Top Schools in Architecture: University of California at Los Angeles

University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA)

UCLA's Department of Architecture & Urban Design offers a host of degrees and entry levels for architecture students.

Discipline: Architecture
Location: Los Angeles, USA
Undergraduate: Bachelor of Arts
Graduate: Master of Architecture, Master of Arts, PhD

Number of students: 51 (undergraduate), 206 (graduate)
Number of faculty: 32

University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA)

Strengths

Four groundbreaking SUPRASTUDIO programs, a stellar faculty that includes Hitoshi Abe, Heather Roberge, Michael Osman, Neil Denari and Pritzker Prize laureate Thom Mayne

Overview

UCLA’s Department of Architecture & Urban Design offers a host of degrees and entry levels for architecture students. Most notably, MArch II students can apply to one of four SUPRASTUDIO programs in which they tackle real-world issues via intensive research to probe architectural design and its cultural and social context. The studios are led by world-renowned architectural minds and collaborate with organizations as diverse as Walt Disney Imagineering, Cirque du Soleil, the City of Madrid and UNICEF. Mayne’s group, for example, recently worked on an intensive study of and master plan for Cap-Haïtien, Haiti’s second-largest city, where preservation efforts have inhibited development.

Notable alumni

Billie Tsien, Hsin-Ming Fung, Patrick Tighe, Hank Koning and Julie Eizenberg of Koning Eizenberg, Tom Wiscombe of EMERGENT