Associate of Arts - Landscape Horticulture - Landscape Architecture

Merritt College's Landscape Architecture Associate in Arts degree program provides students with the basic foundation and skills to pursue a career or further education in Landscape Architecture.

Course topics include design process and principles, site analysis, site planning, planting design, construction, topographic form, graphic representation, computer assisted design, and professional practice. Students with this degree will fulfill three objectives: Meet the minimum educational requirement to take the California Landscape Architects Registration Exam (LARE); obtain basic skills necessary to start work in a professional landscape design or design-build office; and get basic preparation towards transferring to a four-year or graduate program in landscape architecture.

Students who complete the degree will be able to: • Design landscapes that provide basic human comfort and livability. • Design landscapes that respond to and support regional ecology. • Design landscapes that meet client functional and financial objectives. • Design landscapes based on foundational principles of composition. • Communicate landscape design and building concepts to clients, contractors, and public agencies through written reports, drawings, graphic images, and oral presentations. • Operate a successful landscape design practice based on sound legal, ethical, and business practices. • Apply for entry to a BA, BLA, or MLA university program in landscape architecture, with a firm grounding in the concepts and techniques required for further study.

Career Opportunities The major criteria for professional success is a state-issued license, and an AA degree in landscape architecture provides the minimum educational requirement (in addition to a 5 year internship) to sit for the licensing exam, an exam that allows students to practice legally. The course work would also prepare a student for an entry level job in a landscape architecture office, enabling them to fulfill the internship requirement for licensing.