Best Architecture Schools

America's Top Architecture Schools 2014

Skills Assessment
The academic programs that practitioners deem strongest for each skill area:
DESIGN
1	Harvard
2	Yale
3	Columbia
4	SCI-Arc
5	USC
SUSTAINABLE-DESIGN PRACTICES & PRINCIPLES
1	Cal Poly San Luis Obispo
2	UC Berkeley
3	Auburn
3	U of Oregon
5	USC
COMPUTER APPLICATIONS
1	MIT
2	SCI-Arc
3	Columbia
4	Cal Poly San Luis Obispo
5	Harvard

TOP 5 SIGNIFICANT ISSUES
This year, DesignIntelligence polled 89 deans and chairs, along with 693 professional offices and corporations to assess the top five significant issues from each of their perspectives.
DEANS AND CHAIRS
1	Integrated Practice / Interdisciplinary Education
2	Sustainable Design / Climate Change
3	Technology Integration
4	Community Engagement
5	Study Abroad / Globalization
FIRM LEADERS
1	Design Quality
2	Integrated and Interdisciplinary Practice
3	Sustainable Design / Climate Change
4	Technology Integration
5	Talent Acquisition / Quality of Workforce

Methodology: Greenway Group, as it usually does, sent surveys to CEOs, managing partners, and human resource directors asking about their findings in hiring architecture graduates. The respondents could select up to 10 NAAB-certified undergraduate and graduate programs in each category. Each survey response was checked for authenticity and validated by the research staff at Greenway Group. In cases of dubious or unreliable information that could not be confirmed, researchers eliminated the questionable return. Researchers also confirmed that the person responding to the survey was in a hiring capacity. In addition to the architectural component of Greenway Group’s research, the study includes rankings and satisfaction surveys for the professions of interior design, landscape architecture, and industrial design. This information is published in DesignIntelligence annually, along with a comprehensive list of the firms and employing organizations participating in the research.

KEYWORDS: architecture schools

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Suzanne Stephens, a former deputy editor of Architectural Record, has been a writer, editor, and critic in the field of architecture for several decades. She has a Ph.D. in architectural history from Cornell University, and teaches a seminar in the history of architectural criticism in the architecture program of Barnard and Columbia colleges.