SHAPES VISIONARY ARCHITECTS AND DESIGNERS THROUGH A RIGOROUS, INTERDISCIPLINARY EDUCATION.
As the only architecture school in the Western United States to unite four distinct disciplines under one roof, USC Architecture stands at the forefront of global design education. It serves as a dynamic 21st-century platform for learning, research, and creative practice— focused on cultural heritage, cities and landscapes, architecture and urbanism, building technologies, and the histories and theories of the built environment at every scale.
For over a century, the USC School of Architecture has stood as a top-tier institution within one of the world’s leading research universities. Our students and faculty collaborate across disciplines to address the urgent challenges facing the built environment. Located in the heart of Los Angeles, we use the city as a living laboratory, drawing on its vibrant creative community to transform ideas into impact—locally and around the world.
A MESSAGE FROM DEAN BRETT STEELE
USC Architecture is defined by our commitment to envisioning—and building—better worlds. Our culture is grounded in four sustaining principles: academic excellence, mutual respect, well-being and safety, and stewardship of our shared resources.
These principles guide our 800 students, faculty, and staff in pursuing a core mission: to deliver education of the highest caliber, advancing architecture and its allied professions worldwide. This is the legacy of our alumni, faculty, and students—and the standard that defines us today. We carry that mission forward in the 21st century, here in Los Angeles—a global city at the center of the world’s largest creative economy. Our students benefit daily from the region’s architectural offices, museums, cultural centers, and diverse natural settings, which enrich their studies alongside new forms of teaching, research, and design.
USC Architecture is a truly global school, welcoming students from across the United States and dozens of countries each year. Our four disciplines—Architecture, Landscape Architecture + Urbanism, Building Science, and Heritage Conservation—each play a vital role in shaping and understanding our world.
Brett Steele
Della & Harry MacDonald Dean’s Chair in Architecture Dean, USC School of Architecture
Dean’s Welcome
U.S. STATES
6:1
83% DOMESTIC STUDENTS
106
STUDENT / FACULTY RATIO
29% FIRST GENERATION STUDENTS
YEARS SINCE OUR FOUNDING
7K
LIVING ALUMNI WORLDWIDE
Today, our 100+ faculty—scholars, researchers, and practitioners—are transforming how the world understands architecture and its role in shaping the future.
The USC School of Architecture fosters a collaborative environment where students and faculty work across disciplines to develop new research and creative work in building technologies, landscape and ecology, sustainability, urbanism, and housing.
Through close mentorship with faculty, students engage in cuttingedge research as part of their academic journey—designing solutions for the most pressing challenges of our time.
Through our multidisciplinary approach, USC Architecture graduates are uniquely equipped to tackle the complexities of the built environment and bring new meaning to a tradition of modern architecture and design.
This is the place where practitioners are created, and where the role of the architect, landscape architect, urban designer, theorist, historian, and technology and science specialist is redefined.
Instructors:
Ryan Tyler Martinez, Erin Kasimow, and Jimenez Lai
Our curriculum is rigorous, interdisciplinary, and future-focused—blending history, theory, technology, and design to prepare students for the evolving demands of professional practice.
Students have access to over 50K square feet of space dedicated to design studios, classrooms, galleries, fabrication workshops, and research labs. Each space is equipped with cutting-edge tools and technology to support every stage of the creative process. With 24/7 studio access and a personal workstation for each student, the environment is designed to foster continuous exploration, collaboration, and innovation—a hallmark of the USC School of Architecture..
YOUR CONNECTION TO PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND NETWORKS IN THE INDUSTRY.
For more than six decades, the USC Architectural Guild has been an essential part of our school.
Its members include alumni and industry leaders in architecture, engineering, building design, landscape, finance, and real estate, who volunteer their time and expertise to mentor students and raise funds to support scholarship.
Each year, the Guild leads a Mentorship Program and Career Development events, including portfolio reviews and design workshops, culminating in USC’s largest annual Firm Fair.
ACADEMIC LIFE
From City to Studio
See the city as you ride the LA Metro. Hop off at Exposition Blvd and you have arrived at the School of Architecture.
Attend the USC Architectural Guild Firm Fair, portfolio in hand, to connect with representatives from leading architecture firms across Los Angeles.
Join your design studio for a site visit to the Walt Disney Concert Hall, an iconic landmark designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect and alum Frank Gehry.
It’s pin-up day and your turn to present your work to faculty and visiting critics.
Build your model in the fabrication workshop, on a 3D printer, or use one of the many large-format printers, the laser cutters, CNC milling and Kuka robotic arms.
THE USC ARCHITECTURE EXPERIENCE
Have a group work session to make progress on the project you’re submitting for the USC Architectural Guild’s annual Design Charrette.
Dedicate focused time at your studio workstation as you refine your next project.
Take a break to meet up with friends for a bite at the Tutor Center.
Explore the latest exhibition on view, featuring work by both faculty and students, for inspiration and insight into current architectural discourse.
Get a good night’s sleep. You’ve got an early flight tomorrow to Japan for a semester abroad in the Global Studies program.
THE USC ARCHITECTURE EXPERIENCE
At the heart of Los Angeles, home to the world’s largest creative economy
Our students learn from top professionals and faculty while actively engaging with the city around them. From studying iconic architecture and diverse landscapes to designing solutions for real urban challenges, they explore the built environment through architecture, landscape architecture, building science, and heritage conservation—all within the living laboratory of Los Angeles.
451 K
1 K
23
250
Trojan alumni in a global network
Student organizations to explore and join Schools offering degree programs across an R1 research university
Minors, the largest number of any U.S. university
USC Architecture offers a range of global studies and travel-based learning opportunities. These include semester-long undergraduate programs, graduate-level workshops, traveling fellowships, and studiobased research and field studies conducted both nationally and internationally.
Undergraduate students have studied abroad in regions such as Asia, the Mediterranean, and Latin America, while graduate students have undertaken field studies in France, Japan and the American West.
DEGREE PROGRAMS
3
5
5
8 Bachelor’s Degrees Master’s Degrees
Dual Master’s Degrees Certificate Programs
Bachelor of Architecture
5 YEARS / 160 UNITS
↑ Nayeon Kang
← Charles Doan
↗ Rachel Wang
The Bachelor of Architecture is a five-year, ten-semester program that blends rigorous architectural coursework with a broad university education. The curriculum is designed in two dynamic cycles of development. Years 1–3 establish a strong foundation through immersive design and media studios, courses in building technology, and architectural history and theory. This cycle concludes with integrative studies that bring together technical and creative skills.
Years 4–5 emphasize exploration, specialization, and independent growth. Students tailor their studies through advanced topic studios and electives—either on campus or through our global study programs. In the fall of the fifth year, students complete a comprehensive design project while pursuing an original research topic. The final semester culminates in the development of that research topic into a final degree project for public exhibition, showcasing each student’s unique vision and architectural voice. The ultimate goal of the program is to prepare students for eventual professional licensure and a successful career in architecture, equipping them with the knowledge, skills, and experiences needed to thrive in the field.
Bachelor of Architecture
← Justin Kaczender
↗ Alexander Jeong
→ Jett Born
Bachelor of Science in Architecture + Inventive Technologies
4 YEARS / 128 UNITS
The Bachelor of Science in Architecture and Inventive Technologies (BSAIT) is a four-year, pre-professional degree at the intersection of architecture, technology, and entrepreneurship. The program is designed for students who want to innovate at both human, and architectural scale. Using design not only as a creative act, but as a way to address global challenges such as climate change, social justice, and public well-being.
Students work hands-on with advanced fabrication tools and methods, including CNC machining, industrial robotics, 3D printing, and composite prototyping. Training encompasses digital modeling and full-scale prototyping, as well as manufacturing processes and product testing, giving students the technical fluency to move ideas from sketch to market-ready innovation.
Industry partnerships play a central role in the program. Collaborations with leading technology firms, fabrication labs, and manufacturers give students access to cutting-edge equipment and real-world project environments. These experiences strengthen both technical and entrepreneurial skills, preparing graduates to bring new architectural products and systems into practice.
The BSAIT curriculum is designed to encourage invention. Students are challenged to create meaningful, measurable impact on the built environment, developing ideas that are technically advanced, socially responsive, and ready to transform the future of design and making.
Master of Architecture
First-Professional 3 YEARS / 102 UNITS
Designed for students with no prior background in architecture, those with degrees in related fields (such as interior design, environmental design, etc.), and those with a four-year BA or BS in Architecture who are not granted advanced standing.
First-Professional with Advanced Standing 2 YEARS / 64 UNITS
Designed for students with a four-year BA or BS in Architecture who demonstrate strong portfolios qualifying them for advanced placement.
Divya Balachandran
Alec Sweeting
Graduate thesis presentation
The Master of Architecture program is grounded in design excellence, critical inquiry, and a deep commitment to social and spatial equity. Taught by a distinguished faculty of licensed architects, scholars, and practitioners, the program is structured in three progressive levels.
The first level introduces essential design knowledge and core disciplinary skills required for NAAB accreditation. The second level deepens applied expertise and advances professional capabilities. In the final year, students pursue an individually directed design research thesis supported by master classes and faculty mentorship.
Throughout the program, students are challenged to imagine bold alternatives for the built environment— leveraging emerging technologies, engaging with communities, and advancing innovative, socially responsive design.
← Etulan Joseph
↑ Jack Somers
→ Kaiji Luo
Master of Advanced Architectural Research Studies
Post-Professional 1 YEAR, 32 UNITS
The Master of Advanced Architectural Research Studies (M.AARS) is a 9-month, two-semester post-professional graduate program that offers concentrations in City Design + Housing (CDH) or Performative Design + Technology (PDT). Designed for students not seeking licensure and pursuing careers in architecture and other allied creative fields, the program challenges participants to engage with design as a form of focused, specialized design research. Addressing some of the most urgent societal challenges shaped by the built environment, M.AARS equips post-graduates to become design specialists with deep expertise in urban equity and advanced design technologies.
Concentrations:
M.AARS City Design + Housing
The City Design + Housing (CDH) concentration focuses on inclusive and equitable city design and housing production. Operating under the premise that housing and access to the city is a right, the CDH program proactively engages the current crises in urban development and housing provision with research and design solutions, both locally and globally.
M.AARS Performative Design + Technology
The Performative Design + Technology (PDT) concentration focuses on the integration of technology within the digital design process. The PDT program seeks to explore the role of data and technology in the built environment. The program merges architectural and computational design to focus on design research and professional development in relevant areas that are affecting the built environment now and in the future.
Master of Landscape Architecture
First-Professional 3 YEARS / 96 UNITS
This curriculum is designed for students entering without a previous degree in architecture, landscape architecture, or other design degrees.
First-Professional with Advanced Standing 2 YEARS / 66 UNITS
Students who have completed an undergraduate professional Landscape Architecture or Architecture degree join the second year cohort. Course plans are developed based on the student’s previous degree work.
The Master of Landscape Architecture program works at the intersection of academic research and practice. Our students work with faculty who are involved in groundbreaking research and worldclass practices. Students create visions of the future in a field that is rapidly evolving in response to social and environmental change. Our home in urban Los Angeles provides expansive opportunities to study complex ecologies and cultures from the mountains to the coast, in cities, suburbs, and rural areas. As one of four disciplines in the School of Architecture, students can expand their professional and research perspectives and networks by integrating coursework in architecture, heritage conservation, and building science to prepare themselves for the highly collaborative field of landscape architecture.
↑ Shuyi Zhang
→ Anna Avdalyan
Master of Building Science
For students with a background in architecture, engineering or related areas.
2 YEARS / 48 UNITS
→ Fairooz Alawami
Building Science at the USC School of Architecture integrates building systems with current design practice and new technologies to create innovative and holistic design solutions. Students emerge from the program as design professionals equipped to enter the fields of architecture, engineering, and construction. Drawing from a foundation in research and design methods, graduates integrate aspects of energy performance, health and comfort, and environmental design to develop design solutions that address the complexity of the built environment. The faculty guide students through individual thesis projects covering a wide-range of topics, including building information modeling, operational and embodied carbon, façade design and performance, human-centered intelligent environmental controls, and design automation.
Master of Heritage Conservation
Standard Curriculum
2 YEARS / 48 UNITS
1.5 YEARS / 36 UNITS
→
field
The Master of Heritage Conservation program envisions the future through the lens of the past. Offering the only master’s degree of its kind in California, the program features cultural and intangible heritage, underrecognized communities, and modernism and the recent past. Students have a range of backgrounds and interests, but they share a love of history and want to strengthen communities using existing places and the stories they tell. Faculty are leaders in the field who push boundaries and grapple with issues in real time. The curriculum spans topics including social and architectural history, preservation policy and urban planning, social justice and equity, climate action and sustainability, global conservation, and site and material assessment.
Heritage conservation relates to virtually all aspects of the built environment. Embedded in the School of Architecture, heritage conservation students join a highly multidisciplinary community and can also expand their academic inquiry to include topics like spatial sciences, urban planning, real estate, and American studies and ethnicity.
Through this broad exposure, students begin to forge a professional path that blends their skills and interests. Students and alumni share their research and career paths on the podcast Save As: NextGen Heritage Conservation (saveas.place).
↑ Alumna Nirali Sheth at the Beverly Hills Union 76 station, designed by her thesis subject, Gin D. Wong, FAIA. Photo by Danielle Armstrong.
Summer Short Course in Heritage Conservation
session at the Gamble House, May 2025.
Dual Degree Programs
Master
of Building Science + Master of
2 YEARS, 72 UNITS
The objective of the dual degree curriculum is to provide students with a basic understanding of the origins and development of the philosophies, theories, and practices of building science and heritage conservation, preparing them for doctoral studies or careers in urban design, landscape architecture, or urban planning.
Master of Landscape Architecture + Master of Urban Planning
3 YEARS, 84 – 106 UNITS
This Program focuses on the integration of architectural design, building performance, and technology, within the context of digital design and fabrication. In this program, students will explore digital and analog techniques for discovering form through variable material and geometric organizations and force simulations, while simultaneously considering the design opportunities being afforded by advances in computation and fabrication technologies.
Master of Heritage Conservation + Master of Landscape Architecture
2.5 – 3.5 YEARS, 87 – 111 UNITS
The MHC/MLA dual degree program has been developed so that students will graduate from this program with a broad practical knowledge of the techniques and strategies for conserving the existing built environment through the lens of cultural landscape studies and landscape architecture.
Master of Heritage Conservation + Master of Architecture
3-3.5 YEARS, 84 – 115 UNITS
The MHC/M.Arch dual degree program offers integrated, cross-disciplinary graduate studies that combine the design-focused approach of the Master of Architecture—centered on transforming the built environment—with the Master of Heritage Conservation’s emphasis on understanding and guiding how places evolve over time to serve and strengthen communities.
Master of Heritage Conservation + Master of Urban Planning
2 YEARS, 60 UNITS
For people who want to create livable cities rooted in history and culture, this degree offers the best of both worlds. MHC/MUP students are deeply curious about why the built environment is the way it is—and how they can make it work for everyone.
Graduate Certificate Programs
Architecture
The focus of this program is on understanding the broad and complex role of architecture within the urban context. Studios examine cities throughout the world where conditions of incresing density, environmental challenges and cultural complexity require design initiatives that support amenity, sustainability and cultural meaning.
Building Science
This certificate designed for working professionals and graduate students (with the exception of students enrolled in the MBS degree program) to acquire understanding of core issues and knowledge related to building science.
Sustainable Design
This certificate equips students to analyze energy use in buildings and landscapes and design systems that reduce it. Through coursework, students learn to make sustainable design decisions that consider the energy needed to maintain and replace the built environment, exploring solutions that are environmentally, economically, and socially responsible.
Heritage Conservation
This certificate emphasizes the interconnectedness of the natural and built environments and intangible heritage, with a curriculum that includes social and architectural history, planning theory and policy, site and material assessment, climate change, and sustainability.
Landscape Architecture
This program is intended to introduce at the graduate level the basic subjects inherent to the field of landscape architecture: plant materials suitable to urban conditions; urban utility and transportation systems in relation to topography, natural drainage and pathways; plant and wildlife communities; as well as inquiries about landscape infrastructure and ecology, and the history of human settlement in the evolution of urban landscapes.
Buiding Façade Art Science and Technology
This certificate is designed to provide students with the deep knowledge and skills necessary for careers in the increasingly technical field of façade system design, fabrication, delivery and operation.
City Design and Housing
This certificate equips students with expertise in equitable urban design and housing. Emphasizing sustainability, resilience, and social justice, the program explores innovative strategies for inclusive city and housing development.
Performative Design + Technology
This certificate offers an intensive study of advanced technologies transforming the AEC industry, equipping students with expertise in parametric modeling, computational design, data-driven methods, AI, and digital fabrication.
Integrated Path to Architectural Licensure
The USC School of Architecture participates in the NCARB Integrated Path to Architectural Licensure Initiative (IPAL).
The program gives B.Arch and M.Arch students increased access to the state and national licensure examinations while enrolled in their accredited professional degree program, significantly reducing the timeline to become a licensed architect.
All program information contained here is summarized from the USC Catalogue and is considered non-official. The official source for information on USC’s academic policies and procedures is the USC Catalogue.
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This publication is made possible with the generous support of the Blurock Family Endowment for Publication.
