About the College

Contact Information
Office of the Dean 713-743-2400
General College Information 713-743-2400
William R. Jenkins
Architecture and Art Library
713-743-2340
Internet Address http://www.arch.uh.edu/

Who's Who in the College of Architecture

Dean: Patricia Belton Oliver, B.A., University of California, Los Angeles; M.Arch., University of California, Los Angeles

Associate Dean: Lannis Kirkland, B.Arch., Auburn University; M.Arch., Rice University

Director of Graduate Studies:
Thomas Colbert, B.A., Arch., Princeton University; Dipl. Arch., Cambridge University

Assistant Dean and Director of Student Affairs and International Programs: Trang Phan, B.A., M.E.D., University of Houston

Business Administrator: Mary Benham

Director of Honors Thesis Programs: Geoffrey Brune, FAIA. B.Arch., University of Houston; M.S.Arch., Texas A&M University.

Director of Center for Community Design Resource Center: Susan Rogers, B.Arch., University of Houston; M.Arch., University of California, Berkeley; M.City Planning, University of California, Berkeley.

Director of Applied Research: Joe Meppelink, B.S.Arch., University of Michigan; M.Arch., Rice University.

Overview

Design reconciles conflicting visions and exploits all available technologies to shape and sustain a better world. Houston's hot-humid environment, low-lying Gulf-Coast geography, and dispersed pattern of un-zoned metropolitan development presents designers with an extraordinary laboratory, full of challenges and opportunities. The proposals seeded in the vast urban sprawl of Houston are transmutable to cities around the globe.

The Gerald D. Hines College of Architecture offers its students a platform of integrated disciplines - architecture, space architecture, interior architecture, and industrial design - from which to negotiate the complexities of contemporary practice in a world that is grappling with diminishing economic and natural resources, the realities of post disaster re-construction, and, at the same time, continued, rapid urbanization. Faculty and students work together in a studio-centric curriculum, supported by a premier digital fabrication facility. Open studios seamlessly incorporate coursework into project-based learning through material investigations and applied research. At the Gerald D. Hines College of Architecture, making is not simply an action or a craft, but a form of critical thinking, calling forth innovative solutions for contemporary conditions. Our programs foster an environment where ideas find form, where practices that are socially equitable and fundamentally ecological establish a model from which to develop Houston's future and to inform and shape design strategies globally.

We seek applicants to our programs that possess curiosity, commitment, initiative, creativity and a solid work ethic. We strive to graduate students who become reflective practitioners and leaders in their fields. The curriculum is designed to prepare our graduates for professional practice in architecture, industrial design or interior architecture, by equipping them with a depth of understanding of human needs and a command of a range of technologies that will enable them to shape their environments and the objects in them. We are keenly aware of our responsibilities toward our environment and our concentration on sustainable design has forged collaborative projects across the disciplines.

Architectural Accreditation

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 6-year, 3-year, or 2-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.

The University of Houston, Gerald D. Hines College of Architecture offers the following NAAB-accredited degree programs:

  • B. Arch. (160 undergraduate credits)
  • M Arch. (pre-professional degree + 60 graduate credits)
  • M Arch. (non-pre-professional degree + 97 credits)

Next accreditation visit for all programs: 2014

William R. Jenkins Architecture and Art Library

The Architecture and Art Library, located within the college, affords easy access to a collection of more than 89,000 books and periodical volumes in the fields of architecture, industrial design, and art. The library's online catalog provides access to the collection of the Architecture and Art Library as well as the holdings of the campus and system libraries. The Architecture and Art Library Special Collections include the personal libraries of architects John F. Staub and Kenneth Franzheim, Fellow of the American Institute of Architects.

Resource Areas

The College of Architecture offers many opportunities for students to be involved in classes and research programs which are of special significance to the community and the design professions. These activities are found within the resource areas of the college and include:

  • The Resource for Historic Preservation and Adaptive Use
    focuses on the study of historic preservation and adaptive use as a means to effect positive change within urban settings. The unit undertakes projects in partnership with numerous neighborhoods and organizations in fulfillment of its mission.  
  • The Computer Design Laboratory,
    established in 1983, extends its mission beyond teaching computer literacy to include academic research and practical investigation of the computer as a design tool, with emphasis placed on modeling, visualization, and animation using both Macintosh and MS DOS platforms.  
  • The Sasakawa International Center for Space
    Architecture

    is an endowed center with a focus on re-search and design studies for life in outer space and investigations into design for other extraordinary habitats such as Antarctica. Projects are frequently undertaken with NASA and the aerospace industry.  

Foreign Studies

  • The Italy Program
    is a summer program in Italy based in Castiglion Fiorentino, a small hill town in Tuscany. Living and working in a shared facility and taught by UH faculty, students work on studio projects and benefit from excursions to other Italian cities. 
  • The Pan American Program
    is a summer program in Latin America introducing students to architecture theory, history, and design studios, all led by UH faculty, in an international setting. Students travel and work in varying Latin American countries. 
  • The Barcelona Internships
    sponsor upper-level students in six-month internships with one of two internationally recognized architectural firms in Barcelona, Spain: Fundacion Oscar Tusquets Blanca or Miralles/Tagliabue-EMBT.  

Advising

Students of all classifications benefit from advising. However, advising and enrollment (registration), although related, should not occur simultaneously. The college provides advisors for all students. Students should consult their advisors about matters relating to course sequences, selection of electives, academic course requirements, prerequisites, or any petition for deviation from the required curriculum in anticipation of future enrollment (registration). Appointments with a college advisor may be made with the receptionist in the dean's office.

Students entering the university and the college are required to participate in orientation as their first meeting with the college advisors before enrollment (registration). Advisors will discuss transfer credit, required curriculum, and educational objectives of the college and determine the courses for enrollment (registration).

Faculty

Professors:
Larry Bell, Geoffrey Brune, Joseph Colaco, Elizabeth Bollinger Huxel, Rafael Longoria, Joseph Mashburn, Patricia Oliver, Patrick Peters, Shafik Rifaat, Bruce Webb, John Zemanek, Peter Zweig

Associate Professors:
Leonard Bachman, Thomas Colbert, Tom Diehl, Dietmar Froehlich, Robert Griffin, Donna Kacmar, EunSook Kwon, Michelangelo Sabatino, Ronnie Self

Assistant Professors:
Matthew Johnson, Lannis Kirkland, Susan Rogers, William Truitt, Adam Wells

Lecturers:
Yared Akalou, Olga Bannova, Cord Alexander Bowen, Robert Burrow, Sharon Chapman, Alejandro Colom, Carl Conlee, Scott Cutlip, Mark Dillon, Fredric Fleshman, Stephen Fox, John Hanna, Chan Huynh, Benjamin Koush, Nora Laos, William Lidwell, Jason Logan, Gary Machicek, Raj Mankad, Joseph McManus Jr., Joseph Meppelink, Barry Moore, Peter Noldt, Luisa Orto, Lazslo Pallagi, Pankaj Patel, James Ray, Mariel Reyes, Kevin Story, Gerald Tackett, Rives Taylor, James Thomas, John Tsai, Drexel Turner, Evan Twyford, Gordon Vos, Andrew Vrana

Catalog Publish Date: August 22, 2012
This Page Last Updated: June 15, 2011