| Fall 2009 Graduate Courses |
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LD ARCH 201 (5) Two hours of lecture and six hours of studio per week. Prerequisites: LD ARCH 110, 134A, 134B, or consent of instructor. Through lectures, studio problems, research projects, and discussion, this course will explore the challenge and potential incorporating ecological factors in urban contexts. The course focuses on the interaction of landscape science (hydrology, geology, etc.) with the necessities and mechanisms of the human environment (urban design, transportation, economics, etc.). Lectures and research projects will particularly emphasize innovative and forward thinking solutions to the ecological problems of the human environment. Throughout the semester, reading and discussion sessions will highlight the connections between the broader concerns of the global ecological crisis and landscape design and planning. Extended Course Description Through lectures, field trips, and studio projects, this course explores the incorporation of an understanding of ecological factors in landscape design and planning. Lectures will emphasize the importance of understanding basic ecological principles as a basis for design and planning. Students will incorporate ecological knowledge into planning at the regional scale as well as at the site design scale in studio projects. LD ARCH 203 SEC 2 (5) Three hours of lecture and six hours of studio per week. Prerequisites: 201, or consent of instructor. A site design studio stressing the shaping and coordination of ideas from initial concept to the thoughtful execution of design ideas at the site scale. Typical projects will focus on the experiential rather than the pictorial. Projects might include a park, plaza, or rehabilitation of a brownfield site. Extended Course Description This studio has two primary goals. The first goal is that you approach your work conceptually. Instead of being asked to solve multiple problems or address specific program requirements, students will be asked to design landscapes that embody ideas. By utilizing the basics of good design, students will be encouraged to realize ideas through minimal moves. Students will be encouraged to think about composition more in the terms of being experiential, rather than pictorial. Students will be encouraged to experiment and to make landscape that distinguish place. The second goal is to pursue the thoughtful execution of your ideas – taking concepts beyond collage and sketch models to discover a design’s true physicality. Models and drawings, full scale if need be, will be created to explore materials, form, scale, proportion and tectonics. The first quarter of the semester will be dedicated to conceptual exercises with the remaining semester dedicated to a site-specific design, establishing an overall schematic design direction and then taking a portion of such into design development. The majority of studio/teaching time will be dedicated to individual desk critiques and group pin-ups. LD ARCH 221 (3) One and one-half hours of lecture and three hours of laboratory per week. Discussion and critique of the application of quantitative methods to environmental assessment, analysis, and evaluation in environmental planning. Topics to include geographical information systems and data bases, remote sensing, and multivariate analysis. This course emphasizes computer applications and data analysis. Extended Course Description This course advances a student's knowledge in the use of Geographical Information Systems (GIS) within an Environmental Planning context. The course is designed to give the student the skills necessary to undertake spatial problem solving, spatial analysis and model building. A GIS allows a user to store and retrieve information through the selection of its spatial or non-spatial characteristics. With this ability, quantitative analysis and modeling can be undertaken on a data base with the results of spatial queries displayed visually in a map form. This course will examine various methods employed in seeking answers to spatial problems. The lecture will be structured as a seminar in which the instructor, students and possibly outside visitors will discuss theory, methodology and application of GIS to environmental analysis, landscape modeling and characterization. The laboratory will provide a practical introduction to some tools for design, construction and implementing such systems. Prerequisites Data discovery and design of Environmental GIS Data base construction and integration of Ancillary data for Environmental Modeling Modeling and Spatial Analytical and the Environment Course Format Evaluation Laboratory assignments - 25% Laboratory assignments Purpose Procedure Group Project/Assignment Purpose Procedure Product 1) a clear and formal definition of your client's problem, Each team will be expected to submit a hard copy of all of the above (the database itself to be backed up in an export format on computer tape or CD-ROM). These will not be returned. The best map products will be displayed at the annual Arc/Info user conference in San Diego in July. Course Restrictions Reference Material Course Benefits The GIS Laboratory Facility – 212 WURSTER HALL LD ARCH 228 (1) Two hours of seminar bi-weekly. Prerequisites: Open to all graduate students interested in the field. Course may be repeated for credit. Grading option: Must be taken on a satisfactory/unsatisfactory basis. This course consists of (1) presentation by students of proposals, progress reports, and final results of their independent research projects, and (2) reviews of recently published research papers in the field. Students review recent issues of specific journals for all papers relevant to environmental river planning, management and restoration, and report on the papers to the seminar, broadly reviewing all the relevant papers and going into depth on one. Emphasis is on research methods and new findings. Oral presentation skills are also critiqued. Requirement: one or two oral presentations, accompanied by a 2-page handout. Extended Course Description Adaptive management is increasingly advocated to move forward with ecosystem restoration where uncertainty is high yet there is also a perceived need for action. Rather than delay action until uncertainty is resolved, adaptive management moves forward with pilot projects, which inform future actions by their experimental framework to maximize learning. By virtue of its size and expertise, the US Army Corps of Engineers has emerged as a major planner, designer and implementer of ecosystem restoration projects in the nation’s rivers and wetlands. While the Corps has substantial relevant expertise, experience in implementing projects, and a nation-wide presence, the organization has traditionally built other kinds of projects, mostly traditional “hard engineering” projects, which it turned over to local sponsors to maintain upon completion of construction. By virtue of the biological systems to be established, ecosystem restoration projects involve higher uncertainty in outcomes. These projects cannot be implemented as rigidly as traditional construction projects, but must be managed adaptively over a longer period. However, adopting an adaptive management approach poses challenges to the Corps, especially since most Corps funding is tied to specific projects, with Corps involvement ending after construction. LD ARCH C231 (3) Three hours of lecture per week. This course will examine emerging trends in environmental planning and policy and the basic regulatory framework for environmental planning encountered in the U.S. We will also relate the institutional and policy framework of California and the United States to other nations and emerging international institutions. The emphasis of the course will be on regulating "residuals" as they affect three media: air, water, and land. Also listed as City and Regional Planning C251. Extended Course Description This course will introduce students in the concepts, methods and processes for identifying, analyzing, and designing processes and policies to address urban environmental issues. The course will review specific tools for making and analyzing public policy and regulating specific pollutants, natural areas human exposures typical to urban areas. Students will grapple with political questions of urban environmental governance, such as the appropriate sources of science and environmental knowledge, the scale at which to protect urban ecosystems and prevent pathogenic environmental exposures, the role of social movements, and the place of urban environmental policy making in the broader spectrum of American and global environmental politics. This course is designed for students with an interest in professional careers in environmental planning and management, regulation and activism. We focus on how environmental policies and regulations are designed, implemented, and evaluated using case studies of environmental policies and regulatory decisions. Case studies will engage students in hands-on assessments of and decision making processes and include such environmental issues as urban air and water quality, toxic chemicals, food access, sanitation and solid waste management, energy efficiency, and the connections between land use decisions and environmental health. Some specific concepts and tools of policy and regulation that the course will review include risk analysis, environmental impact assessment, the precautionary principle, environmental justice and life-cycle analysis. At the conclusion of the course, students will:
Assignments & Grading: (for additional assignment details see handout and bspace) 1) In class and out-of-class exercises: 15% LD ARCH C237 (3) Three hours of lecture per week. Prerequisites: C231/Landscape Architecture C251. Credit option: Students will receive no credit for C237 after taking Landscape Architecture 237. A review of the techniques used in environmental planning, and evaluation of alternate means of implementation in varying environmental and political circumstances. The class will examine and critique a number of well-known environmental planning programs and plans. Lectures and discussion will address recurrent planning problems, such as the limitations of available data, legal and political constraints on plans, conflicts among specialists. Also listed as City and Regional Planning C257. Extended Course Description Environmental planning at the regional, sub-regional and site levels. Many of today’s approaches and tools still work, others may be of limited value in our changing culture and economy. Raw-land development should be giving way to the need for mop-up planning, creative policy, re-engineering and design. Some history of the field will be explored with limited reference to 40 years of planning at Lake Tahoe. New challenges will be explored using the current crisis in the Sacramento/San Joaquin Delta, where the environment, resources, infrastructure and towns face sea-level rise and seismic risk. Each student will tackle a problem of their choice (not necessarily in the Tahoe Basin or the Delta), create a conceptual model of the environmental system & fix, characterize the political/administrative context, identify a key decision point and build a planning strategy. We’ll look at common tools such as master plans (and why they seldom work), policy plans (are there any teeth?), EIRs (too little, too late?), constraint mapping, and risk assessment. Some attention will be given to the use of GIS, graphics, and other tools for plan making, analysis and communication. Sample of readings and links. (A reader will be at Copy Central) Technical:
For discussion of context:
LD ARCH C241 (4) Formerly Interdepartmental Studies 241. Three hours of lecture/seminar and two hours of laboratory per week. The components, structure, and meaning of the urban environment. Environmental problems, attitudes, and criteria. Environmental survey, analysis, and interview techniques. Methods of addressing environmental quality. Environmental simulation. Also listed as City and Regional Planning C241. Extended Course Description Summary of LD ARCH C241 Student Research Projects [pdf] Intent The course is about research methods that designers and planning professionals use to analyze and evaluate urban places, be they buildings, transportation routes, or open spaces. The urban environment will be viewed primarily as a social and psychological environment. Evaluation will therefore always be tied to a social and psychological environment. We shall be concerned with who environments are for, who uses them, and the conflicts that can arise between user groups. We are concerned, as well, with measuring and testing various urban environments in relation to peoples' values and with social interaction as a determinant or response to physical design. Environmental design and planning is inevitably a form of micro·politics. Evaluation will be seen as a basis for citizen involvement and environmental improvements rather than ends in themselves. Subject Matter The principal topics to be covered will be:
Teaching Method The basic teaching method will be lectures by the instructor and by visitors, group discussions, and case studies carried out by groups of students under supervision of the instructor. The main workload of the students will be to carry out their own case studies. Students are encouraged to work in small groups. Each student will become an expert in one environment or project by the end of the semester by carrying through a pilot environmental evaluation. There will be suggestions for case studies, and students must make their own choice during the first week of class. Abstracts of previous work in the course are on the course website. Readings This is a field in which there is no single text. There are several books that cover parts of the subject. A short list of readings will accompany each lecture for further reference, and a bibliography will be available. Details later. Participation The course is directed especially at city planners, landscape architects, architects, and transportation planners. Landscape and city planning students will have priority if the class gets too large. Grading Work on case studies as a group — 60% LD ARCH C242 (3) Three hours of lecture/seminar per week. Formerly Interdepartmental Studies 223. Credit option: Students will not receive credit for C242 after taking City and Regional Planning 208, Interdepartmental Studies 206 Fall 1990, and Interdepartmental Studies 206 Fall 1991. An examination of the roles of the citizens and citizen organizations in the city planning process. Models for citizen involvement ranging from advising to community control. Examination of the effectiveness of different organizational models in different situations. Also listed as City and Regional Planning C261. Extended Course Description Open to all disciplines Objectives:
Class Meetings: Tuesday 6:00 - 9:00, Room 315 A Wurster. Students and instructors will organize to supply dinner weekly. Requirements:
LD ARCH 251 (2) Two hours of seminar per week. The focus will be on debate and discussion of central ideas in landscape architecture and environmental planning, drawing on primary literature over many decades of thought. This is not a history course, but it will include some literature that goes back to the early years of the field. This course covers the breadth of thinking in the field, including both environmental planning and landscape design as well as other sub disciplines. Each week students will lead a debate on a different theoretical issue. Extended Course Description This reading seminar explores the major ideas, precepts, and thinkers of landscape architecture and environmental planning. The purpose of the course is to develop theoretical literacy in the field through the critical reading of primary literature. Course Requirements 1. Complete assigned readings and write a brief reaction essay each week in printable computer file available for review by the instructor. 2. Class attendance and active participation in discussions. 3. Each student will lead class discussion several times during the semester in a group of three or four. Discussion leaders should know the background and importance of the work and authors (i.e. why are we reading this) and prepare: 1) a 2-3 page (no more) critical analysis (not summary) of the reading; 2) a prepared set of questions, exercises, activities to generate discussion—the group is responsible for insuring lively, substantive debate. Hard copies of the critical analysis and questions, etc. should be ready for distribution to seminar participants and the instructor. (If you get hard copies turned in by Monday I'll get them Xeroxed, otherwise you're on your own.) 4. A final exercise. Text Recommended Text LD ARCH 252B (2) Two hours of session per week. Prerequisites: LD ARCH 252A. Students learn research methods including social factors, historical/archival, design exploration, master planning, theoretical, and scientific field work. Students develop a conceptual framework, survey instrument, literature review, and detailed work plan. A full committee and funding proposal due on the last day of class. Extended Course Description The purpose of this course is to keep students on track with their thesis or professional project by setting deadlines and offering technical assistance. Primary activities include a presentation to faculty and students during the first month of school and tutorials on writing. In order to complete a thesis/PR by May, a detailed outline is due in Week 5, and the first full draft is due in Week 16, with drafts of chapters along the way. Requirements Week 3 Week 5 Weeks 7, 9, 11, 13 Week 16 LD ARCH 253 (1) One and one-half hours of lecture per week. Credit option: Course may be repeated for credit. Grading option: Must be taken on a satisfactory/unsatisfactory basis. Invited lectures on current research, planning practice, and design projects. Out of approximately 14 presentations per term, typically two or three would be by department faculty, two or three by graduating students, the remainder by outside speakers. Extended Course Description To come. LD ARCH 255 (1) Prerequisites: Doctoral student of consent of instructor. Course may be repeated for credit. Must be taken on a satisfactory/unsatisfactory basis. Designed to be a forum for presentation of doctoral student research, discussions with faculty researchers and environmental planning practitioners, and examination of topical issues in environmental planning. Topics will be announced at the beginning of each semester. Extended Course Description This course will be a forum for discussion of urban design and environmental planning theory and methods, as well as research topics of mutual interest to members of the class. Students will discuss the their own research areas and ideas for dissertation topics. The agenda will be established with the input of students. Meetings of about 2 hours will be held alternate weeks. The course is open to doctoral students in the Department of Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning and the Department of City and Regional Planning. LD ARCH 258 (1) Two hours of seminar every other week. Course may be repeated for credit. Must be taken on a satisfactory/unsatisfactory basis. This seminar studies California water issues from an interdisciplinary perspective, building upon the established California Colloquium on Water, to increase understanding and appreciation of water resources and contribute to informed decision-making about water in California. Each semester four distinguished scholars in the fields of humanities, natural sciences, engineering, social sciences, law, and environmental design present lectures to students, faculty, and the general public. Students in the seminar attend the colloquium lectures, complete background readings, and meet for two hours on alternate weeks in the seminar session to discuss issues raised by the colloquium presentations and related readings. Course requirements: attendance at colloquia, attendance and participation in seminars, completion of course readings, brief written critiques of lectures, and a short presentation of literature relevant to colloquium topics. Extended Course Description This seminar studies California water issues from an interdisciplinary perspective, building upon the established California Colloquium on Water, to increase understanding and appreciation of water resources and contribute to informed decision-making about water in California. Each semester, four distinguished scholars in the fields of humanities, natural sciences, engineering, social sciences, law, and environmental design present lectures to students, faculty and the general public. Students in the seminar attend the Colloquium lectures, complete background readings, and meet for two hours on alternate weeks in seminar session to discuss issues raised by the Colloquium presentations and related readings. The course meets twice per month on Tuesday evenings. First class meeting: Tuesday, September 2, at 5pm in room 315D Wurster Hall. Course Requirements
LD ARCH 295 (2) Hours to be arranged. Prerequisites: Graduate standing and appointment as research assistant. Any combination of 295 or 297 may be taken for a total of six units maximum toward the M.L.A. degree. Must be taken on a satisfactory/unsatisfactory basis. Supervised experience on a research project in landscape architecture and/or environmental planning. Regular meetings with faculty sponsor required. See departmental sheet for other limitations. LD ARCH 296 (1–12) Hours to be arranged. Three hours per unit. Prerequisites: Advancement to Ph.D. candidacy. Course may be repeated for credit. Must be taken on a satisfactory/unsatisfactory basis. Open to qualified students who have been advanced to candidacy for the Ph.D. degree and are directly engaged upon the doctoral dissertation. LD ARCH 297 (2–3) Hours to be arranged. Prerequisites: Graduate standing and consent of instructor and sponsor. Any combination of 295 or 297 may be taken for a total of six units maximum toward the M.L.A. degree. Must be taken on a satisfactory/unsatisfactory basis. Supervised experience relative to specific aspects of practice in landscape architecture and/or environmental planning. Regular meetings with faculty and outside sponsor as well as final report required. See departmental information sheet for other limitations. LD ARCH 298 (1–4) Hours to be arranged. Course may be repeated for credit. Special group studies. Topics to be announced at the beginning of each semester. LD ARCH 299 (1–6) Course may be repeated for credit. Hours to be arranged. Prerequisites: Graduate standing and consent of instructor. Research work conducted preparatory to completion of the thesis or professional project as well as other approved research. A maximum of six units will be counted toward the M.L.A degree. The six units allows for four units maximum for thesis or professional project research, and two units maximum for other approved research. See departmental information sheet for other limitations. LD ARCH 300 (2) Hours to be arranged. Graduate standing and appointment as a Teaching Assistant. Course may be repeated for credit. Must be taken on a satisfactory/unsatisfactory basis. Supervised teaching experience in undergraduate courses. Regular meetings with faculty sponsor. See departmental sheet for other limitations. LD ARCH 601 (1–8) Course does not satisfy unit or residence requirements for master's degree. Hours to be arranged. Must be taken on a satisfactory/unsatisfactory basis. Prerequisites: Last semester of residence in M.L.A. program. Individual study for final degree requirements in consultation with adviser. LD ARCH 602 (1–8) Course may be repeated for credit. Course does not satisfy unit or residence requirements for doctoral degree. Hours to be arranged. Must be taken on a satisfactory/unsatisfactory basis. Prerequisites: For candidates for doctor's degree. Individual study in consultation with the major field adviser, intended to provide an opportunity for qualified students to prepare themselves for the various examinations required of candidates for the Ph.D. |