“The Southern Californian megalopolis—with its Mediterranean landscape stretching from Los Angeles through San Diego to Tijuana—is a diverse laboratory for researching urbanism, culture, and the environment. It’s interconnected cities and landscapes prove the perfect platform for making architecture."
"We encourage our students to develop their architectural curiosity at all scales: from hands-on experiments in craft and fabrication to investigations in local urban traditions to speculations on regional watersheds and global consequences. We show them the importance of cultivating a sense of global empathy by building the intelligent places and beautiful things that improve neighborhood and community. We teach that everything is interrelated but often at odds, because hidden in every duality is a potential design opportunity.”
—Ingalill Wahlroos-Ritter, Interim Dean, Woodbury School of Architecture
Woodbury School of Architecture is a network of hubs strategically sited within the Southern Californian megalopolis: Los Angeles, Burbank, Hollywood, and San Diego. Together, these sites form a critical infrastructure for architectural investigations. The school’s undergraduate and graduate programs in architecture and interior architecture train students as entrepreneurs, architect citizens, and cultural builders.
Our Bachelor of Architecture, Bachelor of Fine Arts in Interior Design, Master of Architecture, and Master of Science in Architecture programs prepare students to effect positive change in the built environment, to tackle theoretical debates, and to take on architecture as a critical practice.
Our faculty is composed of active and prolific architects practicing in Los Angeles, San Diego, and Tijuana. Internationally recognized and award winning, the faculty works closely with architecture, interior architecture, and landscape architecture students from all over the world, teaching the skills required to expand the limits and debate the possibilities of our discipline.
A Woodbury School of Architecture education recognizes that the design of the built environment is a collaborative endeavor. We train our students—who are ethnically, economically, and academically diverse—to confidently engage in local and global discourse. Through research and writing our students learn how to craft a critical perspective from which to develop design strategies. They are introduced to sustainable materials and new technologies. And they are taught that design has the potential to impact the world, to recognize that it’s a bridge between science and politics and, that with innovative design proposals, can affect policy change. We address urgent, contemporary issues grounded in reality.
School of Architecture graduates are critical thinkers and cultural communicators ready to articulate their arguments. They shape cities and landscapes. They love the act of building. And they are prepared to utilize their skills in ways that extend beyond what might be considered traditional practices of architecture. Knowledge of real estate development, emergent technologies, contested landscapes, and policymaking remakes their future designs. As they enter the profession they are equipped to tackle new specializations and alternative practices.
Woodbury School of Architecture Programs
Los Angeles-Burbank
Bachelor of Architecture (BArch)
Bachelor of Fine Arts in Interior Architecture (BFA)
Master of Architecture – 3 Year (MArch)
Master of Architecture – 2 Year (MArch)
Master of Interior Architecture (MIA)
Master of Science in Architecture – 1 Year (MSArch)
San Diego
Bachelor of Architecture (BArch)
Master of Interior Architecture (MIA)
Master of Landscape Architecture (MLA)
Master of Science in Architecture – 1 Year (MSArch)
Master of Real Estate Development – 1 Year (MRED)
Locations
Los Angeles–Burbank
Located in the San Fernando Valley, the Woodbury University campus sits in the foothills of the Angeles National Forest. The school’s address is split between Los Angeles and Burbank, providing students the opportunity explore both cities. For a new breed of architects and urban designers, this edge condition between urban and suburban landscapes is the new frontier for critical research and development.
The greater Woodbury University campus supports the School of Architecture with academic and institutional resources, including extra-department courses, student support services, a comprehensive library and a lively campus community.
School of Architecture classes are held in several building on campus. Every architecture and interior architecture student receives workspace within the school’s facilities, with 24-hour access to studios. Three studio structures (including the new 15,000 square foot architecture building) cluster around an open-air courtyard. The Southern Californian climate makes the outdoor space a temperate gathering space for hanging out, meeting with faculty, and events. Specialized facilities include: a wood/metal shop, a materials library, and a state-of-the-art digital fabrication lab.
San Diego
Woodbury San Diego is located in a renovated warehouse in San Diego’s Barrio Logan district. Sited between downtown and the naval shipyards, the single-structure school is a center of cultural and architectural activity in a diverse neighborhood populated by families, artists, and community leaders. Faculty and students play an active role in shaping the cultural and economic future of the area through events, workshops, and outreach. Because the school is in proximity to the San Diego–Tijuana border, its programs address issues of contested landscapes, identity, and politics.
Members of the San Diego faculty have been instrumental in forming San Diego into the most progressive housing laboratory in the United States by advancing new strategies for the redefinition of housing, design, policy, and development.
Specialized facilities include a library focused on architecture, urbanism and development, a wood/metal shop and a digital fabrication lab. There is also 24-hour studios access. The program at the San Diego facility delivers the full complement of lower and upper division courses in architecture, and both lower and upper division General Education.
The San Diego Undergraduate Architecture program accommodates transfer students from undergraduate and community colleges.
Woodbury San Diego has two Graduate programs. The Master of Real Estate Development (MRED), housed nearby in the Merrimac Studio, teaches the art and practice of real estate development to architects and graduates of professional programs in architecture. The Master of Science (MSArch) in Landscape + Urbanism is a three semester studio-based program for individuals holding a professional degree in architecture or landscape architecture. The urbanism track equips architects with the skills to lead, craft policy, and design the built environment. The landscape track launched in 2013.
Watch this 2-minute video to see why Students, Faculty, and Alumni Recommend Woodbury School of Architecture San Diego.
7500 Glenoaks Blvd.
Burbank, CA, US , 91510-7846
(818) 252-5221
2212 Main St.
San Diego, CA, US , 92113
(619) 235-2900
