Building Skills
A shade structure. Decking. Rain gardens. Tool sheds and a bike rack. A rollercoaster bench and other hang-out spaces.
Juniors majoring in landscape architecture at UC Davis have designed and built all these things and more. It started in 2013 when their program’s “Design and Build Studio” course, or LDA 160, changed from a classroom model focused on construction materials to having students hands-on with projects installed in the courtyard of Hunt Hall.
Students’ choice
About 36 students design projects, and the class votes on their favorite one or two to build. Bringing the projects to life takes about five weeks of the course, which meets for four hours twice a week in the fall.
“We’ll have an idea of what will be good for a space, but it’s really up to the students,” said Haven Kiers, an associate professor of landscape architecture. She co-teaches the class with Gabino Marquez ’11, who has a design/build business.
‘Having to figure it out’
Kiers said the course helps equip students with the skills and technical expertise to design outdoor spaces. “I really think you learn from the muscle memory and having to figure it out.”
Backed by class lectures, students learn to work with all sorts of building materials — including poured concrete, river rock, paving stones, steel and wood — and plants, from wildflowers to succulents.
Paying tribute to the valley
In 2015, students created a masterplan for the courtyard reminiscent of the Sacramento Valley. While the courtyard evolves as projects come and go, the materials used and the overall beauty are a tribute to the area’s agricultural heritage. “This is a land-grant university, so it’s paying homage to that,” said Kiers, pictured here in the courtyard.
‘Bringing a vision to life’
In fall 2023, students built what Madi Burns of Truckee, California, designed: a tool shed with a roof seeded with wildflowers and a work bench in front. “I was very honored,” said the now-senior. “I learned the satisfaction of bringing a vision to life.”
Tools of the trade
Burns sent her father, who is a general contractor, this photo of herself. Safety goggles removed for the shot, she beamed with pride that she was working with power tools for the first time.
Especially for the pandemic
LDA 160 was one of the few courses allowed to meet in person during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020-21. In addition to building rolling display boards for outdoor teaching, students created a therapeutic garden. It appeals to the senses with fragrant lavender and rosemary, grasses that sway in the breeze and plants soft to the touch. Here, Kiers tends a nearby planting.
Support
Support for LDA 160 comes from various sources. Students pay a $60 materials fee, and the course receives funds from the Kevin Robert Perry Sustainable Design and Built Environment Endowment. Businesses donate materials, some of which students help drum up. “They’ve learned to hustle,” Kiers said. Projects also have used felled wood from campus that a local business harvests in exchange for milling some of it for the course.
Branching out
In recent years, projects have spilled out to the south side of Hunt Hall: a sod couch (watch out for the pop-up sprinklers on watering day), a rollercoaster bench, and whimsical steel structures — some with swinging seats.
“We’re totally about expanding and partnering and getting into other spaces,” Kiers said. Next may be the grounds of the Early Childhood Lab School, which, like landscape architecture, is part of the Department of Human Ecology.
Project featured in downtown Davis
Two oversized Adirondack chairs built by the 2023 class caught the eye of a city of Davis staffer. Versions built in 2024 are now a feature of the recently opened G Street Activation project, a pedestrian attraction in downtown Davis.