Architecture Degrees Online

The pre-architecture major leads to the Bachelor of Arts degree. However, it may be chosen only as a second major. The double major is required so that the perspectives provided by this interdisciplinary program may be complemented by a concentrated disciplinary experience. The pre-architecture program introduces the student to the forms, history, and functions of architecture as well as the studio skills relevant to its practice. The program is designed to provide a background for undergraduate students who plan to continue architectural studies at the graduate level, as well as for those interested in the study of architecture as part of a liberal or technical education.

To declare a pre-architecture major, students should have declared a first major and have sophomore or junior standing. Up to 6 credits in general education requirements and elective courses taken by students for their first major may be applied to their pre-architecture major.

Calvin College has almost thirty years experience offering a preparatory program in architecture analogous to Pre-Med and Pre-Law with graduates now practicing architecture throughout the United States and Canada.

“Calvin’s Pre – Architecture program provided a solid foundation for my graduate school work in architecture and for my career as an architect. The liberal arts component of my education is extremely valuable, even today, as the profession requires a diverse set of skills.” Jason S. Reiffer BA, Pre-Architecture, Calvin College, 1998. M Arch, University of Michigan, 2001.

“Among the many things I value from my time at Calvin, four come to mind: lasting friendships with Christian mentors and peers; participation in a community of faith; the capacity to think critically due to liberal arts studies, and Calvin’s emphasis on excellence in all endeavors. All of these have been invaluable in navigating the discipline of architecture as a unique combination of humanities, science and art. While the pre-architecture program per se honed many of the skills required to communicate well, (graphically, orally, and in writing), the liberal arts core and lasting relationships have been a solid foundation for subsequent acedemic and professional work.

Students in their fourth year of design may apply by July 1st of that year to the College of Business to begin the MBA program during their fifth year. Admissions into the program is competitive and performance on the GMAT is very important. Completion of the Master in Business Administration can be accomplished in one year or less after completing the BArch program depending on the number of graduate courses a student completes during their fifth year in the architecture program.

The Architecture Program integrates critical, artistic, and material approaches to the study and practice of architecture.

The five-year, NAAB-accredited* program is committed to experiments in alternative models of practice, design, and fabrication. The curriculum accordingly brings developments in culture, media, and technology to bear on the process of architectural production, allowing students to capitalize on new opportunities in a rapidly changing profession.

Our metropolitan setting informs the educational experience; the city of San Francisco functions as an urban laboratory, inspiring new ways to configure and inhabit architecture. Throughout their studies, students are encouraged to collaborate within and across disciplines to take full advantage of CCA’s studio culture. The program actively seeks the participation of leading international figures for studio instruction, juried reviews, and an ambitious lecture series.

The facilities on the San Francisco campus include dedicated studios with a wireless network infrastructure, a suite of fully equipped shops for various scales and media of fabrication, and four computer labs with the latest hardware and software. The New Materials Resource Center offers a comprehensive, interdisciplinary collection of samples and is the only library of its kind housed at an art school.

Through the required internship, students have the opportunity to work at architectural firms in the United States and abroad. Architecture Program students also regularly enter and place in design competitions.

*In the United States, most state registration boards require a degree from an accredited professional degree program as a prerequisite for licensure. The National Architectural Accrediting Board (NAAB), which is the sole agency authorized to accredit U.S. professional degree programs in architecture, recognizes three types of degrees: the bachelor of architecture, the master of architecture, and the doctor of architecture. A program may be granted a six-year, three-year, or two-year term of accreditation depending on the extent of its conformance with established educational standards.

Master’s degree programs may consist of a preprofessional undergraduate degree and a professional graduate degree that, when earned sequentially, constitute an accredited professional education. The preprofessional degree is not, by itself, recognized as an accredited degree.

The Master of Architecture Program focuses on material innovation, research, application, and resourcefulness within a larger social and cultural context. While providing a well-rounded architectural education, the program engages physically and digitally with old, new, and emerging building materials and systems to explore architecture as a critical and evolving practice. Digital craft, design research, interdisciplinary engagement, alternative models, and global involvement and exchange are emphasized.

Designed for students who have earned a bachelor’s degree in another field, the program is a three-year first professional master’s degree in architecture. It also accommodates students who have begun their architectural studies at the undergraduate level. Advanced standing may be granted to those who have some previous education in the field. Placement is based on a review of the portfolio and undergraduate transcripts.

CCA’s metropolitan setting enhances the educational experience it offers. The city of San Francisco serves as an urban laboratory, inspiring new ways to configure architecture and space. Small class sizes ensure access to a diverse faculty of practicing professionals. The program sponsors its own lecture series featuring architects and theorists from around the world who are working with a wide range of issues and ideas. Many of these guests stay on campus for several days to teach and review student work.

We believe that architects are cultural makers—leading and responding to social, economic, and ecological issues. Our goal is to graduate architects who will continue to produce real-world work that engages architectural theory.

The heart of architectural education is the design studio, where students learn to synthesize the wide range of ideas, issues, and technologies required for the conceptualization of architecture. It is also the place where some aspects of architectural practice are modeled and where history, theory, and technology are integrated into design.

The first three semesters introduce the culture of architecture and the nature of the discipline through rigorous studios that are open to graduate students only. In the following two semesters, students explore their own interests, choosing from a menu of elective studios that are taught by architects and focus on a broad range of practice strategies.

The final studio semester is spent executing an honors design thesis or an advanced studio using the student’s own research and focusing on his or her specific interests. A course on the intricacies of professional practice rounds out this cluster.

Running parallel to the studio courses is a sequence of courses in history and theory. These courses ground studio practice in the world of ideas. The first year includes an in-depth study of the history of architecture as well as a seminar course that places architecture in the context of culture, politics, technology, and philosophy.

In the second year, a one-semester seminar introduces architectural theory. The fall of the third year includes an intensive independent research lab, in which students explore their individual interests under the close supervision of a faculty member.

This work provides the intellectual framework for the concluding semester of studio work. Finally, each student selects two semesters of graduate level, topically based theory seminars from a menu of courses offered across all of CCA’s graduate programs.

A third parallel sequence of courses builds knowledge and skills related to technology and practice issues. Courses in sustainable building systems, building energy, structures, materials, and methods of construction form the heart of this sequence. Electives within the sequence include courses in deep-green building practices, advanced building construction, and digital craft.

The facilities on the San Francisco campus include dedicated studios with a wireless network infrastructure, a suite of fully equipped shops for various scales and media of fabrication, and four computer labs with the latest Macintosh hardware and software. The New Materials Resource Center offers a comprehensive, interdisciplinary collection of samples and is the only library of its kind housed at an art school.

The program’s other resources include special summer studios, including travel studios. In August, just before fall classes begin, we offer incoming students a three-week Architectonic Intensive. This course is designed to give those with little or no making or drawing experience a head start.

The program also offers the 333 studio each summer. Based in San Francisco, this studio is three weeks long, with each of the weeks taught by a different internationally recognized architect. Instructors for 333 have included Nader Tehrani of Office dA, Thomas Wiscombe of EMERGENT, Rodolphe el-Khoury, and Lisa Iwamoto and Craig Scott of IwamotoScott Architecture.

Our Latin American travel studio alternates summers between Peru and Argentina. Each studio is led by a member of our faculty who is native to the country: the Peru trip is led by Sandra Vivanco, and the Argentina studio is taught by Leonardo Zylberberg.

Facilities
The graduate program is centered in Manhattan, a world capital. NYIT’s two campus settings in the metropolitan region permit students to combine theory with experience by living and working in a variety of areas and conducting field study in and around New York City, including its classic suburban region, Long Island, whose extended linearity, isolation by water, age, and intense land use make it both a laboratory and a unique experience for the study of urban and regional design. This provides the opportunity for case studies to test and apply new insights, theory, and designs to contemporary issues. NYIT’s distance learning facilities permit simultaneous courses and conferencing at all sites. Graduate design studio space is in Manhattan and will be allocated within architecture departments on each campus as needed. Seminar rooms are available for formal courses as well as informal events. Campus libraries are linked and material from one can be available at another through the intercampus exchange system. A study abroad program investigates existing canonical urban design and is integrated into the design studio sequence. This program allows the degree to be completed in a single year.

Professional Degrees
This Master of Architecture program is a post-professional degree. Applicants must hold a professional architectural degree from an NAAB-accredited college or university, or the equivalent, if applying with a degree from another country.

Courses
There is a minimum of six credits required for enrollment per semester. Studio courses will be taught in the traditional method with an average of 12 students per critic. Studios may be taught in a team format, depending on project type, intended product, and the relationship established with public agencies, civic organizations, research funding, etc. Some courses are organized as colloquia with specialists or noted people in education or practice providing a series of lectures with a course coordinator.

The Bachelor of Science in Architectural Technology is a non-professional degree that permits the successful student to gain a license to practice architecture in the state of New York but does not make the degree holder eligible for NCARB certification. Should the successful Bachelor of Science in Architecture Technology graduate later seek to gain a first professional degree in architecture, he or she could pursue a first professional degree Bachelor of Architecture or a first professional degree Master of Architecture.

Those students in the B.S.A.T. program can concentrate their studies in advanced computer aided design (CAD) or construction management.

With a focus in advanced CAD, the B.S.A.T. candidate undertakes upper-level courses covering the use of computers in areas such as the preparation of construction drawing, the planning of advanced structures, the preparation of three-dimensional visual representations, as well as the use of computers in modern construction management. Upper-level courses in contract management, construction supervision, and real estate fundamentals make up the offer of the B.S.A.T. with a concentration in construction management. Two semesters of design fundamentals in the first-year design studios introduce the student to the basic principals of three-dimensional design through a series of composition, planning, and introductory design problems. In the second year, progressively more demanding problems, in addition to significant building design analysis exercises, are undertaken.

The student who is accepted into the Bachelor of Architecture program is required to complete Design III through Design VIII, or an additional six semesters of design studios. In the third year, students are required to solve architectural problems involving small but increasingly more complex building programs. Urban and community design and building design programs requiring inventive structural systems are emphasized in the fourth year. In the fifth and final year of the program, students undertake a terminal thesis project, individually chosen, that serves to demonstrate a cumulative grasp of all of the factors that influence the design of a complex work of architecture.

In the fourth and final year of the Bachelor of Science in Architecture Technology curriculum, the student is required to complete a capstone Project Integration Studio in which all aspects of a building design and architectural technology are fully explored and integrated into one comprehensive exercise. Although the design studios form the core of the experience at the School of Architecture and Design, complementary avenues of study and inquiry operate as essential aspects of the program and the training of students. Courses in architectural history introduce the student to the history of the built domain from the earliest times to the present. Methods of historical building design analysis and interpretation are introduced to the student through the study of great architectural monuments, as well as through the study of cities. Architectural history is introduced not only as a chronology of building development, but as a body of knowledge, an anthology, that serves as a tool in the design process. In addition to the survey courses, the school offers history seminars in areas such as architectural theory, the history of building technology, and the history of urban planning. A coordinated sequence of drawing and computer courses provide students with the skill to visualize and document design ideas starting with an introductory course focusing on hand drawing and the use of art media and concluding with a course on advanced digital visualization and rendering. The NYIT School of Architecture and Design program is widely respected by the professional community for its course offerings in areas of building technology. Technical competence is cultivated by exposure to an array of course offerings that cover all aspects of building materials, structural systems, and mechanical and electrical systems. The management of the construction process is covered by comprehensive upper level courses that focus on the procedures of professional practice and construction supervision as well as contemporary use of computers in construction industry.The technology faculty, as active members of the construction community, brings real world experience to the coursework and maintains an up-to-date bridge between the curriculum and changes in professional practice.

Admission Requirements
Applicants to the post-professional MS Arch are expected to have an NAAB-accredited B.Arch or equivalent degree. International B.Arch degree holders who seek professional licensure in the United States should apply for admission to the M.Arch Program with advanced standing. All applications to NJSOA require the inclusion of all prior post-secondary transcripts, a statement of purpose, three letters of recommendation, GRE results, and a statement of purpose. Applicants to either the Professional M.Arch or post-professional MS Arch Programs must also submit a portfolio with their applications.

Prospective applicants to the academic MS Arch should consult with the NJSOA Graduate Program Office regarding appropriate preparation for the degree they seek. Available concentrations in the MS Arch currently include sustainable design, digital design, advanced structural design, and history and theory of architecture. Customized programs of study are available for exceptionally well-motivated and self-directed students.

Post-Professional Track Degree Requirements
ARCH 505G (6 credits) Advanced Options Design Studio I
ARCH 506G (6 credits) Advanced Options Design Studio II
Eighteen elective credits chosen in consultation with Graduate Architecture Program Director.

Academic Track Degree Requirements
The articulated MS Arch in Sustainable Architecture program, which extends the four-course Certificate in Sustainable Architecture Program into a full 30-credit Masters degree, is shown below. Students with other areas of interest may design their individual programs in consultation with the Graduate Architecture Program Director. Our general guidelines are that any such program of study should be composed of a four-course twelve-credit core, a two-course six-credit extension of that core including one research methods course appropriate to the student’s area of focus, six credits of independent study, including the Master’s Project, and two additional electives.As noted above, available concentrations include digital design, advanced structural design, history and theory of architecture, and urban systems.

Required Courses

M.S. Arch in Sustainable Architecture
ARCH 663 (3 credits) Introduction to Sustainable Architecture
ARCH 664 (3 credits) Indoor Environmental Quality in Sustainably Designed Buildings
ARCH 665 (3 credits) Sustainable Design of Energy Efficient Buildings
ARCH 666 (3 credits) Sustainable Design with Efficient Materials and Resources
ARCH 662 (3 credits) Special Topics: Integrated Building Systems I (or ARCH 546G or other substitute approved by Director)
ARCH 662 (3 credits) Special Topics: Integrated Building Systems II (or substitute approved by Director)
ARCH 700 (3 credits) Master’s Project

The New Jersey School of Architecture offers the five-year NAAB-accredited Bachelor of Architecture (B.Arch) and the four-year pre-professional Bachelor of Science in Architecture (BS Arch) programs. Our goal is to nurture our students’ loftiest ambitions while providing the skill sets necessary to succeed in architecture and related fields. Students who enroll in NJSOA have made a career choice; our role is to help them find a directions within that career by teaching habits of mind and skills that are transferable to a number of career paths.

Bachelor of Architecture
The Bachelor of Architecture (B. Arch) is a five-year professional undergraduate degree accredited by the National Architectural Accrediting Board (NAAB). The curriculum is designed to prepare the student for a future career as a registered (licensed) architect. The B. Arch is a two-tiered professional program of NAAB-required technical and professional courses and specialized elective offerings developed and delivered by professional faculty who are for the most part registered themselves. Successful completion of the B. Arch program is the first step toward licensure as a professional architect.

Bachelor of Science in Architecture
The Bachelor of Science in Architecture (BS Arch) is a four-year pre-professional degree. Students in the BS Arch program cannot become licensed architects unless they complete the professional-degree curriculum requirements set by the NAAB. However, the flexibility of the BS Arch degree allows students who do not wish to become traditional architects to pursue dual degree programs within the School and University, or engage in career opportunities in related design and building fields. Students can be admitted to the BS Architecture program immediately or transfer from the B. Arch program after two years.

Bachelor of Science in Architecture Degree Requirements

The BS degree does not lead to licensure as an architect; instead it presents students with a wide array of other options leading to career opportunities within the building industry. Students can be admitted to the BS in Architecture or transfer from the B. Arch program after two years. The BS in Architecture program requires 135 credits and is structured as follows:

The first two years of the BS in Architecture program are identical to the course of study for the five-year professional program. In the third year, all BS students take Arch 363 followed by a computer elective. Thus every student has at least one full year of computer-based learning.

The BS in Architecture is designed to lead into a series of accelerated graduate degrees such as construction management (BS in Architecture/MS in Civil Engineering), infrastructure planning (BS in Architecture/Master in Infrastructure Planning), management (BS in Architecture/MS in Management; BS in Architecture, MBA), or professional graduate degree in Architecture (BS in Architecture/M.Arch.) leading to licensure.

Course choices will be worked out on an individual basis after consultation with the academic advisor to reflect a student’s individual interests and career objectives. The BS in Architecture provides a wide array of curriculum paths; it is designed to provide a superb general education for all building professionals.

Credit Distribution for the Bachelor of Science in Architecture

Required Architecture Credits 49
Architecture Electives 21
Free Electives 12
Computing Elective 3
Rutgers Drawing Course 3
General University Requirements 47

TOTAL CREDITS 135