Programs of Studies
The Professional Degree
CUA offers several options for earning the Master of Architecture professional degree. The two-year M.Arch. program is intended for students with a four-year undergraduate pre-professional degree in architecture, a Bachelor of Science in Architecture. Select students graduating from CUA with a four-year Bachelor of Science in Architecture may be eligible for advanced standing, thereby reducing graduate study from four semesters to three semesters. The three-year M.Arch. program is intended for students who hold an undergraduate degree in a field other than architecture or a Bachelor of Arts with a Major in Architecture. Students in the three-year M. Arch. program have the option to join the Integrated Path to Architecture License (IPAL) program. These Master of Architecture degree programs are fully accredited by the National Architectural Accrediting Board.
Programs lead to the degrees Bachelor of Science in Architecture, Master of Architecture (professional degree for students who have a pre-professional degree in architecture), Master of Architecture (professional degree for bachelors in fields other than architecture), Master of Architectural Studies and Master of Science in Net Zero Design (known as MSNzD and transitioned from Master of Science in Sustainable Design in fall 2021). Joint degrees including a joint Bachelor of Science in Architecture + Bachelor of Civil Engineering and Master of Architecture + MSNzD is available.
Concentrations
The School of Architecture and Planning currently offers five areas of concentration available to students for more focused specialization during their graduate education. These are Urban Practice, Cultural Studies/Sacred Space, Technology, Media and Interiors, and Classical Architecture and Urbanism.
Sacred Space and Cultural Studies
The Sacred Space and Cultural Studies concentration is one of very few programs in the world where architecture graduate students, faculty, and professionals can reflect, learn, research, and profess the deepest spiritual and cultural roots of place-making. We pursue this interest by engaging the inspiring conversation between the physical and the metaphysical, matter and spirit, life and intention, through the eyes of architecture.
This task is certainly not new to our discipline. Since time immemorial buildings have been called to give us not only a protecting shelter but, as importantly, a meaningful connection to nature, cosmos, and the divine. Not one human generation has gone by without (consciously or unconsciously) asking fundamental existential, cultural, and religious questions about their dwelling which invariably answered in/through their built environment. What is relatively new, however, is taking a reflective and investigative position toward it— an effort of growing relevance given our challenging 21st Century zeitgeist. What constitutes sacred space in an increasingly secular world? Are commonalities possible in a multicultural world? How do faith, reason and service meet and inform one another in and through architectural practice? What is the role of space, ‘style’, technology, sustainability, context, computers, and budgets vis-à-vis an ethics of love, truth and compassion? Are there design processes and approaches better suited to engage the qualitative, ineffable, and immaterial? Is there room for beauty and joy in architecture and if so, how? What do architectural history and theory tell us about the sacred and cultural dimension of humanity?
The School of Architecture and Planning, founded in 1911, has a long history of exploring these topics and providing an environment uniquely positioned to support and advance this discourse. While the core issues of the SSCS concentration are intrinsic to Catholic University’s mission, the program also explores ecumenical and broader definitions of sacredness. Moreover, as culture, landscape and the sacred are of growing concern in global architectural practice, the concentration draws upon and hosts a highly diverse student body and experts from throughout the world, especially from Washington's international community. (Director: Julio Bermudez, Ph.D., professor; e- mail: bermudez@cua.edu).
Technology, Media and Interiors
The profession of architecture is challenged by digital technologies in many ways. Some of these technologies expand the way we create, understand and modify space, as well as the way we experience it. The use of digital technologies ultimately influences the way architects approach design, practice and build. Three-dimensional modeling and visualization software offer alternatives to the development of form and the outcome of the designer's "vision." Animation, rendering and special effects editing tools also influence the way a design is communicated and perceived. (Director: Lavinia Fici Pasquina, associate professor; tel: 202-319-6719; e-mail: ficipasquina@cua.edu).
Urban Practice
Urban design is the keystone that links architecture and planning. The spatial concerns of the architect and the public policy issues of the planner are brought together by the urban designer to create an implementable vision for the city that moves beyond the individual building and the limits of policies focused primarily on public health, welfare and safety. The Urban Design concentration emphasizes the relationship of an individual project to the public realm. This concentration expands a graduate's design options to include opportunities in both the private and public sectors, here and abroad. (Interim 2022-2023 contact: Dean Mark Ferguson, fergusonma@cua.edu)
Classical Architecture and Urbanism
The Classical Concentration offers a truly unique opportunity for both Undergraduate and Graduate students to focus their studies in Classical Architecture and Urbanism. It is only the second such university-based program in the world. This Concentration is firmly founded in the knowledge that all excellent human endeavor in both the arts and sciences draws deeply from what has come before. This is especially the case with architecture – the single practice where the sciences and the arts are necessarily gathered into unified effort.
Coursework reveals the richness of all of architectural history; excavates the deep philosophical, theological, and theoretical underpinnings of Classical Architecture which remain vital and critical to architecture today; exposes the works, writings and teachings of the many contemporary masters of Classical Architecture; and teaches students in the ways of classical design.
This Concentration’s goal is to educate the student to be an intelligent, well-educated, productive, and meaningful participant in the tradition of Classical Architecture practiced today by hundreds of architecture firms throughout the United States and worldwide. (Director: James McCrery II, associate professor; e-mail: mccrery@cua.edu).
Foreign Studies
The School of Architecture and Planning offers a variety of foreign study options for graduate students. Our Rome Center offers study abroad opportunities for both undergraduate and graduate students. All graduate students may participate in the 15-credit program. Utilizing various modern and historical sites, students are introduced to the interconnectedness of the public and private realms with issues of urban density, security, convenience and amenity. CUA students and faculty collaborate with their counterparts from local universities, as well as world-renowned architects based in Rome. The studio is augmented by travel, seminars and lectures by local faculty.
In addition to these programs, CUA offers many other opportunities for domestic and foreign travel through individual studio travel.
Polices
Policies are subject to change. Please consult the School of Architecture and Planning Website for current policies and requirements.
A minimum grade point average of 3.0 in graduate studies is required for graduation in all degree programs.
A grade of a B‐ or higher in a studio course counts toward the required courses for graduation and to proceed to the next course in sequence, if that course is a pre‐req.
A grade of a C or higher in a non‐studio course counts toward the required courses for graduation and to proceed to the next course in sequence, if that course is a pre‐req.
A grade of a C or higher earned in a studio or non‐studio course earns University credit.
See the University Graduate Grading System https://policies.catholic.edu/students/academicgrad/gradesfull.html for more information related to D, F, F*
Additional School of Architecture and Planning requirements:
- “Since a C grade is passing but marginal at the graduate level, C grades are permitted in a maximum of one‐third of the courses required for the degree.”
- “A grade of C in studio courses is not acceptable; students who earn C grades may repeat only one studio course."