The School of Architecture is one of the professional schools of the University of Waterloo

University of Waterloo

The University of Waterloo is a comprehensive public university in the city of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. The school was founded in 1957 by Drs. Gerry Hagey and Ira G. Needles, and has since grown to an institution of more than 30,000 students, faculty, and staff...

. It offers a professional program in architecture accredited by the Canadian Architectural Certification Board at the master's level (M.Arch.). It is part of the Faculty of Engineering

University of Waterloo Faculty of Engineering

The Faculty of Engineering is one of six faculties at the University of Waterloo in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. As of 2010, it has 6,346 undergraduate students, 1,844 graduate students, and 264 professors. It had over 27,000 alumni in 2006, making it one of Canada's largest engineering faculties...

 and is located on a satellite campus

Satellite campus

A satellite campus or branch campus is a campus of a college or university that is physically detached from the main university or college area, and is often smaller than the main campus of an institution....

 in Cambridge

Cambridge, Ontario

Cambridge is a city located in Southern Ontario at the confluence of the Grand and Speed rivers in the Regional Municipality of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. It is an amalgamation of the City of Galt, the towns of Preston and Hespeler, and the hamlet of Blair.Galt covers the largest portion of...

, Ontario

Ontario

Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....

, Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

. Some of Canada's most prominent architects are graduates of the school.

The school moved to a former factory building in Cambridge in September 2004, to provide more space for the school as well as to spur economic activity in the downtown area.http://www.bulletin.uwaterloo.ca/2004/jul/13tu.htmlhttp://newsrelease.uwaterloo.ca/news.php?id=2642 It was designed by Levitt Goodman Architects.http://levittgoodmanarchitects.com/project?p=uwsa&c1=educational&c2=None The move has been criticized for isolating architecture students from the rest of the university.http://imprint.uwaterloo.ca/story.php?f=2&t=8049&i=&v=f&story=8049

Academic programs

Waterloo offers an integrated two-degree professional architecture program, accredited by the CACB and NAAB

National Architectural Accrediting Board

The National Architectural Accrediting Board is the sole authority for accredited US professional degree programs for architecture in the United States, developing standards and procedures to verify that each accredited program meets standards for the appropriate education of architects...

. The majority of the professional coursework is completed in the Bachelor of Architectural Studies program, which is followed by a one year, research-based Master of Architecture degree.

Bachelor of Architectural Studies

The B.A.S. is a five year, preprofessional honours degree in architecture. Design Studios and courses in Cultural History

Cultural history

The term cultural history refers both to an academic discipline and to its subject matter.Cultural history, as a discipline, at least in its common definition since the 1970s, often combines the approaches of anthropology and history to look at popular cultural traditions and cultural...

 comprise the core of the curriculum. Students must complete five semesters of practical, architecture-related work experience as part of the university's co-op program. Students most often find employment in Canada, the United States, and Europe.

Master of Architecture

The M.Arch. is the professional degree granted by the school. A design or research thesis is the core component of the program, preparing students for professional or academic careers. Students who have completed the B.A.S. program may enter directly into the M.Arch. program.

Rome Program

Founded in 1979 by Rick Haldenby, the Rome Program is offered to all undergraduate students in the fall term of fourth year. The studio is located on one floor of a 16th century palazzo located next to Piazza di Santa Maria in Trastevere

Trastevere

Trastevere is rione XIII of Rome, on the west bank of the Tiber, south of Vatican City. Its name comes from the Latin trans Tiberim, meaning literally "beyond the Tiber". The correct pronunciation is "tras-TEH-ve-ray", with the accent on the second syllable. Its logo is a golden head of a lion on a...

. Since the foundation of the program the School has played an architectural role in Rome, involving Italian academics and practitioners, creating links with Italian and foreign institutions, and widely exhibiting and publishing the work of faculty and students.http://www.architecture.uwaterloo.ca/frameset/u-international-rome.html The Waterloo Rome Program shares an exchange program with the Università G. d'Annunzio - Chieti e Pescara

University of Chieti

The G. d'Annunzio University is a university located in Chieti and Pescara, Italy. It was founded in 1960 and is organized in 11 Faculties. Student enrollment at the University is currently in excess of 23,000.-History:...

.
In the Spring and Summer semesters, the same studio is utilized by Pratt Institute

Pratt Institute

Pratt Institute is a private art college in New York City located in Brooklyn, New York, with satellite campuses in Manhattan and Utica. Pratt is one of the leading undergraduate art schools in the United States and offers programs in Architecture, Graphic Design, History of Art and Design,...

.

Notable alumni

• Omer Arbel
  Omer Arbel
  Omer Arbel leads Omer Arbel Office , a Vancouver-based design practice which aims to collapse traditional boundaries between the professions of building and industrial design, craft and materials research. OAO focuses on experimenting with material properties and fabrication methodology...
  
   - Designer of the 2010 Winter Olympic medals (Vancouver)
• Alison Brooks - Stirling Prize winner, Alison Brooks Architects (London)
• Siamak Hariri - Architect, Bahá'í
  Bahá'í Faith
  The Bahá'í Faith is a monotheistic religion founded by Bahá'u'lláh in 19th-century Persia, emphasizing the spiritual unity of all humankind. There are an estimated five to six million Bahá'ís around the world in more than 200 countries and territories....
  
   Temple http://news.bahai.org/story.cfm?storyid=369 in Santiago, Chile
  Santiago, Chile
  Santiago , also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital and largest city of Chile, and the center of its largest conurbation . It is located in the country's central valley, at an elevation of above mean sea level...
  
  , Hariri Pontarini Architects (Toronto)
• Paul Raff - Governor General's Award winner, Paul Raff Studio/RVTR (Toronto)
• Brigitte Shim & Howard Sutcliffe - Governor General's Award winner, Shim-Sutcliffe Architects (Toronto)
• John Shnier - The Canada Council for the Arts Prix de Rome in Architecture, Kohn Shnier Architects (Toronto)
• Marc Simmons - Front Inc. (New York)
• Stephen Teeple - Governor General's Award winner, Teeple Architects (Toronto)
• Kathy Velikov & Geoffrey Thün - Young Architect's Award winners (Architectural League of New York), RVTR (Toronto)

External links

• School of Architecture - Official website
• WACSA - Waterloo Architecture Cambridge, Students and Alumni
• WACSA wiki - WACSA Wikipedia (preliminary version)