SCI-Arc

SCI-Arc The Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc) is an independent, accredited school of architecture in Los Angeles, CA. www.sciarc.edu
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It offers graduate and undergraduate degrees, public programs and lectures. Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc) is dedicated to educating architects who will imagine and shape the future. It is an independent, accredited degree-granting institution offering undergraduate and graduate programs in architecture. Located in a quarter-mile-long former freight depot in the Arts Distr

ict in Downtown Los Angeles, the school is distinguished by its vibrant studio culture and emphasis on process. SCI-Arc’s approximately 500 students and 80 faculty members, most of whom are practicing architects, work together to re-examine assumptions, create, explore and test the limits of architecture. SCI-Arc faculty and leadership have garnered more than 500 national and international design awards and recognitions, including Progressive Architecture awards, American Institute of Architects (AIA) awards, and the prestigious Jencks and Pritzker architecture prizes. SCI-Arc is ranked 1st in computer applications and 2nd in design in the 2013 America’s Best Architecture Schools survey from DesignIntelligence, and #1 graduate and undergraduate architecture school in Western U.S.

09/04/2026

With over 40 guest critics in attendance along with dozens of SCI-Arc faculty, last week’s 2026 Graduate Thesis Reviews investigated 48 M.Arch 1 and M.Arch 2 students’ inquiries into architecture’s future.

Graduate Thesis marks a pivotal moment in the culmination of a year of research, experimentation, and architectural production. Across this year’s work, architecture emerged as a practice of transformation: working with existing buildings, materials, and systems to imagine a new tomorrow.

Visit the 2026 Graduate Thesis Exhibition on view at SCI-Arc through Friday, September 11. More info at the link in bio.

09/03/2026

Courses in architectural representation help students turn design ideas into tangible artifacts that others can see, feel, understand, and appreciate. In this film, Anna Neimark, Visual Studies Coordinator at SCI-Arc, explains that VS seminars in representation provide students with the tools to make their ideas visible, translating intuitive thinking into a spatial language that can reach a broad audience.

Watch the whole film at the SCI-Arc Channel link in bio.

09/02/2026

Courses in architectural representation help students turn design ideas into tangible artifacts that others can see, feel, understand, and appreciate. In this film, Anna Neimark, Visual Studies Coordinator at SCI-Arc, explains that VS seminars in representation provide students with the tools to make their ideas visible, translating intuitive thinking into a spatial language that can reach a broad audience.

Watch the full film at SCI-Arc Channel: https://channel.sciarc.edu/browse/sci-arc-s-visual-studies-curriculum

Neimark describes an “all of the above” pedagogical approach that introduces students to an array of techniques in visualization: geometric line work, physical and digital modeling, material fabrication, scenic rendering and animation. In the core curriculum, students juggle software and workflows; they move deeper into select topics in elective seminars; and they author their own sequences of techniques in their thesis projects, developing bespoke recipes for fabrication and visualization.

Project by M.Arch 2 students Jonathan Kadau + Jacob Lehrer for Jenny Wu's Fall 2025 2GAX studio.Learn more about SCI-Arc...
09/01/2026

Project by M.Arch 2 students Jonathan Kadau + Jacob Lehrer for Jenny Wu's Fall 2025 2GAX studio.

Learn more about SCI-Arc Graduate Programs: https://www.sciarc.edu/academics/graduate/why-sci-arc

Transforming the former Lincoln Heights Jail into a porous metabolic engine, this project utilizes net-zero infrastructure as its primary aesthetic driver. The architecture rejects hidden mechanical systems, instead exploding a new steel-timber hybrid structure off the original concrete frame to celebrate its own visible infrastructure. By lifting the massing to scoop air from the Los Angeles River, the design creates a naturally ventilated core that shifts circulation to the exterior, slashing the conditioned floor area by nearly 100,000 square feet. The ground floor is then turned into an open air street market inspired by the local Avenue 26 night market that closed in 2021. The envelope is reimagined as an active, occupiable skin where solar panels and mechanical systems replace traditional finishes to harvest both light and thermal energy. The formal result is a relentless synthesis of performance and tectonic expression. It is an autonomous civic ecosystem where the machine and the garden function as a singular, regenerative apparatus.

Project by B.Arch student Adele Avenoso for Jackilin Hah Bloom's Fall 2025 2A Studio.Learn more about Undergraduate Prog...
08/30/2026

Project by B.Arch student Adele Avenoso for Jackilin Hah Bloom's Fall 2025 2A Studio.

Learn more about Undergraduate Programs: https://www.sciarc.edu/academics/undergraduate-program/why-sci-arc

Bridge Street Elementary School in East Los Angeles is reimagined through a series of physical models, precedent studies, and program organization. The building program of LAUSD remains rigid and universal. By challenging these constraints, the school is developed into an open-air building to create an expansive and inviting learning environment.

SCI-Arc B.Arch ranks consistently in the Top Ten Undergraduate Programs:
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#3 and
#3 in
#3 From
#5 in and skills
#6 in
Top 10

This weekend's Graduate Thesis Reviews celebrated 48 graduating M.Arch 1 and M.Arch 2 students exploring the wide-rangin...
08/30/2026

This weekend's Graduate Thesis Reviews celebrated 48 graduating M.Arch 1 and M.Arch 2 students exploring the wide-ranging future possibilities of architecture. Over 40 guest critics from throughout the professional and academic spheres contributed to this year's reviews for conversations that challenge, broaden, and situate each project within a wider architectural discourse.

All projects will remain on view in the SCI-Arc building through September 11, as part of the 2026 Graduate Thesis Exhibition. More information: https://www.sciarc.edu/events/events/grad-thesis-26

08/30/2026

SCI-Arc Graduation 2026

08/28/2026

Last week’s 2026 EDGE Symposium highlighted the speculative research, technical experimentation, and critical inquiry developed by SCI-Arc’s postgraduate students across the four EDGE programs:
Synthetic Landscapes (SCI-Arc Synthetic Landscapes)
Design Theory & Pedagogy (SCI-Arc Design Theory Pedagogy)
Architectural Intelligence: AI, Platforms, Automation (SCI-Arc MS Architectural Intelligence)
and Fiction + Entertainment (SCIArc Fiction & Entertainment)

Learn more about SCI-Arc EDGE programs at the Postgraduate Programs link in bio. 💡

Project by M.Arch 1 students Taylor Bond + Joseph Gilroy for Marcelo Spina's Fall 2025 2GA Studio.Learn more about SCI-A...
08/25/2026

Project by M.Arch 1 students Taylor Bond + Joseph Gilroy for Marcelo Spina's Fall 2025 2GA Studio.

Learn more about SCI-Arc Graduate Programs: https://www.sciarc.edu/academics/graduate/why-sci-arc

Not a singular building, but a field of proximities.

Conceived as a new campus for the Los Angeles Dance Project in Pico-Union, the project distributes rehearsal, performance, and public life across a series of smaller volumes gathered around a central promenade. Between them, courtyards, thresholds, and layered sightlines turn the campus into a choreography of nearness, where movement, rehearsal, spectatorship, and everyday life continuously brush against one another.

The theater anchors the composition as its point of intensity, while the surrounding structures sustain a more intimate, fragmented world. Here, architecture is calibrated through degrees of reveal and concealment: apertures, silhouettes, partial views, and passing bodies make visible the life of performance before performance begins.

Less an object than a small world, the project imagines campus as an atmosphere of relation.

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960 E 3rd Street
Los Angeles, CA
90013

Opening Hours

Monday 10am - 6pm
Tuesday 10am - 6pm
Wednesday 10am - 6pm
Thursday 10am - 6pm
Friday 10am - 6pm
Saturday 10am - 6pm
Sunday 10am - 6pm

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+12136132200

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