Careers

The department's focus is on design, rather than craft, in order to train future designers for communication and collaboration with builders, craftsmen, and artisans working in any scale, material or technique. We provide graduates with skills necessary to enter any of its allied design fields. In addition, many A/L/I students work in professional architecture, landscape or interior design offices while training in the program. Graduates are well prepared to pursue advanced degrees such as Master of Architecture, Master of Landscape Architecture or Master of Interior Architecture, or may choose to become licensed architects through work experience and testing in California, with no additional education. A/L/I graduates receive two years credit towards the total eight years of combined education and/or practice required to sit for the Architectural Registration Exam (A.R.E.) and California Supplemental Exam (C.S.E.).

A/L/I alumni pursue careers in all three fields addressed by the department (Architecture, Landscape Architecture, Landscape Design, Interior Architecture and Interior Design), as well as specialized and associated areas of these fields including Aquatic Environment Design, Experience Design (exhibits, expos, museums, themed environments), Entertainment Design (set, production, stage/show) and Lighting Design.

A/L/I Alumni News: Boo Jang (07) has been working for Bennitt & Mitchell, an international landscape architecture firm, since 2005, when she was a junior. Izzy Lamas (07) has been working on store and showroom design since graduation, first with SPaCe Architects CA and currently with RipBang Studios, Venice, CA. Jennifer Doran (07) has been a Lighting Designer since graduation, and has been practicing with LIGHTINGDESIGNALLIANCE since 2008. Karina Silva (08) has been designing corporate interiors since junior year, at WOLCOTT ARCHITECTURE I INTERIORS, Culver City, CA. Felicia Martin (02) received a Master of Architecture degree from Yale in 2009, worked for Franciso Mangado Estudio in Pamplona, Spain from 2009 to 2012 and returned to Los Angeles to work with CO Architects. Patrick Ngo (05) received his Master of Architecture from the University of California, Los Angeles in 2008 and is working with Diller Scofidio + Renfro in New York. Jaime Roveri (07) is a Project Designer, Rottet Studio, Robert Apodaca (03) is Designer/Owner, Fifth Floor Gallery, L.A., and Mina Oh (10) is Designer/Writer/Director/Producer/Actor, KWOW, YouTube.
Gary Garcia (08) and Natalia Polunina (07) both earned Master of Landscape Architecture degrees in spring 2011: Gary from the University of Southern California and Natalia from Harvard. Dolly Davis (03) received her Master of Architecture degree from the University of Illinois at Chicago in 2011, after only two years of study through one of our +2 Master of Architecture Agreements, and is working with Fluidity Design Consultants, Inc. Los Angeles, on water design projects around the world. Several Architecture/Landscape/Interiors alumni are in their last year of Master of Architecture studies: Sam Tanis (11) at the University of Illinois at Chicago, Justin Kang (11) at the University of Southern California and Joem Sanez (10) at Columbia University, New York.

Selected employers of A/L/I alumni include:

Atelier Bow-Wow, Tokyo
Ball-Nogues Studio, Los Angeles
Ellerbe Beckett, San Francisco
Bennitt + Mitchell, Los Angeles
CO Architects, Los Angeles
Diller Scofidio + Renfro, New York
GRAFT LLC, Los Angeles
Chang Jo Architects, Seoul
Francisco Mangado and Associates, Pamplona
L I G H T I N G D E S I G N A L L I A N C E, Long Beach
Mansilla + Tuñón Arquitectos, Madrid
Richard Meier & Partners Architects LLP, Los Angeles
RIOS CLEMENTI HALE STUDIOS, Los Angeles
RipBang Studios, Venice
Rottet Studio, Los Angeles
Shubin + Donaldson Architects, Santa Barbara
Clive Wilkinson Architects, Los Angeles
WOLCOTT ARCHITECTURE | INTERIORS, Culver City