Ohio State’s undergraduate landscape architecture program was recently ranked first in the nation by DesignIntelligence, a monthly journal put out by the Design Futures Council.

The ranking was based on a survey, given to over 300 landscape design firms, asking which schools they felt best prepared students for the professional world.

This means that graduating OSU landscape architecture students are incredibly equipped with drawing, thinking and design skills, said Robert Livesey, director of the Knowlton School of Architecture.

Students have a strong design education and a strong liberal arts education, said Laurel McSherry, OSU landscape architecture associate professor.

One factor that makes the program impressive is the caliber of faculty, which consists of many successful alumni, McSherry said.

Internationally renowned designers have also been brought in to teach, such as Peter Walker, co-designer of “Reflecting Absence,” the memorial design chosen to honor the victims of Sept. 11.

“It’s leading edge, what’s happening right now,” said J. Brooks Breeden, a landscape architecture professor for over 30 years.

“It lends a seriousness to the content,” he said.

The ranking in DesignIntelligence can only help the program, Livesey said.

“I look at the ranking as an opportunity for folks … to look at landscape architecture as a field, and to call attention to the school,” McSherry said.

OSU’s landscape architecture program is the only one in Ohio and as a consequence is fairly competitive, Livesey said.

Students interested in ecology and natural elements or large scale design are often drawn towards the program, Livesey said.

Graduates from the program may go on to work in professional firms that deal with private spaces or large, regional projects, said Breeden.

“The vision of the profession is planting a few trees,” Breeden said. “We spend our whole lives passing through landscape architecture. The range is incredibly broad.”

Other myths about the field are that students must be good at math and drawing to be successful, Breeden said.

“Both are useful, but neither makes a great landscape architect.”

Now that architecture, landscape architecture and city and regional planning are in the same building there might be an overlap between fields that did not exist before, McSherry said.

“I would like to see more emphasis on problem solving at the regional level,” Breeden said, adding that it would only build on an already solid program.