Architecture in USA

Architects design buildings and environments that are useful, sustainable and aesthetically pleasing. This implies an understanding of people's needs, the science and technology of building and the concepts of aesthetics.

The faculty in The Design School offer a BSD program in architectural studies. In addition to developing knowledge and skills in architectural thinking, building technology, history and theory, and professional practice, students are encouraged to select electives from a broad range of approved courses within the institute and across the university. These electives may be selected to devise a minor, to further professional study or to enrich the student's academic experience in some other fashion.

More than ever, architecture needs to be understood as part of an ever-expanding set of aesthetic, social, and technical systems. The Master of Science in Architecture (MSArch) is a one-year/three-semester STEM-designated program that invites architects and non-architects to explore this expanded zone of interdisciplinary practice. Each student chooses an area of concentration that allows them to build expertise in a specific system of thought and technique.

From handcraft to digital fabrication and from orthographic drawing to material prototypes, the techniques and medias our students learn are varied, exploratory. and iterative.

Students work side-by-side with graphic designers, fiber-artists, printmakers, industrial designers, painters and sculptors. In addition to required foundations courses in art, architectural design majors at JMU can take art and design classes across the School of Art, Design and Art History.

The JMU chapter of The National Organization of Minority Architects is an active group on campus and in the community.

The undergraduate major in interior architecture is a four-year professional program accredited by the Council for Interior Design Accreditation (CIDA) and leading to the Bachelor of Science degree in Interior Architecture. The program develops students' creativity in the design and planning of interior spaces by emphasizing the process and communication of design. Students learn to integrate the art of design with the social sciences concerning the interaction of people and their environment, the history of design, and the physical sciences relating to the effects of materials on the physical health and comfort of inhabitants. Insight into professional practice is enhanced through internship experiences.

Faculty maintain scholarly programs of study in design and research that form the basis of the graduate program and enrich the undergraduate program through coursework, design review, and student mentoring.

Course content helps students develop verbal and visual communication skills with exposure to both residential and commercial interiors. In addition, courses in art history, history of interiors, engineering, and art are required. A final portfolio is required before graduation. Studio spaces for student use, a resource center containing catalogs and samples, plus a lighting demonstration area and computer laboratory provide physical support for the interior architecture curriculum.

he Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) in Environmental Sustainability and Decision-Making on the Staten Island campus is a distinctive interdisciplinary, social science-oriented academic program that offers the advantages of St. John’s community partnerships and local environmental research.

Environmental issues have become central in today’s world. Citizen groups push for sustainable futures for their communities and for the earth. City officials, business consortia, and community organizations strive for economic growth and development that enhances, rather than degrades, the natural environment. Corporations seek to operate in sustainable ways and to respond to environmental concerns voiced by citizens and government.

All of this activity creates exciting career opportunities in the field of environmental sustainability. This interdisciplinary program is designed to help students build environmentally-centered careers that contribute to a better future.  

The Bachelor of Architecture (B-Arch) is a five-year professional degree designed to meet the National Architectural Accreditation Board (NAAB) requirements. The degree features a rigorous design-oriented curriculum with a solid foundation in technology, practice-based coursework, plan and document generation, building codes, specifications, digital parametric modeling, building information modeling, architectural visualization, digital fabrication, building envelope systems, structural systems, and building sustainability. Students will become experts in current design and building technologies, making them ideal employees in architecture offices and related design & construction industries including civil, mechanical, and electrical. The program is structured as a two-plus-three stackable credential, awarding an Associate of Science in Engineering Design Technology after the first two years and a comprehensive professional B-Arch degree for the final three years. This allows students who do not wish to pursue licensure a two-year path into the profession. In their final three years, students engage in coursework which readies them to become licensed, practicing architects, projects managers, principals, owners, and community leaders in the profession. Students acquire leadership skills through courses in professional practice, ethics, and architectural registration exam preparation. Students learn to design buildings in a historical and cultural context through rigorous coursework in areas such as history, theory, culture, study abroad, and community service projects. Concurrently, students engage in arts and science courses to expand critical thinking. Transfer students with associate degrees from other institutions are invited to apply for admission into year three and are accepted based on transcript and portfolio review. Upon graduation, and completing their internships, students will qualify to take the Architectural Registration Exam (ARE) to become licensed architects in the State of Utah. A total of at least 151 hours of coursework is required for the Bachelor of Architecture.

This unique program offers students with a professional degree in architecture the opportunity to specialize their skills and apply architectural design thinking and capabilities to real-world challenges outside the field. The program is eligible for the STEM OPT Extension for F-1 visa holders.*

The program is located at UCLA Architecture and Urban Design’s IDEAS Campus, a state-of-the-art incubator for collaborative, cross-disciplinary design research. Led by professors who are experts in their respective fields, students join a team of educators and industry partners to question, challenge, and expand the current conventions of architectural practice.

Whether you are seeking to become an architect, landscape architect, urban designer, or building science professional, Endicott’s pre-professional Bachelor of Fine Arts in Architectural Studies provides a path to explore and acquire the skills necessary to achieve your goals. Graduates wishing to become licensed in architecture, landscape architecture, or urban planning can pursue accredited graduate degrees. Our unique blend of rigorous classroom learning, real-world internship experiences, and faculty-led international study tours provide our graduates with a global design perspective. 

The Master of Science in Architecture, Health and Design (M.S.AHD) program is a two-semester (plus summer term), 30-credit, post-professional master's degree. We welcome applications from graduates with a background in planning, urban design, architecture and design, including healthcare design, interior design, industrial design, product design, etc., as well as those with interest and expertise in design technologies (simulation, visualization, robotic interactions, and fabrication, etc.), computational design, and new materials.

Our coordinated curriculum of design studios, labs, and core and elective courses is threaded with a renovated research-oriented approach to health and design. You'll explore methodologies that include strategic and systemic design, healthcare facilities design, prototyping at the scale of product and industrial design, the performative qualities of spaces, and the exploration of material innovations. A final studio project in the summer term will synthesize professional, historical, theoretical, social, and material knowledge, and explore a multidisciplinary topic at the intersection of design, technology and the medical/healthcare fields.

The undergraduate program in architecture develops critical thinkers, problem solvers and skilled professionals ready to take on the challenges of sustainable design. Our prime location between Washington, D.C., and Baltimore offers many advantages: a faculty of highly respected scholars and practitioners; alumni connections and careers at countless architectural firms; and rich architectural diversity. Begin your journey to a more sustainable and environmentally balanced world right here.

The first two years of the curriculum focus on developing a broad-based and well-rounded liberal education, complemented by courses that introduce you to architecture. You will be exposed to the many resources and opportunities of the university while refining your academic and career interests. We offer you two degree options that are tailored to fit your particular academic and career interests. The Bachelor of Science curriculum is centered on design studios, with complementary coursework in architectural history, theory, technology and visual media. The studio courses offer unique experiences where you will not only have the opportunity to show your design skills but also work with communities to help solve real-world problems.

One unique feature of the Bachelor of Arts program is your ability to pursue an academic path that reflect your passions and interests. It is not uncommon for students to discover that their interest in architecture reveals other career aspirations. Earning a bachelor of arts in architecture allows you to build a foundation in architecture while preparing for careers in business, urban planning, real estate development or historic preservation, just to name a few.

Students receive rigorous and comprehensive instruction from a faculty whose members are active in professional practice and research. Their individual areas of expertise include architectural design and theory, history, architectural archaeology, technology, urban design and planning, and historic preservation.

Architecture is a fine art devoted to the design of the human environment. The architect is concerned with the aesthetic, social, environmental, technological and psychological factors that influence the design of a building. Architects are involved in the success, quality and appearance of a building within the context of a community and the city. Architecture is a dynamic profession that ranges from residential houses to large-scale urban buildings. An architect can design houses, commercial buildings, museums, college science buildings, and resorts, as well as many other building types.

The Bachelor of Science in Architectural Studies BSAS is a pre-professional degree that prepares students to enter a professional 2-year M ARCH degree. The program provides a strong foundation in design, technology and history as they relate to architectural practice. The degree also provides students with a broad liberal arts foundation that can lead to many other career options.

In this curriculum, normal progress is imperative. A student failing to complete any required course more than one semester later than the time designated in the curriculum is prohibited from progressive registration in architectural courses until the deficiency is corrected. To continue at the sophomore level and beyond, a student must have a cumulative grade point average of 2.00 (A = 4.0) for all University course work attempted. For the Bachelor of Science in Architectural Studies degree, a total of 120 semester hours are required.

he dual Master of Architecture I and Master of Urban Design is a 126 credit program.  The dual Master of Architecture I AP and Master of Urban Design is a 81 credit program.

The Master of Architecture I is a NAAB-accredited, 3 year (7 semesters) program intended for students holding undergraduate degrees in non-design fields. This STEM-designated professional degree program provides a well-grounded understanding of architecture as students immerse in contemporary challenges to address a variety of social, cultural, technological and programmatic contexts.

At the heart of the M.Arch I curriculum are Core Studios that introduce students to critical topics, imbue necessary skills, inspire critical thinking, examine the production of meaning in architecture, and foster an understanding of architecture as an integrative discipline. The Core Studios are carefully synchronized with core courses in drawing and visualization, history and theory, technology and systems, and practice.

The first year begins with an examination of the relationship between nature, landscape, and the built environment, and how architectural form is informed by a careful reading of place. A summer in the School’s Rome studio is configured to provide an intensive, on-site experience balancing design, history, theory, and analysis through drawing. In order to make travel to Rome more accessible, the School covers the cost of travel and lodging for this trip.

During the second year, students engage design-based critical inquiry into more complex issues including technology, structural systems, environmental stewardship, building envelope systems, and social human-centered aspects of architecture. In the Integrative Studio, which systematically incorporates professionals into the studio environment, students emulate modes of practice by organizing a complex architectural project combining design considerations with complex building systems, while also demonstrating proficiency in technical documentation.

In their final year, graduate M.Arch students are expected to pursue a final degree project. Final degree projects comprise one of two tracks:

1) Design Thesis, an opportunity for each student, working with a faculty advisor, to conduct independent scholarly research and define an individual position with regard to the discipline of architecture

2) Graduate Design Research Studio, led by a faculty member, which investigates relevant or thematic issues of architecture.

Beyond the Core Studios, students are able to develop individual focus areas, for instance in advanced technology, design-build, and building construction, sustainability and resilience, urban design, historic preservation, and adaptive-use, healthcare, or hospitality. Students direct their trajectory following their interests, develop areas of professional concentration through certificates, and engage in critical research.

U-SoA faculty are joined each year by internationally-recognized visiting scholars and fellows. The diversity of faculty interests and experience offers opportunities for students in the selection of Advanced Elective Design Studios. The School is home to innovative research units, including RAD-UM, a lab dedicated to emergent embedded technology, the Laboratory of Littoral Urbanism, an acclaimed design/build program, and the Center for Urban and Community Design.

The Master of Architecture I AP is a 2-year (4-semester program) for students holding a pre-professional degree in architecture or a closely-related field. This STEM-designated professional degree program provides an advanced platform for students to engage contemporary challenges and address a variety of social, cultural, technological and programmatic contexts.

This M.Arch I AP program allows students to advance their undergraduate education by engaging more complex challenges, honing their skills in essential areas, and by developing individual focus areas, for instance in advanced technology, design-build, and building construction, sustainability and resilience, urban design, historic preservation and adaptive-use, healthcare, or hospitality. Students direct their trajectory following their interests, develop areas of professional concentration through certificates, and engage in critical research.

In their final year, graduate M.Arch students are expected to pursue a final degree project. Final degree projects comprise one of two tracks:

1) Design Thesis, an opportunity for each student, working with a faculty advisor, to conduct independent scholarly research and define an individual position with regard to the discipline of architecture

2) Graduate Design Research Studio, led by a faculty member, which investigates relevant or thematic issues of architecture.

U-SoA faculty are joined each year by internationally-recognized visiting scholars and fellows. The diversity of faculty interests and experience offers opportunities for students in the selection of Advanced Elective Design Studios. The School is home to innovative research units, including RAD-UM, a lab dedicated to emergent embedded technology, the Laboratory of Littoral Urbanism, an acclaimed design/build program, and the Center for Urban and Community Design.

The Master in Urban Design provides students with a design experience investigating the guiding principles for building regions, cities and communities. The degree is STEM-designated which allows international students to apply for OPT for up to 36 months after graduation.

Guided by imperatives of sustainability and resilience, the program conceptualizes cities as an extension of the ecological transect across the natural to human habitat, providing students with a range of experiences from rural to urban.

Program Director Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, recognized for her foundational role in the development of the movement called the New Urbanism, leads the program that invites students to explore design, policy and management tools for place-making as a vehicle for improving quality of life in a variety of urban settings. The impact of the built environment on health, retrofitting the suburban landscape, real estate development as community building, adaptation to climate change, and urban growth and revitalization, are topics prominent in course offerings and faculty research.

The three-semester curriculum begins in the fall each year with foundation courses in urban design and real estate development, in an Interdisciplinary approach structured by environmental, social and economic goals. The spring semester intensifies students' engagement with contemporary urban challenges such as climate resilience, healthy community design, and repair of suburban sprawl. The summer semester provides a concluding experience that aggregates prior topics in an international setting that challenges goals of sustainability and resource conservation. As part of the curriculum, students participate in the National Charrette Institute certification course, a training in public outreach and participatory planning, and collaborate with real estate development students in two special projects: a national design and development competition, and a local community revitalization plan. These experiences and the course work shared with the Master of Real Estate Development and Urbanism program provide a focus on implementation. The optional fourth semester of the Master of Urban Design program is a semester-long independent study design project or thesis. In recent years these have focused on topics such as greening a Brazilian City, socially integrated public housing in China, and an analysis of principles and metrics of Smart Cities and New Urbanism.

Other resources that enrich the urban design student's experience in the School include the Center for Community and Urban Design (CUCD), engaging students in community outreach projects in South Florida and The Caribbean, and the Archive of the New Urbanism, housed in the School of Architecture Library. The Archive is a growing resource of documents, with both texts and images that support research related to urban design. Also, Research Affiliates from around the world join the faculty annually to study the state-of-the-art in urban design and architecture.

Guiding the ever evolving program are faculty members Charles Bohl, Jaime Correa, Eric Firley, Jean Francois Lejeune, Victor Deupi and Joanna Lombard, internationally recognized in research, publication and design.

While the Master of Urban Design is a post-professional program, structured for students with a professional degree in architecture, those holding a degree in engineering, planning or landscape architecture may apply for admission. A preparatory summer course may be required for non-architects, to be determined by the admission process.

Upon completing the MArch degree, students will be able to:  

1. Innovate the knowledge and practice of architecture through advanced critical thinking, experimentation, and research.
2. Develop or augment a comprehensive knowledge of the technical aspects of design and construction including an understanding of their impact on design and the environment at a level commensurate with advanced study.
3. Develop a comprehensive knowledge of diverse, advanced building technologies and their application to the design, construction, and operation of buildings, including environmental, material, structural, and mechanical systems, using leading computer applications and tools.
4. Develop or augment a comprehensive understanding of architectural practice and foster the development of innovative forms of practice at a level commensurate with advanced study.

Learning to think about architecture as both the product of a creative process and as a historical phenomenon are the principal goals of Pitt’s BA program in Architectural Studies. Students will gain a broad understanding of the complexity of architecture as a profession and as an academic discipline. Housed in the Frick Fine Arts Building on Pitt’s Oakland campus, Architectural Studies is located at the heart of Pittsburgh’s cultural core.