| University of Oregon School of Architecture and Allied Arts | |
|---|---|
| Established | 1914 |
| Type | Public |
| Dean | Frances Bronet |
| Location | Eugene, Oregon, USA |
| Website | http://aaa.uoregon.edu/ |
The University of Oregon School of Architecture and Allied Arts is a public school of architecture and visual arts in the U.S. state of Oregon. It is the only school in Oregon to offer architecture degrees accredited by the National Architectural Accrediting Board.[1] The school, founded in 1914 by Ellis F. Lawrence,[2] is located on the University of Oregon campus in Eugene, off the corner of 13th and University streets.
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At its inception in 1914, Ellis F. Lawrence envisioned that the school would incorporate architectural education with the arts as opposed to engineering, and became the first school to do so.[3] The students would learn in an individual but collaborative environment instead of a fiercely competitive environment.
When W.R.B. Wilcox became the head of the architecture curriculum in 1922, the underlying idea became that architecture and the arts would reflect societal influences, which had remained alive through the decades.[3]
After World War II, student enrollment in the school ballooned and separate departments for each curricular subject were created.[3]
The school is divided into five departments including the Department of Architecture, Department of Art, Department of Art History, Department of Landscape Architecture, and the Department of Planning, Public Policy & Management. The school also offers four programs including Arts & Administration, Historic Preservation, Interior Architecture, and Product Design.
The architecture program was in place since the inception of the school, though it didn’t become a department of the school until 1964.[3] Just five years after its founding, in 1919, the school gained an early form of accreditation through the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture. Only twelve schools out of forty schools that applied obtained accreditation that year.[3] Both the undergraduate and graduate degrees are accredited by the National Architectural Accrediting Board.
The landscape architecture program was first founded in Oregon Agricultural College, now known as Oregon State University in 1928.[4] The program was moved to the University of Oregon in 1932, where it was expanded into a five-year program. The masters program was established a year later.
The department of art offers an array of fine arts including various digital media, ceramics, fibers, metals and jewelry, photography, painting, and sculpture.[5] Students’ work are periodically displayed in the LaVerne Krause Gallery in Lawrence Hall.
The school’s product design program begins in the fall of 2008, from a partnership between the school’s department of art and department of interior architecture.[6] The program, sparked by a $1.5 million donation from Columbia Sportswear CEO Tim Boyle, will work closely with nearby firms such as Ziba Design, Nike, Intel, and Sandstrom Design. The program will offer a four-year BA/BS degree in Material and Product studies in Eugene while offering a fifth year in Portland for a BFA in product design.[7]
The school is primarily housed in Lawrence Hall at the University of Oregon campus, which provides lecture halls, classrooms, studios, the Architecture and Allied Arts Library, a materials resource library, and a computer lab with plotting services. The school also occupies two floors of the University's facility in the White Stag Block in Portland, with classes in urban architecture, digital arts, and product design.
The journalDesignIntelligence, in its 2010 rankings of architecture schools, ranked the University of Oregon's undergraduate architecture program number 7 overall in the nation. It also ranked first in the country in the area of "Sustainable Design Practice and Principles," and number 5 for "Analysis and Planning."[8] This was an 11 spot improvement from the 2009 rankings where the architecture program was also ranked first place, tying with University of California at Berkley, in the category of skills assessment for sustainable design concepts and principles.[9] In 2007, the landscape architecture program was ranked first in the nation in sustainable design, while the architecture and interior architecture programs were ranked second in sustainable design.
Several programs have historically been ranked highly in various publications over the years. US News & World Report ranked the graduate architecture program at number 15 in their 1998 edition of ‘’Best Graduate Schools’’.[10] The journal DesignIntelligence annually ranks architecture programs in the United States in its issue "America's Best Architecture & Design Schools" and the undergraduate architecture program has consistently ranked within the top 15 and as high as 11 between 2004 and 2008.[11] The undergraduate and graduate interior architecture programs were ranked 10th and 6th, respectively. The undergraduate and graduate landscape architecture programs were tied at 15th and ranked 13th, respectively.[12]
In the more regionalized rankings, DesignIntelligence in 2007 had ranked the graduate architecture program at first in the western region, tied with Southern California Institute of Architecture. The undergraduate program had placed second in the western region behind California Polytechnic State University in the same publication. The interior architecture program ranked first in both graduate and undergraduate in the western region and undergraduate landscape architecture ranked third.[12]