Class of 2020 | Landscape Architecture

Faculty featured: Andy Wilcox, Michael Todoran, Kyle Brown, Weimin Li, Maryam Eskandari, Rennie Tang, Keiji Uesugi, Samantha Harris, Carlos Flores, Lorena Garcia, Claire LatanÃ© , Kat Superfisky, and James Becerra.

MLA faculty celebrate the MLA graduating Class of 2020.

2020 Dean's Award | JIN MCFARLAND

Our communities, landscapes and cities need dedicated individuals like Jin McFarland. His rigor joined with his interest in social justice, equitable design and an artistic practice of revealing the unseen have made him a unique and relevant designer. His interest in an emergent practice that is something between the systems of landscape and an art practice; a way of working that places positive change and public empowerment as the primary goal. Further, the social, cultural and ecological issues that are embedded within Jin’s artistic and creative interests are paramount to issues facing contemporary culture. Maybe more important qualities to note are Jin’s deep level of critical curiosity and his leadership abilities. Jin is ravenous in his quest for knowledge and his quite leadership comes naturally. Jin has worked with the Orange County Conservation Corps and interned with Lisa Gimmy Landscape Architecture. Jin is very active in the student chapter of the ASLA, helped to coordinate numerous department events, promote the discipline and the department, and holds a leadership role within our interdisciplinary National Collegiate Landscape Competition team. Jin has a collaborative commitment to his peers and colleagues that critical to the success of our community.

Department Awards

Southern California ASLA Honor Awards

Certificates of Honor are awarded to students that demonstrate "superior" academic and design acoomplishments including exloration, discovery, synthesis and representation of the art and technology of landscape architecture.
Undergraduate: Jin McFarland, Nicola Tong
Graduate: Sancho Cagulada

Southern California ASLA Merit Awards

Certificates of Merit are awarded to students that demonstrate "notable" academic and design accomplishments in their presentation to the jury.
Undergraduate: Eddy De Jesus, Sarah Lanners, Luke Morris, Jihoon Kim
Graduate: Daniel Scheir

2020 Olmstead Scholars

Awarded by the Landscape Architecture Foundation, this national honor recognizes and supports students with leadership potential who use ideas, influence, communication, service and leadership to advance sustainable design that foster human and societal benefits.
BSLA Scholar Nominee: Nikola Tong
MLA Scholar Nominee: Dani Slabaugh

BSLA Undergraduae Program Awards

Howard O. Boltz Award
Samantha Hernandez

Senior Design Award
Jin McFarland

Outstanding Junior Award
Olivia Miethke

Outstanding Sophomore Award
Hiromitsu Suetake

Prospect Award for First Year
Undergraduate Students
Gregory Thayer

MLA Graduate Program Awards

Outstanding Graduate Student Award
Daniel Scheir

Second Year Graduate Creatity Award
Adrian Tenney

Prospect Award - First Year Graduate Student
Hannah Kaiser

At the end of every academic year, the graduating class assembles video highlights of their four (BSLA) and three (MLA) years in the program — to reminisce about past field trips (domestic and international) and projects, and the friendships that developed as documented by students during their time together. The remembrances below are by graduating senior Riley Yee.

Needs captions for accessibility

This year's videos reflect the abrupt change in instruction as country adopted stay-home orders in response to a global pandemic. These videos capture the transition from in-person to remote instruction, and the tenacity of students in the face of unanticipated change.