Courses

All courses carry 3 credits unless otherwise specified.

Landscape Architecture

501 Studio I—Landscape Space, Design, and Meaning
An exploration of the modes of space: two-dimensional surfaces, three-dimensional objects, spatial enclosure, and the open continuous landscape.  Emphasis on the media of landform, water, plants, and structures as the defining agents of human space in the garden and the landscape.

503 Studio II­—Reading and Revealing the Site
Introduces students to reading and responding to the site.  Goals include learning to experience and record the landscape, to design in response to the site, to think creatively, to generate design ideas and understand design as a process, to gain knowledge of design precedents and principles, and to learn tools and techniques of visual expression.

543 History and Theory I
A survey of the evolution of structures, settlements, and landscapes in the western world from the origins of human societies to the close of the Medieval period. Credit, 4.

544 History and Theory II
Completes the survey begun in LandArch 543. Covers the Renaissance to the present.

547 Landscape Pattern and Process
Landscape patterns resulting from interactions of biotic, abiotic, and cultural resources and processes over time. Understanding these dynamics as a basis for planning and design interventions.

554 Studio III—Spaces and Places in Context
Application of spatial theory and design process to a specific site context. Develops map reading skills at various scales, strengthens drawing, lettering, and cross-section representation skills. Emphasis on landform design in a public park setting.

556 Studio IV—Landscape Planning
Introduction to landscape analysis, assessment, and planning with focus on ecological, cultural, and visual landscape issues. Landscape planning from regional to watershed to local levels. Emphasis on sustainability principles and inventory skills, map reading, data organization, interpretation, and assessment.

587 People and the Environment
Interdisciplinary seminar on the applications of environmental psychology research to planning and design.  Topics include landscape preference, territoriality and defensible space, way finding, and restorative settings/therapeutic gardens.

591F Green Urbanism
Interdisciplinary examination of current theories of urbanism focused on landscapes and sustainability. Includes review of international case studies at multiple scales.

596 Independent Study
Independent course or seminar work under direction of instructor.

597 Special Topics
Offered periodically as needs and conditions permit.

597A Computers in Landscape Architecture
Introduces students to digital tools and techniques being used in the profession: CAD, 3D modeling, image editing, animation, web design. Provides a clear framework for understanding digital data that is critical to future design practice.

597O Design Drawing
Introduces students to fundamental graphic communication skills used by landscape architects to conceive, develop, and present their design ideas.

601 Studio V—The Garden
The garden as the most personal, direct, and intimate expression of landscape architecture, as a contemporary art primarily through discussions of important works and design theory in the genre.  Emphasis on developing an informed and creative personal approach which inspires while solving practical problems on real sites.

603 Studio VI—Site Planning
Introduces design process and understanding a site's context, the cultural and legal framework, and the natural site features in order to assess development potential and prepare appropriate design proposals for housing represented using digital technologies.

604 Studio VII—Urban Design
Application of urban design theories as they apply to various scales of urban design, with special attention focused on civic scale design elements and organization of spatial and functional requirements.

606 Studio VIII—Cultural Landscapes
Introduces students to the process of research, planning, design, and management of historically and culturally significant landscapes through selected real-world site projects.

607 Studio IX—Landscape Planning
Emphasis on advanced methods of preparing landscape suitability assessments, program development, and planning and design solutions with the aim of optimizing suitabilities and needs within open-space and greenway settings.

609 Studio X—Interdisciplinary Community Design
The focus of this studio is sustainable community design and is taught as an interdisciplinary studio with the graduate architecture program.  The goal is for students to develop designs that embrace a community's location and culture, support local and regional environmental health, and create compelling places for the people who use them.  Students will integrate site infrastructure into their designs so that the community functions like a living organism - harvesting energy from the sun, sequestering carbon, making oxygen, creating habitats, building soil, distilling water and creating beneficial micro-climates.

613 Construction I: Site Engineering
Site engineering problems related to general design including construction processes, alignment geometry, grading, drainage systems, earthwork, and detailing. Emphasis on construction document preparation.

614 Construction II: Site Structures
Design of site structures and required details focusing on stability, durability, and environmental compatibility. Emphasis on statics and strength of materials of site structures. Includes sizing of water retention and detention structures.

651 Professional Practice
Models of professional office structure, including management, organization, and economics for private, public, and academic practice. Covers ethics, compensation, contracts, specifications, and business plan preparation.

691 Advanced Computer Applications in Landscape Architecture
Current developments in micro-computer hardware and software. Focus on future site design methods: the collection and analysis of site data, illustration of design alternatives, and calculation of engineering requirements.

691F Research Issues in Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning
Survey of research issues and methods in landscape architecture and planning. Designed to assist students preparing their research for master’s thesis and projects.

696 Independent Study

698A-Z Master’s Project
Allows a student to work on an actual or demonstration project to explore aspects of landscape planning, design or processes related to landscape architecture. Credit, 6.

699 Thesis
Preparation of a research thesis in an emerging or state-of-the-art area of landscape architecture. Credit, 8.

Regional Planning

553 Resource Policy and Planning
Examination of natural resource policy formation and the planning process at the local, state, and regional levels; the role of government, the bureaucracy, and citizens’ interests in policy formation; the interplay among forces of economics, technology, ecology, and design in the determination of policy goals and planning horizons.

574 Introduction to City Planning
The contexts within which design, development, decision making, and deliberation of community plans take place. Topics include land-use regulation; environmental management; infrastructure, housing, and social services; current challenges; future trends and opportunities.

577 Urban Policies
Social, cultural, political, and economic analyses of urban policies and practices. Various disciplinary approaches used for critiquing and developing appropriate policies, including urban planning, anthropology, geography, political science, media studies, sociology, and economics. Includes service learning component.

580 Sustainable Cities
Core principles and practices of sustainability, addressing a variety of questions: appropriate spatial and temporal scale of planning and design; the role of 'high' and 'low', 'hard' and 'soft' science/technology paths for sustainable development; expertise and equity; individual vs. collective responsibilities.

582 Landscape and Green Urbanism
Interdisciplinary examination of current theories of urbanism focused on landscapes and sustainability. Includes review of international case studies at multiple scales.

587 People and the Environment
Environmental psychology is an interdisciplinary field, which studies the relationship between the physical environment and human behavior.  The premise is that people's behavior (e.g., well-being, emotions, productivity, and even personal relationships) is affected by the physical environments where they live, work, and play.  This graduate seminar is designed to introduce environment-behavior research to landscape architecture and regional planning students.

591D The Once & Future Mill Town
This course will examine the evolution of New England Mill Towns through a cultural lens as they transform themselves over time.  These communities, long so important to the region, have been the recipients of both great praise and condemnation.  Regardless, they have played a significant role in where and how we live.  It will be taught in a lecture/discussion format.

610 Planning History and Theory
Planning as a decision-making process, the attributes of the political and administrative environment within which planning takes place, and the implications of this environment for the planning process and the planner.

615 Judicial Planning Law
The law of land-use control as expressed in major judicial decisions in the U.S. Constitution, expansion and powers of municipal corporations; use of legal planning tools such as zoning, abatement of nuisance, eminent domain, etc.

620 Quantitative Methods in Planning
Application of quantitative methods used by regional and urban planners. Problem definition and data sources, data collection and analysis using descriptive and inferential statistics, and spreadsheet and database planning software. Data presentation techniques. STATISTC 501 or equivalent recommended.

625 Introduction to Geographic Information Systems in Planning
The design and use of computerized geographic information systems for land planning and design decisions.  Examination of the role of G.I.S. in the planning function and process.  Information and its role in defining planning problems and shaping public discussion.

630 The Practice of Public Participation
This course will introduce students to public participation at the practice level in planning.  Lectures and class discussions will review current theory underpinning participation practice, and will critically evaluate the wide range of participation methods currently in use in planning practice.  There will also be one or more exercises in participation implementation that occur outside standard class times.

635 Research Methods in Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning
Survey of research issues and methods in landscape architecture and planning.  This course is designed to assist students preparing their research on their Master's theses and Master's projects. 

640 Regional Planning Studio
This course integrates skills and knowledge from other core courses taken during the first program year and applies them to representative planning problems.  Students gain experience in the practice of master planning and the complexities of analysis and recommendation for social, physical, environmental, economic, and organizational aspects of program planning, development, and implementation. Credit, 6.

650 Introduction to Land Use Planning
The role of policy in guiding land use. Examination of smart-growth principles and practices. Regional land use design and state-level policy as well as international comparisons included.

655 Tools and Techniques in Planning
Practical information, specific tools, regulatory processes, and analytic methods useful in the practice of public sector planning at the local level.

658 Planning for Climate Change
This research seminar focuses on the practice and policy of developing disaster-resilient and low-emissions cities and uban areas.

660 Planning for/with Multiple Publics
Exploration of the social, cultural and political implications of planning practice and theory.  The class focuses both on how to plan and critique plans and policies implemented in different types of communities, domestic and international, and the relation of planning and policy to social change.  A central concern is gaining analytical and pragmatic skills necessary to do effective participatory planning regardless of whether people share your background or ideology.

665 Housing and Public Health
The primary goal of this seminar is to explore and understand ways in which the home environment, broadly defined, is implicit in individual and community mental, emotional and physical health.  In so doing, you will come to understand subtle, but profound, individual and group impediments and assets for local development, as well as new ways to understand and implement policies and plans that truly respect both local assets and systemic obstacles that are often mistakenly treated as individual shortcomings.

668 Planning with Minority Communities: The Gullah of South Carolina
This class will investigate the issues of minority community planning and public participation through lectures and discussions in class, followed by an on-site case study and community participation process.  During the in-class lectures and discussions, we will investigate the history of the community and the complex spatial patterns that they have created on the land, patterns which support their communities and way of life.  We will also study the theory of public participation, particularly as it affects rural and minority communities.

670 Economic Development Issues in Planning
The contemporary theory and practice of economic development in the U.S. Provides the requisite background to undertake a critical evaluation of economic development strategies. The contemporary practice, history, and politics of economic development; prevailing theories of regional development; and specific state and local development strategies.

673 Spatial Analysis and Regional Development
The goal of this course is to deepen each students understanding of the contemporary forces that affect regional economies and how practice has responded to these challenges.  This course integrates classroom discussion, hands-on applications of analytical techniques, and 'field-work' involving interviews with business leaders, industry association representatives, and local development professionals.  Each semester focuses on a different industry of interest to policymakers in the Pioneer Valley, such as clean energy, life sciences and biotechnology, or precision manufacturing.  As a final product the class will collectively produce a professional report summarizing the current and future economic health of the cluster within the Pioneer Valley. 

691M Seminar in Industrial Development Planning
The impact of industrial development upon communities. Topics range from brownfield revitalization to industrial park development, cluster development, workforce development, and the industrial land crisis.

692E Interpreting Qualitative Research
Actively engage in systematically learning and working through the analysis, interpretation and writing of qualitative data, regardless of data gathering mode (ethnographic, interview, archival, texts, secondary sources, policy, legal texts, visual, etc.).  Can work with data you've collected or with data more generally related to your area of research interest.  Focus is on inductive, interpretive approaches; theory and practice.

696 Independent Study
Credit, 1-6

697 Planning Practicum
Credit, 1-6

698 Master’s Projects
Credit, 1-6

699 Master’s Thesis  
Credit, 9

890 PhD Workshop
An opportunity for Regional Planning doctoral students to present work in progress, discuss program and academic issues, share ideas, and interact with faculty.  May be taken for credit only once, although attendance is encouraged throughout the student's matriculation.  Admission for non-Regional Planning doctoral students by consent of instructor.   Credit, 1

891 Seminar in Advanced Planning Theory
Examination of foundational and emerging texts in planning and social theory as well as topics currently under debate among planning theory scholars. Advanced regional planning master’s students may request admission from instructor, as may doctoral students from related fields. Prerequisite: REGIONPL 651 or consent of instructor.

899 Doctoral Dissertation
Credit, 18