DRAFT

STRATEGIC PLAN

2000-2010

The School of Environmental Design

The University of Georgia

John F. Crowley, Dean

609 Caldwell Hall

Athens, Georgia 30602-1845

INTRODUCTION

The format of this outline strategic plan begins with a mission statement of the school as it stands. The school’s strengths are followed by a brief look at the probability that there are jobs for the graduates (market). A longer-range vision is then stated followed by five (5) specific goals which move the school toward the vision.

EXISTING MISSION STATEMENT

The UGA School of Environmental Design strives to educate students as outstanding practitioners, educators and researchers in the disciplines of Landscape Architecture and Historic Preservation, and serve as a resource for the continuous improvement of the environment and the field of environmental design.

Part of the strategic plan will be to clearly restructure the mission statement to evolve with the school as it develops. The common denominator in what the future school will do well is the design and preservation of the built environment.

STRENGTHS OF THE SCHOOL

* There are only a dozen schools in the country with both graduate and undergraduate degrees in landscape architecture. The two programs definitely benefit and strengthen each other.

* This school is the largest in landscape architecture in the country. This allows for a critical mass of students and a large diverse faculty which has many nationally recognized individuals who attract graduate students and greatly improve the school’s national visibility and reputation. (synergy)

* The school is widely respected for its balance of environmental design based on design arts, human needs and an understanding of the dynamics and capacities of natural systems.

* The school’s geographic location with the natural regimes of the mountains, piedmont and coastal plain as well as the urban/rural regimes of small town Georgia and the Atlanta metropolitan area gives the school a nearby living laboratory that is second to none. This includes the historic preservation laboratories such as Charleston, Savannah, Madison and hundreds of registered sites in the region.

* Landscape Architecture has been an organized profession for 100 years. The University has offered an undergraduate landscape architecture degree for 75 years. The size and age of the school has given it a strong edge in the number of well-positioned alumnae who give the school valuable feedback and placement assistance.

* On the preservation side, the school serves as the staff for the National Association of Preservation Commissions (NAPC) and is at the leading edge of this rapidly emerging profession and is nationally wired into the job market.

MARKET FOR THE ENVIRONMENTAL DESIGN PROFESSION

* The design areas of responsibility for landscape architects in the l00 years of its recognized professional existence have expanded from small scale residential and parks to include larger scale campuses, complexes, neighborhoods, subsections of cities and small towns, and rural preservation and restoration.

* The problems associated with urban growth, transportation, quality of life (design) rural fringe conflicts and environmentally sensitive lands conflicts are growing and will continue to grow nationally and internationally.

* There is a considerable shortage of landscape architects and urban designers now.

* Even with an across the board growth of 5% by all schools of landscape architecture in the country and considering projected retirements and attrition in the profession the shortage (in practitioners and teachers) is projected to become more severe in the next 15 to 20 years. The shortage will likely exacerbate the urban design problems with the job either not getting done or not dealt with properly by under-trained individuals. Recently because of the value and shortage in the profession average incomes of landscape architects surpassed those in architecture.

* Even aggressive expansion of the school will not meet professional market demand for graduates.

* The market for Historic Preservation professionals is very strong, as the profession itself is very young and the public insistences that preservation be a crucial part of development and quality of life.

VISION

A very abbreviated vision statement is included here because it is the target of the strategic plan. The ten-year strategic plan is a segment of the map of the road leading to the conditions envisioned.

Facilities. With the exception of the Founders Garden, the school has been repositioned in the facilities now occupied by the Lamar Dodd School of Art which have been renovated and are being expanded. The indoor and outdoor areas of the school provide a teaching laboratory of plant and construction materials and examples of proportioned space. In addition to design technology equipped classrooms, lecture halls, a resource center, design galleries and design critique halls, the facilities provide large free span design studios where every student has an assigned design table, storage area and hook-up for a personal computer each is required to bring. The school also houses the Center for Community Design and Preservation which includes service outreach design studios which are assigned for the student-faculty teams taking on a project. There are “emphases area” design studios to house graduate students and faculty who are permanently funded by endowments (chairs) which are tied to specific research-service learning activities such as African-American Historic Preservation, Campus Planning, Athens-Clarke City and Neighborhood Design, Urban Design and Ecological Restoration Design.

The School is named and its campus has become the visible example of good community and environmental design.

Faculty. There is a core of full-time teaching/research/service faculty. Most of the growth is in faculty who are respected practitioners coming to the school permanently to mix teaching with practice or who come temporarily for semesters or weeks. The significant growth of the metropolitan area also allows for a growing availability of local practitioners for teaching specialty courses (part time). Their areas of expertise and employment relationships are more diverse including being split with other university schools and institutes. Many of the core faculty actively practice and the doctoral students also serve as teachers.

Students. The upper division undergraduate program in landscape architecture has expanded by 10% to 15% and the graduate programs have doubled. Ten to fifteen percent of the graduate students are recruited to specific design and preservation emphasis areas by endowed graduate assistantships (16-24). The students are older, more mature and often returning from established careers to go into the design field. Professional practitioners return for continuing education and certifications and while studying serve as instructors for the undergraduate program.

Programs. The Environmental Design “umbrella” was always meant to house a series of closely related design professions with Landscape Architecture as its central focus. Historic Preservation was added in 1982. The future school has graduate degree programs at the master’s level in Landscape Studies and at the doctoral level in Environmental Design to research and advance the design profession and to build its teaching pool. There are also graduate programs in the affiliated fields of Urban Design and City Planning (from the City Design rather than policy perspective). Architecture with the emphasis on building compositions and sustainability is a longer-term expansion. Engineers attend the school to receive graduate degrees in Environmental Design which deal with the contexts of the built environment as they (impact and are involve impacted by the) transportation and infrastructure designed by them.

Research and Service. With the obvious issues associated with urban expansion, the School of Environmental Design with its expertise in the design of the built environment has become a very active advisory and service participant in growth and development issues. It is as visible and useful in urban and rural development as business school’s dealing with economic forecasting and development; and agricultural school’s dealing with crop and animal resources. This is a notable expansion of the school’s already extensive programs in intern/cooperative and service learning.

The School which was the largest in Landscape Architecture in the country and likely in the top 15 programs has grown, improved and became one of the top ten. Endowment development, which was less than $1 million in 1995, has grown to $6 to $8 million building a basis for sustainable excellence.

GOALS

1. Expand and strengthen the existing undergraduate program in Landscape Architecture (licensed professional 5-year degree)

* 320 to 360 (12%)

* will require four (4) new faculty

* required personal computers for sophomore through 5th year

* assigned/permanent design studio desks and storage for all students

* two (2) additional twenty (20) station CAD/GIS/Graphics teaching labs

* additional endowment base to support transportation costs for field studies, travel-study scholarship and visiting lecturers for specialty workshops (Goal: $1 million).

2. Relocate and Reposition the School

* Develop a strategic and physical facilities plan to accommodate the plant needs of the school as envisioned by this plan. The school is projected to move to the Lamar Dodd School of Art facilities following the art school’s move, yet to be designed and constructed facilities, in the Fine Arts Complex of the East Campus (6-7 years including renovation).

* During the 1999-2000 academic year secure a 15,000 square foot design studio space and equip it for 120-130 desks to accommodate the existing design studio shortage.

* Name the School, set a minimum goal of $2 million in graduate assistant/scholarship endowment celebrating the new facilities and the 75th year of the University of Georgia Landscape Architecture degree in 2003.

3. Develop three New Graduate Degree Programs

* Masters Degree in Landscape Studies (l.5 – 2 years) Interdisciplinary degree in academics/research (15-20 students)

* Masters Degree in Urban Design (1.5 – 2 years) Advanced degree looking at city and development design as bridge between landscape architecture and architecture … could involve class exchanges with new urban design program at Georgia Tech. Each will have different emphases (15-20 students).

* Doctoral Degree in Environmental Design. Advanced research degree which can build on each of the design and preservation areas in the masters degree level (4-6 students).

4. Develop a Center (or Institute) for Community Design and Preservation

* Resolve whether it will be a center or institute, name, charter and obtain approvals for it as the research and service vehicle for the school.

* Widen the partnerships and funding bases (DNR, DCA, National Park Service) to include the University of Georgia which does not presently fund the administrative costs, the Army Corps of Engineers, Department of Transportation and corporate entitles such as Georgia Power, other utilities and development groups.

* Develop three endowed chairs and their attendant design emphasis area studios which will take on specific types of service/service learning projects. (Founders Garden, Neel Reid, Rural Conservation, African-American Historic Preservation, Urban and Neighborhood Design, Athens-Clarke Studio and Park Design Chairs are all candidates)

* Expand the small (Better Hometown) city service work to include design involvement with the university campus, Athens-Clarke city and neighborhoods and Atlanta metropolitan design issues.

5. Expand the School’s Endowment Base for sustainable excellence

* Very short history of design school endowment development which nearly doubled between 1996 and 1999 to $2.1 million

* Add $2 million for scholarships, study/travel and assistantships

* Add $2.5 million for chairs which include additional graduate assistantships funding.

* End goal is to build endowments to $6.6 million

Virtually all of the above goals have obvious and measurable results. Each goal and subset also targets the overall University Goals and Presidential emphases.