Graduate School of Architecture

The academic programs of the School of Architecture encompass the broad range of concerns, disciplines, and sensitivities expressed in Thomas Jefferson’s timeless design for the University, his “academical village”, which is widely considered to be one of the most significant achievements of American architecture.

Four distinct, yet increasingly interrelated, disciplines provide a rich setting for professional education. Architecture and Landscape Architecture seek to integrate the academic and professional aspects of their disciplines in the belief that design skills must be responsive to cultural, historical, and physical context as much as to functional need. Architectural History aims to develop an awareness of the value of the past. Urban and Environmental Planning addresses community sustainability and the balance between environment, economy, and social equity. The Common Course (SARC 6000), a course required of graduate students in all departments, explores themes common to architectural History, architecture, landscape architecture, and urban and environmental planning. In addition to this and other courses regularly offered in each discipline, the curricula provide ample interdisciplinary opportunities for the exploration of such diverse contemporary issues as urbanism, energy conservation, social equity, environmental protection, preservation, and adaptive re-use.

The full-time faculty numbers about forty-five, augmented by twenty to thirty visiting lecturers and critics from this country and abroad who bring to students their varied perspectives and wide-ranging experience. The student body averages approximately five hundred thirty students, of whom about two hundred are graduate students.

The Thomas Jefferson Foundation Professorship in Architecture has been funded since 1965 by an annual grant from the same foundation that has guided the restoration and preservation of Monticello, the home of Thomas Jefferson. The foundation also awards an annual medal and honorarium to a practitioner or teacher of international distinction and has established two fellowships that are awarded annually to outstanding graduate students in the School of Architecture.

The Institute for Environmental Negotiation, established in 1981, is affiliated with the Department of Urban and Environmental Planning and has become a major resource for the resolution of land-use and environmental conflicts. In addition, the Institute awards three or four assistantships each year that provide graduate students with training and experience in negotiation and consensus building.

Mr. Jefferson’s legacy seems as appropriate and alive today as it did in 1819 when the University was founded; and it is one of the imperatives of that legacy, and a central educational aim of this school, that students understand their culture as well as their profession. Since we expect to play major roles in the analysis, planning, design, development, and protection of the physical environment, nationally and internationally, we are charged with that most difficult of tasks: the development of “the whole person,” one who understands how a craft is connected to a society, who appreciates the larger context of life, and who seeks elegant and practical approaches to its ever-changing needs. Jefferson sought “useful knowledge” and was able to fashion that knowledge artfully. We take that as our tradition also. Seen in this light, “profession” is raised to the level of art, and when that art serves life, lasting culture results. 

Applying to the School of Architecture The School of Architecture offers five graduate programs: Master of Architectural History; Master of Architecture; Master of Architecture, Design Studies (non-professional); Master of Landscape Architecture; and Master of Urban and Environmental Planning.  The School of Architecture has one annual admissions process and, in most cases, admits students for the fall semester only.  

For specific admissions information, including application instructions and deadlines, please visit www.arch.virginia.edu/admissions/graduate/.

Please note, if an applicant wants to apply to more than one department within the School of Architecture, he or she must submit one application, and all additional application materials, per department.