Applicable only to students admitted during the 2023-2024 academic year.

Architecture and Urban Design

School of the Arts and Architecture

Graduate Degrees

The Department of Architecture and Urban Design offers the Master of Architecture I (M.Arch. I) and Master of Architecture II (M.Arch. II) degrees, and the Master of Arts (M.A.) and Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degrees in architecture.

Master of Architecture I

Admissions Requirements

Advising

Students are assigned a temporary adviser upon entering the department and select a permanent faculty adviser when they are ready to do so. The faculty member meets with students at least once each quarter and discusses the curriculum, approves selection of courses, and is available for special counseling as needed. Students who wish to change their adviser should obtain the consent of the new faculty adviser and discuss this change with the graduate adviser. The faculty adviser and the staff graduate adviser work together in explaining curricular requirements and in dealing with any personal or academic difficulties that may occur.

Areas of Study

None.

Foreign Language Requirement

None.

Course Requirements

A minimum of 130 units of course work is required of which at least 118 units must be taken at the graduate level (200 and 400 series). Students must take at least eight units per quarter and may take up to 16 units in a quarter. The remaining 12 units of required course work may include upper division undergraduate courses but these must be courses offered by departments other than architecture and urban design, or no more than eight units of 596 (independent study) courses that may be taken campus-wide.

Required Courses. All students must successfully complete the following courses:

Architecture and Urban Design M201, 221, 222, 223, 291, 401, 403A-403B-403C, 411, 412, 413, 414, 415, 431, 432, 433, 436, 437, 441, 442, 461, and three courses in Critical Studies in Architectural Culture.

Design Studios. Design studios offered for M.Arch. I students are classified in three levels: introductory (411), intermediate (412, 413, 414), and advanced (401, 403A-403B-403C, 415).

If students maintain at least a B average in these studio levels, they automatically pass from the introductory to the intermediate level, from the intermediate level to the advanced level, and from the advanced level to the comprehensive examination. Students who do not maintain a B average in these studio levels are reviewed by a faculty committee, and are not permitted to advance unless explicitly allowed by that committee.

Waiving Required Courses. Students who believe they can demonstrate that they already have adequate background in topics covered by specific required courses may petition to waive those courses and replace them with electives. However, permission to waive required courses does not, in itself, reduce the minimum number of 130 units required for the M.Arch. I degree, nor does it reduce the nine-quarter residency requirement.

A petition to waive an individual required course should be addressed to the faculty member responsible for that course and may be granted at the faculty member’s discretion, possibly by means of a special examination. The petition should present evidence of adequate background in the specific topic of the course, preferably through a transcript and a syllabus of the course.

Independent Study. Students may apply eight units of 596 course work toward the elective course requirements for graduation. All independent work with 500-series course numbers must be undertaken with the guidance and approval of a departmental faculty member who evaluates the work on a satisfactory/unsatisfactory basis.

Course of Study. A normal, three-year path through the curriculum is listed below. Required courses other than design studios are normally only offered once a year, so failure to successfully complete one of these courses at the point shown may lengthen the time required to complete the program. Sections of Architecture and Urban Design 401, required studios, are normally available each quarter. Students are required to take the following courses, in the sequence indicated.

First Year:

Fall: Architecture and Urban Design M201, 221, 411, 431.

Winter: Architecture and Urban Design 412, 222, 432 , 436.

Spring: Architecture and Urban Design 223, 401 , 433 , 442.

Second Year:

Fall: Architecture and Urban Design 291, 413, 461.

Winter: Architecture and Urban Design 415, 441, one elective.

Spring: Architecture and Urban Design 414, 437, elective.

Third Year:

Fall: Architecture and Urban Design, 401, 403A, two electives.

Winter: Architecture and Urban Design 401, 403B, one elective.

Spring: Two electives, Architecture and Urban Design 403C.

Architecture M.Arch. I /Urban Planning, M.U.R.P.

During the first year a student follows the required Urban Planning curriculum. The second year is entirely in Architecture/Urban Design. The third and fourth years comprise a mix of both Architecture/Urban Design and Urban Planning courses, with the final design or written thesis or client or comprehensive project carried out in the fourth year.

A total of 41 courses (26 four-unit, nine six-unit, and six two-unit courses) or 170 units of course work is required to graduate. A student will take at least 36 units in Urban Planning and 114 units in Architecture and Urban Design to satisfy the specific requirements of each degree, including core courses in both programs and area of concentration courses from each program. To fulfill the core requirements for the M.U.R.P. degree in urban planning a student must take six core courses, plus one course related to planning practice or fieldwork. In Architecture and Urban Design, a student will take 24 core courses (nine six-unit, nine four-unit, and six two-unit courses). In addition, a student will take eight elective courses including three electives in the area of critical studies in architectural culture and five electives that fulfill the needs of the selected area of concentration. These may be chosen from courses offered in Architecture/Urban Design and Urban Planning, which have been identified as acceptable to both programs. To fulfill the capstone plan requirement in Architecture and Urban Design, students are required to take Architecture and Urban Design 403A-403B-403C in the fourth year. An additional one or two courses may be needed in the fourth year to meet the Urban Planning thesis/capstone requirement. Thirty-two units of course work, or eight elective courses, are double-counted in both Architecture and Urban Design and Urban Planning.

If a student is in the concurrent degree program and decides not to complete either the M.Arch. I degree or the M.U.R.P. degree, all the regular requirements for the program that a student wishes to complete must be met.

Teaching Experience

Not required.

Field Experience

Not required.

Capstone Plan

All M.Arch. I students must complete the capstone plan, a requirement that is satisfied as follows:

The capstone requirement is fulfilled through the completion of Architecture and Urban Design 403C in spring quarter and the final design project for this course. The final design project committee consists of at least three faculty members appointed by the department chair. The individual project or group project is administered and evaluated for satisfactory completion by the capstone committee. Within the first two weeks of the quarter, the 403C instructor will determine whether the final project is done as an individual project or a group project.  If a student produces a final project in a group framework, a student’s individual contribution will be determined by the instructor in consultation with each student prior to a group’s presentation and evaluation. The committee evaluates the final design project in the following terms: 1) pass (a unanimous vote), 2) two positive votes from the committee constitute a pass, 3) pass subject to revision of the final design project, or 4) fail (majority vote). A failing project cannot be revised. When the final design project is passed subject to revision, one member of the committee is assigned the responsibility of working with the student on the revision and determining when the final design project has been satisfactorily revised.  The degree is awarded on recommendation of the faculty committee.

Architecture M.Arch. I /Urban Planning, M.U.R.P.

Students in the concurrent degree program must meet the thesis/ capstone plan requirements separately for each department. In Architecture and Urban Design, the capstone plan requirement is met through Architecture and Urban Design 403C, as outlined above. Please refer to the M.U.R.P. program requirements for more information about the thesis/capstone requirements for the M.U.R.P. degree.

Thesis Plan

None.

Time-to-Degree

The normal length of time for completion of the M.Arch. I degree is nine academic quarters (three years).

DEGREE	NORMATIVE TIME TO ATC (Quarters)	NORMATIVE TTD	MAXIMUM TTD
M.Arch. I	9	9	15

Academic Disqualification and Appeal of Disqualification

University Policy

A student who fails to meet the above requirements may be recommended for academic disqualification from graduate study. A graduate student may be disqualified from continuing in the graduate program for a variety of reasons. The most common is failure to maintain the minimum cumulative grade point average (3.00) required by the Academic Senate to remain in good standing (some programs require a higher grade point average). Other examples include failure of examinations, lack of timely progress toward the degree and poor performance in core courses. Probationary students (those with cumulative grade point averages below 3.00) are subject to immediate dismissal upon the recommendation of their department. University guidelines governing academic disqualification of graduate students, including the appeal procedure, are outlined in Standards and Procedures for Graduate Study at UCLA.

Special Departmental or Program Policy

Academic Probation for M.Arch. I Students

In addition to University policy, M.Arch. I students are required to maintain a 3.00 average in studio course work. Students who fall below a 3.00 average in overall course work or below a 3.00 average in studio course work are placed on departmental academic probation. Students on academic probation are required to attend bi-weekly meetings with their faculty adviser and the graduate adviser and are required to be assigned a student mentor. Students are free to choose their own faculty adviser with the consent of the graduate adviser. The department wants all students to succeed and indeed to excel in all of their academic endeavors. Therefore, academic probation is intended to identify weaknesses and help students move forward through special support and remedial action.

Recommendations for academic disqualification for M.Arch. I Students

Students whose overall grade-point average or grade-point average in studio course work falls below 3.00 in two consecutive quarters are subject to a review to determine whether they will be recommended for academic disqualification from graduate study to the Graduate Division. No student will be subject to such a recommendation on the basis of a single grade of B- in a studio course.

At the beginning of each academic year, the department’s Executive Committee selects a standing committee charged with reviewing all students subject to a recommendation for academic disqualification. The members of the standing committee serve in this capacity for a minimum of one academic year. The standing committee consists of three ladder faculty members: the department chair and two other ladder faculty members. A student’s individual faculty adviser may serve as an additional member and consultant to the standing committee.

Once a potential recommendation for academic disqualification arises, the following procedures begin. Students receive additional academic advising and documentation of this advising, in the form of reports from the staff graduate adviser and the student’s individual faculty adviser, that are placed in the student’s file. Students meet with the standing committee at least once during the process and in addition to their faculty adviser, they may invite other faculty members to attend their meeting(s). The standing committee makes their recommendations in writing. If the committee chooses not to recommend academic disqualification, they must provide the student with a clear timetable for required improvements in performance. Students who fail to meet these requirements are recommended for academic disqualification based on a majority vote of the standing committee.