Architecture and Urban Studies Programs
Architecture (Blacksburg and Washington, D.C., Area*)
The graduate curriculum is structured to allow flexibility and to accommodate diverse student needs. The professional degree programs in architecture (M. Arch, M.Arch.2, and M.Arch.3) at Virginia Tech are fully accredited by the National Architectural Accrediting Board. Central to the academic structure of these several options is the design laboratory. The various design laboratories are oriented toward formulation and resolution of design questions at a broad range of scales. In addition to fostering a mastery of the design process, the design laboratory is intended to cultivate a foundation for design through the study of concepts and principles of form generation, through education of an environmental awareness and aesthetic judgment, through study of the syntax of architectural language, and through the development of technical knowledge of the processes of fabrication and construction.
Architecture, Concentration in Urban Design (Washington, D.C., Area*)
The boundaries among the practices of Landscape Architecture, Architecture, and Urban Design are increasingly fluid. Graduates of the School of Architecture + Design from both the Architecture and the Landscape Architecture programs increasingly find themselves practicing as de facto urban designers, bringing the considerable tools of their disciplines to bear on large-scale, city-changing development projects. There they face less familiar issues of real estate development, public policy, and the public process. Mastery and command of the full range of diverse issues in urban design and planning often depend on ad hoc and informal learning in the field. The Urban Design Concentration (UDC) provides a rigorous and formalized setting for students who are interested in synthesizing the design and planning disciplines to prepare them to address the significant issues facing cities and metropolitan regions today.
Urban Affairs and Planning (Blacksburg and Washington, D.C., Area*)
Urban Affairs and Planning (UAP) prepares students to explore the intersections of planning, policy and practice at the metropolitan, community, and neighborhood scales and in the diverse contexts of rural and urban, poor and affluent, fast growing and declining communities. The program engages issues affecting where people live, work and play; where they shop and receive medical attention; how they get from place to place; what communities look like; how communities work and how we use our resources. The Master of Urban and Regional Planning degree has a dual objective of training graduates for their first planning job, and more importantly instilling conceptual and critical thinking necessary for lifelong learning and career development. Graduates are able to assume professional responsibilities in a wide variety of positions in public service or in the private sector.
* Note that all preparatory courses (English for Academic Purposes, University Seminar) take place on the Blacksburg, Virginia, campus.
