6
EDUCATION FROM A LICENSURE & CE LENS by Robert Lopez, RA, AIA, NCARB, Executive Secretary to the New York State Board for Architecture and the State Board for Landscape Architecture
N
ew York is unique. So unique that we place our regulatory system of professionals, including architects, under the Board of Regents, a citizen body appointed by the Legislature. Guided by the Regents, 55 professions (everything from acupuncture to veterinary medicine!) and over 1,000,000 professionals are regulated within New York’s unified system of education – The University of the State of New York. This fact recognizes the key role that education plays in preparing licensed professionals and in ensuring our continuous development. Title VIII of the New York State Education Law contains general provisions affecting all professions, including architecture. It also gives the Board of Regents and the State Education Department (the Department) the final authority for supervising and administering admission to and practice of the professions. The State Boards, including the State Board for Architecture, assist the Board of Regents and Department on all aspects of professional education, licensing, practice, and discipline. PAGE 30 | JUNE - JULY ‘22
The Board of Regents are also charged with the oversight of architectural programs in New York. Interesting fact - New York is home to the highest number of colleges and universities with NAAB-accredited programs in the United States. A total of 13 institutions of higher education in New York have such programs. Recent additions to New York’s NAAB-accredited programs include Rochester Institute of Technology’s Master of Architecture (2017), Alfred State College’s Bachelor of Architecture (2018), and New York City College of Technology’s Bachelor of Architecture (NAAB candidacy granted in 2018). Another fact - 86.5% of New York’s architects have a degree from an NAAB-accredited program. Taken together with those who graduate from four-year pre-professional degree programs, 96.4% of New York’s architects have at least a four-year degree in architecture. Many of us have two or more degrees. We’ve been licensing architects in our State since 1915. Architects take varied pathways to achieve a license. New York is one of 17 jurisdictions within NCARB that still permits an “all-experience” 12-year pathway to licensure. Within the Department, architecture is one of the very few remaining professions that still permits a person to apply for and receive a license without having any professional education. Less than one percent of New York’s architects (actually, 0.7%) are licensed via this “all-experience” route. To help ensure our continuing professional competence and ongoing development of knowledge and skills, architects have had to complete continuing education since 2000. The
