History

Courses in architecture were first offered at the University of Michigan in 1876 by William Le Baron Jenney. Architecture was recognized as a formal course of study in 1906 when a program was established in the Department of Engineering with Emil Lorch as chair. Under his leadership, the program grew steadily in size and stature and, in 1913, the University granted the program departmental status and full control of its curriculum. Lorch continued to shape the program and, in 1923, was instrumental in bringing Eliel Saarinen from Finland to teach at Michigan. In 1931, the College of Architecture was established as a separate entity with 370 students and 27 faculty members.

Wells Bennett succeeded Emil Lorch as director of the College in 1937 and became Dean a year later. In 1939, the College’s name was changed to the College of Architecture and Design, the program in architecture was expanded to a five-year curriculum and landscape architecture was added. In the mid-1940s, Michigan was one of the few schools that considered research to be a necessary element of architectural education. By founding the Architecture Research Laboratory in 1948, the College took a pioneering step in integrating design, construction, technology, planning and research. A graduate program in urban planning—which awarded a Master of City Planning degree—was introduced in 1946. This program was one of the first of its kind in the country.

Visual arts courses, originally offered to advance the training of architects, began attracting students from other fields, leading to the creation of separate Departments of Art and Architecture in 1954. The College housed these two departments, along with the smaller Department of Landscape Architecture, for the next decade. In 1965, Landscape Architecture was moved to the School of Natural Resources as a result of its growing relationship to the earth sciences.

The five-year architecture program was modified to a two+two+two year program in 1967 and, in 1968, a Department of Urban Planning was created within the College of Architecture and Design. That same year, a university-wide Ph.D. Program in Urban and Regional Planning was established in the Office of the Vice President for Academic Affairs with faculty from 12 schools and colleges. In addition, Michigan became the first American school to offer a Doctorate of Architecture degree the following year. The introduction of the doctoral program was a natural development due to the history of architectural research at the College.

As the College continued to grow, proposals were developed to provide new facilities and, as part of the planning process, the educational and administrative structure of the College was reassessed. This led to the reorganization of the College of Architecture and Design into a College of Architecture and Urban Planning and a School of Art in 1974. Two new programs, architecture and urban planning, replaced the former departments. At the same time, the research mission of the College was broadened and the Architecture Research Laboratory was reconstituted into the Architecture and Planning Research Laboratory. The new Art + Architecture Building, housing the College of Architecture and Urban Planning together with the School of Art and Design, opened for classes in 1974 on UM’s North Campus.

Although the College has remained in the same physical location since 1974, it continues to evolve. In 1982, a sociotechnical focus was added to the doctoral program in urban and regional planning which then became the Ph.D. Program in Urban, Technological, and Environmental Planning (UTEP ) and by 1989 the program was from Rackham Graduate School to the College. The Doctoral Program in Architecture was also modified in 1989 and the degree designation changed to a Ph.D., giving the College a more comprehensive program of professional and doctoral education in both architecture and urban planning. In 1992, the two individual programs in urban planning and UTEP were merged to form the Urban and Regional Planning Program (URP), which is now under a single chair with a coordinator of doctoral studies. The UTEP program was changed in 2004 to the Phd in Urban and Regional Planning.

Since the mid-twentieth century, the College has been headed by Deans Philip N. Youtz (1957–1964), Reginald F. Malcolmson (1964–1974), Robert C. Metcalf (1974–1986), Robert M. Beckley (1987–1997), James C. Snyder (interim 1997–1998) and Douglas S. Kelbaugh appointed in 1998.