Bachelor of Science in Architecture

Architecture is the culturally responsible design and production of buildings that are useful, durable, meaningful, inspiring, and responsive to their physical and social contexts. Architecture is an art, a technical craft, and an ethical practice.

The pre-professional architecture program is primarily intended for those who wish to go on to a graduate level professional program and become practicing architects. It teaches understanding of the social, technical, and symbolic content of the natural and built environments, the skills to modify those environments, and the judgment to assess the value of modifications. The program can also be beneficial in preparing students for many related fi elds that require an ability to solve problems and increase values in complex situations by creating appropriate order and supportive structure.

The curriculum is comprehensive from the beginning. Because architects must be able to integrate practical, technical, and aesthetic factors in designing buildings, students are introduced immediately to that challenge. They become practiced over the extent of the program in giving coherence to increasingly complex and demanding situations.

The curriculum is structured around four primary elements: 1) a core program of required architectural lectures, seminars, and studios that introduces students to fundamental professional knowledge and skills, 2) a series of general education elective courses, which allows students to expand their education, 3) four quarters of cooperative work experience in a wide range of professional firrms, and 4) a two-quarter capstone studio project in which students demonstrate their acquired knowledge and skills.

The program awards a pre-professional Bachelor of Science in Architecture degree after four years. Students who apply and are accepted into the graduate program then work towards the two-year, professional Master of Architecture degree.

Other educational opportunities include organized travel quarters and student exchange programs in England, Germany, and Denmark. Many architecture students also pursue joint degrees and certifi cate programs within the college and the university.

About the Program

The four-year pre-professional Bachelor of Science in Architecture program prepares students to enter our two-year professional Master of Architecture program, which leads to licensing as a practicing architect. The B.S. in Architecture program can also be beneficial in preparing students for many related fields that require an ability to solve problems and increase values in complex situations by creating appropriate order and supportive structure.

The curriculum is comprehensive from the beginning. Because architects must be able to integrate practical, technical, and aesthetic factors in designing buildings, we introduce students immediately to that challenge. They become practiced over the extent of the program in giving coherence to increasingly complex and demanding situations. We have structured the curriculum around four key components:

1. a core program of required architecture lectures, seminars, and design studios that introduce students to fundamental professional knowledge and skills;
2. a series of general education elective opportunities to broaden your education;
3. four quarters of cooperative work experience in a wide range of professional firms; and
4. a two-quarter capstone studio project which offers the opportunity to demonstrate your acquired knowledge and skills in a comprehensive design project.

Because most states require that a person who intends to become a licensed architect hold an accredited degree, most of our B.S. in Architecture graduates apply to our professional Master of Architecture program. If you maintain at least a 3.20 GPA in the B.S. in Architecture program, we will offer you automatic admission to the Master of Architecture. The National Architecture Accrediting Board (NAAB) has continuously accredited the University of Cincinnati's professional degree in architecture since 1948.

Faculty in the School of Architecture and Interior Design have come to Cincinnati from excellent universities all over the country as well as from England, Germany, India, Nigeria, Australia, and Turkey. Most of the faculty members are registered professionals and many complement their university teaching with design practice. Research areas include historic preservation, sustainable design, digital media, building morphology, historical and contemporary theory, post-occupancy evaluation, universal design, building science, environmental technology, community design, urban design, interior design, archaeology, and post-colonial modern architecture.

The College of DAAP supports a multidisciplinary design and art culture, with programs in architecture, interior design, graphic design, digital design, industrial design, fashion design, art history, fine arts, urban planning, and urban studies.

Local architecture. The central basin and surrounding hills of Cincinnati are populated with fine examples of nineteenth- and early twentieth-century architecture, many of them brick structures erected by German immigrants in the 1840s to 1880s. Scores of individual buildings and whole districts are listed on historic registers. Local neighborhoods serve our teaching programs as excellent sites and laboratories for architectural, interior design, urban design, and historic preservation projects.

Notable architects who built in Cincinnati during that early period include Daniel Burnham, H.H. Richardson and Isaiah Rogers (whose Chamber of Commerce Building and Burnet House Hotel both burned long ago), John Russell Pope, Cass Gilbert, Ernest Flagg, as well as Cincinnati's own Samuel Hannaford and James McLaughlin. Engineer John Roebling managed to get a truss-suspension bridge constructed across the Ohio River in 1876.

Nationally-known architects who have left more recent marks on the city: Zaha Hadid, Michael Graves, Cesar Pelli, Gordon Bunshaft, RTKL, SOM, Hardy Holzman Pfeiffer, and Kohn Pederson Fox. Frank Lloyd Wright designed three houses here, Philip Johnson one.

The University of Cincinnati's campus master plan designed by landscape architect George Hargreaves features new buildings and urban landscapes by Frank Gehry, Thom Mayne, Michael Graves, Gwathmey Siegel, Machado and Silvetti, David Childs with SOM, Henry Cobb with Pei Cobb Fried, Liers Weinzapfel, Cambridge Seven, Moore Rubell Yudell, and Bernard Tschumi. Peter Eisenman's internationally acclaimed Aronoff Center for Design and Art houses the School of Architecture and Interior Design and the three other schools within the College of DAAP.