From river corridors and wetlands to city streets and community spaces, students in the University of Minnesota Twin Cities’ Master of Landscape Architecture (MLA) program are learning to design with empathy and imagination, restoring connections between people, place and the living systems that sustain us.
Margaret Milligan (MLA ’26)
Background: Local food systems advocate and ecological designer
After 15 years working in Nebraska as a farmer, educator and advocate, Margaret Milligan came to the University of Minnesota Twin Cities seeking a program that matched her values. She was drawn by what she describes as “the program’s focus on ecological design, out-of-the-box design thinking and collaboration.”
In studio, Milligan has explored the layered histories of Pig’s Eye Lake, a backwater wetland that is now both a park and a superfund site — one that Milligan calls “beautiful and complicated.” Her design process often begins with observation and sensory exploration, from charcoal depictions of sounds and light experienced on site to photographing key moments and details.
She also works as a graduate assistant with the College of Design’s Kusske Design Initiative (KDI), where collaboration across disciplines deepens her perspective. “I work with other students in product design, graphic design and architecture on projects related to biomaterials and biophilic (design informed by nature) design,” says Milligan. “KDI does an excellent job of encouraging connections between people who might not otherwise work together.”
Lauren Snyder (MLA/MURP ’27)
Background: Dual-degree student exploring the link between design and governance
For Lauren Snyder, design is a way to make an impact more directly than policy alone. After working for Clean Water Action, she realized how slowly change can move through legislation. “It was amazing to see a policy they worked on for six years finally pass,” she recalls, “but it was also really frustrating to realize how long the process took.”
Her interest in plants led her to study design as a means of shaping the spaces where environmental and social systems meet. “It taught me how to think creatively and how design can stem from anything,” she says of her studio experience.
Snyder’s dual degree helps her connect design’s on-the-ground realities with policy and planning frameworks. “The MLA gives me the design skills to create meaningful spaces on the ground, while the MURP (Master of Urban and Regional Planning at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs) gives me the knowledge of policy and the bigger picture,” she says. “Having both degrees really makes you stand out.”
Leisl Buchholz (MLA/MURP ’27)
Background: Dual-degree student in landscape architecture and urban and regional planning
Leisl Buchholz’s dual degree in landscape architecture and urban and regional planning reflects her desire to bridge environmental systems and social processes. “I want to understand environmental growth processes while also understanding social growth processes and how they work together in urban spaces,” she explains.
Her studio work has explored this relationship through mapping, storytelling and spatial design. In one project, she and her team “spatially presented various interconnected layers of information, including Indigenous history, key species, ecological zones and past land uses.”
Espen Tandy (MLA ’27)
Background: Artist and horticulturist exploring material-based environmental design
For Espen Tandy, landscape architecture is where art, ecology and technology converge. With a background spanning ceramics, painting, art history and horticulture, Tandy approaches design through what he calls a “rhizomatic” lens, drawing connections across disciplines to explore how people and landscapes shape one another. “It’s hard for me to complete a project in one area without drawing resources from the others,” he says.
That interdisciplinary mindset informs his work in studio, where he’s explored the ecological and social repair of damaged sites. In a recent project at the Berkeley Pit in Butte, Montana (one of the nation’s largest Superfund sites), Tandy used black locust, a species both “beloved and despised” for its invasiveness and resilience, to imagine how plants can help reclaim landscapes scarred by industry.
Crystal Daniela Díaz (MLA/MURP ’27)
Background: Chicago native focused on equitable development and design justice
Growing up in southwest Chicago, Crystal Daniela Díaz witnessed firsthand the effects of gentrification and environmental injustice. Those experiences now inform her approach to inclusive, community-driven design. “I believe design should be intentionally planned to uplift communities, with key stakeholders included in the design process,” she says. She envisions landscapes as vital components of community resilience and spaces that promote belonging, health and opportunity.
Pursuing both the Master of Landscape Architecture and Master of Urban and Regional Planning, Díaz studies how the built environment affects physical and psychological health, particularly in underserved communities.
Her recent studio work at Sarita Wetland near the St. Paul campus explored how soil and water interact, using model-making to visualize permeability, texture and movement through layered materials.
Chang Li (MLA ’25)
Background: International student from China exploring multifunctional, adaptive design
For Chang Li, landscape architecture grew from a simple love of nature into a way to confront the environmental challenges of modern cities. “Growing up in a city in southwestern China, I realized that the time and space we get to spend in nature is very limited,” she says. “Issues like pollution, flooding and climate change are becoming more serious year by year. I wanted to learn how landscape design can help address these problems.”
Her fascination with traditional Chinese gardens taught her to create “an immersive natural experience within a small space” and to consider “how natural elements can engage the five senses in different ways,” she says. At the same time, she has seen how urbanization has replaced natural landscapes, motivating her to design green corridors that “heal the ‘wounds’ of the city and bring nature back into urban areas.”
At the University of Minnesota, Li balanced structure and creativity in her design process. “Learning in the U.S. is more open, collaborative and exploratory, and I have learned a lot of creative thinking methods,” she says.
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