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Interest in starting an SDSU's architecture program began in 2007 when then-president David Chicoine came to SDSU from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana. Chicoine recognized the value of a strong architecture program in the academy. Jerome J. Lohr, an engineering alumnus, equally matched this interest. Lohr has had a long and successful career in engineering, education, construction and real estate development.

• In May 2009, through the coordination of Steve Erpenbach, current president and CEO of the SDSU Foundation, an Architecture Founders Group came together with Lohr and four professional South Dakota firms: Architecture Incorporated, Koch Hazard Architects, Perspective and TSP Inc. This group provided an unprecedented financial surety to see that the program got off the ground and up to full speed with very generous gifts that amounted to a primary startup fund.
• The administration of the College of Arts and Sciences (now the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences), under the leadership of then-dean Jerry Jorgensen, bore the load of working with initial program consultants, pushing a proposal through the South Dakota Board of Regents, finding the first faculty member, recruiting and advising the first crop of architecture students and supporting the program in its first year. In 2009, Jorgensen and the college administration commissioned professor Sharon Matthews, a former NAAB executive director, for consultation and an initial projection of whether and how a program at SDSU could achieve accreditation. Jorgenson asked Roger Schluntz, dean at the University of New Mexico, to review and comment on Matthews’ proposals and began aggressively consulting with the founder’s group about the future of the program. A pro forma was written and a committee formed from both the SDSU academic community and the South Dakota professional community to hire Brian Rex as the department’s first professor and department head.
• The first courses were offered in the fall semester 2010. The faculty has grown to seven full-time members, with students enrolled across all six years of the program.
• The program has become one of the most active research ones on campus and is community focused. It graduates young professionals into an underserved region.
• In August 2015, the Architecture program relocated into the Chicoine Architecture, Mathematics and Engineering Hall, further solidifying the mutual commitment between the program and the university.
• In February 2017, the professional Master of Architecture degree was formally granted a three-year term of initial accreditation by NAAB.
• In January 2019, the Master of Architecture degree received a full, eight-year accreditation term by NAAB, becoming the first professionally accredited architecture degree in the history of South Dakota. The next accreditation visit is in spring 2028.

• GOAL 1: Pursue academic excellence through innovative program development, student, engagement and a dynamic teaching and learning environment.
• GOAL 2: Engage in discovery, encourage innovation and produce architectural works that enhance the quality of life for South Dakota and the Upper Great Plains Region, while adding to the practical dialog about architecture in our nation and the world.
• GOAL 3: Broaden the impact of the program through strategic partnerships and collaborations.
• GOAL 4: Secure human and fiscal resources to provide an infrastructure that ensures high academic and scholarly achievement.
• GOAL 5: Model a culture of inclusion that values diverse perspectives and experiences.

Our long-range plan also guides a series of ongoing critical dialogs between faculty, students and the regional profession on relevant concerns, including:

• Identify targets for retention.
• Emphasize and reinforce innovative programs.
• Work with SDSU Construction and Concrete Industry Management and Interior Design to initiate the development of a post-professional graduate-level program.
• Develop means to increase Architecture scholarly output.
• Broaden reciprocal agreements with regional two-year programs.
• Engage in commercially funded explorations of building arts and trades.
• Bring together the state’s underserved communities for community-based design studies and scholarship.
• Build the endowments, scholarships and graduate assistantships.
• Study the financial needs of the program weighed against the existing funding model and course fees.
• Strategize ways to further diversify both our faculty and student population.

A planning process for continuous improvement of the program that identifies multiyear objectives within the context of the institutional and program mission and culture has been outlined in the attached document.