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 and concepts necessary to enter any of its spatial design fields or to pursue graduate degrees. Students work in professional offices while training in the program as well. The department offers internship courses through which, starting in junior year, students are able to gain professional experience in their choice of an architecture, interiors, landscape, or lighting design office. Students submit a resume and portfolio and complete an interview to secure the internship position.
Environmental Design alumni work in all three of the department's fields - architecture, landscape architecture, landscape design, interior architecture, and interior design - as well as subsets or associated fields such as water feature design, public art installations, set design, and lighting design.
See examples in the spotlights about selected alumni, with links to their firms' and/or graduate schools' websites below.
Paulina Benavides ('16) is a Designer in the Architecture Studio at RIOS. Prior to RIOS, Paulina was a Junior Designer with Standard Architecture.
Dolly Davis ('03) is an Associate Principal with Fluidity Design Consultants, where she designs water projects all over the world! Dolly received her Master of Architecture degree from the University of Illinois at Chicago in 2011, after only two years of study through one of the department's +2 Master of Architecture agreements. Dolly's also a licensed architect.
Matt Gilio-Tenan ('08) is Studio Principal at Cliff Garten Studio, where he's been working for almost nine years on public art installations and landscape projects. Matt received a Master of Architecture degree from the UCLA-AUD in 2011 and previously worked at Clive Wilkinson Architects.
Catherine D. Hernandez, AIA Associate, NOMA ('13) is a Job Captain at Abode Communities Architecture studio where she creates service-enhanced affordable housing and socially-beneficial community facilities that promote the social, economic and physical transformation of underserved communities. Catherine also co-organizes with Design As Protest to hold the profession accountable in reversing the violence and injustice that architecture, design, and urban planning practices have inflicted upon Black people and communities.
Patrick Ngo ('05) has been a Partner and Creative Director at DIG:A since 2015. Prior to joining DIG:A, Patrick was a Junior Architect at Diller Scofidio + Renfro for six years, working on very large projects such as the Museum of Image & Sound in Rio de Janeiro. Patrick received a Master of Architecture degree from UCLA-AUD in 2008.
Krystal Scott ('10) is a Senior Project Designer in the Interiors Studio at RIOS, where she has worked since graduating from Otis.