Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc) is a privatearchitecture school in Los Angeles, California.[1] SCI-Arc was founded in 1972, when it was initially regarded as both institutionally and artistically avant-garde.[2] It consists of approximately 500 students and 80 faculty members, some of whom are practicing architects. It is based in the quarter-mile long (0.40km) former Santa Fe Freight Depot in the Arts District in downtown Los Angeles. It also offers community events, such as outreach programs, free exhibitions, and public lectures.[1]
Originally called the New School, SCI-Arc was based on the concept of a "college without walls". Instead of academic hierarchies, the school initially favored a horizontal relationship between professors and students who took responsibility for their own course of study. Kappe, who had founded the Cal Poly department, became the new school's first director and served in that position until 1987. He was awarded the AIA/ACSA Topaz Medal for excellence in architecture education in 1990.[5]
Kappe was succeeded as director by Michael Rotondi, one of SCI-Arc's original students. Neil Denari became director in 1997, Eric Owen Moss served as director from 2002–2015,[6] and Hernán Díaz Alonso served as director and chief executive officer effective from 2015-2025.[7] Díaz Alonso has been a faculty member at SCI-Arc since 2001. Prior to his appointment as director, he served as the school's graduate programs chair since 2010.[7] On September 1, 2025, he was succeeded as director and chief executive officer by Winka Dubbeldam.
While SCI-Arc initially established a reputation as an unaccredited, experimental school, it has since been accredited. In 2011, it paid $23.1 million for its campus building.[4]
The school has been based in three locations. The first (1972–1992) was a small industrial building in Santa Monica, and the second was a larger industrial building (1992–2000) in Marina del Rey.[citation needed]
The school conducts design projects that engage with under-served members of the community. To these ends, SCI-Arc has been awarded a $400,000 grant by ArtPlace to develop two on-campus public performance/lecture spaces, as well as development for a third public venue in the surrounding arts district.[8] Across the street, "One Santa Fe," a 438-unit apartment complex designed by Michael Maltzan Architecture (MMA) opened in 2014.[9]
In addition to its undergraduate and graduate programs, SCI-Arc offers four one-year postgraduate programs in fields including architectural technologies, entertainment and fiction, design of cities, and theory and pedagogy.[citation needed]
SCI-Arc's undergraduate and graduate programs culminate in two public events in which students present their thesis projects to critics from around the world, including Peter Cook, Greg Lynn, and Pritzker Prize recipient Thom Mayne.[10] "SCI-Arc has long been one of this country's best experimental labs in which designers speculate about the future of the human-made environment, and its thesis projects are its calling cards."[11]
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