Plan: Plan
an orderly arrangement of parts of an overall design or objective (Webster's Dictionary)
Planning is an important first step in making land use decisions that will affect not only clients or communities, but also future users of our resources. Students learn to critically dissect design decisions and their implication for future development.
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Design: Design
to create, fashion, execute, or construct according to plan (Webster's Dictionary)
The design process allows students to develop the ability to create environmental sensitive and aesthetically pleasing places for people to live, work, and play. A major emphasis is the creation of place achieved through the careful investigation of local culture, climate, and materials.
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Build: Build
to form by ordering and uniting materials by gradual means into a composite whole (Webster's Dictionary)
Students become better designers and contractors through direct experience with building materials, equipment, and construction processes. Service learning, the act of providing built spaces for communities, is a major component of all majors.
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Manage: Manage
to handle or direct with a degree of skill (Webster's Dictionary)
Students learn to effectively manage companies and ecosystems. Economic and social systems depend on ecosystem services for their productivity. Students receive a foundation of ecological principles on which to base choices with regard to ecosystem and business management.
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Regenerative Communities: Regenerative Communities
renewal or restoration after injury or as a normal process (Webster's Dictionary)
Students learn to restore neighborhoods, communities, cities and regions by helping stakeholders rediscover the social, economic, and ecological identity of their surroundings. Students also learn sustainable principles to make wise use of the available resources.
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Landscape Architecture

The Department of Landscape Architecture at Mississippi State University has pledged to "foster the will and ability to plan, design, build, and manage regenerative communities" through our mission statement. We believe that the professions of Landscape Architecture and Landscape Contracting should strive to connect art, culture, and the environment to provide society with places that people love and that are cognizant of a holistic, ecological model of design. Our students explore subjects such as the design process, storm water design, energy flow, native landscapes and plant materials, green infrastructure, sustainability, community planning, and regional planning.

Faculty Project

MSU workshop teaches how to garden with prairies

Preserving Mississippi’s vanishing prairies through conservation, restoration and establishment of new prairie gardens will save unique plants and maintain native landscapes. Protecting wild species, such as those found in prairies, protects managed ecosystems, which in turn impact human interests.

A week-long charette with Dave Armbruster, a principal with internationally known landscape architectural planning and design firm EDSA Inc., allowed students to work in vertical teams of undergraduate and graduate students. The students worked on landscape design for a resort development in St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands.