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Overview of the AAA schools
Ryan Beltram | The School of Architecture & Allied Arts at the University of Oregon is a learning community of teachers and students.

Critique Week

AAA program offers students creative opportunities

The School of Architecture & Allied Arts at the University of Oregon is a learning community of teachers, students and staff. The school emphasizes teaching not only the creation of unique pieces of art but also the understanding of art through theory and history. To accomplish its mission, the school affirms a set of values that includes excellence, cooperation and responsibility. The creation of art involves risk-taking, presenting ideas, working together to understand those ideas and recognizing how the creations have an impact on society. The AAA school offers many fields of study in four departments: Arts & Administration, Historic Preservation, Interior Architecture and Product Design.

The Department of Architecture is located on campus in Lawrence Hall. In addition to architectural design, the department focuses on issues of structures and construction technology, energy-conscious design and sustainability, housing and urban design and other areas. The program offers opportunities to study abroad, such as the Rome summer program, exchange programs in Germany and summer studies in landscape architecture in Kyoto, Japan. The architecture program also offers graduate students the opportunity to study urban architecture for a term or year at the recently expanded architecture program in Portland.

The Department of Art offers courses in ceramics, fibers, jewelry, painting, printmaking, sculpture and photography. Studio facilities in the art program include black and white, color and alternative process facilities for photography; a ceramics area; computer labs and many other facilities. A sub-program in the Art Department is the Digital Arts Program. In an ever-evolving world of technology, the program focuses on the development of graphics, sound and interactivities, as well as Web art, games, animation and video. The department offers the Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Science, Bachelor of Fine Arts and Master of Fine Arts degrees in digital arts.

Artists create unique pieces of art in a variety of media

The AAA school also offers students an opportunity to study the past in the Art History Program. The department focuses on architectural traditions of Europe, the United States and Asia. The department allows students the opportunity to train through coursework and internships in the Jordan Schnitzer Museum and it offers a Certificate of Museum Studies. The art history department is the only program in the state that offers M.A. and Ph.D. degrees.

The Landscape Architecture Department focuses on local urban issues, neighborhood planning and design, ecological design and planning and many other fields related to what's going on in the community.

Planning, Public Policy and Management is a department located in Hendricks Hall. PPPM focuses on the ways governments, nonprofit organizations and other institutions address public problems. The curriculum emphasizes courses focusing on problem-solving, field-based learning and interdisciplinary study. PPPM has four programs. The undergraduate BA/BS program provides students with a basic background in fields such as planning, law, journalism and social welfare. The other three programs in PPPM are master's and other graduate programs focusing on teaching students skills to gain leadership positions in planning-related organizations and other public service positions.

Students who excel in the different programs and departments in the AAA have the opportunity to showcase their work through the LaVerne Krause Gallery. Each week of each term, have the privilege of displaying their work to the public. The gallery and student exhibits are located in Lawrence Hall and can be viewed Monday through Friday until the end of the term. The gallery was named after LaVerne Krause, a professor and member of the fine and applied arts faculty from 1966 to 1986.