Mission & Goals
Mission
The School of Architecture and Planning is dedicated to the professional education of architects, planners and sustainability experts, who will help us design, build and conserve the built environment. Utilizing the nation’s capital and other cities as design laboratories, our graduate programs provide an enriching educational climate in which students investigate the realms of design, theory and building within the context of the world in which we live. Students are exposed to the basics of professional practice in architecture, planning, and sustainability in our graduate programs.
CUA's School of Architecture and Planning attracts students from throughout the United States and the world who are aware of the school's long history and educational renown. The professional architecture program at CUA was established in 1911, and after nine decades its reputation is expressed in a continuing legacy of design excellence-early Beaux Arts prizewinners to contemporary AIA award-winning faculty work and student projects.
In CUA's School of Architecture and Planning, students are exposed to the foundational, the conventional and the classical, as well as to the experimental and unorthodox. Diverse theoretical perspectives, paradigms, project types from varied architects, landscape architects, urban designers and planners become key elements in our various teaching/learning activities. Our full-time faculty, along with a distinguished array of adjuncts and visiting lecturers and studio critics drawn from the profession, provide our students with an excellent, stimulating context within which they pursue their learning.
Goals
Historically, the profession of architecture has placed the highest priority on the artful creation of place, incorporating the great Roman architect/engineer Vitruvius' three principles of firmness, commodity and delight. Consequently, the architect must be well versed in the arts, technically skilled, and possess a deep understanding of the human condition. Thus, the school seeks to impart a proper sense of ethics and a spirit of service to the community. The emphasis on these qualities gives professional training its distinctive character at The Catholic University of America.
The School of Architecture and Planning is dedicated to the professional education of those who will design, build and conserve the built environment, principally as architects and urban planners. Utilizing Washington and other metropolitan areas as design laboratories, the graduate program provides an enriching educational climate in which students investigate the realms of design, theory and building in the context of the world in which we live. Students are exposed to a diversity of architectural experiences through a choice of graduate concentrations that include Classical Architecture and Urbanism, Cultural Studies/Sacred Space, Technology, Media and Interiors, and Urban Practice.
Central to the graduate program is the design studio, where students pursue their architectural inquiries individually or in teams. Design studios are directed by faculty members who have extensive experience in both practice and teaching. Visiting critics whose professional experience is relevant to the studio projects are brought into the school to provide richness and diversity to the students' design education. The studio experience culminates in a design thesis. Supporting the studio experience are advanced courses in architecture, planning and related fields. Lectures, seminars and exhibitions are devised to introduce the student to the multitude of considerations faced by the practicing architect to reveal differing philosophies and attitudes toward architectural design. As in the studios, lecturers are invited from among the many outstanding professionals practicing in the Washington area to provide informal talks on their current work, teach or add their particular insights to the core courses.