Editor’s Note: This listing was updated on October 26, 2022.
OVERVIEW
What makes UCLA’s Architecture and Urban Design department both visionary and practical is its lens on Los Angeles as a case study for understanding and intervening in contemporary urban issues. As a public research university, UCLA and its world-renowned practitioner-professors engage with the city, its departments and officials around the challenges of the rapidly evolving metropolis.
Work by UCLA students Motomi Matsubara (above) and Steven Katz and Emily Sherman (top of page).
Among its five offerings, which also include M.S.AUD, M.A & PhD, Undergraduate and Summer Programs, the M.Arch is divided into two periods: a two-year core foundation, comprised of six studios of increasing complexity; and a third year, in which students choose their area of study from the Research Studios and two advanced topic studios. The two active Research Centers are cityLAB-UCLA (co-founded by Roger Sherman and Dana Cuff, who also presides as its director) and xLAB, founded by Hitoshi Abe. The Urban Humanities Initiative, meanwhile, is a cross-disciplinary initiative within cityLAB-UCLA that offers a year-long graduate certificate in urban humanities.
Notable faculty
Hitoshi Abe, Dana Cuff, Neil Denari, Mariana Ibañez, Kevin Daly, Narineh Mirzaeian
Notable alumni
Patrick Tighe, Tom Wiscombe, Elena Manferdini
