Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc) is a

private Private or privates may refer to: Music * "In Private", by Dusty Springfield from the 1990 album ''Reputation'' * Private (band), a Denmark-based band * "Private" (Ryōko Hirosue song), from the 1999 album ''Private'', written and also recorded ...

architecture school in

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

. SCI-Arc was founded in 1972 when it was initially regarded as both institutionally and artistically

avant-garde In the arts and literature, the term ''avant-garde'' ( meaning or ) identifies an experimental genre or work of art, and the artist who created it, which usually is aesthetically innovative, whilst initially being ideologically unacceptable ...

. It consists of approximately 500 students and 80 faculty members, some of whom are practicing

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs, and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

s. It is based in the quarter-mile long () former Santa Fe Freight Depot in the

Arts District An arts district or cultural district is a demarcated urban area, usually on the periphery of a city centre, intended to create a 'critical mass' of places of cultural consumption - such as art galleries, theatres, art cinemas, music venues, and p ...

in downtown Los Angeles. It also offers community events such as outreach programs, free exhibitions, as well as public lectures.

History

SCI-Arc was founded in 1972 in

Santa Monica Santa Monica (; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Santa Mónica'') is a city in Los Angeles County, California, Los Angeles County, situated along Santa Monica Bay on California's South Coast (California), South Coast. Santa Monica's 2020 United Sta ...

by Ray Kappe, Shelly Kappe, Ahde Lahti,

Thom Mayne Thom Mayne (born January 19, 1944) is an American architect. He is based in Los Angeles. In 1972, Mayne helped found the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc), where he is a trustee and the coordinator of the Design of Cities po ...

, Bill Simonian, Glen Small, and James Stafford, a group of faculty from the Department of Architecture at

California State Polytechnic University, Pomona California State Polytechnic University Pomona (Cal Poly Pomona) is a Public university, public Institute of Technology (United States)#Polytechnic universities, polytechnic research university in Pomona, California, United States. It is the l ...

. The founders were frustrated with how the administrators at Cal Poly''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., treated the students and faculty members, and they wanted to address the issue from a more experimental perspective than traditional schools offered. Originally called the New School, SCI-Arc was based on the concept of a "college without walls," and it remains one of the few independent architecture schools in the world. Initially, instead of academic hierarchies, the School favoured 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.''Volume5''

19 Sep 2007. Kappe was succeeded as director by

Michael Rotondi Michael Rotondi (born June 26, 1949) is an American architect and educator. He has been a member of two international practices (Morphosis from 1976-1991, and RoTo Architects 1991–present, which he founded). He attended the Southern Californi ...

, one of SCI-Arc's original students. Neil Denari became director in 1997; Eric Owen Moss served as director from 2002–2015; Hernán Díaz Alonso was appointed director and chief executive officer effective Sept 1, 2015. Díaz Alonso has been a faculty member at SCI-Arc since 2001. He is known for championing the school's push toward a digital future and, prior to his appointment as director, has served as the school's graduate programs chair since 2010. Although SCI-Arc was once unaccredited and its finances unstable—Moss joked, "We used to be considered one step ahead of the

IRS The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is the revenue service for the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government, which is responsible for collecting Taxation in the United States, U.S. federal taxes and administerin ...

, one step ahead of creditors"—the school is now fully accredited, and its finances improved to the point that SCI-Arc was able to pay $23.1 million to buy its campus building in 2011. "The main thing is to figure out a way for SCI-Arc to keep growing without losing its character and pedigree," Díaz Alonso said in an interview following his appointment as director.

Campus

The school has been based in three locations—the first (1972–1992) a small industrial building in Santa Monica, and later moved into the second, larger (concrete post & beam) industrial building (1992–2000) in Marina del Rey. 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 Downtown Los Angeles (DTLA) is the central business district of the city of Los Angeles. It is part of the Central Los Angeles region and covers a area. As of 2020, it contains over 500,000 jobs and has a population of roughly 85,000 residents ...

. When SCI-Arc arrived, the building was a stripped-down concrete shell. Today the building is on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

and the school has become an anchor for the city's

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

Academics

SCI-Arc offers undergraduate and graduate degree programs accredited by the

National Architectural Accrediting Board The National Architectural Accrediting Board (NAAB), established in 1940, is the oldest accrediting agency for architectural education in the United States. The NAAB accredits professional degrees in architecture offered by institutions with U.S. ...

and the

WASC Senior College and University Commission The Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC ( )) provided accreditation of public and private universities, colleges, secondary and elementary schools in California and Hawaii, the territories of Guam, American Samoa and Northern ...

, including a five-year Bachelor of Architecture (B.Arch) program, a 3-year

Master of Architecture The Master of Architecture (M.Arch. or MArch) is a graduate professional degree in architecture qualifying the graduate to move through the various stages of professional accreditation (internship, exams) that result in receiving a license. Ove ...

(M.Arch 1) open to applicants who hold a bachelor's degree or equivalent in any field of study, and a 2-year Master of Architecture (M.Arch 2) open to applicants with a prior undergraduate degree in architecture. 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 Pedagogy (), most commonly understood as the approach to teaching, is the theory and practice of learning, and how this process influences, and is influenced by, the social, political, and psychological development of learners. Pedagogy, taken ...

. SCI-Arc's undergraduate and graduate programs culminate in two public events in which students present their thesis projects to renowned critics from around the world, including

Peter Cook Peter Edward Cook (17 November 1937 – 9 January 1995) was an English comedian, actor, satirist, playwright and screenwriter. He was the leading figure of the British satire boom of the 1960s, and he was associated with the anti-establishmen ...

, Greg Lynn, and

Pritzker Prize The Pritzker Architecture Prize is an international award presented annually "to honor a living architect or architects whose built work demonstrates a combination of those qualities of talent, vision and commitment which has produced consisten ...

recipient

. "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."

Public programs

A recent program and exhibition, "LA in Wien/Wien in LA," investigated the architecture of Los Angeles and

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

and their respective influences on one another in over the last century. It brought together six esteemed international architects—Hitoshi Abe,

, Eric Owen Moss,

, Peter Noever, and Wolf Prix of

Coop Himmelb(l)au Coop Himmelb(l)au (a pun meaning '' Coop Sky Building'' and ''Coop Sky Blue'') is an architecture, urban planning, design and art firm founded in 1968 by Wolf D. Prix, Helmut Swiczinsky and Michael Holzer in Vienna, Austria. History Coop Hi ...

—to share their perspectives and experiences in a discussion led by Anthony Vidler. The full scope of SCI-Arc public programs includes lectures, exhibitions, faculty talks and other opportunities for interaction between the school and the community.

Notable faculty

The following list contains both current and former faculty: * Ann Bergren * Walead Beshty * Aaron Betsky * Mike Davis * Benjamin H. Bratton * Manuel DeLanda * Neil Denari * Hernan Diaz Alonso *

Frank Gehry Frank Owen Gehry ( ; ; born February 28, 1929) is a Canadian-American architect and designer. A number of his buildings, including his private residence in Santa Monica, California, have become attractions. Gehry rose to prominence in th ...

* Graham Harman * Laurie Hawkinson * Kahlil Joseph * Ray Kappe * Shelly Kappe * Elena Manferdini *

* Lucy McRae * David Mohney * Timothy Morton * Eric Owen Moss *

* Marcelo Spina * Michael Stock * Patrick Tighe * Tom Wiscombe * Liam Young * Mimi Zeiger

Notable alumni

* Barbara Bestor * Shigeru Ban * Moses Hacmon * David Randall Hertz * Sue Courtenay * Wanda Dalla Costa * Jon Drezner * Jeffrey Eyster * Gordon Kipping * Ola-dele Kuku * Cara Lee * Karen M'Closkey * David Montalba * Abinadi Meza * Rocio Romero * Mimi Zeiger * Daniel Inocente

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Southern California Institute Of Architecture Architecture schools in California Universities and colleges in Los Angeles Downtown Los Angeles 01 Schools accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges Universities and colleges established in 1972 1972 establishments in California History of Santa Monica, California Architects from Los Angeles Art in Greater Los Angeles Organizations based in Santa Monica, California Private universities and colleges in California Southern California Institute of Architecture alumni