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Rigorous Study
The Bachelor of Science in Architecture (B.S. Arch) program is a rigorous course of study centered on the design studio, where students work closely with faculty in their explorations of architectural design across a broad range of scales. Associated courses in visual representation, history, theory, technology, and professional practice inform and enrich students' responses to studio challenges. Student learning is enhanced by two semesters of cooperative work experience as well as study abroad options. All entering freshmen are admitted to the four-year B.S. Arch program. During the junior year, students focus their educational interests by choosing one of the three concentrations outlined below.
Undergraduate Concentrations in Architecture
The undergraduate program in Architecture offers three areas of concentration, which allow students to pursue a particular focus within their study of architecture. The core architectural education is equivalent across concentrations, and all achieve the same learning outcomes. All students are required to select a concentration at the end of their first semester in junior year.
Urbanism
This concentration explores architecture’s capacity for engaging urban systems and landscapes in the Anthropocene, economics and social justice, and the larger forces of history and culture operating on and through the built environment. It challenges students to explore the interplay between complex social, cultural, and ecological systems as a form of design research and empowers young professionals to collaborate across disciplinary boundaries and provide leadership in reshaping our cities.
Emerging Technologies
This concentration builds knowledge and skills in the technologies that are transforming the discipline and profession of architecture. It explores emergent design techniques, materials, construction methods, digital fabrication, computational software, and media of architecture. It offers students an understanding of the principles and applications of technologies that are central to shaping architectural modernity and the future of the built environment.
Adaptive Interventions
This concentration investigates architecture as it relates to design interventions, adaptations, and transformations of existing conditions, communities, and contexts. It explores how built architectural works engage complex social, political, economic, environmental, historical, and disciplinary forces—and how to re-engage those changing forces when adapting or intervening in an existing setting. If the most sustainable building is one that already exists, this concentration establishes strategies for capitalizing on our built fabric while imagining inventive ways to transform buildings and urban environments from past generations.
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Wentworth Architecture graduates obtain well-paying jobs in a range of fields. Average starting salary of an Architecture major is $62,682 and the median salary is $55,000.
Recent graduates find jobs at top companies in Boston and around the country. The Top 5 employers of the most recent class of Wentworth Architecture graduates are:
- Lin Xi
- Four Seasons Greenery
- Woodstock Building Associates
- Wiemann Lamphere Architects
- McDougal Architects, Inc.
Average hourly co-op pay for Architecture majors is $20.94.
Find a more in-depth look at career outcomes below.
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The Bachelor of Science in Architecture is a four-year program that begins in the fall of the student’s first year and is intended to be completed in the spring semester of the fourth year. In their third year, students select one of three concentrations – Urbanism, Emerging Technologies, or Adaptive Interventions – as the focus of their advanced coursework during junior and senior years.
View information from the Course Catalog below for program requirements.
B.S. Architecture Degree Details
Total Credits for degree: 136
The Bachelor of Science in Architecture is a four-year full-time program that begins in the fall of the student’s first year and is intended to be completed in the spring semester of the fourth year.
Curricular Sequence
Foundation and Integration
In the first year, students get a broad introduction to design and visualization methods that serve as foundations for their study of architecture. Over the following four semesters, students take a sequence of courses in architectural history and theory, construction technology, and structural and environmental systems that support design studios of increasing complexity.
Concentrations
In the first semester of junior year, students in the Architecture major must select one of three concentrations – Urbanism, Emerging Technologies, or Adaptive Interventions – as the focus of their advanced coursework during junior and senior years. In the following summer semester, juniors take their first concentration seminar, surveying the history and theory of their chosen concentration. In the fall of senior year, students take a second concentration seminar together with a concentration-specific studio (Studio 07).
Plan of Study Grid Freshman Year Fall Semester Credits ARCH1000 STUDIO 01 6 ARCH1200 ARCHITECTURAL REPRESENTATION 4 English Sequence 4 MATH1000 COLLEGE MATHEMATICS 4 MATH1500, MATH1700, MATH1750, MATH1800 or MATH1850 will satisfy the MATH RequirementCredits 18 Spring Semester ARCH1500 STUDIO 02 6 ARCH1700 ARCHITECTURAL MEDIA 4 English Sequence 4 PHYS1000 COLLEGE PHYSICS I 4 PHYS1250 will also satisfy the PHYS requirementCredits 18 Sophomore Year Fall Semester ARCH2000 STUDIO 03 6 ARCH2100 HISTORY/THEORY 01 4 ARCH2200 BUILDING MATTERS: MATERIALS & ELEMENTS OF CONSTRUCTION 4 HSS Elective 4 COOP2500 INTRODUCTION TO COOPERATIVE EDUCATION 0 Credits 18 Spring Semester ARCH2500 STUDIO 04 6 ARCH2600 HISTORY/THEORY 02 4 ARCH2700 ENERGY & RESOURCES IN ARCHITECTURE 4 ARCH3400 STRUCTURES 01 4 ARCH2225 PRO-PRACTICE PREP 0 Credits 18 Summer Semester COOP3500 COOP EDUCATION 1 Credits 0 Junior Year Fall Semester ARCH3000 STUDIO 05 6 ARCH3900 STRUCTURES 02 4 HSS Elective 4 Math/Science/HSS Elective 4 Credits 18 Spring Semester COOP4500 COOP EDUCATION 2 0 Credits 0 Summer Semester ARCH3500 STUDIO 06 6 ARCH3200 PASSIVE & ACTIVE SYSTEMS 4 ARCH3700 CONCENTRATION STUDIES 01 4 HSS Elective 4 Credits 18 Senior Year Fall Semester ARCH4000 or ARCH4025
or ARCH4050STUDIO 07 (URBANISM) or STUDIO 07 (EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES)
or STUDIO 07 (ADAPTIVE INTERVENTIONS)6 ARCH3750 CONCENTRATION STUDIES 02 4 HSS Elective 4 Credits 14 Spring Semester ARCH5500 STUDIO 08 6 Architecture Elective 4 HSS Elective 4 Credits 14 Total Credits 136 Architecture Electives
Students are encouraged to pursue breadth, as well as depth in their architectural studies. The following list is indicative of the Architecture program's elective course offerings in recent years:
Course List Course Title Credits ARCH3800 SPECIAL TOPICS IN ARCHITECTURE (Design Strategies for Low-Carbon Buildings) 4 ARCH3800 SPECIAL TOPICS IN ARCHITECTURE (Geospatial Modeling) 4 ARCH3800 SPECIAL TOPICS IN ARCHITECTURE (Holistic Sustainable Design Integration ) 4 ARCH3800 SPECIAL TOPICS IN ARCHITECTURE (Animated Architectural Volumes ) 4 ARCH3800 SPECIAL TOPICS IN ARCHITECTURE (Potentials of Additive Manufacturing ) 4 ARCH3800 SPECIAL TOPICS IN ARCHITECTURE (Architects, Directors, Scenographers) 4 ARCH3800 SPECIAL TOPICS IN ARCHITECTURE (Collage in Architecture) 4 ARCH3800 SPECIAL TOPICS IN ARCHITECTURE (Green & Resilient Design) 4 ARCH3800 SPECIAL TOPICS IN ARCHITECTURE (Color Relationships) 4 ARCH3800 SPECIAL TOPICS IN ARCHITECTURE (Modernism Beyond the West) 4 ARCH3800 SPECIAL TOPICS IN ARCHITECTURE (Material Intelligence) 4 ARCH3800 SPECIAL TOPICS IN ARCHITECTURE (Issues in Professional Practice) 4 ARCH3800 SPECIAL TOPICS IN ARCHITECTURE (Context Analysis-Berlin) 4 ARCH3800 SPECIAL TOPICS IN ARCHITECTURE (Space & Media) 4 ARCH3800 SPECIAL TOPICS IN ARCHITECTURE (City of the Future) 4 ARCH3800 SPECIAL TOPICS IN ARCHITECTURE (Building Community) 4 ARCH3800 SPECIAL TOPICS IN ARCHITECTURE (Project Planning) 4 ARCH3800 SPECIAL TOPICS IN ARCHITECTURE 4 ARCH3800 SPECIAL TOPICS IN ARCHITECTURE 4 ARCH3800 SPECIAL TOPICS IN ARCHITECTURE 4 ARCH3800 SPECIAL TOPICS IN ARCHITECTURE 4 ENGL/HSS Note
Students in the Architecture major are required to complete a minimum of 28 credit hours in English, humanities, and social sciences, including:
- Two or three semesters of English, according to placement;
- At least one elective in a Humanities category (CSAS, HIST, HSSI, HUMN, LITR, PHIL);
- At least one elective in a Social Sciences category (COMM, CSAS, ECON, ENVM, HSSI, POLS, PSYC, SOCL).
The remaining credit hours may be satisfied with electives in any of these Humanities and Social Science fields: COMM, CSAS, ECON, ENVM, HSSI, HIST, HUMN, LITR, PHIL, POLS, PSYC, SOCL.
General Education Note
The Bachelor of Science degree requires the completion of a minimum of 40 credit hours of General Education, defined as coursework in “the arts and humanities, the sciences including mathematics, and the social sciences” (NECHE Standards for Accreditation, 2016). Students in the Architecture major may satisfy the General Education requirement with a combination of required and elective courses in Math, Sciences, English, Humanities, and Social Sciences.
Studio Grade Requirement
The School of Architecture and Design has a special grade requirement that applies to all undergraduate design studio courses from the sophomore year onward. Students in the Bachelor of Science programs are responsible for demonstrating improvement and growth each semester and are held to the following standard in their design studios:
A final grade below C is considered a sub-standard grade, indicating that the student is not meeting expectations. Students who earn a final grade of C-, D+, or D for two consecutive semesters are not permitted to continue in the studio sequence until they successfully repeat the second studio for which they received a sub-standard grade.
Architecture (Program) on Display
Each academic year, Architecture students develop skills that they build on in the following year, starting from drawing through group projects designed for the community.
Student Testimonials
What You'll Learn
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Year 1
You’ll establish a foundation for your Architecture program by taking Studio 01 & 02, which will instill core techniques of visualization and representation that you’ll use throughout the program. In the spring, you’ll take Architectural Media, which advances students' fundamental knowledge of various media and fabrication processes used to generate, manipulate, communicate, and produce architecture today.
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Year 2
Second year architecture students expand their knowledge with courses in history & theory, the materials that builders work with and best ways to utilize energy & resources in architecture. You’ll continue your work in Studio 03 & 04 that require students to apply more advanced concepts to solve real world problems.
In the summer, you’ll begin the first of two required co-ops.
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Year 3
You’ll continue in Studio 05 and take Structures 02, where you’ll learn the structural properties of major construction materials and learn to design beams, slabs, columns, and foundations in wood, steel, and concrete.
In the spring, you’ll go on your second required co-op to gain more hands-on industry experience.
Third-year students choose one of three concentrations in Urbanism, Emerging Technologies, or Adaptive Interventions. In the summer semester, you'll take your first concentration seminar, which surveys the history and theory of your chosen concentration.
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Year 4
You’ll continue work in your chosen concentration, which integrates into your studio projects. You’ll also have the opportunity to pursue electives in several different focus areas of architecture.