Plans for new Architecture major on the drawing board

The Architecture major could replace Design of the Environment. Blueprints have been finalized for a new undergraduate Architecture major and minor to be offered this fall in the College of Arts and Sciences, according to Architecture Department Chairman Richard Wesley. Plans for the program -- to be housed in the Graduate School of Fine Arts -- call for a coherent set of courses that allow interested students to gain basic knowledge of architectural principles and prepare for a professional career. The proposal is expected to be voted on by the Committee on Undergraduate Education, the Curriculum Committee and the School of Arts and Sciences faculty by the end of the spring semester, College Dean Richard Beeman said. The proposal states that if the new major and minor are approved, the Design of the Environment interdisciplinary program -- which is currently Penn's closest offering to a pre-architecture track -- will effectively be discontinued. "The proposal isn't meant to only allow some students to focus in architecture," Wesley said. "It is meant for architecture to have a presence in the education of undergraduates." According to Wesley, an eight-credit minor in Architecture will introduce undergraduates to the field and will allow interested students to satisfy the requirements for admission to an Architecture graduate program. But he said the intensive 38-credit, studio-based major in Architecture will prepare students for advanced standing in a graduate, professional degree program. The proposal predicts that about 60 students will choose to minor in Architecture and another 70 will major in the subject. The major program will be largely composed of existing GSFA courses, according to the proposal. Potential majors would concentrate in satisfying the General Requirement their freshman years before taking two required introductory Architecture courses for admission to the program. Majors would then take 10 core courses in Art History, Design and Construction during their sophomore and junior years. The courses are required for admission to a professional degree program in Architecture. As seniors, they would enroll in first-year courses of GSFA's Master's of Architecture program -- enabling them to potentially sub-matriculate into GSFA, or receive advanced standing from peer institutions. Architecture majors could then complete a master's in two years, instead of three. GSFA Dean Gary Hack said he believes an undergraduate Architecture major would level the playing field for Penn students entering a professional architecture program. Most graduate programs -- including the one at Penn -- require a bachelor's degree in Architecture before granting advanced standing. But recent graduates of the DOE program, he said, have been unable to receive first-year credit for their undergraduate work -- despite its heavy focus on architecture. "We want to give our [undergraduate] students the same advantages as students from Yale or the Massachusetts Institute of Technology," Hack said. "Cutting a year off of graduate school is a true financial advantage -- $30,000." The proposed program would also clear up the confusion that an ambiguous title like "Design of the Environment" brings when parents and prospective applicants call about Penn's Architecture program, Wesley said. "We get calls from parents who see 'DOE' and ask, 'Does that mean the Department of Energy?'" he said. Although the Architecture Department toyed around with the idea of creating an undergraduate major for almost three years, its proposal was finally endorsed by the GSFA faculty last week and will be submitted to CUE in the next few weeks.

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