Architectural Studies Major

The Architectural Studies Program is a liberal arts major. Students who complete the program receive a B.A. with a major in Architectural Studies.

Students in the School of Arts & Sciences are required to complete a 12-credit related area for graduation. The following areas are recommended for Architectural Studies Majors:

Students completing the major may consider the following career options:

Students may plan to pursue a first professional degree in architecture at the graduate level—normally a three- to three-and-a-half-year Master's of Architecture (M.Arch.).
The major is also appropriate for students interested in other careers in the design and construction of the built environment, such as landscape architecture, interior design, restoration, historic preservation, real estate development, and contracting.
Students who see architecture as being part of a broader cultural education may also benefit from the program.

In the spring term 2007, the Architectural Studies Program inaugurated a dedicated design studio space in Thaw Hall which now accommodates a two-semester architectural studio sequence for 20 students.
Students in the program can now get intensive instruction from practicing architects in the fundamentals of spatial thinking, graphic representation techniques, and model building.
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This summer, the Architectural Studies Program will offer two new courses:

1. HAA 1913: Architectural Studies Seminar - Historic Preservation Documenation and Conservation
2. HAA 1910: Special Topics Architecture - Window Restoration

These courses are unparalleled opportunities in Pittsburgh for site-specific, hands-on university-level courses in Historic Preservation taught by highly-trained local specialists.

Read more about the courses and this image

In the past five years, graduates from Architectural Studies have gone on to M.Arch. programs at Kent State, MIT, Ohio State, SUNY Buffalo, Syracuse University and the University of Maryland.

For further information, contact:
Prof. Drew Armstrong, Director of the Architectural Studies Program
104 Frick Fine Arts Building
Pittsburgh, PA 15260
412-648-2402
amphion@pitt.edu

DEGREE REQUIREMENTS (36 credits)

The Architectural Studies major requires completion of 36 credits distributed in the following three areas:

Core Courses (12 credits)

HAA 1040 History of Architectural Theory
HAA 1900 Architectural Studies Internship
HAA 1913 Architectural Studies Seminar
HAA 1915 Portfolio

Studio Arts Courses (12 credits)

SA 0110 Foundation Design
SA 0140 Foundation Sculpture
SA 0130 Foundation Drawing
SA 1430 Perspective Drawing

These courses should be taken early in the student's curriculum.
Note: SA 0110 and SA 0130 serve as prerequisites for SA 1430.

History of Architecture Courses (12 credits)

HAA 0040 Introduction to Western Architecture is mandatory for all students in the Architectural Studies major and should be completed by the end of the sophomore year. An additional 3 courses should be chosen from the following list, two of which must be at the 1000 level.

HAA 0045 Introduction to Modern Architecture
HAA 0080 World Religious Architecture
HAA 0221 Introduction to Medieval Architecture
HAA 0440 Frank Lloyd Wright
HAA 0450 Twentieth-Century Architecture
HAA 0480 Modern Architecture
HAA 0510 Pittsburgh Architecture and Urbanism
HAA 0900 Approaches to the Built Environment
HAA 1160 Roman Architecture
HAA 1220 Early Christian and Byzantine Architecture
HAA 1235 English Medieval Architecture
HAA 1240 Romanesque Architecture
HAA 1250 Gothic Architecture
HAA 1305 Early Renaissance Architecture
HAA 1306 High Renaissance Architecture
HAA 1407 Eighteenth-Century Architecture
HAA 1408 Classical Tradition in Architecture
HAA 1510 Pittsburgh Architecture and Urbanism
HAA 1530 American Architecture 1: to the Civil War
HAA 1531 American Architecture 2: to Today
HAA 1630 History of Chinese Architecture
HAA 1880 World Cities

Some first professional graduate programs in architecture require that students have completed university level courses in calculus and physics. Thus, students intending to go on to complete an M.Arch. degree are urged to familiarize themselves with individual program requirements.

ARCHITECTURAL STUDIES INTERNSHIP

An internship is a requirement for graduation in the architectural studies program. Junior or senior status and a GPA of at least 2.75 are prerequisites. Internships allow architectural studies majors to experience what it looks and feels like to be a professional in one of the various design professions. They help to focus the student's motivation and to make evident why certain subjects need to be learned. They also help students decide whether or not they want to apply to a graduate program in architecture. Click here to read where students have recently interned or are currently interning.

To see a listing of architectural firms in Pittsburgh where students have had internships, please view the Architectural Studies Internship Directory.

To receive academic credit for an internship, students must enroll in HAA 1900 and complete an Internship Agreement Form with their site supervisor. This form is returned to Drew Armstrong for approval. A minimum of 120 hours of work must be completed to receive academic credit. (Students work an average of 10 hours per week in an internship.) In addition, the student is required to complete a paper that evaluates his or her internship experience (Student Intern Evaluation Form) and turn in examples of any work produced to Drew Armstrong at the end of the internship for evaluation.

All internship students must follow the guidelines set up by the AS program. Click here to download the guideline information sheet.

STUDY ABROAD

A foreign study term in Denmark is available through Denmark's International Study Program in Copenhagen. The term consists of five 3-credit courses selected from a wide variety of subject offerings, including architectural history, urban history, studio arts, architectural design, and traditional liberal arts disciplines. A single fee covers tuition, room, board, in-city transportation, and use of numerous libraries.