The Environmental Design Studies Program provides an introduction to the design professions of Architecture, Interior Architecture, and Landscape Architecture. For most students, it is an introduction to a way of seeing and thinking about the environments that we occupy. It is more than drawing or drafting. Because the environments that we create are an expression of culture, first-year students enroll in a year-long History of the Designed Environment course and an intensive two-semester design studio. The history course introduces students to the connection between our past and present society and to the fact that the design professions are a civic art. The studio introduces the visual and verbal vocabulary employed in the creation, definition, and communication of space.

Each studio class consists of approximately 18 students and is taught by a faculty member in a professional environmental design field. To aid in experiencing a diversity of approaches, students take studio with a different professor each term. The professors who teach in the first year program are dedicated to the College’s teaching mission and to providing a challenging and supportive academic experience. Studio requires every student’s active participation. A third course, Survey of the Design Professions, explores each of the disciplines within environmental design field and gives students an opportunity to become better acquainted with professional opportunities in architecture, interior architecture, and landscape architecture.

In addition to history, studio, and an introduction to the design professions, students take classes in oral and written English, mathematics, and physics.
Academic advising, a critical component of the beginning student’s experience in a demanding professional curriculum, is provided by a professional academic advisor. The advisor is very familiar with the transition from high school or community college to the College of Architecture, Planning, and Design as well as the expectations of the College’s departments. Exposure to academic self-management and goal setting techniques is provided by a University counselor who has worked with the College’s students for more than a decade.

During the spring semester, first-year students select one of the three professions in which to continue their academic studies.

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