Evaluating and Advancing Landscape Architecture Education

December 9, 2025
The Sketch NOLA ’25 Student Sketch Walk at the ASLA Conference on Landscape Architecture / image: Lydia Thompson, Assoc. ASLA 

The Landscape Architectural Accreditation Board (LAAB) has a mission to “evaluate, advance, and advocate for the quality of professional landscape architecture education” (LAAB Accreditation Procedures, 2024). In accordance with its official procedures, LAAB is committed to regularly reviewing and updating its accreditation standards in response to evolving societal needs and challenges.

Every five years, LAAB conducts long-term reviews to determine if the current standards, when viewed as a whole and individually, are adequate to assess the quality of landscape architecture education programs and pertinent to the education and training needs of students. LAAB last approved revisions to the standards in 2021 and minor updates in 2024 as part of its periodic review.

Since February, LAAB has started the current standards revisions process with an initial inquiry and research phase conducted throughout the summer by the standards revision task force. Now, the Board is soliciting input from its communities of interest. As such, the Board is conducting a survey and hosting virtual town halls to gather insights from the landscape architecture academic and professional communities, including current and former Board members, Roster of Visiting Evaluators (ROVE) members, educators, administrators, students, and practitioners in the field regarding emerging legal, social, and technological trends that affect landscape architectural accreditation in the United States and its territories.

You are highly encouraged to download and review the latest LAAB Accreditation Standards (September 2024) before completing the survey.

This survey invites your feedback on the following areas:

  • The overall quality and flexibility of the LAAB Accreditation Standards
  • Standard criteria on faculty sufficiency
  • Standard criteria addressing diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI)
  • The influence of emerging technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) on landscape architecture education.

You may choose to remain anonymous or voluntarily share your contact information if you are interested in contributing further to this important work. The entire survey will take approximately 10 minutes.

COMPLETE THE SURVEY

Please complete the survey or submit written feedback by Monday, December 15, 2025.


In addition to the survey, LAAB is conducting a series of virtual town halls later this week:

LAAB Standards Revision Town Halls Schedule

ASLA Affiliate Groups (BLAN, NAMLA, WxLA, PridexASLA, etc.)

Wednesday, December 10, from 12:00 – 1:15 p.m. ET

Register here


Students and Emerging Professionals

Wednesday, December 10, from 2:00 – 3:15 p.m. ET

Register here


Practitioners

Thursday, December 11, from 12:00 – 1:15 p.m. ET

Register here


Faculty (Non-Program Administrators)

Thursday, December 11, from 2:00 – 3:15 p.m. ET

Register here


Kristopher D. Pritchard, Hon. ASLA, is Accreditation and Education Director at the American Society of Landscape Architects.