeaker