Mission The Graduate Program in Urban Design & Infrastructure is aimed at understanding urban phenomena as the integration of many fields of research threading and expanding the boundaries of the disciplines of architecture, landscape architecture and city planning. The aim of the curriculum is to establish the requisite awareness and understanding of a land ethic that ensures the compatibility of the urban form with the bioclimatic realities and cultural lifestyles of the American Southwest. It draws its pedagogic matrix on the Sonoran Desert bioregion and the rapid urban transformation of the Southwest in general and of metropolitan Tucson in particular.
Facilities and Resources As part of its urban design outreach efforts, the School of Architecture entered into a collaborative agreement with the City of Tucson to assist in the redevelopment of its downtown core. Students are involved in investigating a multiplicity of projects, including alternatives for downtown housing, options for redesign of the Santa Cruz River corridor, the I-10 Freeway corridor and the Tucson Convention Center district as well as investigating potential pedestrian movement systems to make living and working in the city a lively cultural experience. Interdisciplinary research is pursued in collaboration with UA archeologists, the Office of Arid Land Studies, the Arizona State Museum, the Arizona Historical Society, several departments within the City of Tucson, and the Arizona Department of Transportation.
Curriculum Fall 1 ARC 601: Research Studio 6 credits Required support courses: ARC 571s: Theory & Principles of Urban Design 3 credits ARC 597a: Research Methods 3 credits 12 credits
Spring 1 ARC 900: Graduate Research 6 credits ARC 597t: Case studies in Urban Design 3 credits Elective course* Architecture advanced elective Landscape Architecture elective Elective from another discipline, as relevant 3 credits 12 credits
Fall 2 ARC 909 or ARC 910: Graduate Thesis 8 credits Elective course* Architecture advanced elective Landscape Architecture elective Elective from another discipline, as relevant 3 credits 11 credits
TOTAL 35 credits
*Choice of electives is made in consultation with faculty advisor. NOTE: Graduate College policy stipulates that a maximum of 3 credit units of an internship or independent study course may be counted toward the degree.
The Urban Design and Infrastructure graduate concentration area is temporarily without a faculty coordinator. However, the School does intend to maintain UDI as a focus of study and to fill the position currently vacant. In the meantime, we will accommodate current and prospective students who wish to pursue this concentration by means of courses and advising provided by other faculty members in the School of Architecture and elsewhere in the College of Architecture and Landscape Architecture. Inquiries about a program of study in Urban Design and Infrastructure should be addressed to:
Linda Erasmus, Program Coordinator School of Architecture Architecture A303d The University of Arizona Tucson, AZ 85721-0076 520.621.9819 erasmus@email.arizona.edu.
