The College of Architecture and Planning has the unusual privilege of delivering our programs on two campuses of the University of Colorado. The undergraduate program is the Bachelor of Environmental Design on the Boulder campus, one of the most beautiful and vibrant residential campuses in the country. Our graduate programs are on the Downtown Denver Campus, in one of the most energetic, creative and growing cities.
Undergraduate Program Overview
At the undergraduate level, the College of Architecture and Planning (CAP) on the Boulder campus takes a broad and integrated view of design professions. Problems and opportunities faced by design professions in recent years demand a broader educational experience than the individual professions traditionally have supplied. The goal of the College is to prepare you for professional challenges by providing:
- Broad Education. Courses in the humanities, arts, natural and social sciences allow you to examine the world and contemporary culture from a variety of viewpoints.
- Hands-on Experience. CAP students learn by doing: manipulating and creating tangible, hands-on projects. From the first day of your freshman year, you’ll actively integrate knowledge from lectures and activities in your designs.
- Expert Guidance. You’ll receive guidance from the college's exceptional faculty and practicing designers in the Boulder/Denver metro area.
In required core courses, students from all design disciplines study shared problems together. Architects, interior and product designers, landscape architects, urban and regional planners, urban designers, technologists, and environmental designers need to understand each other's perspectives, and increasingly work together to find solutions to the complex issues involved in the design of the built environment.
The undergraduate program in environmental design promotes the development of a body of knowledge that allows you to understand and appreciate:
- the major theoretical perspectives used to inform the way we design our physical environments and the significance of the designed environment in the evolution of human culture;
- the different methodologies and processes used to give shape to our spaces, buildings, gardens, neighborhoods, towns, cities, and landscapes;
- the complex interactions that take place between the physical, ecological, social, cultural, behavioral, and historical factors that influence the form and quality of designed environments;
- the ethical perspectives that inform the way we work to design environments and settings that are healthy, sustainable, appropriate, and beneficial: that enhance human life; and
- the social, cultural, historical, and professional contexts within which environmental design is learned, practiced, and perfected.
In addition, the program supports the development of a range of methods and practices that encourage you to:
- explore and use the design process as the unique way of thinking used to give shape and form to the designed environment, and to realize its value as the common process that architects, planners, and designers use to effect appropriate change in the designed environment;
- effectively and creatively design environments and settings - spaces, buildings, gardens, neighborhoods, towns, cities, and landscapes - using appropriate theories, precedents, methods, tools, and technologies;
- use verbal, visual, and written materials to communicate design intentions and environmental outcomes so that you can work effectively as an intern and professional in the different fields that make up the design professions.
The Design Professions
Students thinking about studying design in an undergraduate setting as a way to prepare for a career in one of the design professions should have a strong overall high school academic background, including four years of English and at least three years of math, natural science (including physics and/or biology), and social science. Extra course work in math, social studies, and the arts and humanities is recommended. Students considering transfer into the College of Architecture and Planning from one of the other colleges or schools on the Boulder campus are encouraged to explore its curriculum by enrolling in one of the introductory core courses before applying for entry into the program by intra-university transfer (IUT). IUT students must complete ENVD 1004 (with a grade of B or better) to be eligible for admission to the college.
The discipline of design and its fields of architecture, planning, landscape architecture, and environmental conservation/preservation deal with formulating solutions to many of the problems people face in their homes, communities, cities, and geographic regions. Architecture focuses on the design of buildings and the spaces between buildings, while planning is concerned with the larger scale of neighborhoods, cities, and regions. Landscape architecture and environmental conservation/preservation focus on both of these scales.
The college's undergraduate program, located on the Boulder campus, offers the only pre-professional education in the fields of architecture and planning in the state of Colorado. Graduate professional degrees in architecture, landscape architecture, urban and regional planning, and urban design are offered by the college on the university's Downtown Campus. The college's undergraduate program is unique in the Rocky Mountain region, offering pre-architecture, pre-planning, and pre-landscape architecture curricula within the context of a broad, interdisciplinary design education.
To prepare for graduate professional study in architecture, landscape design, or planning/urban design, students may choose an undergraduate emphasis in one of these disciplinary areas or in environmental design. An individually structured emphasis in design studies is also available. There are also a range of other upper-division options within the emphases. These allow students to use their available electives to focus their studies in particular areas of interest. All five of these emphases - architecture, environmental design, landscape design, planning/urban design, and design studies - lead to the award of the bachelor of environmental design degree (BEnvd) as preparation for entry into graduate and professional degree programs and the workplace.