Architecture & Community Design

Building Communities for Human and Environmental Sustainability

The Architecture and Community Design Program is committed to educating women and men to be passionate and capable professional innovators for positive change in the built environment. Students are trained to look at the built world with fresh eyes and to understand how communities function in relation to the structures that comprise them. They are guided by faculty towards a commitment to improvement of the quality of human life through improvement of place. Awareness of the crucial need for sustainable design in today’s world is fostered at every level.

The curriculum is structured to teach students how to present their architectural ideas visually, orally, and in writing to communities at the grass roots and municipal levels. Completion of the program provides a foundation sufficient for entry to graduate level Architectural programs and the professional workplace in various design related fields.

Program Requirements include:

• Six design studios beginning with basic drawing and modeling skills and progressing to complex architectural and community design problems.
• A four semester Architectural History sequence which parallels the focus of the design studios.
• An architecture focused, semester abroad in Budapest, Hungary.
• A Community Design Outreach studio in which students work on actual design projects located locally, nationally, or internationally.
• A semester long, senior year internship at an architecture or urban planning firm; municipal planning, building, or parks department; non-profit housing or parks organization.