The Bachelor of Arts in Architecture offers a unique interdisciplinary education rooted in the liberal arts and the timeless principles of classical design. This four-year degree program provides students with a cultivated understanding of architectural design, composition, practice, history, and theory by emphasizing the enduring beauty and functionality of classical architectural forms.

Architecture studios represent the backbone of the major. Three parallel streams support the studios: development of skills in hand-drawing and painting; education in the theory and history of architecture; and, studies of traditional and time-tested techniques of building technology.

A rising sophomore may petition the architecture faculty to accept an extraordinary portfolio from an approved summer program as substitute for one or more of the required freshman architecture and art courses. 

Transfer students are accepted into the Architecture major at the discretion of the Architecture Department Chair and must complete a minimum of 60% of the ARCH courses required for the major at Benedictine College with course equivalencies and placements in the major determined by the Department Chair.

The course fees for the Sophomore, Junior, Senior, and Capstone studios 1) provide studio materials, 2) fund visiting professional critics and lecturers, and 3) defray costs for field studies, workshops, and technology.

Sophomore architecture students purchase their own hand-drafting essential tools for the architecture program curriculum that they may keep throughout their career. With rising costs of materials this equipment comes at no small cost, and that is why the application process for acceptance into the major near the end of the first year is very rigorous.

Admission to the major is competitive and there is no guarantee of acceptance. The following are the minimum criteria to meet on the application to the major—as well as remain in the major in good standing: 

• ​Submit a Petition for Acceptance to a Major Program
• Submit transcripts up to and through the midterm grades of freshman year (including any transferred credit)
• Submit a portfolio for review by architecture faculty during the Discovery Day week in April of freshman year
• Earn a minimum grade of C in each Architecture course (or a retake is required)
• Sustain a minimum cumulative 3.0 GPA by, and beyond, midterm of the spring semester of sophomore year

Program Mission

The mission of the Architecture Program is to engage the millennia of classic traditions from ancient Egypt and the Middle East to the present through research and emulation. We adhere to the Incarnational view of history and thus believe that a regeneration—a renaissance—of the imago Dei unceasingly beckons to human beings to build anew. Students learn to avail themselves of the classical canon of time-tested methods and principles to be open to real discoveries of new beauties in the design of all types of buildings. The Christian fostering of the transcendentals of the True, the Good, and the Beautiful underpins our classical approach so that students embrace the awesome responsibility of designing for the human person: body, mind, and soul. Our process prepares students to continue in formal studies at the graduate level or to enter the profession (or related fields) as an intern or designer.

Program Outcomes

• Graduates will be able to read, comprehend, and explain classical facades and buildings.
• Graduates will be able to design and render a public, monumental, classical facade and building, including plans, sections, elevations, perspectives, and detail drawings.
• Graduates will have a comprehensive understanding of classical architecture from its archaic roots to its modern expressions, as well as defend its timeless applications.
• Graduates will be able to use the history, theories, and canons of classical architecture to engage with diverse cultures in both domestic and international applications of the study of the art of building.
• Graduates will understand the basics of many types of construction, including assemblies of foundation, wall, and roof systems, as well as traditional and contemporary building materials.
• Graduates will understand the basics of designing for ideal building performance.

Program Requirements

Suggested Sequence of Courses for a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Architecture