Faculty + Staff
Laura Musacchio
Associate Professor
- BLA and MLA, State University New York Syracuse
- Ph.D, Urban and Regional Science. Texas A&M
As an educator and researcher, Laura Musacchio works to advance the intellectual foundation of sustainable landscapes in landscape design and landscape science. Her current research tests alternative landscape hypotheses for how human-created restoration and cultivation patterns affect biodiversity, hydrological, and energy conservation in metropolitan landscapes, which includes urban and rural places. Some current projects emphasize the themes of re-greening cities, designing sustainable cities, and regenerating great bioregions. In addition to teaching in the Department of Landscape Architecture, she is affiliated with the Ph.D and MS programs in Conservation Biology, Water Resources Sciences and the Master of Urban and Regional Planning program, and is on the editorial boards of Landscape Ecology and Landscape and Urban Planning.
Dr. Musacchio seeks to stimulate students’ creativity and curiosity about human-nature interactions in metropolitan, cultural, and bioregional landscapes. Laura Musacchio strives to educate not only landscape architects but also the next generation of environmental professionals and scientists. For design students, she offers a perspective that will help them create more memorable and sustainable places using ecological design and planning. For urban ecology, natural resource, geography, water resource students, humanities, and arts, she can enhance their understanding about how human values and perception shape a city’s environmental stewardship agenda and its environmental performance outcomes. For planning and policy students, she can explain why ecology should be at the forefront of designing more sustainable, green cities through participative processes. Dr. Musacchio encourages students to stop by to visit with her about their special interests.
Recent Publications
- Guest Editor, special issue of Landscape Ecology [in progress]
- “Pattern: process metaphors for metropolitan landscapes.” Book chapter in Ecology of Cities and Towns, edited by Mark McDonnell, Jürgen Breuste and Amy Hahs [forthcoming]
- Guest editor, “Metropolitan Landscape Ecology,” special issue of Landscape Journal 27
- Designing Small Parks: A Manual Addressing Social and Ecological Concerns, [with Ann Forsyth]
Recognition
- Planetizen’s 2006 Top 10 Books Designing Small Parks: A Manual Addressing Social and Ecological Concerns Designing Small Parks, [with Ann Forsyth]
- Roy Jones Award for Outstanding Research
Courses
- LA5203: Ecological Dimensions of Space Making
- LA5204: Landscape Ecology
- LA5400: Re-greening Cities and Bioregions Seminar
- LA8203: Making Regional Landscape Space