Lansing is undergoing change - and MSU students may be the ones changing it.

Graduating seniors in MSU’s landscape architecture program presented their ideas and visions for Lansing’s 2025 master plan Tuesday. City officials have started discussion about its master planning phase and reached out to the landscape architecture students for new ideas.

City planners from the Lansing Planning and Neighborhood Development Department were invited to the exhibit by Sissi Foster, coordinator of the senior design program and member of the Lansing Planning Board.

Foster, an assistant professor of geography, said the exhibit is a great opportunity for the landscape architecture program and Lansing.

“This seemed to be a perfect kind of project for them to do,” she said. “They are doing different visions of what the city of Lansing could be in the future. They all have concepts whether it’s a river city, a walkable city, a sustainable city, they all have something that ties their whole idea together.”

She said guests were impressed by the graphics and the way students are trying to solve some of the city’s problems, such as traffic and urban sprawl.

“It has taught them about all of the urban issues that they haven’t thought about before,” she said. “I am hoping that it shows them they can make a difference. Their ideas can make a difference in people’s lives.”

Foster said the exhibit will be held annually, extending the idea of senior projects work to the city of East Lansing.

Jim Ruff, Lansing’s planning manager and zoning administrator, said the exhibit allows the city to expand its ideas.

“We are so used to our own environment, as citizens, that many times we need our concepts stretched,” he said. “This helps us to stretch the imagination of residents and businesses. It also provides a good tool for students to be involved in concepts and bring them to a local area.”

The outreach to MSU students, he said, will give examples of the concepts being taught around the country and put into place in Lansing.

“The city of Lansing desires to make a sustainable plan so that it will be a plan that is continually updated, refined and refreshed, not one that is done and is set for 20 years only to do another one,” he said.

Luke Bonney, landscape architecture senior, focused his design on increasing pedestrian circulation in the nodes of development on Grand River Avenue and Saginaw Street, bringing residents into a community.

“This is just to show professors, faculty and citizens of Lansing what we’re doing and promoting landscape architecture,” he said. “Basically it is an informal, informative conversation with faculty at MSU because some students don’t even know what landscape architecture really does.”

“I am bringing the human scale and pedestrian-oriented spaces back into the urban environment and increasing the connectivity from single-family residential neighborhoods to downtown district community centers in a safe way.”

Landscape architecture senior Tiffany Kober created self-sustaining neighborhoods with retail stores within walking distance for convenience.

“It promotes a sense of community within each neighborhood,” she said. “You become more familiar with your neighbors and stay away from urban sprawl.”