Students are admitted to the Master of Architecture I program after completing an undergraduate degree. The curriculum is dedicated to investigating the union of architectural form and thought. It understands architecture as the meeting ground between public and private expression and sees the city as its preeminent site. The program seeks to import mastery of the fundamental skills and ideas necessary for the practice of architecture in the 21st Century. The principal medium for this is the design studio. Nourished by courses in technology, environment, history, and theory, students will undertake problems of growing complexity over the three years of the program.

Beginning with the investigation of form-making in the abstract, with the nature of the architectural program, and with the media of architectural representation, projects progressively integrate questions of landscape, the social organization of space, the characteristics of institutional form, the morphology and typology of city space, construction, and environmental technology.
The program includes both required courses and a substantial number of electives. These latter may be taken both from within the School and from any of the institutions in the CUNY system, including the Graduate Center. Students can use these options both to reinforce work in the studio and to pursue their own special interests within the field. Widespread inquiry is encouraged: the program is firm in its belief that excellence of form is built on a foundation of excellence in ideas.

TOTAL PROGRAM CREDITS: 108

Additional Requirements:

A limited number of students may complete an independent Architecture Thesis, rather than a final Architecture Studio, subject to approval of a thesis proposal. Students approved for an Architecture Thesis must also take a thesis preparation seminar as an elective course in the fall of their third year. Students must maintain a semester academic average of 3.0 or better. Students must receive a minimum academic grade of 3.0 or better in every Architecture Studio course.

 ACCREDITATION

The Master of Architecture I program is accredited. See the NAAB section of this site for more information and links regarding accreditation.