Carl Rogers chosen as chair of Landscape Architecture
Courtesy of Iowa State University
Carl Rogers was named the chair of the Landscape Architecture Department at Iowa State University beginning July 2017.
May 15, 2017
Carl Rogers was named chair of the Iowa State University Department of Landscape Architecture on Monday after serving as the interim chair since July 2016.
Rogers, an associate professor of landscape architecture and director of the ISU Community Design Lab, will continue to teach undergraduate and graduate courses in landscape architecture. Rogers said he hopes to use his position to connect students and faculty to others in the department, at Iowa State and in their professional field for collaboration.
“I’ve taught in pretty much all levels of the program,” Rogers said. “[Now] it’s not so much a classroom teacher, but a mentor.”
The topics include urban design, ecological design, watershed and site engineering in studio classes and professional courses to prepare the next generation of designers to reinvent relationships among people, land and technology, according to the department website.
One third-year studio class worked with Des Moines to propose improvements for Prospect Park (1225 Prospect Road, Des Moines). In the past the department has created ‘parklets’ in Campustown, turning parking into public spaces.
The department accepts up to 36 undergraduate students into the program each year and up to 15 graduate students.
One of the department’s courses is the Savannah Studio, which takes those newly accepted students on two three-week-long field trips in their first semester in the department. Past trips have included Yellowstone Park and a trip along the Mississippi. Rogers said the studio is to explore and be in the landscapes students will be creating around.
Landscape architecture has been a part of Iowa State since the beginning. The first course related to landscape architecture was taught by the first president of Iowa State University (then called Iowa Agricultural College) in 1869.
A formal curriculum in landscape architecture was established in 1914, and the Department of Landscape Architecture was created in 1929. It became of part of the College of Design in 1978, according to the department website.
