Frances Bronet, Dean
(541) 346-3631
105 Lawrence Hall
fbronet@uoregon.edu
aaa.uoregon.edu
About the School
The School of Architecture and Allied Arts is the principal center in Oregon for the study of architecture, art, planning, and design. The school, founded in 1914, is a unique interdisciplinary setting for the study of the history, theory, practice, and management of the arts, which—in its broadest meaning—reaches from the creation of visual art to the making of public policy.
The School of Architecture and Allied Arts (A&AA) is dedicated to advancing visual culture and the value of natural and man-made environments through teaching, research, and creative enterprise of the highest caliber. A diverse, collegial learning community, A&AA seeks to enhance the lives of individuals and communities through endeavors that stem from intellectual curiosity, critical thinking, and broad inquiry.
The school is a close association of five departments and four programs: the Departments of Architecture; Art; Art History; Landscape Architecture; and Planning, Public Policy and Management; and the Arts and Administration, Historic Preservation, Interior Architecture, and Product Design programs.
Undergraduate and graduate degrees are offered in art, art history, architecture, digital arts, interior architecture, landscape architecture, product design, and public policy and management. Additional graduate degrees are offered in community and regional planning, arts management, and historic preservation. Graduate certificates are offered in ecological design, museum studies, not-for-profit management, and technical teaching in architecture.
The school’s large enrollment courses for its majors and minors also serve the general education needs of the university’s student body.
The professional degrees in architecture, art, arts management, community and regional planning, historic preservation, interior architecture, landscape architecture, and public policy and management are fully accredited. Approximately 9 percent of the university’s students are majors in the School of Architecture and Allied Arts.
Many students participate in art, digital arts, and environmental design studios—an educational setting that provides direct exploration of ideas and the development of imaginative thinking, analysis, and creativity. The school has a long and valued tradition of innovative, collaborative education and community involvement. Its focus is to educate citizens who are visually literate and who strive to foster sustainable environments.
Research, Scholarship, and Creative Work
Research and creative work bring together people in the school’s various disciplines and provide links with scholars elsewhere at the university, in the local community, and throughout the world.
Program diversity enhances the faculty’s scholarly activity and creative endeavor. Faculty members in the environmental design and planning fields are encouraged to be active in professional practices, to engage in design competitions, and to develop theoretical studies. Faculty members in the arts participate nationally and internationally in exhibitions of their creative work. Scholarly work in art history, arts administration, planning, and public policy has produced significant publications and enhanced human understanding in those fields.
Members of the school’s faculty participate in many of the university’s interdisciplinary research centers and institutes including the Solar Energy Center, the Center for Housing Innovation, the Center for Asian and Pacific Studies, the Community Planning Workshop, the Institute for a Sustainable Environment, and the Institute for Community Arts Studies.
Extended Programs
The School of Architecture and Allied Arts supports off-campus programs that enhance learning and research opportunities and enrich the ties between the university and the local, state, national, and international communities.
The University of Oregon has extended centers in the Portland area, which are used by various departments and programs in the school. A&AA offers advanced study opportunities in Portland for graduate and undergraduate students enrolled in architecture and for undergraduate students enrolled in the bachelor of fine arts program in either digital arts or product design. Located at the White Stag Block in Portland’s Old Town Historic District, the school’s facilities include design studios, fusion lab, fabrication lab, and exhibit spaces. Research initiatives in urban design, housing, energy studies, and creative work in the arts are led by faculty members in partnership with area professionals, governmental leaders, galleries, and nonprofit agencies. The facilities at the University of Oregon in Portland are available for workshops, public lectures, exhibitions, film and video presentations, and events.
The school also maintains historic property that supports research and teaching: in Portland, the Cottrell and Watzek houses, and in the Columbia Gorge, the Shire.
Off-campus learning and research include field course work in art, historic preservation, architecture, landscape architecture, and planning. Internship opportunities are available for students to explore their disciplines beyond the structure of the university setting.
International study programs include summer programs in Beijing, Florence, Helsinki, Jinan, Kyoto, Macerata, Oira, Rome, Shanghai, and Sienna offered by the Departments of Art, Architecture, and Landscape Architecture, and the Historic Preservation Program. The Department of Architecture has active exchange programs with the Universities of Stuttgart and Copenhagen. Various departments participate in National Student Exchange, of which the University of Oregon is a member.
Facilities
Facilities Services
Michael Smith, Director
(541) 346-2055
The School of Architecture and Allied Arts is housed principally in Lawrence, Pacific, and Hendricks halls. Facilities include a branch of the UO Libraries, administrative and departmental offices, and most of the faculty offices and studio spaces. The Department of Planning, Public Policy and Management is located in Hendricks Hall. The Northsite, located north of the Millrace, is an eight-building complex containing faculty offices, advanced studios in the arts, environmental design research laboratories and workshops, and the Urban Farm.
The school provides equipment not typically available to individuals such as studio furniture, easels, looms, and shared resources. Students supply personal equipment such as computers, graphic tools, and course materials. The school supports these purchases by providing infrastructure, secure rooms, and lockers.
Resources
Computing Services
Chris Jones, Director
(541) 346-2094
Many schools teach students to use software, but the School of Architecture and Allied Arts teaches students to be designers and creative decision-makers regardless of the tools they use. Students learn to explore new ideas through a combination of traditional methods and experimental techniques. Through work in animation, multimedia, graphics, computer-aided design, geographic information systems, and web publishing, students see how computers can extend capabilities and enhance understanding.
Lecture rooms, studios, classrooms, and review rooms are networked (wired and wireless) to support instructional technology on Windows and Mac OS workstations. The university provides server accounts for e-mail and web pages and maintains a high-speed computer network. The school provides access to a full array of computing applications through its instructional and research laboratories located in Lawrence Hall, Pacific Hall, Hendricks Hall, the University of Oregon in Portland, and the Northsite complex. A technical staff maintains these resources as well as shared large-scale color plotters and high-resolution printers. Technical support is available through Information Services, A&AA Computing Services, and informal peer consulting.
Much faculty research involves the application of emerging technology to specific domains. Research groups in planning, public policy and management, architecture, and landscape architecture have developed methods for using Internet, geographic information systems, graphics, and database applications to facilitate community problem solving. Tools are being developed to make planning and design decisions easier to understand by putting their consequences in graphic terms. Art faculty members have created award-winning animations and interactive multimedia projects that range from avant-garde artwork to pragmatic educational projects. The school maintains a close relationship with the library’s Media Services, which offers technical expertise in digital media.
Office of Professional Outreach and Development for Students
Kassia Dellabough, Coordinator
(541) 346-2621
The Office of Professional Outreach and Development for Students serves students in all A&AA disciplines as they endeavor to develop career goals and job-search strategies. The office collaborates with both administrative and academic units to provide comprehensive career services including vocational counseling, professional mentoring, group presentations, workshops, and the annual career symposium held in Portland.
Office of Development
Joseph Hunter, Director
(541) 346-3697
The mission of the Office of Development is to assist the A&AA school in securing private gifts that enhance educational opportunities and to offer aid in the areas of faculty support, research and creative work, student scholarships, and building and equipment maintenance.
The development office raises funds through a combination of methods: the annual giving telefund, direct mail appeals, foundation and corporate grants, planned gifts, and direct personal solicitation.
Academic priorities for fundraising are the responsibility of the dean, with the advice and assistance of the department heads and directors, and are developed in cooperation with the UO associate vice president for development.
The office works in concert with the university’s central development office and the UO Foundation to raise new endowments for research, scholarships, faculty, and teaching support.
Office of External Relations and Communications
Karen J. Johnson, Assistant Dean
(541) 346-1442
The mission of the Office of External Relations and Communications is to increase visibility for the school’s programs and research activities and to establish strategic, professional relationships with alumni, businesses, corporations, legislators, and government agencies.
The office coordinates the activities of the board of visitors, whose members volunteer their time, talents, and resources as external advisers to the school. The office manages the Professional Connections website, providing an online tool for professionals to volunteer assistance with outreach and student-mentoring activities. In addition, the office publishes the A&AA Review and Bulletin publications, and coordinates the school calendar and e-news.
The office guides alumni relations and outreach activities in cooperation with the UO Alumni Association and the school’s departments and programs.
Interdisciplinary Research
Center for Housing Innovation
Donald B. Corner, Director
(541) 346-4064
The Center for Housing Innovation is a nonprofit, multidisciplinary research center offering expertise in the design, construction, and manufacture of housing in North America. Issues range from the development of energy-efficient housing to the innovative use of wood products. For more information see the Research Institutes and Centers section of this catalog.
Energy Studies in Buildings Laboratory
G. Z. Brown, Director
(541) 346-5647
The laboratory’s facilities include a computer simulation laboratory and an artificial sky. Research projects seek to illuminate the ways buildings and their related transportation and land-use systems determine energy use; develop new materials, components, assemblies, whole buildings, and communities with improved performance; and develop computer software design tools that enable professionals to design more efficient communities and buildings. Laboratory members conduct a design-assistance program for architects, sponsored by utilities, which uses the artificial sky and computer simulations to recommend proposed building design changes.
Institute for a Sustainable Environment
Robert G. Ribe, Director
(541) 346-0675
The Institute for a Sustainable Environment explores the long-term sustainability of the earth’s environmental systems. The institute’s programs draw from the natural sciences, social sciences, humanities, and professional fields to foster applied cross-disciplinary environmental research, education, and public service. The institute offers students and members of the faculty and staff many opportunities for employment and program participation.
Institute for Community Arts Studies
Doug Blandy, Director
(541) 346-3639
251E Lawrence Hall
In 1965 a founding gift from Lila A. Wallace established the Institute for Community Arts Studies as a research and public service organization in the School of Architecture and Allied Arts. The institute renewed its focus in 1995 in collaboration with the arts management master’s degree in the Arts and Administration Program. The goal of the institute continues to be the promotion and implementation of research, professional education, and community service programs that cultivate a public understanding of the arts in a broad context. The institute draws its participating faculty from the Arts and Administration Program and its associates from UO museums and the School of Music and Dance.
Institute for Policy Research and Innovation
Michael Hibbard, Director
(541) 346-0695
130 Hendricks Hall
The institute facilitates and supports policy-relevant research by faculty members and graduate students. It emphasizes the dissemination of knowledge about a range of public problems and issues. It does not address solutions to specific problems or issues, a task that is more appropriate for government agencies and consultants.
Research done through the institute is used to kindle serious, informed public dialogues about policy. In addition to funded grants and contracts leading to books, scholarly papers, and theses, the institute organizes and supports a variety of forums through which decision-makers and the general public can engage the ideas developed by faculty members and graduate students. Examples of dissemination by institute members include presentations to community forums and policy makers; discussion papers for public forums; and op-ed pieces.
Student Information
Admission
Admission, major requirements, and course offerings are described in the departmental sections that follow. Freshman and transfer students must meet University of Oregon requirements for admission to the School of Architecture and Allied Arts. Work being submitted for transfer credit must be approved by the major department. Students develop their programs of study assisted by advisers from the department to which they have been admitted.
Premajors and Nonmajors
Many courses are open to majors outside the School of Architecture and Allied Arts or to students who have not yet declared a major. Undeclared students who want to explore programs in the school should seek advice from the associate dean. Courses open to nonmajors are listed below under the AAA course heading.
Architecture and Allied Arts Courses (AAA)
Courses with the AAA subject code cross the school’s disciplines and are described only in this section of the catalog.
196 Field Studies: [Topic] (1–2R)
198 Workshop: [Topic] (1–2R)
199 Special Studies: [Topic] (1–5R)
401 Research: [Topic] (1–21R)
405 Reading and Conference: [Topic] (1–21R)
406 Special Problems: [Topic] (1–21R)
407/507 Seminar: [Topic] (1–5R)
408/508 Workshop: [Topic] (1–21R)
409 Supervised Tutoring (1–21R)
410/510 Experimental Course: [Topic] (1–5R)
605 Reading and Conference: [Topic] (1–16R)
606 Special Problems: [Topic] (1–16R)
608 Workshop: [Topic] (1–16R)