Architecture - Undergraduate College Program

Beauty. Order. Meaning.

A Classical Education in a Catholic Context

The Architecture Program at 小草影院 offers a pre-professional Bachelor of Arts degree that forms the foundation for graduate study, licensure, and lifelong engagement with timeless expressions of design for the built world. Rooted in the liberal arts and the Catholic intellectual tradition, our program prepares students to re-create in the future by recovering the enduring lessons of the past.

Mission & Program

Faculty

Summer Intensive in Classical Architecture

This summer, we are excited to offer a 2-Week Intensive in Classical Architecture. In July 2026, experience the energy of our unique design approach under the personal instruction of the Program Director.

Student Work

鈥淪hrine to the Unborn鈥澛燽y Caeli Haigh (2024-25 Senior)

鈥淧erforming Arts Center鈥� by Peter Galmish (2023-24 Senior)

鈥淗ospice on the California Coast鈥� by Mark Davied (2022-23 Sophomore)

鈥淭he Stone Hotel鈥� by Elizabeth Giroux (2022-23 Junior)

鈥淐ountry Retreat House鈥� by Peter Zuzolo (2024-25 Junior)

鈥淎 Doric Gateway to 小草影院鈥� by Emily Peters (2024-25 Sophomore)

鈥淎tchison City Hall鈥� by Dominic Haug (2024-25 Junior)

鈥淎tchison City Hall鈥� by Emmett Pauline (2024-25 Junior)

鈥淎rchitect鈥檚 Retreat鈥� by Peter Zuzolo (2024-25 Junior)

鈥淧liny鈥檚 Tuscan Villa鈥� by Peter Sentmanat (2024-25 Senior)

鈥淧liny鈥檚 Tuscan Villa鈥� by Ben Shonka (2024-25 Senior)

鈥淧liny鈥檚 Tuscan Villa鈥� by Mark Davied (2024-25 Senior)

鈥淪mall Baptistry鈥� by Harrison Gersch (2024-25 Sophomore)

鈥淧air of Garden Pavilions鈥� by Cecilia Kelly (2024-25 Sophomore)

鈥淢useum Dedicated to Fr. Kapaun鈥� by Steven Berry (2024-25 Sophomore)

鈥淎rchitect鈥檚 Chair鈥� by Ben Shonka (2024-25 Senior)

鈥淩econstruction of Ionic Order at the Temple of Fortuna Virilis in Rome鈥� by Bella Guzman (2024-25 Sophomore)

鈥淐ity Hall鈥� by Peter Zuzolo (2024-25 Junior)

鈥淐ity Hall鈥� by Grace Vogel (2024-25 Junior)

Study Architecture at 小草影院

Accreditation & Licensure

Alumni & Hiring Firms

Events

Plan a Visit

Student Architecture Club

Mission & Program Overview

At the heart of our curriculum lies the design studio, where students cultivate the habits of careful observation, scholarship, responsibility, emulation, and composition. This is supported by coursework in traditional ink and watercolor rendering, construction principles, architectural history, and theory. Together, these disciplines converge to shape not just competent designers, but, according to the great Renaissance architect and writer, theorist Leon Battista Alberti, artistic builders.

Principles That Endure

Our vision stands upon a classical foundation shaped by the enduring legacy of Thomas Gordon Smith, whose architecture and pedagogy reignited the flame of classical practice in our time. His influence鈥攑ersonal, intellectual, and spiritual鈥攕uffuses our program. Architecture consists of more than mere construction: it is a noble art animated by tradition and ordered toward all that human beings hold sacred. Through his buildings, writings, and mentorship, Smith awakened a generation to the truth that classical architecture is not a relic, but a living discourse鈥攐ne that expresses beauty, purpose, and faith, and restores to the art of building its sacramental vocation: to make the invisible visible.

The Classical Tripod

Like a classical tripod, the major in Architecture at 小草影院 stands on three legs:

I Catholic

鈥淯nless the Lord build the house, they labor in vain who build. Unless the Lord guard the city, in vain does the guard keep watch.鈥�

鈥� Ps. 127

Human beings, created in the Imago Dei, are called to acts of re-creation as an expression of charity toward their neighbor. Inspired by the Incarnation and renewed by the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, we infuse our handiwork鈥攅ven in a fallen world鈥攚ith beauty that points beyond utility, toward the divine. Our capacity to make things new is a gift, enabling us to evoke realities greater than what is immediately seen. A well-crafted building or thoughtfully designed city can offer a sense of home, of peace, and invite reflection on enduring human truths. In shaping such places, the architects we seek to form will serve their families and communities in love鈥攅levating the built environment to support, invigorate, and sanctify the rhythms of daily life and worship.

Our program draws from and in turn reinforces the mission of 小草影院 to educate men and women within a community of faith and scholarship. 小草影院 is annually recognized and recommended by The Newman Guide to Choosing a Catholic College for its excellence in faithful Catholic education.

II Liberal Arts

The study of Architecture at 小草影院 is treated as a fine art enlightened by scholarship in the liberal arts. We concur with the Roman engineer and architect Vitruvius, who wrote over two thousand years ago, that:

鈥淸n]either natural ability without instruction, nor instruction without natural ability can make the perfect artist. Let them be educated, skillful with the pencil, instructed in geometry, know much history, have followed the philosophers with attention, understand music, have some knowledge of medicine, know the opinions of the jurists, and be acquainted with astronomy and the theory of the heavens.鈥�

鈥� Vitruvius, On Architecture

III Classical

We take seriously鈥攁nd allow to thrive鈥攖imeless styles and enduring forms of beauty. Aren鈥檛 our favorite vacation destinations (aside from those of natural beauty), architecturally speaking, the products of tradition-based artisans, believers, architects, and patrons? As with music, it is only through sustained practice and an education of discernment that students become alive to how architecture may successfully cultivate the human spirit across time and culture. Components of this education include integrated studies of decorum, harmony, dignity, propriety, proportion and scale.

BUT, hasn鈥檛 the classical tradition run its course鈥攄oesn鈥檛 it stifle originality? In response to such concerns, architect and educator Paul Philippe Cret wrote:

鈥淟et us dismiss this fear of not being original, and comfort ourselves with the thought that the really great architects have always been those most eager to profit from the lessons of the past. It is by comparison with standards that we are able to judge our own progress, and this implies some familiarity with standards.鈥�

鈥� Paul Philippe Cret

We find no educational system more sustainable than the one that profits from the lessons and wisdom of those who have tread before us.