Conway School of Landscape Design

The mission of the Conway School is to explore, develop, practice, and teach design of the land that is ecologically and socially sustainable.

The intention is to:

• Provide graduates with the basic knowledge and skills necessary to practice planning, design, and management of the land, that respects nature as well as humanity.
• Develop ecological awareness, understanding, respect, and accommodation in its students and project clients.
• Produce projects that fit human use to natural conditions.

The school’s mission guides decision-making at every level: who is hired, what projects are undertaken, how courses are structured, and what offices and sites are visited on field trips. While the program is thoroughly based on ecological knowledge and practices, Conway’s educational focus is on design of the land rather than environmental science.

Students learn from faculty, from each other, from guest professionals in many fields, and from their explorations of their project sites and the communities where those projects are embedded. The environment is personal, collaborative, and rigorous—learning is driven by motivated students working for real communities to solve real and pressing problems.

The Conway program is built around those real projects for real clients. The projects raise issues, questions, and challenges—from technical questions about site engineering, to ethical issues about community involvement or wise use of resources, to practical questions about how resilience can be built into systems in the face of uncertain futures—that drive the classes, discussions, and field and studio work that make up the rest of the fully integrated, multidisciplinary program. Class assignments—graphic, technical, and written—support project work.

We’re small. That means we can change the schedule on a moment’s notice–load up the van and go on a field trip to see what happens when a dam collapses; visit a project site during a community street festival; add a class to introduce new software that suddenly became available.

We do, though, have a regular weekly schedule of classes. Classes in design theory, graphics, computer skills (such as InDesign and GIS), site engineering, and humanities support and draw from students’ experiences in the projects. At least once a week, an outside expert in a relevant topic–for example, environmental law, green building design, wildlife habitat, or environmental justice–gives a lecture at the school. They often stay for the group meal that follows, and sometimes spend time in the studio to talk with students about projects. Faculty go from desk to desk on studio days for individual and team consultation. After the faculty go home, students continue to learn in the studio from each other.

Students give weekly presentations to faculty and classmates, becoming more and more comfortable articulating the narrative of their projects and making compelling arguments for particular design and planning solutions. Near the end of each term, students give formal presentations before a panel of three outside professionals—experienced designers, planners, and ecologists—who offer advice that students can then incorporate in the last two weeks of the term.

The Conway program teaches students an iterative, ecologically-informed design process, while also exposing students to a wide range of topics related to sustainability. The school’s small size and combination of full time and part-time faculty working in the field allows it to integrate new topics into the curriculum. For example, over the course of the past ten years the school has worked on several food system projects, in response to increasing global concerns about access to food and the impact of industrial agriculture on the land.

Conway keeps tuition competitive with other private institutions. Tuition for the 2018-2019 academic year is $35,998. Tuition will not be raised during the academic year. This payment covers costs incurred for operation of the school including adjunct faculty, visiting lecturers, use of school computer stations, some computer software, printing and drafting supplies, graphic reproduction costs, printed materials, some reading materials, and transportation costs for field trips. Conway does not offer dormitory housing or meal plans. The participation fee covers the multi-day orientation field trip, information technology, and field trips.

Conway’s third director was Panama-born landscape architect and conservation planner Paul Cawood Hellmund. While dedicated to the school’s unique teaching approach and sustainable design, Paul expanded Conway’s commitment to urban and international communities. After ten years at the helm, Paul returned to independent practice.

In 2014, Conway changed the name of its degree from Master of Arts in Landscape Design to Master of Science in Ecological Design, which reflects Conway’s applied curriculum and fundamental commitment to sustainability. In 2015, Conway opened a second campus in the former mill town of Easthampton, Massachusetts, in an effort to better reach the potential students and community partners who would benefit most from an ecological design approach.

At the end of 2015, alum and former board member Bruce Stedman stepped in as executive director and initiated a period of strategic planning, which invited extensive participation and feedback from trustees, faculty, staff, students, alumni, and donors. The five-year strategic plan, formally adopted in 2017, will help guide the school during the five-year period leading up to our fiftieth anniversary in 2022. The plan prioritizes increasing diversity among applicants. We also hope to increase fundraising for project fees that will allow our students to work in communities with limited financial resources. Conway is adapting to changing times while continuing to teach a proven design process.

Conway embraced a collaborative governance model in early 2017, where three employees share responsibility for primary leadership of the school. Bruce Stedman currently serves as Executive Director, Ken Byrne is Academic Director, and Priscilla Novitt is Administrative Director. In the school’s lively history, some things, such as its outward appearance and personnel, have changed. Other things, especially its focus on individualized learning, will always remain constant.