Mary Comerio, M.Arch., M.S.W.
Professor and Chair

Spring 2008

The Department of Architecture at UC Berkeley has a strong tradition of fostering independent design thinking and research. Our award-winning faculty offer vigorous undergraduate and graduate educational programs and carry out leading research in constructed and virtual environments, architectural technologies, and architectural humanities. The multidisciplinary interests of our faculty and graduate students form the basis of exciting new research collaborations with a variety of other disciplines, including anthropology, international studies, engineering, new media, and urban studies.

Our undergraduate program, culminating in the Bachelor of Arts degree with a major in architecture, has set the standard for pre-professional architectural education for the past fifty years. We are committed to maintaining this edge, and we are reviewing and redefining what undergraduates will need in the next fifty years. Our graduate programs (the Master of Architecture and the Ph.D. in Architecture) offer professional training as well as depth and breadth within and across specialty areas, preparing our graduate students to become leaders in practice and in research. Simply put, the quality of our faculty, staff, and students help rank the Department of Architecture among the best in the nation.

This semester, I am on medical leave. In my absence, Jean-Pierre Protzen, Emeritus Professor of Architecture and two-time past department chair, serves as acting chair in addition to co-teaching ARCH 130/230 Design Theories & Methods with Associate Professor Greig Crysler. I will return as chair in the fall.

Last year, we welcomed Assistant Professor Maria Paz Gutierrez to our faculty. She completes her commitments at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute this spring and will teach at CED in the fall, contributing to design instruction in the department and developing research on new materials technologies. We have several other faculty searches under way in architectural design, digital design, and architectural history and look forward to further expanding our faculty and course offerings.

Every year, we invite distinguished visitors to teach at the college. This spring's Friedman Professor is Kevin Daly of Daly Genik Architects in Los Angeles. The Maybeck Fellow for 2007–08 is Maxi Spina. Professor Margaret Crawford of Harvard University is the Friedman Professor of Architectural History. She conducted research last fall and teaches a course this spring entitled "Rethinking Suburban History." Similarly, Professor Annmarie Adams of McGill University is our first Arcus Fellow. She also focused on research last fall is teaching a spring graduate seminar on "Sex and the Single Building."

Please take a look at our web pages, come to our lecture series, exhibitions, and studio reviews, and join us in class. We look forward to a busy and productive year.