School of Architecture and Planning Records

On June 17, 1946, Chancellor Caleb F. Gates sent a memorandum to the Board of Trustees recommending that a School of Architecture and Planning be established in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Denver Civic Center Campus. Provisions for additional drafting space were made in Rodney Curtis Hall, the Monroe Hotel located at 230 15th Street, and in the workshop of Clayton Plumbing Company.

The justification advanced for the establishment of such a school was the lack of any school of architecture between Lincoln, Nebraska and the West Coast. Further, such a school at the University of Denver could draw upon its existing faculty.

The Faculty of Arts and Sciences would be combined with the School of Business Administration and the School of Engineering to serve in this capacity. Accrediting requirements were explored in some detail in 1951, but the decision for accreditation was postponed for one year. A Bachelor's Degree in Architecture and Planning in the College of Arts and Sciences was proposed. The 1947 to 1950 brochures outlined a 5-year basic curriculum. After two years of operation, the director submitted a revision for the last three years of the training program and submitted it to Dean James E. Perdue on January 30, 1948. The revision was a rearrangement of the sequence of courses. Relationships of additional curricular studies in other areas of the University were stipulated for Engineering, Business Administration and Law, Arts and Sciences, and the Library.

The Director of the School was Professor Carl Feiss and Leonard Currie was temporarily designated as Assistant to the Director and Assistant Professor. Joseph Shelley was designated as instructor. In the 1950 Report, Professor Vance Kirkland is listed as Director (administration only). Other faculty listed are: Eugene Steinberg, Associate Professor; Howard Miller, Assistant Professor; and Victor Horbein, Instructor.

A Professional Advisory Committee of eight men was appointed. The initial recommendation to the Board of Trustees outlined a tentative basic curriculum of three quarters and a recommended budget. Members of the Advisory Committee consisted of practicing architects, planners and the builders. They were: Paul Atchison, Alan Fisher, Burnham Hoyt, Irvin McCrary, G. Meredith Musick, Thomas Moore, Earl Morris and Lyle Webber.

The graduation of June 10, 1952 had 16 students who had been cleared for the Bachelor of Arts degree, with a major in Architecture. Seven students were granted a Bachelor of Architecture and Planning.

The December 17, 1951 report by J. M. Shelley states that the basic aims of the school had still not been accomplished. He believed that outside subsidy was justified; that private practice by members should be approved; and he emphasized the need for a full-time permanent Director.

In 1952, the School of Architecture and Planning at the University of Denver was discontinued, having graduated less than 100 students. The probable cause was competition from the newly established School of Architecture in the College of Engineering at the University of Colorado. The University of Denver, a private school and dependent upon outside subsidies, apparently felt it could not successfully compete with a large state-supported program. Furthermore, two schools of architecture, so close geographically, were not warranted.