The Architecture Program integrates critical, artistic, and material approaches to the study and practice of architecture.

Accredited Curriculum

The five-year, NAAB-accredited* program is committed to experiments in alternative models of practice, design, and fabrication. The curriculum accordingly brings developments in culture, media, and technology to bear on the process of architectural production, allowing students to capitalize on new opportunities in a rapidly changing profession.

Bay Area Setting

Our metropolitan setting informs the educational experience; the city of San Francisco functions as an urban laboratory, inspiring new ways to configure and inhabit architecture. Throughout their studies, students are encouraged to collaborate within and across disciplines to take full advantage of CCA's studio culture. The program actively seeks the participation of leading international figures for studio instruction, juried reviews, and an ambitious lecture series.

State-of-the-Art Facilities

The facilities on the San Francisco campus include dedicated studios with a wireless network infrastructure, a suite of fully equipped shops for various scales and media of fabrication, and four computer labs with the latest hardware and software. The New Materials Resource Center offers a comprehensive, interdisciplinary collection of samples and is the only library of its kind housed at an art school.

Professional Internships

Through the required internship, students have the opportunity to work at architectural firms in the United States and abroad. Architecture Program students also regularly enter and place in design competitions.

About Accreditation & Licensure

In the United States, most state registration boards require a degree from an accredited professional degree program as a prerequisite for licensure. The National Architectural Accrediting Board (NAAB), which is the sole agency authorized to accredit U.S. professional degree programs in architecture, recognizes three types of degrees: the bachelor of architecture, the master of architecture, and the doctor of architecture. A program may be granted a six-year, three-year, or two-year term of accreditation depending on the extent of its conformance with established educational standards.

Doctor of architecture and master of architecture degree programs may consist of a pre-professional undergraduate degree and a professional graduate degree that, when earned sequentially, constitute an accredited professional education. However, the pre-professional degree is not, by itself, recognized as an accredited degree.

California College of the Arts, Architecture offers the following NAAB-accredited degree programs:

BArch: 165 credits required
MArch: pre-professional degree + 96 credits required

The next accreditation visit for all programs is in 2011.