Master of Architecture Sample Program
Award Winning Curriculum
The new M.Arch curriculum was the 2008 recipient of the AIA Education Honor Award and was praised for its’ out-of-the-box thinking and framing of cutting edge issues facing architecture. The new curriculum was designed to rapidly respond to the opportunities and demands of a dynamic and constantly changing world and profession. The M.Arch curriculum is guided by three primary values: Building on Tradition, Embracing Challenges, and Expecting Change.
The curriculum is structured to facilitate two very different modes of working: “slow burn” and “agile/nimble”. Fall semester is “slow”, taught in semester-long coordinated courses while spring semester is “agile”, containing combinations of 7-week modules. Placed between the modules are four-day “catalyst” workshops that encourage high-risk work with visiting design professionals and faculty. Shifting between different modes of work, students develop agility and alternate between working with known peers and mixed groups from different year levels and other disciplines. Shifting between different modes of work, students are prompted to develop a mental agility and critical thinking skills that prepare them to engage with the expanded and unfamiliar ways that architecture design is responding to the problems of the 21st century.
THREE YEAR PROGRAM
Our three-year professional program is oriented toward students who do not have an undergraduate degree in architecture or environmental design.
Three Year Curriculum M.Arch Program Plan
90 credits total
| YEAR ONE | |
| Fall Semester | 15 credits |
| ARCH 5411: Principles of Design Theory | 3 credits |
| ARCH 5515 Technology - Materials | 3 credits |
| ARCH 8251: Graduate Architectural Design I | 9 credits |
| Spring Semester | 17 credits |
| ARCH 5516 Luminous & Thermal | 6 credits |
| Project Module | 4 credits |
| Elective course | 3 credits |
| Elective course | 3 credits |
| ARCH 5110: Architecture as Catalyst | 1 credit |
| YEAR TWO | |
| Fall Semester | 15 credits |
| ARCH 5517 Technology - Structural | 3 credits |
| ARCH 5621: Professional Practice in Architecture | 3 credits |
| ARCH 8253: Graduate Architectural Design II | 9 credits |
| Spring Semester | 15 credits |
| ARCH 8254 | 4 credits |
| Project Module | 4 credits |
| Elective course | 3 credits |
| Elective course | 3 credits |
| ARCH 5110: Architecture as Catalyst | 1 credit |
| YEAR THREE | |
| Fall Semester | 15 credits |
| ARCH 8255: Graduate Architectural Design III | 6 credits |
| Elective course | 3 credits |
3 credits 3 credits |
|
| Spring Semester | 13 credits |
| ARCH 8299: Master’s Final Project | 10 credits |
| Elective course | 3 credits |
| Total | 90 credits |
Note: Project modules and elective course offerings vary each semester. Please see current class schedule for details.
3-Year PROGRAM: M.Arch
The 3-Year Program is oriented toward students with undergraduate degrees in fields other than architecture. We value the breadth of a liberal education, and strongly encourage students with a broad range of academic backgrounds to apply to the 3 Year Program.
Two Year Program: M.Arch
Applicants must have a pre-professional B.S. major in architecture, or its equivalent, and have completed at least one course in structures, materials & methods, and environmental technologies, and at least four semesters of architecture design studios. The portfolio must exhibit a proficiency of design equal to students having completed the first year of our 3-year program.
CONCURRENT DEGREE PROGRAMS: M.Arch + M.S. Degrees
Students who enter the M.Arch program may also apply to one of the M.S. in Architecture programs (Sustainable Design, Heritage Conservation and Preservation, or Metropolitan Design). The concurrent degree program enables M.Arch students to overlap up to 24 credits from the 90-credit M.Arch program. Students in the concurrent degree program can complete both degrees in a minimum of 3 1/2 years (seven semesters).
