Architecture

The Department of Architecture, Interior Design, and Lighting at Parsons School of Design offers a NAAB accredited professional Master of Architecture degree that emphasizes the study of architecture as a material and cultural practice. Using the urban environment of New York as a laboratory, the school's rigorous curriculum integrates courses in studio, history, theory, and technology that together investigate some of the following issues:

o The capacity of architecture to shape social interaction in space
o The relationship between space, the body, and sensory perception
o The integration of material construction and speculative design
o The impact of digital technologies and new media on design
o The ecology of technological and natural systems

The M.Arch program takes pride in its focus on research and investigation into contemporary architectural ideas and practices. The program places particular emphasis on the creative role of architects, fostering the task of translating the ordinary and the everyday into extraordinary works of architectural invention. The program's small size and large atelier atmosphere support an intimate community where students can work closely with the department's faculty of distinguished professional architects, historians, and critical theorists drawn from New York's international design community. Students can supplement their coursework with many offerings from the other programs within the department, including Interior Design and the Master of Fine Arts in Lighting Design program. In addition, students may take advantage of visual arts electives offered by other Parsons departments, as well as courses given by New School University, renowned for its focus on social and cultural studies.

The Design Workshop focuses on materiality, detail, and form/space-making in their capacity to reflect and direct social practice. This unique "design-build" option studio is offered in the Spring semester of the second year. Students explore the architectural design process from concept to actual construction over a six-month period. Recent projects include a transformable artists space for the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council; a lobby/gallery renovation for the non-profit housing and community development group, Common Ground; a prototype field house for the New York Public School System sponsored by another non-profit group, Take the Field; studio and gallery facilities for the New York Studio Program; the Morris Avenue Community Garden Pavilion in the Bronx; and a number of renovations at Parsons School of Design, including the Department of Architecture, Interior Design, and Lighting.

Kent Kleinman
Chair

David J. Lewis
Director

Preparation for Admission

Accredited by the New York State Board of Regents in 1990
and by the National Architectural Accrediting Board (NAAB) in 1994, Parsons' Architecture Program offers two professional degree options.

Students with a four-year undergraduate degree in a non-architecture major pursue a three-year (106-credit) course of study leading to a First Professional Degree. Prior to entry in the three-year program, these students are required to take one college-level course in calculus and one in physics, and at least one course in the history of architecture. It is also required that students without a design background prepare by taking the Parsons Summer Intensive Studio in Architectural Drawing and Modeling or an equivalent course elsewhere.

Students that already hold a B.Arch First Professional degree, or a foreign equivalent, typically enroll in the one and a half-year Post Professional degree program (54 credits), a flexible course of study that allows each student to custom design his/her coursework to suit academic interests. This course of study begins in the spring semester and continues for three semesters, allowing students to take advantage of the Design Workshop studio and the chance to spend a summer working in New York City between years of study. To fully engage the design studio, students are required to have a laptop upon entering the program. Contact the department for specifications.

NAAB Statement

In the U.S., 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 two types of degrees: the Bachelor of Architecture and the Master of Architecture. A program may be granted a five-year, three-year, or two-year term of accreditation, depending on its degree of conformance with established educational standards.

Master's degree programs may consist of a pre-professional undergraduate degree and a professional graduate degree, which, when earned sequentially, comprise an accredited professional education. The pre-professional degree is not, by itself, recognized as an accredited degree.

Administration

Kent Kleinman, Chair
David J. Lewis, Director,
M.Arch Program
Joanna Merwood, Director,
Public Programs
Silvia Kolbowski, Faculty Advisor, Editor, Scapes

Advisory Board

Walter Chatham, Principal
Walter Chatham Architects
Rachel Eberts Gray, Work NYC
Alumni Representative
Ray Gastil, New York Planning Commission
Rosalie Genevro, Executive
Director, Architectural League
Paul Goldberger, Dean
Parsons School of Design
New Yorker Magazine
Robert Gutman, Professor
Princeton University and
Rutgers University
Joy Fedden Habian, Principal
Architecture Marketing
and Media
Terence Riley, Curator of
Architecture Museum of
Modern Art
Billie Tsien, Principal
Williams & Tsien Architects
Bartholomew Voorsanger, FAIA, President, AIA/New York City

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