Marywood University is launching a Bachelor of Architectural Engineering program that brings the creative and technical sides of building design together.
Housed within Pennsylvania’s largest School of Architecture, the program gives students the chance to study engineering alongside architecture, interior architecture, and construction management.
Architectural engineering focuses on the technical systems that make buildings safe, efficient, and sustainable. While architects often concentrate on a building’s appearance and function, engineers apply their principles to structural systems, performance, and building technology.
Marywood’s program combines those technical areas with the creative and collaborative approach of an architectural education. Students will share coursework with peers, helping them understand the role each field plays throughout a project. That shared experience shows students how decisions made by designers, engineers, and construction professionals shape the final result.
The curriculum includes design studios, engineering courses, and building technology work. Students will study advanced systems, environmental science, renewable energy, and sustainable design. They will also use building information modeling (commonly called BIM) and simulation tools.
Studio courses build toward a two-semester comprehensive thesis project, allowing students to bring their engineering, design, and problem-solving skills together. Electives may include community design-build projects, lighting design, global urban ecologies, and public initiatives.
“Architecture imagines what’s possible. Engineering makes it possible. At Marywood, we’re bringing both together to shape the future,” said Jodi La Coe, Director of Marywood’s School of Architecture
The program is designed for students who want to do more than choose between the creative and technical sides of a building project. At Marywood, they can develop both. Studio work challenges students to shape ideas visually, while engineering courses help them test how those ideas will perform. That combination prepares graduates to enter project teams with an understanding of the design’s intent, the systems behind it, and the collaboration required to bring them together.
Students will complete this work inside Marywood’s Center for Architectural Studies, a LEED Gold-certified building that serves as an example of sustainable design. The facility supports hands-on learning through open studios, wood and metal shops, and a Digital Fabrication Lab.
The new degree comes during a period of growth for the School of Architecture, which is preparing to welcome a record-setting incoming class for the second year in a row. This fall, students are also putting their skills to work across campus, helping reimagine spaces like the theatre located in the Sette LaVerghetta Center for Performing Arts, and an open-to-the-public campus pub, Bar None.
Opportunities are also growing outside of Scranton. Marywood has secured an additional location in Florence, Italy, creating a permanent home for place-based learning in one of the world’s best-known centers of art, architecture, and design. Architecture students will be among the first to benefit, with plans to expand opportunities to programs such as business, art, and education over time.
Together, these developments give Marywood students more ways to learn by doing, whether they are testing building systems in the studio, creating spaces on campus, or studying architecture in Florence.
They also strengthen Scranton’s ability to grow its own talent. By preparing future architectural engineers, project managers, architectural managers, and designers locally, Marywood can help bring new ideas and expertise to the buildings and projects that shape Northeastern Pennsylvania and beyond.
Learn more about the Bachelor of Architectural Engineering program, request information, or apply at marywood.edu/architectural-engineering