post-professional M.Arch. (M.Arch. II)
The post-professional M.Arch. degree—or “M.Arch. II”—is a design-oriented program that offers students with a B.Arch. degree both the opportunity and the resources for personal and professional growth in one of several areas of specialization: sustainable design, preservation, architectural design at an advanced level, urban design, and interdisciplinary studies.
The curriculum can usually be completed in three or four semesters. Graduates of the M.Arch. II program are able to enter—or re-enter—the profession with significantly enhanced qualifications. They are able to offer these enhanced skills to governmental, institutional, and business organizations, and they are better able to contemplate teaching architecture at the college level.
The M.Arch. II is not a NAAB accredited degree. International applicants interested pursuing licensure in the United States should apply to the M.Arch. I degree program.
Admission requirements
Full admission guidelines and instructions are available on the UTSOA graduate admissions page.
- B.Arch. from an accredited program;
- An undergraduate GPA of 3.2 or higher;
- A GRE score of 1100 or better,
- For foreign students with English as a second language, a TOEFL score of 550 or better (paper-based);
- A curriculum vitae or resume;
- An essay describing your interest in the program and area;
- A portfolio of your design and other creative work;
- Three letters of recommendation, at least one of which is from an academic.
Note: Admission to all M.Arch. II degree programs is competitive, and differently so for the different areas of specialization. Meeting the above requirements does not guarantee admission.
Program requirements
36 credit-hours total, completable in three or four semesters, consisting of
- two 6-hour Advanced Design Studios *
- one 6-hour Masters Design Study (MDS)
- 15 hours minimum course-work (area-specific guidelines) **
- three 1-hour Proseminars, taken Pass/Fail. ***
* one summer studio, max.
** M.Arch. (Sustainable Design) requires 24 hours of coursework
*** The Proseminar meets one hour per week for three semesters, except in the summer. One Proseminar is waived if taking a summer studio.
Contact
Graduate Admissions and Scholarship Coordinator, soa_grad@austin.utexas.edu
Curriculum
What follows is a closer description of the curriculum of each area of specialization within the M.Arch. II program. As they progress through the program, each student’s specific curriculum choices are approved by the Graduate Program Coordinator and the appropriate Area Director.
M.Arch. II (Interdisciplinary Studies)
Area Director: Michael Benedikt
Designed to encourage students to acquire knowledge from the fine arts, humanities, or sciences, and to integrate that knowledge into the designing of buildings and their immediate environments. (For admission, candidates are asked to submit—in addition to the material listed above—a hypothetical curriculum of electives drawn from courses currently or recently offered at the University as a whole. This document should be submitted together with your Statement of Purpose.)
- Two advanced design studios: 12 hours
- MDS: 6 hours
- Proseminar: 3 hours
- Electives: 15 hours, of which no more than 6 hours can be in the SOA.
M.Arch. II (Architectural Design)
Area Director: Larry Doll
Designed to encourage students to take their architectural design skills, media methodologies, theoretical positions, and compositional strategies to an advanced level, working from a self-chosen range of precedents and real-world concerns as they are supported by the school’s faculty.
- Two advanced design studios: 12 hours
- MDS: 6 hours
- Proseminar: 3 hours
- Architectural Electives (history, theory, topical seminars): 12 hours
- Open Elective: 3 hours.
M.Arch. II (Urban Design)
Area Director: Dean Almy
Designed to encourage students to investigate architecture functioning at the scale of the city, the influence of urban infrastructure, politics, and economics on architectural design, and the opportunities offered by working in the new modality called “landscape urbanism.”
- Two advanced studios in Urban Design: 12 hours
- MDS (urban design focus): 6 hours
- Proseminar: 3 hours
- Urban Design seminar: 3 hours (taken with Urban Design Studio)
- Electives in SOA, related fields: 12 hours
M.Arch. II (Preservation)
Area Director: Michael Holleran
Designed to encourage students to see existing neighborhoods and buildings that are of merit as an essential resource—whether or not they are “historic”—and to develop the skills and expertise required to save, restore, or adapt them for contemporary use.
- Two advanced studios with preservation/adaptive re-use focus: 12 hours
- MDS (preservation focus): 6 hours
- Proseminar: 3 hours
- Preservation History and Theory: 3 hours
- Materials Conservation I: Lab Methods: 3 hours
- Materials Conservation II: Field Methods: 3 hours
- Graphic Documentation: 3 hours
- Approved Elective: 3 hours
M.Arch. II (Sustainable Design)
Area Director: Steven Moore
Designed to give students the knowledge and tools necessary to design buildings that are especially climate-adapted, resource- and energy efficient, technologically appropriate, culturally situated, and socially just.
- Two advanced studios: one w/ sustainability focus + one that is the Advanced Integrated Sustainable Design (AISD) studio: 12 hours
- Integrated Sustainable Design seminar: 3 hours (taken with AISD)
- MDS (w/ sustainability focus): 6 hours
- Research Design seminar: 3 hours (prereq. for MDS)
- Proseminar: 3 hours
- Two of the following three:
- Sustainable Architecture seminar: 3 hours
- Society, Nature and Technology seminar: 3 hours
- Solar Geometry and Energy Flow: 3 hours
- Approved Electives: 12 hours
