Dr. Nicholas Serrano

Assistant Professor
Office: 430 ARCH
Contact: nicholas.serrano@ufl.edu

Research Specialties / Areas of Focus:

  • Ecology
  • Ornamental Landscape Plants
  • Planting Design

Personal Biography
Nicholas Serrano came to UF from the Robert Reich School of Landscape Architecture at Louisiana State University where he holds the Neil Odenwald Professorship. He has a Bachelor of Science in horticulture from North Carolina State University, a Master of landscape architecture from Ball State University, and a Ph.D. in the design program at North Carolina State University. Nicholas has taught introductory ecology, ornamental landscape plants, planting design, and various histories of the built environment at North Carolina State University and Ball State University. His main research project looks at the history of landscape architecture and urban development of the American South. His writing spans the disciplines of Landscape and Environmental History, Southern Studies, and Material Culture to consider the construction of racial identity through the built environment. His secondary research and teaching interests are in contemporary planting design and horticultural technologies in landscape architecture.

Highlighted Project

Endangered African American Burial Grounds of the Lower Mississippi:
Acts of Reparation and Preservation

2024
In Collaboration with Brendan Harmon & Annicia Streete, Louisiana State University
Supported by the National Center for Preservation Technology and Training Architectural Research Centers Consortium

This project aims to prototype a method for digitally documenting and creating immersive models of African American burial grounds in the American South.
These sites have long faced precarious conditions; originally built peripheral to antebellum plantations, today many occupy remnant parcels of isolated land.
Louisiana is a prominent case-in-point; plantations that originally lined both sides of the Mississippi river are favored sites for hazardous petrochemical production facilities famous for limiting public access and disregarding descendant communities.
Climate change, industrial expansion, precarious land-tenure records, and dwindling populations of descendant communities threaten these cultural landscapes.
No Caption
No Caption
Our goal is to develop a novel process for digitally scanning and creating enriched point cloud models of complex sites that can serve as interactive and immersive virtual platforms for organizing landscape-based humanities content.
No Caption
No Caption
No Caption
This project aims to prototype a method for digitally documenting and creating immersive models of African American burial grounds in the American South.
These sites have long faced precarious conditions; originally built peripheral to antebellum plantations, today many occupy remnant parcels of isolated land.
Louisiana is a prominent case-in-point; plantations that originally lined both sides of the Mississippi river are favored sites for hazardous petrochemical production facilities famous for limiting public access and disregarding descendant communities.
Climate change, industrial expansion, precarious land-tenure records, and dwindling populations of descendant communities threaten these cultural landscapes.
No Caption
No Caption
Our goal is to develop a novel process for digitally scanning and creating enriched point cloud models of complex sites that can serve as interactive and immersive virtual platforms for organizing landscape-based humanities content.
No Caption
No Caption
No Caption

Team Members

Hayden Germanis

Madeline LaMont

Gunnar Gierschke

Project Gallery

These sites have long faced precarious conditions; originally built peripheral to antebellum plantations, today many occupy remnant parcels of isolated land.
Louisiana is a prominent case-in-point; plantations that originally lined both sides of the Mississippi river are favored sites for hazardous petrochemical production facilities famous for limiting public access and disregarding descendant communities.
Climate change, industrial expansion, precarious land-tenure records, and dwindling populations of descendant communities threaten these cultural landscapes.
Our goal is to develop a novel process for digitally scanning and creating enriched point cloud models of complex sites that can serve as interactive and immersive virtual platforms for organizing landscape-based humanities content.

News

Serrano Wins Grant to Document African-American Burial Grounds

University of Florida Department of Landscape Architecture Assistant Professor Nicholas Serrano was recently awarded the 2024 Research Incentive Award, the Architectural Research Centers Consortium (ARCC) announced this past month. Joined by Annicia Streete and Brendan Harmon from Louisiana State University, the trio’s project aims to prototype a method for digitally documenting and creating immersive models of African American burial grounds in the American South…

Read More

Courses Taught

  • LAA 2710 History of Landscape Architecture
  • LAA 3230 Theories of Landscape Architecture
  • IDS 2935 Cultures of Landscapes in the American South

Start typing and press enter to search

Scroll to Top