Southern California Institute of Architecture

History

SCI-Arc was founded in Santa Monica in 1972 by Ray Kappe, Shelly Kappe, Ahde Lahti, Thom Mayne, Bill Simonian, Glen Small, and Jim Stafford—a group of faculty from the Department of Architecture at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. The founders were frustrated with the administrative treatment of students and faculty members at Cal Poly and wanted to address the issue from an experimental perspective, unlike most traditional schools.

Originally called "the New School," SCI-Arc was based on the concept of a "college without walls." Instead of academic hierarchies, the school initially favored a horizontal relationship between professors and students who took responsibility for their own course of study. Kappe, who had founded the Cal Poly department, became the New School's first director and served in that position until 1987. He was awarded the AIA/ACSA Topaz Medal for excellence in architecture education in 1990.

Kappe was succeeded as director by Michael Rotondi, one of SCI-Arc's original students. Neil Denari became director in 1997, Eric Owen Moss served as director from 2002–2015, and Hernán Díaz Alonso served as director and chief executive officer effective from 2015-2025. On September 1, 2025, Díaz Alonso was succeeded as director and CEO by Winka Dubbeldam.

While SCI-Arc initially established a reputation as an unaccredited, experimental school, it has since been accredited. In 2011, it paid $23.1 million for its campus building.

Campus

The school has been based in three locations. The first (1972–1992) was a small industrial building in Santa Monica, and the second (1992–2000) was a larger industrial building in what would become Playa Vista, just south and east of Marina del Rey.

In 2001, it moved to its current building, the 60,000-square-foot 1907 Santa Fe Freight Depot designed by Harrison Albright on the eastern edge of Downtown Los Angeles. The building is on the National Register of Historic Places.

SCI-Arc has been awarded a $400,000 grant by ArtPlace to develop two on-campus public performance/lecture spaces, as well as development for a third public venue in the surrounding arts district. Across the street, "One Santa Fe," a 438-unit apartment complex designed by Michael Maltzan Architecture (MMA) opened in 2014.

Academics

SCI-Arc offers undergraduate and graduate degree programs accredited by the National Architectural Accrediting Board and the WASC Senior College and University Commission. These include a five-year Bachelor of Architecture program. The school also offers both a three-and a two year Masters programs with separate prerequisites.

In addition to its undergraduate and graduate programs, SCI-Arc offers four one-year postgraduate programs in fields including architectural technologies, entertainment and fiction, design of cities, and theory and pedagogy.

SCI-Arc's undergraduate and graduate programs culminate in two public events in which students present their thesis projects to critics from around the world, including Peter Cook, Greg Lynn, and Pritzker Prize recipient Thom Mayne. "SCI-Arc has long been one of this country's best experimental labs in which designers speculate about the future of the human-made environment, and its thesis projects are its calling cards."

Notable faculty

Notable faculty, current and former, include:

Notable alumni

Barbara Bestor

Shigeru Ban

Moses Hacmon

David Randall Hertz

Sue Courtenay

Wanda Dalla Costa

Jon Drezner

Jeffrey Eyster

Gordon Kipping

Ola-dele Kuku

Cara Lee

Karen M'Closkey

David Montalba

Abinadi Meza

Rocio Romero

Mimi Zeiger

Daniel Inocente