AUGUSTA — In a first for New England, the University of Maine at Augusta plans to offer a bachelor of arts in architecture starting in 2013.
No other public institution in New England offers a bachelor’s degree that prepares students to become licensed architects, according to university President Allyson Hughes Handley.
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“It really represents a cost-effective model for the students that we serve,” she said.
There are three components to an architect’s training: coursework, an internship and a series of licensing exams. The four-year bachelor of arts in architecture that the university now offers does not prepare students for the exams.
Graduates who are not licensed can design some structures on their own, such as single-family homes, or work for a licensed architect, said Eric Stark, associate professor and coordinator of the architecture program.
To become licensed, the university’s graduates must enroll in a graduate program outside of the state because Maine doesn’t have one.
The University of Maine System Board of Trustees voted this week to allow the university to create a five-year professional degree.
“It seems like there’s something missing without graduating your own architects,” said Stark, who earned his degree at Harvard University. “We come from a very specific kind of place, and we think about things a different way.”
Roger Richmond felt the same way when he moved to Maine in the early 1980s.
“Maine has an amazingly rich architectural heritage going back to John Calvin Stevens,” said Richmond, an adjunct instructor at the university. “It’s New England architecture and it’s got its own vernacular.”
The University of Southern Maine and Portland College of Art — now Maine College of Art — briefly expressed interest, but Richmond was finally able to establish a two-year program at the University of Maine at Augusta in 1987. The program expanded to a four-year degree in 2004.
Richmond said several of his students have had to turn down graduate schools, such as the prestigious Rhode Island School of Design, because they could not afford them even with scholarships. He will be glad to see a public university offer a professional degree.
The bachelor of architecture degree eventually will replace the existing degree program. Students who are now enrolled would have the option to finish the four-year program or to apply for transfer to the new one.
The cost is the same as other bachelor’s programs at $217 per credit hour for in-state students.
Before enrolling students, the university must get accreditation from the National Architecture Accrediting Board. It will not be eligible for full accreditation until the first class graduates in 2018.
The new program will accept 30 to 45 students each year, similar to the current program’s enrollment, Stark said.
Although the job market for architects has dwindled since the collapse of the housing market and economic downturn, Handley said there is still work available in specialty fields and that the market could change by 2018.
“We think that our program will be very well positioned,” she said.
Stark said architecture is a broad field that goes beyond designing new buildings.
“It’s not just construction,” he said. “It’s the spaces we live in, it’s the air we breathe, it’s the way light comes into a space.”
Susan McMillan — 621-5645
smcmillan@mainetoday.com
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