{"id":408208,"date":"2026-01-15T06:20:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-15T06:20:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/408208\/"},"modified":"2026-01-15T06:20:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-15T06:20:07","slug":"brown-university-students-fight-to-save-architecture-concentration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/408208\/","title":{"rendered":"Brown University students fight to save architecture concentration"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The History of Art and Architecture (<a href=\"https:\/\/haa.fas.harvard.edu\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">HIAA<\/a>) Department at Brown University started offering an interdisciplinary architecture concentration in 2016. It quickly grew in popularity: In 2021, the first graduating class had 8 students and, in 2024, 21 students graduated from the program.<\/p>\n<p>But now, Brown University is terminating the concentration. And students, faculty, and alumni of Brown\u2019s architecture program are trying to reverse course, and save it.<\/p>\n<p>The architecture major will be \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/hiaa.brown.edu\/undergraduate-concentrations\/architecture-concentration\/architecture-concentration-update\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">sunset<\/a>\u201d by 2028, HIAA says. The decision to end the concentration was \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/hiaa.brown.edu\/undergraduate-concentrations\/architecture-concentration\/architecture-concentration-update\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">not an easy one<\/a>,\u201d HIAA stated. AN emailed Brown University for comment.<\/p>\n<p>In 2022, architecture students and faculty <a href=\"https:\/\/hiaa.brown.edu\/news\/2022-09-01\/new-studio-thayer\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">moved<\/a> into a custom-designed studio in Providence at 271 Thayer Street. Plans to phase out Brown\u2019s architecture program were first <a href=\"https:\/\/www.browndailyherald.com\/article\/2024\/09\/browns-architecture-concentration-lost-its-department-it-may-be-gone-for-good\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">rolled out<\/a> in 2024, drawing immediate pushback from faculty, alumni, and students.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhile the concentration has been popular, it has also experienced significant challenges\u2014most importantly a growing misalignment between the core humanities mission of HIAA and the pre-professional orientation of the concentration,\u201d the HIAA website claims, without going into detail as to what the misalignments were.<\/p>\n<p>The discontinuation does not mean Brown University will cease offering architecture courses, HIAA continued. The HIAA Department will still offer courses in architectural history. And the department will continue to offer one introductory-level architectural design studio in its course roster, it affirmed.<\/p>\n<p>Students and faculty have started <a href=\"https:\/\/docs.google.com\/forms\/d\/e\/1FAIpQLSeRqT-lEszjj9pEO9ipHrBJ-g-xeZYjUYR4IiSpu_14ABpuFw\/viewform\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">a petition<\/a> to save the concentration. The architecture program \u201cneeds a new home on campus,\u201d petitioners state. The petition proposes moving the architecture concentration into either Brown\u2019s Urban Studies or Public Health programs, or possibly creating a new \u201cstand alone program\u201d in order to salvage it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe believe that architecture is a perfect Brown concentration, as it combines skills such as drawing, rendering, spatial thinking and model making with a strongly contextual approach and classes in the humanities and urban studies,\u201d the petition affirms. \u201cIt is interdisciplinary and has social relevance.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>AN will continue to provide updates to this ongoing story.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The History of Art and Architecture (HIAA) Department at Brown University started offering an interdisciplinary architecture concentration in&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":408209,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[228,226,227,229,88],"class_list":{"0":"post-408208","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-and-design","10":"tag-artsanddesign","11":"tag-design","12":"tag-entertainment"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408208","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=408208"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408208\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/408209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=408208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=408208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=408208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}