Graduate Program

University of Notre Dame School of Architecture

Notre Dame’s School of Architecture offers four graduate degree paths for students seeking professional and post-professional degrees, including those joining architecture from other disciplines. All three paths offer extraordinary learning opportunities for our students. Instruction is personal, and the learning environment is highly supportive. School and University resources are significant, and the content of the education is unique.

Architecture is a part of the unity of all knowledge, and it operates in a cultural continuum. While its principles are time-tested and permanent, its renewal through every new generation of young architects is as necessary as it is inevitable. Graduate education at Notre Dame involves learning that is based on this conception of architecture.

Students can expect to experience the following while attending the program:

1) Receive a concurrent education in Architecture, Urbanism, and Ecological Design;

2) Be taught by nationally and internationally prominent academic and practicing architects;

3) Study the theoretical and historical foundations of architectural/tectonic forms and urban place-making;

4) Understand how universal principles of design are manifested and applied to the vernacular and classical traditions of the world;

5) Partake of a one-semester course of study in our 50-plus year program in Rome;

6) Design for communities and institutions in the US and abroad and engage with their varied cultures, physical settings, and resources;

7) Incorporate the important social justice and environmental issues of our day into design, by working directly with people in need and employing enduring, natural materials and techniques whenever possible;

8) Integrate manual and digital techniques into design and graphic communication;

9) “Learn by doing” through Dean’s charrettes, summer programs in the US and abroad, and other outreach projects;

10) Have access to a world-class architectural library, machine shop, computer lab, and an architectural drawing archive;

11) Be involved with architectural journalism through the publishing of this journal;

12) Be part of a school that sponsors the renowned Richard H. Driehaus Prize and Henry Hope Reed Award that lend international credence to our unique academic focus.

Learn more about the program at architecture.nd.edu/graduate.

“Beauty, harmony, and context are hallmarks of classical architecture, thus fostering communities, enhancing the quality of our shared environment, and developing sustainable solutions through traditional materials.”

—richard h. driehaus

The Richard H. Driehaus Prize at the University of Notre Dame complements the School of Architecture’s classical and urbanist curriculum, providing a forum for celebrating and advancing the principles of the traditional city with an emphasis on sustainability. Established in 2003, the Richard H. Driehaus Prize is awarded to a living architect whose work embodies the highest ideals of traditional and classical architecture in contemporary society, and creates a positive cultural, environmental, and artistic impact.

In conjunction, the School presents the Henry Hope Reed Award to recognize achievement in the promotion and preservation of those ideals among people who work outside the architecture field. Together, the $200,000 Driehaus Prize and the $50,000 Reed Award represent the most significant recognition for classicism in the contemporary built environment.

Monographs are produced for each laureate–the print quantity is limited but some editions are available for purchase.

Place your order at architecture.nd.edu/monograph