School of Architecture
For More Information
Campus address: Sutton Hall (SUT) 2.130, phone (512) 471-2398, fax (512) 471-0716; campus mail code: B7500
Mailing address: The University of Texas at Austin, School of Architecture, 310 Inner Campus Drive Stop B7500, Austin TX 78712-1009
E-mail: soa_grad@austin.utexas.edu
Facilities for Graduate Work
The School of Architecture is housed in four adjacent buildings at the heart of the campus: Battle Hall (1911) and Sutton Hall (1918, renovated in 1982), designed by the American architect Cass Gilbert; Goldsmith Hall (1933, expanded and renovated in 1988), designed by the French architect Paul Philippe Cret; and the West Mall Office Building (1961) by the Texas firm Jessen, Jessen, Millhouse, and Greeven.
The Architecture and Planning Library, a branch of The University of Texas Libraries, supports the School of Architecture by directly enhancing the value, relevance, and effectiveness of its teaching, research, and public service goals. The library, located in historic Battle Hall, also serves the public with ongoing exhibitions displayed in the grand reading room.
All students, faculty, and staff have convenient access to literature, information, and visual and digital resources that support education and research. While the library is located in close proximity to the school, its catalog, instructional guides, and digital content are web-based, allowing virtual discovery and access via the Internet. Staff provide expert information services that teach and develop research, as well as evaluative and critical thinking skills necessary for professional practice and lifelong learning. The Architecture and Planning Library is home to a large circulating collection, subject-specific journals, special collections of rare or unique publications, and the Alexander Architectural Archives, one of the largest such repositories in the country. Materials currently collected by the library and archive meet the curricular needs of the school’s programs and enable faculty and graduate students to undertake original research projects.
The Center for Sustainable Development, located in West Mall Building, supports sponsored research undertaken by the School of Architecture. The center is unique in its integration of diverse interests to develop creative, balanced, and achievable solutions to the physical and social challenges facing the planning, construction, and preservation of buildings, neighborhoods, landscapes, and regions. Its offices include space for Graduate Research Assistants (GRAs) to work on projects.
The Center for American Architecture and Design, located in Battle Hall, supports scholarship and criticism on architecture and related professional disciplines through lectures, exhibitions, seminars, and symposia. Regular scholarly publications of the center include CENTER and Centerline book series.
Comparative Mobility for Competitive Megaregions, located in West Mall Building, leads a consortium of universities to provide research that supports legal and analytical frameworks for megaregion transportation planning. It is a United States Department of Transportation Tier 1 University Transportation Center.
The Technology Lab and Service Desk, located in Sutton Hall, supports a variety of services for teaching and research including access to scanning, printing, and plotting systems. In addition, students can check out digital cameras, digital video cameras, laptops, projectors, light meters, and other digital resources. The Service Desk provides assistance with advanced design and analysis applications. The Digital Fabrication Lab provides access to a variety of digital fabrication tools for 3D scanning, 3D printing, laser cutting, and CNC routing. The related Robotics Lab provides access and support to students and faculty who wish to pursue advanced digital workflows that produce physical results. The Lighting Studio provides an area with photographic backdrops and controlled lighting to photograph architectural models and other objects. The Virtual Reality Lab supports dedicated hardware and software for immersive representations. The computer classrooms in the West Mall Building provide 56 dedicated workstations that serve as open computer lab space when not in use for classroom instruction.
The Build Lab/Wood Shop, located in Goldsmith Hall, plays an integral role in the creation of design—ranging from models to full-scale applications—by providing equipment and training, primarily in wood, but also in metal, plastic, and glass.
The Thermal Lab, a testing facility of the Center for Sustainable Development, allows experimentation of building façade treatments with respect to direct and indirect use of energy.
The Materials Lab, located in West Mall Building, is dedicated to material investigation in design and maintains a circulating library of material samples. The collection consists of traditional building construction materials as well as emerging, innovative, and sustainable materials and technologies. Material education is further supported through exhibitions, workshops, field trips, and in-house research.
The Architectural Conservation Lab, located in West Mall Building, is home to the Materials Conservation course series. Additionally, the space allows the Historic Preservation Program to establish affiliations with related facilities on the University campus, including the School of Information Book and Paper Conservation Labs and the Conservation Department at the Harry Ransom Center.
A variety of other facilities support students in their coursework and professional development. The school’s Career Services Center, located in Sutton Hall, assists students with finding internships, identifying employment prospects, and preparing for interviews and negotiations with potential employers. The Professional Residency Program (PRP) offers upper-level architecture students a unique opportunity to expand their education through work experience in the architectural profession. PRP has provided internship opportunities to honors students in the School since 1974 and, over the past 25 years, our students have been linked with 300 firms in 30 countries.
The Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, located south of the main campus, conducts applied research on sustainable landscapes and ecosystem services, develops comprehensive educational materials, and consults on landscape development projects of all sizes to capitalize on the ability of sustainable landscapes to improve communities. The site consists of 284 acres, including nine acres of cultivated gardens.
The study of architecture, landscape architecture, and interior design draws upon the collections of the nearby Harry Ransom Center, which include china, clothing, decorative arts, furniture, silver, and textiles that contribute to the study of the interior; as well as original maps, texts, and drawings that supplement the teaching of landscape history. Historic rooms and suites on campus include the Willoughby-Blake Room, the John Foster and Janet Dulles Suite, the Republic of Texas Suite, the Office of the President, and the Esther Hoblitzelle Parlor. Other collections on campus include the 15,000 pieces of art, furniture, and accessories in the Elton and Martha Hyder collection and the collection of approximately forty chairs dating from the seventeenth through twentieth centuries that are housed in the Blanton Museum of Art.
The resources of the Teresa Lozano Long Institute of Latin American Studies and the Benson Latin American Collection, and the proximity of Austin to Latin America, provide exceptional opportunities for the study of Latin American architecture and planning. School of Architecture faculty and students also collaborate with the Environmental Science Institute, the School of Social Work, the Center for Transportation Research, the Population Research Center, the Center for Research in Water Resources, the Bureau of Economic Geology, the Energy Institute, and other allied institutes.
Areas of Study
The School of Architecture offers graduate degree programs in Architecture, Community and Regional Planning, Interior Design, Landscape Architecture, and Urban Design.
Graduate Certificate in Latin American Architecture
The School of Architecture administers a graduate certificate program in Latin American Architecture. The certificate program is open to current degree-seeking design students in the School of Architecture and requires completion of a total of 24 hours of graduate coursework, including 15 hours of required courses and nine hours of prescribed electives. The graduate certificate will only be awarded at the time of degree conferral. Admission requirements and details on the certificate program are available on the School of Architecture website.