Semester

Summer

Date of Graduation

2026

Document Type

Problem/Project Report

Degree Type

MLA

College

Davis College of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Design

Department

Landscape Architecture

Committee Chair

Peter Butler

Committee Member

Elisabeth Orr

Committee Member

Chris Haddox

Abstract

Contemporary desert cities face increasing environmental and social challenges driven by climate change, including extreme heat, water scarcity, fragmented ecological systems, and limited access to high-quality public open space. In many rapidly urbanizing regions, conventional urban development has marginalized desert landscapes, treating them as vacant land rather than valuable ecological and cultural assets. This thesis proposes Landscape as Expo as a new framework for transforming desert landscapes into climate-adaptive cultural infrastructure, where ecological processes become both functional systems and public experiences.

The project focuses on a 140-acre site within the Tule Springs Planning District in North Las Vegas, Nevada, identified in the Las Vegas 2050 Master Plan as future open space and public facilities. Through historical research, policy analysis, site inventory and analysis, precedent studies, and design research, the thesis investigates how landscape can function simultaneously as ecological infrastructure, cultural destination, and environmental educator. Rather than viewing an exposition as a temporary, building-centered event, the project reinterprets the expo as a permanent, landscape-based civic environment in which climate adaptation itself becomes the exhibition.

The design proposal integrates green infrastructure, stormwater harvesting, native and drought-tolerant planting, renewable energy systems, shaded circulation networks, sensory gardens, and a time-based interpretive corridor that communicates the site’s geological, ecological, and cultural evolution. These strategies respond to regional challenges of heat resilience, water management, biodiversity, and equitable access to public space while supporting the planning objectives of the Las Vegas 2050 Master Plan.

By positioning landscape as the primary medium for exhibition, education, and climate adaptation, this thesis demonstrates how underutilized desert land can be transformed into resilient public infrastructure that strengthens ecological performance, cultural identity, and community well-being. The proposed framework offers a replicable model for arid cities seeking to integrate environmental resilience with public life through landscape-led design.

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