Faculty and students engage in research and community outreach in a variety of ways. Individual faculty members are engaged in focused research that supports the department’s commitment to sustainability, resilient communities and an appreciation for cultural landscapes. View our faculty profiles for information about specific research projects.

Faculty sponsored projects support graduate students, who have a chance to develop their own research papers and presentations as part of their Master’s Project work. View our portfolio page for information about specific research projects.

Outreach projects include service-learning studio projects as well as independent outreach work within the communities of Idaho and the surrounding region. In the past few years, U of I Landscape Architecture students and faculty have worked with the National Park Service and local ASLA chapter members, as well as other local professionals, to provide technical assistance to several communities in Idaho and in the Spokane-Coeur d’Alene metropolitan area. We also engage in events with local schools and grass roots organizations to promote healthier, more sustainable and more livable communities. 

The outreach nature of landscape architecture design studios provides students the opportunity to engage in projects that involve local and regional community groups and non-profit organizations. Since 2018, studio service-learning projects include work completed for COMPASS Community Planning Association of Southwest Idaho (2023), the PCEI Nature Center in Moscow, ID Palouse-Clearwater Environmental Institute (2021), the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes in Pocatello (2021), the City of McCall, ID (2019), the Okanogan Council of Governments/Regional Transportation Planning Organization (2019), and the City of Moscow (2017). View our landscape architecture portfolio for information about recent service-learning studio projects. 

The Landscape Architecture Program is affiliated with Center for Resilient Communities (CRC), an interdisciplinary research institute that works on a range of socioecological research projects involving rural and urban communities in Idaho and elsewhere. Landscape architecture students have the opportunity to collaborate with the CRC in several ways. The center was established in 2014 to address the social, economic and environmental issues that affect the resilience of communities in Idaho and the Western United States through the co-production of knowledge based on collaborative interdisciplinary research, and the development and application of social-ecological systems science. 

Learn more about CRC