Southern California Institute of Architecture

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Southern California Institute of Architecture
Sciarclogo.svg
Type Private architecture school
Established1972
Director Winka Dubbeldam
Students500
Location
Los Angeles
,
California
,
United States

34°02′46″N118°14′00″W / 34.045984°N 118.233431°W / 34.045984; -118.233431
Campus Urban
Website sciarc.edu
Southern California Institute of Architecture

The Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc) is a private architecture school in Los Angeles, California. [1] Founded in 1972, SCI-Arc was initially regarded as both institutionally and artistically avant-garde. [2] It currently enrolls approximately 600 students and employs 80 faculty members, some of whom are practicing architects. The school is located in the quarter-mile long (0.40 km) former Santa Fe Freight Depot in the Arts District of downtown Los Angeles. SCI-Arc also offers community events, such as outreach programs, free exhibitions, and public lectures. [1]

Contents

History

SCI-Arc was founded in Santa Monica in 1972 by Ray Kappe, Shelly Kappe, Ahde Lahti, Thom Mayne, Bill Simonian, Glen Small, and James Stafford—a group of faculty from the Department of Architecture at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. [1] The founders were frustrated with the administrative treatment of students and faculty members at Cal Poly [3] and wanted to address the issue from an experimental perspective, unlike most traditional schools. [4]

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, and before 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 CEO by Winka Dubbeldam. [8]

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]

Campus

North End of SCI-Arc from Santa Fe Ave, Downtown Los Angeles SciArc SantaFe.jpg
North End of SCI-Arc from Santa Fe Ave, Downtown Los Angeles
SCI-Arc Campus at the former Santa Fe Freight Depot building, view facing the institute's library. SCI-Arc.JPG
SCI-Arc Campus at the former Santa Fe Freight Depot building, view facing the institute's library.

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. [9]

In 2001, it moved to its current building, the 60,000-square-foot 1907 Santa Fe Freight Depot designed by Harrison Albright on the eastern edge of Downtown Los Angeles. The building is on the National Register of Historic Places. [9] [10]

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. [11] Across the street, "One Santa Fe," a 438-unit apartment complex designed by Michael Maltzan Architecture (MMA) opened in 2014. [12]

Academics

SCI-Arc offers undergraduate and graduate degree programs accredited by the National Architectural Accrediting Board and the WASC Senior College and University Commission. These include a five-year Bachelor of Architecture program. The school also offers both three-and two year Masters programs with separate prerequisites. [13] [ citation needed ]

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. [13]

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. [14] "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." [15]

Notable faculty

Notable faculty, current and former, include:

Notable alumni

References

  1. 1 2 3 "SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF ARCHITECTURE". California Arts Council. Retrieved October 24, 2022.
  2. ↑ "Justin McGuirk, "The New LA School", October 2007". IconMagazine. Archived from the original on February 3, 2010.
  3. ↑ SCI-Arc at Forty: The Original 'Alternative' Architecture School. SCI-Arc at Forty: The Original 'Alternative' Architecture School 17 Aug 2012. Retrieved 26 Sep 2022.,
  4. 1 2 Vincent, Roger (April 22, 2011). "L.A. architecture school SCI-Arc buys its unorthodox home". Los Angeles Times . Retrieved April 23, 2011.
  5. ↑ Volume5. 25 Years of SCI-Arc 1990–1997 19 Sep 2007.
  6. ↑ Barrie-Anthony, Steven. Landscape of constant change. Los Angeles Times. July 7, 2005. Retrieved 15 January 2007.
  7. 1 2 Gelt, Jessica (November 19, 2014). "SCI-Arc's newly announced director sees growth and a global presence". Los Angeles Times . ISSN   0458-3035 . Retrieved September 28, 2015.
  8. ↑ Hill, John (April 29, 2025). "Winka Dubbeldam Named SCI-Arc Director and CEO". World-Architects. Retrieved January 5, 2026.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  9. 1 2 "SCI-Arc Building History Spans Decades as well as Neighborhoods of Los Angeles - SCI-Arc". www.sciarc.edu. Retrieved January 10, 2026.
  10. ↑ "Institution - SCI-Arc". www.sciarc.edu. Retrieved January 10, 2026.
  11. ↑ Nielson, Christopher. "ArtPlace Announces 47 New Grants". artplaceamerica.org. Archived from the original on June 15, 2012. Retrieved June 14, 2012.
  12. ↑ Hawthorne, Christopher (October 10, 2014). "Maltzan's One Santa Fe apartment complex plays with notion of density". Los Angeles Times.
  13. 1 2 "Academics - SCI-Arc". www.sciarc.edu. Retrieved January 4, 2026.
  14. ↑ Nielson, Christopher. "2011 Thesis & Graduation Weekend". Archived from the original on January 19, 2012. Retrieved June 14, 2012.
  15. ↑ "SCI-Arc Keeps Us Wondering". September 11, 2014. Retrieved September 28, 2015.
  16. ↑ "Michael Graves College | Kean University" . Retrieved August 12, 2019.
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