Our Approach

Critical thinking about Architecture, Culture, and the City.

The School of Architecture at Northeastern University is a different kind of place. At Northeastern we bring together a very strong faculty, which excels in both practice and research, with an explicit mission to engage the practical problems of the contemporary city. This means that our students learn about the global forces that shape our cities in many different contexts: design, history, technology, commerce, and culture. But what sets the school apart is its commitment to bringing the power of critical thinking and design innovation to the very real problems of the world’s cities.

All of us here are dedicated to making this professionally accredited program a real agent for change in the contemporary metropolis, and a unique place to learn about architecture in an urban setting. As part of a larger university committed to urban research, the School of Architecture participates in many significant outreach programs aimed at transforming parts of Boston into new, vital areas that meet 21st century needs.

The School of Architecture is a rising star in the architectural scene, and is already ranked 14th in the United States in the critical area of faculty research. Australia’s Key Centre ranks architecture schools all over the world on the basis of scholarly productivity per full-time faculty member, and after coming in at #22 in 2005, Northeastern rose again to #14 in 2009 (out of over 100 schools).

The curriculum focuses on establishing a high level of basic skills and fluency in design culture, and then on applying these skills to real problems. The School is not grounded in technological expertise (like a technical institute), nor in preciousness of individual genius (like an art school). Instead, Northeastern University is a design school, where students are offered the chance to learn the language of architecture so that they too can participate in the critical conversations about how to build the next layer of our evolving metropolis.

And Boston is a perfect place to do it. Not only is it the American city with perhaps the most legible series of historical layers, but because of the incredible diversity of its physical and neighborhood character, it is also the city that most demands architecture to address its development needs. In fact, architecture simply matters more in cities. The ongoing contestation and friction among so many interests makes for a dynamic set of problems that demand architectural solutions.

The School of Architecture at Northeastern University is a particular kind of experience. As an institution dedicated to experiential education, the integration of liberal arts learning and professional training is central to our programs. After the first four or five semesters, our students spend the rest of the time as undergraduates on a schedule that alternates six months of full-time work with six months of full-time academic studies. This immersion in professional apprenticeship while still in University is perhaps the perfect way to study architecture, as our students can bring questions raised in the classroom to work, and real world problems can be subjected to rigorous academic scrutiny. And each of our students spends a full semester in Italy at our Rome Center, where the global context of our cities becomes ever more clear.

We are constantly working to improve our programs here at Northeastern, and we welcome your interest in them. Whether you are a prospective student or parent, practicing architect, city official, real estate developer, alumnus/a, or just someone interested in urban architecture we welcome you to our School and encourage your comments. Please do not hesitate to contact me at g.thrush@neu.edu

George Thrush, FAIA

Director, School of Architecture

Hybrid Office Building and Residential Type
Graduate Degree Project
Shannon Brooker and Chris Halliday, M.Arch. 2008