Careers

As the 2nd “Most Hired From” landscape architecture program in the US, we’ve had graduates explore careers in:

• Private and corporate practice
  • landscape architecture firms
  • design/build firms
  • landscape architecture units within multidisciplinary firms
• Public practice
  • federal, regional, state and local agencies
  • municipalities
  • universities and colleges
  • parks and arboreta
• Nonprofit practice
  • Environmental advocacy organizations
  • Environmental, cultural and historic resource protection organizations

The greatest number of employment opportunities are concentrated in urban and suburban areas throughout the U.S.; some landscape architects work in rural areas, particularly those employed by the federal government to plan and design parks and recreation areas, or in areas of natural resource management, such as the U.S. Forest Service, Natural Resources Conservation Service or county forest preserves, etc.

The following career paths reflect specific positions pursued by recent landscape architecture graduates from Iowa State University, and do not represent a comprehensive list of the possible career choices available to graduates.

• Campus planning and design
• Community visioning
• Construction management
• Contract supervision
• Design/build
• Ecological restoration
• Environmental art
• Environmental interpretation and signage
• Environmental, park or city administration (requires additional education)
• Environmental law (requires additional education)
• Geographic information systems (GIS) specialization
• Golf course planning and design
• Greenway and corridor planning and design
• Historic preservation
• Interior landscape design
• Land trust management
• Natural and cultural park planning and design
• Natural and cultural resource management
• Park design
• Playground design
• Planting design
• Residential and commercial design and development
• Transportation/roadside planning and design
• University or college teaching, research and administration (requires additional education)
• Visual quality analysis
• Zoological planning and design