Message from the Dean

Dean Ellin with Larimer Square in the background

In the College of Architecture and Planning at the University of Colorado Denver, students engage directly with our vibrant city, dynamic community, and magnificent landscape.

We
Value the unique spark of each person, profession and place.
Work on real projects and make a real difference.
Focus on the big picture as well as the detail.
Embrace poetry as well as pragmatism.
Pursue elegance as well as efficiency.
Draw from intellect and intuition.
Are on site and online.
Bring humility, humor, and humanity to our work.
Celebrate modern, classical, vernacular, humanist, social scientific, technological, and ecological traditions.
And ignite evolution that enriches places for people and the planet.

Through
The Colorado Building Workshop (design-build studio), Aspen Workshop, Bixler Global Initiatives, Bixler BioDesign Studio, Imagine a Great Region, University Technical Assistance Program, Integral Studio, and other studios and workshops that engage the larger region with a focus on riverfront and downtown revitalization, green infrastructure, mobility, equity, housing for all, adaptive reuse, placemaking, creative community engagement, and much more.

Students benefit from small class sizes, dedicated faculty and staff, strong student organizations, internships and mentorships with local professionals, and our dynamic city, region, and state. Degree programs in Architecture, Planning, Landscape Architecture, Urban Design, and Historic Preservation may be combined or customized to form unique plans of study including an interdisciplinary PhD Program.

Presumably the most intelligent of the species, humans are the only ones to construct unsustainable habitats. We have in fact outsmarted ourselves, our large brains enabling us to suppress the very instincts for survival. 

That downward spiral is now reversing and CAP is on the cutting edge of recovering this buried human habitat instinct to enrich places for people and the planet.

We invite you to join us in igniting this evolution.

Nan Ellin, PhD
Dean of CAP


Ignite evolution: Design and planning for the emergent future