Architecture Program Report Master of Architecture - Roger Williams ...

History of the Architecture Program
Studies in Architecture began at Roger Williams College in 1976 as an area within the Division of
Engineering Technology, which awarded a four-year Bachelor of Science degree. The five-year Bachelor
of Architecture program was offered for the first time in Fall 1982. In Spring 1983, a new Director of the
Architecture Division, Raj Saksena, AIA was hired, and the Architecture Program separated from
Engineering to become its own division within Roger Williams College. The program was created to fulfill
needs of the Northeast region that did not have an adequate number of undergraduate professional
degree program opportunities. The Roger Williams program was the first accredited Bachelor of
Architecture program in the United States to be created within a small, private liberal arts college.
Following a team visit in 1984 and follow-up visit in 1985, the Bachelor of Architecture program received
its initial accreditation in June, 1985.
In 1984, Roger Williams College, supported by the National Endowment for the Arts, sponsored a
national design competition for the design of a new Architecture building, won by Kite Palmer Architects,
Providence. The award-winning design was built and the new building occupied in 1987. In 1990, the
Architecture Division became the School of Architecture, housing the five-year Bachelor of Architecture
program and the four-year Bachelor of Science in Historic Preservation programs. The Director, Raj
Saksena became the Dean of the School of Architecture, and was recognized as a Fellow of the
American Institute of Architects in 1993, for service to the profession and for education. Study Abroad
programs in Architecture began in 1990 in Greece and Turkey, followed by alternate year programs in
Prague/Brno/Vienna in 1994/96/98/00, and 2002; England in Fall or Spring semesters in conjunction with
Historic Preservation majors from1995-1999.
In 1997, the School of Architecture began a strategic planning process under new leadership, with
Stephen White, AIA being appointed dean. This process led to the 1999 reorganization into the School of
Architecture, Art and Historic Preservation, with expanded undergraduate professional and liberal arts
programs in Architecture (Bachelor of Architecture, B.S. in Architecture), Art (B.A. in Visual Arts Studies),
Historic Preservation (B.A. in Heritage Resource Studies, B.S. in Historic Preservation), and a new B.A. in
Art and Architectural History, and the school’s faculty participating in delivering the University’s Core
Curriculum. In 1999-2000, in concert with the nationwide review then underway of professional degree
program structure and nomenclature emerging from the 1991 Five Presidents Accord (ACSA, AIA, AIAS,
NAAB, NCARB), and The Boyer Report, and in accord with its own advance the School of Architecture,
Art and Historic Preservation began a process to:
revise its 5-year, 172 credit Bachelor of Architecture program to introduce greater curricular
flexibility for students, and increased linkages simultaneously with the University, profession, and
community
introduce a 5-1/2-6 year 186 credit B.S. / Master of Architecture dual degree as the professional
program that would replace the B.Arch. as the School’s NAAB accredited professional program.
In June 2000, NAAB granted a full five-year term of Accreditation to the 5-year, 172 credit Bachelor of
Architecture program, and Candidacy status to the 5-1/2-6 year, 186 credit B.S. in Architecture /Master of
Architecture dual degree program sequence being phased in. The term was subsequently extended to six
years, in keeping with NAAB’s revised, extended accreditation cycle, as was the Candidacy term of the
B.S./Master of Architecture program. Roger Williams sought to introduce the Master of Architecture to
replace the Bachelor of Architecture program in order to provide: