Notre Dame School of Architecture

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School of Architecture

Established: 1898
Type: Private
Dean: Michael Lykoudis
Location: Notre Dame, Indiana, USA
Website: architecture.nd.edu

The School of Architecture at the University of Notre Dame is the oldest architecture school at a Catholic institution in the United States. It consists of approximately two hundred undergraduate students and about twenty to thirty graduate students. The School has its own library, and is the smallest of the six major program divisions of the University (the others being the Mendoza College of Business, the College of Arts and Letters, the College of Engineering,the College of Science, and the Law School).

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[edit] History of the School

Architecture as a discipline was taught at the University as early as 1869, but it was not until 1898 that the faculty was organized into its own School apart from the other Colleges.

[edit] Degree Programs

The School is divided into undergraduate and graduate students. All undergraduate students take a five-year program leading to the Bachelor of Architecture (BArch) degree, the third year of which is spent at the Rome Program.

The School's graduate program offers two progams leading to the Master of Architecture (MArch): a two-year program for students who studied architecture as undergraduates, and a three-year program for students who already have degrees in other, unrelated programs. The latter program for non-majors was started in 2005, with the first students from that program to graduate in May 2008.

There are typically between 45 and 50 students in each graduating BArch class. The graduate program has grown significantly in recent years, as the school focuses additional resources and expands choices and course offerings (see above). In recent years, there have been about 10 graduate students receiving degrees each May, although this number is climbing.

Since 1992, the School has also offered a concentration in Furniture Design, under the direction of Professor Robert Brandt. It is open to both undergraduate and graduate students. In the 2007-2008 school year, two new concentrations are offered to students: Historic Preservation and Restoration, with emphasis on the documentation and repair of historic structures, and Architectural Practice and Enterprise, with a focus on acquiring business skills and methods for use in the field. Recently, there have also been additional courses in energy preservation and sustainability offered to students as well.

[edit] Facilities

The Front of Bond Hall, playing host to the University band
The Front of Bond Hall, playing host to the University band

The School is housed in Bond Hall, a large building on Notre Dame Campus formerly known as the Lemonnier Library. The building served as the principal library of the entire campus until Hesburgh Memorial Library was constructed in 1964. The library itself can be distinguished on campus with its white Indiana limestone exterior and classical Ionic archway. The building was refurbished, extended, and modernized between 1995 and 1997 under a project by Thomas Gordon Smith, a current faculty member.

Bond Hall contains studio space for second-, fourth-, and fifth-year students, in addition to several classrooms and an auditorium that seats approximately 100. The center of the building (indeed, the former courtyard of Lemonnier Library) is the library, with a computer cluster below. There are offices for all members of the faculty and administration of the School. Additionally, there is a large furniture design studio and workshop in Bond Hall's lower level adjacent to a graduate studio.

Freshmen architecture students cannot be housed in Bond Hall due to a lack of space. The freshman studio is located a short walk away from Bond Hall in Brownson Hall.

The School also maintains a campus in Rome, Italy, in the Centro Storico. The year-long Rome program was founded in 1967 by the late Frank Montana and has then since become a requirement for all third-year architecture students. Bought in 1986 and located on Via Monterone 76, the building houses the Rome Studies Program, and consists of parts of two Roman palazzi. Facilities include studio space for approximately 50-55 students, offices for faculty and staff, a large auditorium/meeting room, a small library, a computer cluster, and a student kitchen and dining area. Students live in a nearby hotel, but their daily lives are focused mainly at the school building.

[edit] Notable Alumni

John Burgee

Francis D.K. Ching

[edit] Resources