
Welcome
Prospective students applying to Barnard College, Columbia College, or The School of General Studies who have questions about our department are encouraged to review our Information for Prospective students page.
Current students who have questions about our course offerings or our programs of study in architecture are encouraged to review our Resources for Current Students and Frequently Asked Questions pages. Additionally, current students are welcome to schedule appointments with our faculty advisors to learn more about our department.
Fall 2023 Course Applications
In order to be considered for enrollment in one of our courses with an application requirement, students must submit an application and also register online for that course's waitlist. If an application asks you to rank multiple sections of a course, you should add yourself to the waitlist for whichever section is your top choice.
Applications for our Fall 2023 courses will open on April 10th. Our department will prioritize students who apply and join our course waitlists by the end of the first early registration week, April 17-21, 2023, but we will continue to accept applications and review them on a rolling basis through the end of the summer.
We will conduct three rounds of reviewing applications and admitting students from waitlists to our courses during the following weeks:
The week of April 24–28, 2023
The week of June 26–30, 2023
The week of August 28–September 1, 2023
Admission is at the discretion of the department and course instructor. On the day an instructor or the department admits a student from the waitlist, that student will see their status change to "Approved" on SSOL. The student will then be automatically moved from the waitlist to the class list overnight. After Friday, September 1, students who remain on the waitlist for any of our courses will need to attend the first class session and speak with the instructor to inquire if any spots have opened up.
Events


Feeling at Home: Hazel Lu’s Journey with Architecture
For Hazel Lu, an architecture major who is also involved in graphic design and videography, creativity helped her to find new modes of expression.
The Space Where it All Starts
"The metal double doors click open. I step into 116B Lewisohn Hall, down the main aisle, where rows of desks are housed in an entirely white room: white-painted exposed brick walls, white plaster ceilings, and white linoleum floors. Inside, students and a professor critique one student’s architectural model. Huddled together, they squint, furrow their brows, and tilt their heads to the left and to the right. The way they all lean into the discussion draws me in and makes me want to join.
“The desk,” Professor Karen Fairbanks, chair of Barnard and Columbia’s Architecture Department, explains to me in a later interview, “is the beginning of our relationship with our students.” Having taught at Columbia and Barnard for over 21 years, Fairbanks has watched and worked with hundreds of students who, hunched over their desk spaces, toil over models and develop their minds as architects."
Barnard and Columbia Architecture’s New Year Show turns campus inside out
"Technical drawings, sketches, collages, and 3D models currently line the fourth and fifth floors of Barnard’s Diana Center and Louise McCagg Gallery as Barnard and Columbia Architecture transformed the space into a dynamic hotspot of architectural design for its annual New Year Show. Exhibitions of campus turned inside out, indoor-outdoor pigeon habitats, and wearable architecture are only a small sample of the vast repertoire of student work on display."
Faculty News

Read About B+C | A

Explore senior thesis projects in the arts from the Departments of Theatre, Dance, and Architecture.
A Reimagining Brooklyn Bridge Competition winner, the architecture and psychology major shares her vision for a New York City landmark.

We spoke to the director and chairs of each department, who shared what makes the end-of-year shows and performances by students in art, music, and theatre special.