Program Overview

Introduction to Columbia University's Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation

Columbia University's Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation (GSAPP) offers a wide range of programs for students interested in pursuing a career in architecture, planning, and preservation. The school is committed to providing students with the highest level of disciplinary expertise, as well as the critical and technical skills necessary to succeed in their chosen field.

Programs at GSAPP

• Master of Architecture: A three-year professional degree that weaves together the highest level of disciplinary expertise with the critical and technical skills necessary to recast the boundaries of the discipline.
• M.S. Advanced Architectural Design: A three-term program that provides outstanding young professionals who hold a B.Arch or M.Arch the opportunity to enter into an intensive, postgraduate study.
• M.S. Computational Design Practices: A program that focuses on the use of computational tools and methods in architectural design.
• M.S. Critical, Curatorial & Conceptual Practices: A two-year, full-time course of intensive academic study and independent research.
• Ph.D. in Architecture: The doctoral program addresses the development of modern architectural form and ideas as they have been affected by social, economic, and technological change.
• Intro Program: A summer pre-professional program designed to introduce students to the field of architecture.

The Shape of Two Cities: New York / Paris Program

The Shape of Two Cities: New York/Paris Program is a two-semester program designed for undergraduate students and recent graduates from colleges and universities around the country. The program's goals are to introduce the fields of architecture, planning, and preservation, and to encourage their exploration in the contexts of history, theory, and practice.

Curriculum

The program offers a two-semester curriculum that immerses participants in the rich physical and intellectual urban environments of New York and Paris. Instruction draws on the resources of Columbia University and its faculty, and the architectural communities of New York and Paris.

First-Term Core Courses

1. A4000 Design Studio or A4043 Workshop in Urban Studies
2. A4027 Architecture, Planning and Preservation: New York
3. History Requirement: New York or American History elective

Second-Term Core Courses

1. A4030 The Development of Paris
2. A4029 Architecture, Planning and Preservation: Paris
3. A4031 History of the European Cities

Options

Students in the program enroll in either the Architecture Option or the Urban Studies Option and share in a core of courses while embarking on their specializations.

Courses

The following courses are offered at GSAPP:

• ARCH4000-1: NYP Design Workshop
• ARCH4027-1: Architecture, Planning & Preservation
• ARCH4043-1: Workshop in Urban Studies
• ARCH4341-1: Traditional American Architecture
• ARCH4385-1: Arab Modernism(s): Experiments in Housing, 1945-present
• ARCH4388-1: (Re) Inventing Living: Modern Experiments in Latin American Housing
• ARCH4427-1: Architecture Apropos Art
• ARCH4441-1: Interlaced Existence: Death, Life, Liminality
• ARCH4442-1: If Buildings Had DNA
• ARCH4469-1: The History of Architecture Theory
• ARCH4597-1: Extreme Design
• ARCH4625-1: Tensile/Compression Surfaces in Architecture: Tactile Methods for Architects
• ARCH4715-1: Re-Thinking BIM
• ARCH4845-1: Generative Design I
• ARCH4866-1: Modernism + The Vernacular
• ARCH4874-1: Construction Ecologies in the Anthropocene
• ARCH4892-1: Data Visualization for Architecture, Urbanism and the Humanities
• ARCH4894-1: Spatial UX
• ARCH4987-1: Architectural Photography: From the Models to the Built World
• ARCH4988-1: Coding for Spatial Practices
• ARCH6510-1: Neighborhood Preservation and Zoning
• ARCH6682-1: Subject+Object
• ARCH6756-1: Make
• ARCH6768-1: Conservation of Architectural Metals
• ARCH6801-1: Structural Daring & The Sublime In Pre-Modern Architecture
• ARCH6830-1: Difference and Design
• ARCH6917-1: Seed Bombs: Technologies in Ecological Design
• ARCH6921-1: AI for Existing Buildings
• ARCH6930-1: Women, Gender + Modern Architecture
• ARCH6934-1: Traditional Building Technology
• ARCH6938-1: Rendering Systems
• ARCH6939-1: GIS for Design Practices
• ARCH6941-1: Architectural Acoustical Ecology
• ARCH6942-1: Daylight, Metabolism
• ARCH6953-1: Invis-abilities: Enhancing Accessibility in Design for Mind and Body
• ARCH6962-1: Environment, Built: Episodes from an Elemental History of Architecture
• ARCH6964-1: Information Richness: Architecture, Media, Politics
• ARCH6967-1: Cities of Knowledge: Orientalizing Manhattan
• ARCH6988-1: Fortifications and Other Infrastructures of the British Empire
• ARCH6814-1: New Towns After Smart Cities
• ARCH6840-1: Archives of Toxicity
• ARCH6861-1: Environments of Governance
• ARCH6927-1: Architecture, Technology & the Environment
• ARCH6929-1: The Reimagining of Lower Manhattan Post-Sandy
• PLAN6272-1: New York Rising: How Real Estate Shapes a City
• PLCE4444-1: The Future City: Transforming Urban Infrastructure

Faculty and Research

The faculty at GSAPP are renowned experts in their fields, and the school is committed to providing students with the opportunity to work with and learn from the best. The school's research areas include:

• Architecture: The school's architecture program is designed to provide students with a comprehensive education in the field, including the history and theory of architecture, as well as the technical skills necessary to succeed.
• Planning: The school's planning program is designed to provide students with a comprehensive education in the field, including the history and theory of planning, as well as the technical skills necessary to succeed.
• Preservation: The school's preservation program is designed to provide students with a comprehensive education in the field, including the history and theory of preservation, as well as the technical skills necessary to succeed.

Recent News

• Incubator Prize recipient Adam Susaneck '20 M.Arch publishes "Mr. Biden, Tear Down This Highway" in NY Times
• Faculty Thomas de Monchaux writes "The Original Shock of the Pompidou Center" for the New Yorker
• Faculty Thomas de Monchaux publishes "Notre-Dame and the Paradoxes of Historical Preservation" in The New Yorker
• MArch student Jared Payne selected as a 2019 Kraft Global Fellow
• Faculty Michelle Young '12 MSUP contributes to Columbia Magazine's "Welcome to Manhattanville" feature
• Faculty Amina Blacksher interviewed by Madame Architect
• "How Parks Lose Their Playfulness" New York Times Op-Ed by faculty Thomas de Monchaux
• GSAPP Incubator Member Michelle Young featured on Stephen Dubner's Tell Me Something I Don't Know