Chair’s Message

South Florida boasts one of the more culturally and ecologically diverse destinations in the world. Its subtropical climate attracts and supports life of all kinds, from the colorful coral ecosystems of Biscayne Bay to the subtle grandeur of the Everglades’ river of grass that spills into it. Miami’s diversity and reputation as a global metropolis is an ideal laboratory for exploring the ecological, cultural, and social dimensions of landscape architecture and urban design.  FIU’s Department of Landscape Architecture + Environmental and Urban Design calls this place home.

As a premier design program operating in one of the most populated, most diverse, and most vulnerable regions of the world, we educate aspiring landscape architecture professionals who are committed to a better understanding of the built and natural world and to its meaningful, equitable, and sustainable transformation. In our role as creative problem-solvers, we are an empowering force for positive change. As a discipline that impacts social, environmental, physical, and economic realities, we challenge ourselves to become more diverse, inclusive, equitable, and engaged with the communities we serve. The Covid 19 pandemic and the social inequities brought on by systemic racism and bias that manifest themselves in our built and shared public space mean that landscape architecture has never been more important.

As a STEM discipline recognized by the Florida Board of Governors, FIU LAEUD focuses on design and draws from art, science, and technology via a rigorous design studio sequence and curriculum. Students explore environmental, ecological and urban issues, and propose innovative solutions in the design of public spaces, infrastructure, urban planning, industrial reclamation, ecotourism, environmental mitigation, and many other areas at the center of the relationship between human beings and their surroundings.  Our strategic location within an interdisciplinary School of Architecture, allows us to cultivate creativity, promote collaboration, refine critical thinking skills, and foster an ethos of social engagement.

FIU LAEUD is the only landscape architecture program in the country that focuses on the design, planning, and management of tropical and subtropical regions, where over 3 billion people currently live and where double as many are expected to live by 2100. We are at the center of many of the complex social and ecological design challenges of the 21^st century.  The award-winning, locally and globally-engaged research and design of our faculty reflects FIU’s mission as a public urban research university with strategic commitments to student learning success, research and innovation, and responsible stewardship.

Our fully-accredited Master of Landscape Architecture degree includes two tracks that allow students to enter as Freshmen, or with an Associates degree, a non-professional undergraduate degree, or a professional Bachelors degree in a design field. Our Master of Arts in Urban Design is a post-professional degree for design professionals who seek to expand their expertise.

Students in our department have access to extraordinary facilities, including the design studios at our home in the Paul L. Cejas School of Architecture Building, our interdisciplinary educational sites in Miami Beach and Wynwood, our digital Fabrication Lab, our 3D printing Innovation Lab, our Robotics Lab, and our immersive virtual reality studio. Our students collaborate with their peers in the School of Architecture, and across the College of Communication, Architecture + The Arts. Many take advantage of our study abroad opportunities in Latin America, Asia, and Europe, and most students undertake internships or work professionally during their studies.

Landscape architecture and urban design at FIU offer exceptional professional and academic opportunities for students who want to make the world better through creative design and environmental stewardship.

Roberto Rovira, RLA, ASLA
Chair and Professor