Contact: Maridith Geuder
Mississippi's only professional school of architecture is earning a renewed stamp of approval from a national accrediting agency.
The School of Architecture, established at Mississippi State University in 1973, has received a five-year reaccreditation from the National Architectural Accrediting Board.
NAAB is the only agency authorized to accredit U.S. professional degree programs in architecture, said Dean John McRae.
"Because most states require that applicants for licensure have graduated from an NAAB-accredited program, this recognition means that MSU meets strict requirements and that our students are fully prepared to become contributing members of the profession," he said.
Accreditation is awarded when programs meet standards in a dozen areas, including education, physical resources, financial resources, and student performance, among others.
Since gaining initial accreditation in 1979, Mississippi State's five-year undergraduate program has maintained its certification at each succeeding five-year review period. The school is among 112 in the United States providing professional programs in architecture.
Celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, MSU's architecture program is a national leader in integrating computers into the curriculum. In addition to being among the first to require that students have laptops, it has been at the forefront in incorporating virtual reality technology into design classes.
The school also has become widely known for the specialized work of its Small Town and Jackson Community Design centers. The former regularly involves students in providing design consultation for the state's small and medium-size municipalities. The latter contributes design concepts for urban projects such as the proposed Farish Street development in the state's capital, where the final year of study is completed.
The school's newly renovated Digital Research and Imaging Laboratory supports contract research and a graduate program in computer visualization.