North Dakota State University

Program Description

NDSU offers a 5-year NAAB accredited, first-professional Master of Architecture program housed primarily in a beautifully-restored historic industrial building in downtown Fargo, which has emerged as an exciting, student-oriented urban district.  Students entering the graduate program in architecture come directly from the NDSU pre-professional Bachelor of Science in Architectural Studies program. The curriculum includes field trips to cities across the country and is supported by a professionally-staffed wood shop, digital media labs, and laser cutter for model-making.  Both traditional and digital media are emphasized.  An optional semester abroad, plus foreign study tours during summers are offered.

In the United States, most state registration boards require a degree from an accredited professional degree program as a prerequisite for licensure. The National Architectural Accrediting Board (NAAB), which is the sole agency authorized to accredit U.S. professional degree programs in architecture, recognizes three types of degrees: the Bachelor of Architecture, the Master of Architecture, and the Doctor of Architecture. A program may be granted a six-year, three-year, or two-year term of accreditation, depending on the extent of its conformance with established educational standards.

Doctor of Architecture and Master of Architecture degree programs may consist of a pre-professional undergraduate degree and a professional graduate degree that, when earned sequentially, constitute an accredited professional education. However, the pre-professional degree is not, by itself, recognized as an accredited degree. 

North Dakota State University’s Architecture program offers the following NAAB-accredited degree program:

• M.Arch. (pre-professional degree + 32 graduate credits)
  Next accreditation visit: 2012 

Admission Requirements

• Students currently enrolled in the  4-year pre-professional degree at NDSU may apply to the Master of Architecture program. 
• Candidates must have earned a cumulative grade point average of 3.0 to be considered for full graduate standing. 

Click here for course descriptions.

Department Website

Bakr Mourad AlyAhmed, Ph.D.
Virginia Tech, 2002
Creative/Research Interests: Beach Resorts Design, Sustainable Design Modeling, Eco-Tourism Development, Building Capacity Measures, Advanced Environmental Planning. 

Mark Barnhouse, M.Arch.
Pratt Institute, 1988
Creative/Research Interests: Water Resources and the Built Environment, and the Graphic Interpretation of Parametric Data about the Built Environment. 

Darryl Booker, M.Arch.
University of Colorado, 1980
Creative/Research Interests: Sustainable Design, Ethics & Built Environment, Appropriate Technology 

Michael Christenson, M.Arch.
University of Minnesota, 1997
Creative/Research Interests:  Commonalities between architectural analysis and design; iterative processes; parametric modeling. 

David Crutchfield, M.Arch.
University of Texas at Austin, 2004
Creative/Research Interests: Sustainable Design, as the interrelation of nature, economics, equity, and aesthetics; Critical evaluation methods of green design; Innovations and analysis in passive design 

Stevie Famulari, MLA
State University of New York , 2000
Creative/Research Interests: Environmental Art, Public Installations, Radical Materiality, Food Arts, Landscape Architecture, Popular Media, Phytoremediation, Sustainability, Indoor/Outdoor Green Design, Landscape Narratives 

Don C. Faulkner, M.Arch.
University of Utah, 1975
Creative/Research Interests: Urban Design, Building Community and Public Engagement 

Paul H. Gleye, Ph.D.
UCLA, 1983
Creative/Research Interests: Place-making, Historic Preservation, City Centers 

Mark Lindquist, MLA
University of Toronto, 2002

Kaarin Piegaze Lindquist, M.Arch.
University of Toronto, 2002
Creative/Research Interests: Design Process, Human Interaction with the Design Process From Brief to Finished Product, Social/Environmental Sustainability 

Ganapathy Mahalingam, Ph.D.
University of Florida, 1995
Creative/Research Interests: Computer-aided architectural design, architectural acoustics, computational modeling of design, interdisciplinary research, architectural philosophy and the Architectural Genome Project

Steve C. Martens, M.Arch. II
University of Minnesota, 1988
Creative/Research Interests: Architectural Problem-Solving, Design Methods, Historic Preservation, Building Materials 

Kathleen Pepple, MFA, MCRP
University of North Dakota, 1981;
North Dakota State University, 1991
Creative/Research Interests:  Applied research in urban agriculture, its economic influence as a local food source, and its importance as a focal point for community participation; In exploration of the possibilities of functional art within this framework, her north Fargo urban art fence expands the utility of boundaries and perimeters necessary in the context of municipal gardens and farms. 

Ronald H.L.M. Ramsay, M.Arch.
University of Texas at Austin, 1992
Creative/Research Interests: Architectural History, Historic Preservation, the Progressive Era, Planning History, Professionalization 

Regin Schwaen, M.A.A.
City Building , Arkitektskolen i Aarhus, 1992
Creative/Research Interests: Urban Buildings, Conceptual Models, Minimal Concrete Structures, Visual Communication 

Cindy Urness, M.Arch.
Pratt Institute, 1988
Creative/Research Interests:  
Building Technology, Urban Design, Utopian Cities, Sustainable Design, Universal Design 

Catherine Wiley, MLA
University of Pennsylvania, 1998

Stephen Wischer, M.Arch., MFA
University of Calgary, 2004
Creative/Research Interests:
History /Theory, Existential Philosophy, Interdisciplinary Relationships, Art, Embodied Artifacts, Process, Experience and Poetics, and  of Design