This is an archived copy of the 2020-2021 catalog. To access the most recent version of the catalog, please visit http://catalog.uta.edu/.

Architecture

Bachelor's Degrees

Master's Degrees

Minor Offered

Overview

The design disciplines - Architecture and Interior Design - teach us to understand and to shape the spaces in which we live: rooms, buildings, and cities. These disciplines are old, being among the first activities of civilization itself. They are also new, requiring advanced knowledge and skills to serve contemporary societies. The design disciplines operate at many levels of thought and concern. On one hand they are very practical, dealing with a host of concrete realities; on the other hand, they are highly conceptual, concerned with meaning and society's highest aspirations.

The purpose of the School of Architecture's undergraduate curriculum is to pursue professional studies within the context of a liberal education. This goal is a natural one for the design disciplines, drawn as they are from the arts, the sciences, and the humanities.

The School of Architecture offers programs leading to the following degrees:

Bachelor of Science in Architecture: A four-year program of studies comprising, with a later two-year graduate program, the six-year Master of Architecture curriculum. This sequence, called the 4 + 2 model, has been adopted by many major universities as the most effective way of combining liberal education with professional education. (See the Graduate Catalog for the Master of Architecture program, which is accredited by the National Architectural Accrediting Board.) The four-year undergraduate degree is not an accredited professional degree; the Master of Architecture is fully accredited.

Bachelor of Science in Interior Design: A four-year program of studies, interdisciplinary with architecture, on the design of interior environments. Following the two-year Basic Studies sequence, the student completes two years of Major Studies, an intensive series of courses and studios on the theory, history, skill, and practice of interior design. The program leads to the professional degree in interior design, accredited by the Council for Interior Design Accreditation (CIDA) and the National Association of Schools of Art and Design (NASAD).

Minor in History of Architecture: For undergraduate students in architecture, interior design, or allied disciplines, the School of Architecture offers a minor in History of Architecture.

Master of Architecture: The Master of Architecture is an NAAB-accredited professional degree offered only at the graduate level. The Master of Architecture curriculum is coordinated with the Bachelor of Science in Architecture curriculum degree to form a six-year professional program. Below is the language from the National Architectural Accrediting Board explaining accreditation policy:

"In the United States, most 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 professional degree programs in architecture offered by institutions with U.S. regional accreditation, recognizes three types of degrees: the Bachelor of Architecture, the Master of Architecture, and the Doctor of Architecture. A program may be granted an eight-year, three-year, or two-year term of accreditation, depending on the extent of its conformance with established educational standards.

Doctor of Architecture and Master of Architecture degree programs may require a pre-professional undergraduate degree in architecture for admission. However, the pre-professional degree is not, by itself, recognized as an accredited degree."

The University of Texas at Arlington, School of Architecture offers the following NAAB-accredited Master of Architecture degree programs:

  • Path A (104 credit hours; requires a 4-year bachelors degree)
  • Path B (57 credit hours; requires a 4-year pre-professional degree in architecture)

The University of Texas at Arlington, School of Architecture also offers the following non-accredited Master of Architecture degree program:

  • Path C (33 credit hours; requires a professional degree in architecture)

History and Overview

Architecture was first taught at what is now The University of Texas at Arlington in the early 1940s as a two-year, non-degree program within the School of Engineering. In 1968, with the support of professional architects in the Dallas/Fort Worth area, architecture became a department of the College of Liberal Arts, granting the degree of Bachelor of Science in Architecture. The department prospered, and by 1973 a decision was made to establish a separate school of architecture based on a four-year undergraduate program with a two-year master of architecture program as the professional degree.

By 1978, the School of Architecture and Environmental Design (as it was named in 1974) had an enrollment of more than 1,000 students with 31 full-time faculty. Four programs were included at that time: architecture, interior design, landscape architecture, and city and regional planning. Subsequently, planning moved to the Institute of Urban Studies. In 1989, the school was renamed the School of Architecture.

Architecture and landscape architecture serve as both the means and the goals of the education that we offer. As means, our fields provide a ready path to the larger domain of ideas, history and the human condition, reflected in the fact that architecture was one of the essential liberal arts during the Renaissance. As goals, our fields call upon us to learn specific professional knowledge and skills: they focus our attitudes and abilities to produce tangible, concrete things. This demand that we alternately widen and narrow our vision is one of the great strengths of the fields and is one source of their effectiveness as courses of study.

Within a broad curriculum, design as a discipline and a process is emphasized. Students are encouraged to give rich visual and material substance to both theoretical and pragmatic ideas. The context for design at UT Arlington centers on the contemporary urban condition, an approach appropriate for a school at the heart of a diverse, expanding and internationally oriented region like Dallas/Fort Worth.

The school's location at the center of the Dallas/Fort Worth area is especially important for students of architecture and landscape architecture. Almost every cultural, social and professional opportunity is nearby. The urban setting serves as a laboratory to observe the issues that confront current design and to test the proposals put forward. Built work by many of the foremost contemporary architects and landscape architects may be experienced and studied firsthand. Kahn, Pei, Wright, Johnson, Meier, Legoretta, Rudolph, Giurgola, Barnes, Predock, Holl, KPF, Kiley and Walker all have major projects here.

The School of Architecture offers large and up-to-date facilities for research and study. Constructed in 1984, the Architecture Building houses studios, classrooms and offices in addition to a digital fabrication lab, a CAD lab, a photography studio, a materials shop, and the Architecture and Fine Arts Library that has 40,000 books and 190 periodicals. The UT Arlington Libraries contains more than 1 million volumes, and students have access to The University of Texas System Library, which houses 12 million volumes.

The School of Architecture has an enrollment of approximately 1,000 students, of whom about 160 are graduate students. They come from all parts of the United States and the world; more than 20 percent are international students. About one-third of the graduate students are women.

In terms of recognition of quality, 134 School of Architecture students have received awards in 63 major design or research competitions over the last 10 years, most at the national or international level. This record of competitive accomplishment reflects the education focus of the school. Highly developed skills, along with a tradition of integrating work and academic experience, give UT Arlington graduates ready entry and advancement in the professional world.

Mission and Philosophy

The mission of the School of Architecture programs is to prepare students for sustained contributions and leadership in the design professions. This mission occurs in partnership with the larger University. Together the programs and the University share the aim of educating broadly to the demands of a complex society and, more specifically, to the demands of sophisticated and changing professions.

Accreditation

The school offers the Master of Architecture  as a first professional degree, which is accredited by the National Architecture Accrediting Board (NAAB). The Bachelor of Science in Interior Design is accredited by the Council for Interior Design Accreditation (CIDA) and the National Association of Schools of Art and Design (NASAD). 

Scholastic Activity and Research Interests of the Faculty

Full time, part-time and adjunct faculty are active in their areas of academic and professional interest. This involvement takes many forms: built projects, design studies and competitions, scholarly writing, and applied research. Their work enriches the teaching mission of the school, and provides contributions to the larger community. 

Special Programs and Opportunities

Visiting faculty members are an integral part of the graduate program at UT Arlington. Noted teachers from other schools in the United States and abroad as well as distinguished practicing designers offer advanced studios and courses each year. Thus, students have access to both a core of permanent faculty members and to a changing spectrum of approaches and values. In addition to on-campus coursework, graduate students may study and travel abroad as an integrated part of the curriculum. The school maintains semester-long, full-credit student exchanges during the academic year with architecture schools at the Universities of Barcelona (Spain,) Lund (Sweden,) Innsbruck (Austria,) and Cottbus (Germany.) During the summer, there are several study abroad program opportunities.

Graduate Studio Lottery Process

Studio Culture Policy

Laptop Policy