Architecture

Chair: Taisto Mäkelä
Office: CU Denver Building, 330C
Telephone: 303-556-3382
Fax: 303-556-3687

Faculty

Professors:
Mark Gelernter, PhD, Bartlett School of Architecture, University of London
Julee Herdt, MArch, Southern California Institute of Architecture

Associate Professors:
Amir Ameri, PhD, Cornell University
Osman Attmann, PhD, Georgia Institute of Technology
Robert H. Flanagan, MArch, University of Colorado Denver
Phillip Gallegos, DArch, University of Hawaii
Michael K. Jenson, PhD, University of Edinburgh
Christopher Koziol, PhD, University of Colorado Denver
Laurence K. Loftin III, MArch, University of Virginia
Taisto H. Mäkelä, PhD, Princeton University
Hans R. Morgenthaler, PhD, Stanford University
Ekaterini Vlahos, MArch, University of Colorado Denver

Associate Professor (Clinical Teaching Track):
Barbara Ambach, MArch, Southern California Institute of Architecture

Senior Instructors:
Ranko Ruzic, MArch, University of Colorado Denver
Melanie Shellenbarger, PhD, University of Colorado Denver
Erik Sommerfeld, MArch, University of Colorado Denver

Instructors:
Amir Alrubaiy, MArch, University of Colorado Denver
Kenneth Andrews, MArch, Rice University
Matthew Shea, MArch, University of Colorado Denver

Additional information about faculty in this department is available on the college website.

Mission

The architecture department’s mission is to lead in the discovery, communication and application of knowledge in the discipline of architecture. The department aims to excel in the education of its students, in the research and creative endeavors of its faculty and in service to the community. To respond to this mission, the department has developed a unique intellectual, educational and architectural culture.

First, the department celebrates its place in a special environment—urbanized Denver with the Front Range and the spectacular natural landscape of the high plains and the Rocky Mountains. The architecture department focuses not only on the design of buildings, but also on the interactions between buildings and their urban and natural settings.
Second, the department examines the interplay between architectural form and the complex cultural and technological context in which architects operate. As a result of these dominant concerns, the department has created an academic environment that is intellectually stimulating and educationally challenging and that aims to educate students who will become leaders in the discipline and profession of architecture.
Third, the Department of Architecture follows the College of Architecture and Planning’s mission of integrative design. The faculty research, teach and practice ways to design environments that are meaningful and beautiful. We plan, shape and interpret those environments in ways that are collaborative, responsible, sustainable, enabling and integrative. Promoting and acknowledging diversity in subject matter, method and orientation are essential to this integrative approach.

The faculty teach by integrating different design theories and practices into a curriculum that emphasizes their connectedness, crossdisciplinary interdependence, research orientation and real-world relevance. The department collaborates to produce new knowledge while adding to the understanding of the role and identity of design and research in each architectural project. In this collaborative process, each project asks a critical question, then answers it using an appropriate method. These questions stress environmental, economic, social, cultural, aesthetic and ethical concerns. In this knowledge-based matrix, our understanding of how integrative design shapes environments and settings constantly evolves and changes.

Degrees

The College of Architecture and Planning offers a preprofessional bachelor of science in architecture (BSArch) and a master of architecture (MArch). The following statement from the National Architectural Accrediting Board (NAAB), which is responsible for accrediting all architecture programs in the United States, should help a student choose the appropriate degree program:

“In the United States, 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 three types of degrees: the bachelor of architecture, the master of architecture and the doctor of architecture. A program may be granted a 6-year, 3-year or 2-year term of accreditation, depending on the extent of its conformance with established educational standards.

“Master’s degree programs may consist of a preprofessional undergraduate degree and a professional graduate degree that, when earned sequentially, constitute an accredited professional education. However, the preprofessional degree is not, by itself, recognized as an accredited degree.”

The preprofessional degree offered by the College of Architecture and Planning is the bachelor of science in architecture (BSArch). The professional degree offered by the college is the master of architecture (MArch), which is fully accredited by the NAAB for a six-year term.

The master of architecture, the college’s accredited professional degree for students intending to seek licensure as architects, is offered to students who have completed the college’s BSArch or any other preprofessional NAAB-accredited architecture degree, as well as to students who have completed an unrelated undergraduate or graduate degree or to students who hold professional architecture degrees from other countries but who seek to obtain an NAAB-accredited architecture degree. Students holding a preprofessional degree from a NAAB-accredited program or professional architecture degree from a foreign institution will be evaluated individually for advanced standing in the MArch program, commensurate with their previous educational experiences.

See the Graduate Catalog for information about graduate programs.