University of Virginia School of Architecture

The University of Virginia School of Architecture is the university's architecture school. The school confers undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in architecture, landscape architecture, architectural history, and urban and environmental planning. Additionally, the school offers a certificate in historic preservation.The Ph.D program in architectural history was once maintained at the School of Architecture but has since been transferred to the Graduate School of Arts & Sciences.The School's current dean is Ila Berman.HistoryThe School of Architecture was a cornerstone of founder Thomas Jefferson's concept for the University. Jefferson intended to use the architecture of the Academical Village as a didactic instrument for students. Evidence suggests that Jefferson planned to instruct architecture students himself, but he died in 1826 before his vision could be realized.It would take more than 100 years after Jefferson's death for the School of Architecture to be formed. In 1919, a School of Fine Arts was established under the direction of Sidney Fiske Kimball, for whom the University's Fine Arts Library is named. In 1954 the University dissolved the School of Fine Arts, merging the art faculty into the College of Arts and Sciences, and creating a new School of Architecture. In the nine decades since its founding, the school has grown from an initial enrollment of eleven students to some 350 undergraduate and 175 graduate students, with 54 full-time faculty members and an extensive staff.