Skip To Main Content
Penn State College of Arts and Architecture
Penn State College of Arts and Architecture
Select where to search:


Architecture Studies Minor

This rich study opens doors to careers in nearly limitless fields.

Architecture spans the classical to the cutting-edge, and pursuing a minor in this rigorous discipline encourages exploration across a range of interests combining the arts and humanities with engineering, science, and technology.

Build on your major with a minor in Architecture Studies

The study of architecture is a broad endeavor combining the arts and humanities with engineering, science, and technology. It is a global study – from piazzas in Italy to rural disease spread dynamics to information networks spanning physical and virtual domains. As creative designers, architects reflect the history, philosophy, dreams, habits, and values of a culture through buildings and spaces.

Architects create responsible solutions to the needs of clients and the natural circumstances of sites. The profession spans the classical to the cutting-edge, and studying architecture encourages exploration across a range of interests, and provides flexibility to develop academic concentrations or pursue minors. The architecture studio is a laboratory in which design synthesizes history, theory, structural systems, building materials, environmental control systems, visual communications, professional practices, and systems integration.

Students' hands working on a wooden and plastic concrete casting mold.

Does this sound like you?

  • You’re fascinated by the intersection of spaces, cultures, history, and people.
  • You think deeply and love to create.
  • You’re compelled by art, technology, and the environment.
  • You like formulas and experimentation.
  • You want to impact society.
  • You are self-motivated and enjoy the balance of teamwork and working independently.
  • You honor tradition while inventing novel practices.
  • You welcome responsibility.
  • You think and act with precision.
  • You take risks.
  • You want to explore, discover, and invent.

Because, if so, the Architecture Studies minor might be a great fit!

News from A&A

Interim architecture department head to retire after 35 years at Penn State

Dan Willis, interim department head and professor of architecture in the College of Arts and Architecture’s Stuckeman School, is retiring June 30 after 35 years at Penn State.

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — A strong drive to always learn more has been one of the defining elements of Dan Willis’ career at Penn State. Willis, interim department head and


Read More

Architecture IUG student named undergraduate thesis award winner

Holly Zimmerman was named the winner of the Department of Architecture’s 2023 Paul M. Kossman Design Thesis Award for her project that focuses on designing the walls of a building
Read More

Strategic city planning can help reduce urban heat island effect

New Penn State research suggests that certain urban factors can reduce the tendency of cities to trap heat — a phenomenon called the “urban heat island."
Read More