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University of Texas at Austin School of Architecture

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The University of Texas at Austin
School of Architecture
File:UT Austin School of Architecture Logo.png
TypePublic
Established1948
DeanFrederick R. Steiner
AdministrationMichael Oden, Associate Dean for Research and Operations
Nichole Wiedemann, Associate Dean for Undergraduate Programs
Kevin Alter, Associate Dean for Graduate Programs
Jeff Evelyn, Assistant Dean for Administration
Academic staff
89
Students774
Undergraduates326
Postgraduates370
Location
Austin (pop. 820,611)[1]
,
Texas Texas
,

United States USA
NicknameUTSOA
Websitesoa.utexas.edu

The University of Texas at Austin School of Architecture (UTSOA) is a college within The University of Texas at Austin, with its major facilities located on the main university campus in Austin, Texas.

UTSOA's dean is Frederick R. Steiner, a fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA). Dean Steiner received his Ph.D. and M.A. degrees in city and regional planning and a Master of Regional Planning from the University of Pennsylvania. He earned a Master of Community Planning and a B.S. in Design from the University of Cincinnati. Dean Steiner was also awarded an honorary M.Phil. in Human Ecology from the College of the Atlantic.

UTSOA has more than 700 graduate and undergraduate students. There are approximately 70 full-time faculty members. The student/faculty ratio is 11:1.

The school is located within the historical core of The University of Texas at Austin campus. As part of the 40 Acres, the college fully occupies Goldsmith Hall, Sutton Hall, and Battle Hall. In 2007, Battle Hall was listed as one of America’s Top 150 Favorite Works of Architecture by The American Institute of Architects (AIA),[2] however, the building, according to the dean, "is suffering from the symptoms of old age and desperately needs rehabilitation."[3] UTSOA also occupies part of the West Mall Office Building.

Two of these buildings were designed by Cass Gilbert and another by Paul Philippe Cret. Cret is credited as the designer of the campus master plan for The University of Texas at Austin, and helped to build the Beaux-Art-style Main Building tower. It is important to point out that Cret collaborated with Herbert M. Greene (of Texas firm Greene, LaRoche, and Dahl] and UTSOA Class of 1921 alumnus Robert Leon White for several of his projects.

UTSOA celebrated its centennial in 2010.

History

In 1910, The University of Texas at Austin College of Engineering began offering a professional degree in architecture. Two years later, the program had over 30 registered students. The school was expanded over the next two decades under the leadership of Frederick Giesecke and Goldwin Goldsmith. In 1925, the school became the first in Texas to be accepted for membership in the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture. The program was accredited in 1935 by the National Architectural Accreditation Board. The school moved into its permanent home in the Architecture Building (Goldsmith Hall) in 1933 and became the School of Architecture in 1948.[4]

Deans

  • Hugo Kuehne (1910-1912)
  • Frederick E. Giesecke (1912-1928)
  • Goldwin Goldsmith (1928-1935)
  • Walter Rolfe (1935-1950)
  • Harwell Hamilton Harris (1951-1955)
  • Hugh McMath (1955)
  • Philip Douglas Creer (1956-1967)
  • Alan Taniguichi (1967-1972)
  • Sinclair Black (acting dean 1972-1973)
  • Charles Burnette (1973-1975)
  • John Gallery (acting dean 1975)
  • Hal Box (1976-1992)
  • Lawrence Speck (1992-1999)
  • Frederick Steiner (2001-Present)

Facilities, Research Units, Libraries, and Centers

Interior of the Architecture & Planning Library

UTSOA is home to:

  • The Center for American Architecture and Design (CAAD), which focuses on architectural history, theory, and criticism. The CAAD produces a series of publications and also hosts several symposia annually—including Latitudes, an international conference that explores American modern architecture);
  • The Center for Sustainable Development (CSD), which advocates balance in the study of the environment, social equity, economics, and design aesthetics. The CSD’s two Thermal Labs help the UTSOA community analyze energy efficiency in building materials and architectural designs. Additionally, the CSD offers a summer Public Interest Design Program for advanced students from across the nation who are interested in the built environment and public service;
  • The University Co-op Materials Resource Center, which has over 27,000 pieces of literature and material samples available for research within the UTSOA community. The MatLab is home to the Architectural Conservation Lab, a research space often utilized by students enrolled in UTSOA's Historic Preservation Program;
  • The Alexander Architectural Archive, a collection of historic architectural drawings and plans. The Alexander Architectural Archive is part of UTSOA's Architecture and Planning Library, which contains nearly 100,000 volumes and subscriptions to periodicals that support the school’s curriculum;
  • and the Visual Resources Collection, a library resource that contains over 250,000 slides and 100,000 digitized images.

The Austin Historical Survey Wiki is a partnership between UTSOA, The University of Texas at Austin School of Information, the City of Austin, and the Preservation Austin, formerly the Heritage Society of Austin. The wiki enables visitors to search for and contribute information about historic buildings, sites, and landscapes as part of a collaborative effort to share the history of the City of Austin with others.

UTSOA is also partnered with the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center’s Sustainable SITES Initiative, which aims to use water management, biodiversity protection, and pollution reduction techniques based on green building standards set by the aforementioned City of Austin and the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC). SITES' mission is to transform land development, site components, and management practices with a national rating system for sustainable landscapes.

Student Organizations

  • Undergraduate Architecture Student Council (UASC) serves as a nucleus for student activities and acts as a liaison between students and faculty members as well as administrators.
  • Graduate School of Architecture Representative Council (GSARC) is an advocacy group charged with serving the school by strengthening, supporting, and informing the voice of graduate students.
  • Alpha Rho Chi (APX) is a professional/social co-ed fraternity for architecture and the allied arts. The Dinocrates Chapter at The University of Texas at Austin unites students from various years and studies through philanthropic and professional activities.
  • Ampersand combines the student chapters of the International Interior Design Association (IIDA) and the American Society of Interior Designers (ASID). They provide students with networking opportunities and promote involvement within the interior design community.
  • National Organization of Minority Architecture Students (NOMAS) strives to enhance educational opportunities and professional networking
  • Global Architecture Brigades is a student-led design/build organization that seeks to improve the quality of life in developing nations through the design of sustainable, socially responsible solutions to architectural problems.
  • Issue is an annual student publication featuring graduate and undergraduate student work. Its intent is to foster interaction and exchange of ideas among students and record the intellectual activities of the school.
  • American Society of Landscape Architects Student Chapter

Study Abroad and Other Opportunities

  • Study in Italy is a semester at the Santa Chiara Study Center in Tuscany, approximately an hour from Florence. The program allows for an intensive study of design, history, and visual communication, while the Center provides a campus environment and a base for travel throughout Italy.
  • Europe Program is a semester of study that emphasizes a broad and integrated experience covering the buildings and landscapes as well as the urban fabric across Europe.
  • Studio Mexico includes a 4-5 week travel component during which participants visit pre-Columbian sites, 16th century churches, small villages and contemporary architecture in Mexico.

In addition, the Study Abroad Office at the University of Texas at Austin offers faculty-led programs and facilitates exchanges with various foreign institutions.

  • Professional Residency Program provides upper-level architecture students with the opportunity of a 6-7 month internship to expand their education through work experience in the architectural profession. Over the past twenty years, students have been linked with 260 firms in 29 countries.[5]
  • Design Build opportunities offer educational experiences where students, design and construct architectural projects. Most recently, the school has been involved with the United States Department of Energy Solar Decathlon, The Alley Flat Initiative, and Design>Build>Texas.
  • Summer Academy in Architecture is a community outreach program that introduces students of all ages to the architecture and design fields as a possible career. Summer Academy has an average student-to-teacher ratio of 10:1. The program helps students develop drawing and model-building skills; one assignment includes constructing a sturdy cardboard bridge that is able to support the average human’s weight, without any adhesive.

Degrees

Battle Hall, 2007

Undergraduate

Graduate

Additionally, there are multiple dual degree graduate programs.

Admissions

All undergraduate applications are evaluated with emphasis on the following areas: SAT or ACT scores, class rank, essays, academic preparation, extracurricular activities, and other achievements. Out of approximately 1,000 freshman applicants, 95 students are admitted. External transfer admission is offered to a few qualified applicants each year. Portfolios are not accepted from freshman applicants.[6]

Graduate programs accept applications only for the fall semester. Applicants to all graduate degree programs are evaluated on The University of Texas requirements for graduate admissions. Some programs may have stricter requirements. Most admitted graduate students have at least a 3.0 GPA in their higher-level college work. For example, the average GPA of a student admitted into the First-Professional Master of Architecture program is a 3.68.[7]

Program Rankings

In 2012, UTSOA’s undergraduate Architecture Program was ranked second in the nation[8] according to DesignIntelligence. The graduate Architecture Program was eleventh, and the Community and Regional Planning Program was fifteenth. UTSOA Assistant Professor Hope Hasbrouck and Distinguished Teaching Professor Lawrence Speck were also recognized as being among DesignIntelligence’s “25 Most Admired Educators of 2012.”[9]

In 2013, DesignIntelligence ranked the undergraduate Architecture Program sixth; the graduate Architecture Program eleventh; the undergraduate Interior Design Program sixth; and the graduate Landscape Architecture Program thirteenth. In the Dean’s Survey, the aforementioned undergraduate Interior Design Program was ranked fourth “for excellent faculty, resources, and studio culture.”[10] UTSOA Assistant Professor Allan Shearer was named one of the “30 Most Admired Educators” for 2013.[11]

All Current Faculty

  • Dean Almy
  • Anthony Alofsin
  • Kevin Alter
  • Simon Atkinson
  • Mirka Beneš
  • Michael Benedikt
  • Kory Bieg
  • Sinclair Black
  • Danelle Briscoe
  • Barbara Brown Wilson
  • Richard Cleary
  • Ulrich Dangel
  • Elizabeth Danze
  • Larry Doll
  • Sarah Dooling
  • Matt Fajkus
  • Michael Garrison
  • Tamie Glass
  • Francisco Gomes
  • Hope Hasbrouck
  • David Heymann
  • Michael Holleran
  • Terry Kahn
  • Nancy Kwallek
  • Fernando Lara
  • Ming-Chun Lee
  • Petra Liedl
  • Christopher Long
  • Talia McCray
  • Smilja Milovanovic-Bertram
  • Juan Miró
  • Steven Moore
  • Elizabeth Mueller
  • Michael Oden
  • Robert Paterson
  • Allan Shearer
  • Igor Siddiqui
  • Bjørn Sletto
  • Vincent Snyder
  • Jason Sowell
  • Lawrence Speck
  • Frederick Steiner
  • Rabun Taylor
  • Danilo Udovicki-Selb
  • Wilfried Wang
  • Nichole Wiedemann
  • Patricia Wilson
  • Robert Young
  • Ming Zhang

All Current Adjunct Faculty

  • John Hart Asher
  • Nadia Barrera
  • Judith Birdsong
  • John Blood
  • Coleman Coker
  • Charles DiPiazza
  • Fran Gale
  • Sarah Gamble
  • Carmen Garufo
  • Michael Hargens
  • Barbara Hoidn
  • Richard Jennings
  • Brian Kelsey
  • Katharine Brett Koenig Greig
  • Charlton Lewis
  • Katherine Lieberknecht
  • Mark Macek
  • Sydney Mainster
  • Robert Mezquiti
  • Natsumi Nonaka
  • Clay Odom
  • Lynn Osgood
  • Adam Pyrek
  • Rachael Rawlins
  • Edward Richardson
  • Joyce Rosner
  • Stephen Ross
  • Clay Shortall
  • Keith Shuley
  • Mark Simmons
  • Marla Smith
  • Stephen Sonnenberg
  • William Storrer
  • Alyosha Verzhbinsky
  • Gary Wang
  • Dason Whitsett

Notable Former Faculty

During the 1950s, former UTSOA dean Harwell Hamilton Harris recruited several architects who practiced in the Bauhaus style of Josef Albers as faculty members. This move ushered in the era of the Texas Rangers (architects). Between 1951-1957, these faculty (Bernhard Hoesli, Colin Rowe, John Hejduk, Robert Slutzky, Lee Hodgden, John Shaw, and Werner Seligmann), cultivated a postmodern program that challenged conventional theories and pedagogies present in architectural education.

Notable Alumni

References

  1. ^ Austin, TX State & County QuickFacts
  2. ^ Crossette, Amy. "Battle Hall at The University of Texas at Austin Selected As One of the Nation's Top 150 Architectural Works". The University of Texas at Austin. Retrieved 2013-02-18.
  3. ^ Steiner, Frederick R. "Support UTSOA: Dean's Introduction". Retrieved 2013-02-19.
  4. ^ Traces and Trajectories: The University of Texas at Austin School of Architecture at 100. 2010.
  5. ^ http://www.soa.utexas.edu/resources/prp
  6. ^ UTSOA Freshman Admissions FAQ
  7. ^ UTSOA Graduate Admissions FAQ
  8. ^ "America's Best Architecture Schools 2012". Architectural Record. Retrieved 2013-02-18.
  9. ^ "DesignIntelligence 25 Most Admired Educators of 2012". DesignIntelligence. Retrieved 2013-02-18.
  10. ^ "America's Best Architecture & Design Schools 2013" (PDF). DesignIntelligence. Retrieved 2013-02-14.
  11. ^ "DesignIntelligence 30 Most Admired Educators for 2013". DesignIntelligence. Retrieved 2013-02-18.

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