The emphasis in History of Architecture and Urbanism is concerned with the evolution of the entire cultural landscape, including the work of architects, landscape architects and planners, but also with builders, craftspeople, and the ordinary men and women who create the human environment. The study of architectural history continually incorporates new research and methods derived from its essential links to other humanistic, social scientific, and technical disciplines, consequently our program values ties with disciplines that have remained, by and large, outside the purview of architectural history.

Programs of course work will be developed on an individual basis through consultation between the student and his or her advisor. In general, each student will be expected to demonstrate competence in a wide range of architectural history and cultural landscape, together with mastery of a field of specialization. The minors that each student develops by working with faculty in such departments as Geography, Anthropology, History, Art History, Political Science, Sociology, English, or City and Regional Planning and in the area studies programs are key elements of architectural history education at Berkeley.