Transborder Environmental Design

The Bachelor of Science in Transborder Environmental Design degree focuses on meeting regional workforce needs by studying the unique binational region of Southern California and Baja California Norte. The program is designed to provide students with practical knowledge of architectural and environmental design, urban planning, project management, construction methods, sustainable design practices, building materials, and innovative technologies specific to the cross-border sector. The curriculum prepares students with advanced creative problem-solving and higher-order critical thinking skills, a solid understanding of construction documentation, and the technical skills necessary to successfully pursue a career in architecture, environmental design, urban planning, landscape architecture, environmental research, interior architecture, engineering, construction management, and other allied professions.  

24 Projected Annual Enrollments Completers

Southwestern College’s award-winning Architecture Program seeks to offer students a local, affordable, high-quality, and high-value baccalaureate degree. Our proposed Bachelor of Science in Transborder Environmental Design (TED) program was curated to focus on the unique impact our community and culture have on architecture and the built environment within the Southern California and Northern Baja California region while striving to help meet our cross-border workforce needs. 

The cities of San Diego and Tijuana were named World Design Capital (WDC) 2024 to represent art and design on a global scale. As an international leader in design collaboration, our region seeks innovative design solutions to tackle complex issues such as the border, climate change, pollution, and social justice. 

When declared WDC 2024, the architecture programs in San Diego and Tijuana formed a coalition, the Transborder Association of Architectural Education (TAAE), to collaborate in addressing regional design problems and educating the next generation of international architects and designers. Members include NewSchool of Architecture and Design, the University of San Diego, Woodbury University (before closing in the summer of 2024), Southwestern College, la Universidad de Xochicalco, la Universidad Iberoamericana (IBERO), el Instituto Technológico de Tijuana, la Universidad Autónoma de Baja California, and la Escuela Libre de Arquitectura. TAAE has supported Southwestern’s efforts to offer a Bachelor of Science degree in Transborder Environmental Design and has contributed to developing the program’s upper-division curriculum. 

As the only public institution of higher education offering an architecture program in South San Diego, our service area includes the communities of Chula Vista, Bonita, Imperial Beach, National City, Nestor, Otay Mesa, Palm City, San Ysidro, Sunnyside, and Coronado. In addition, due to our proximity to the US/Mexico border, many students cross daily from Tijuana, Rosarito, and Tecate to attend classes. 

San Diego Mesa College, MiraCosta College, and Palomar College also offer architecture programs; however, they do not serve the South Bay. San Diego Mesa College, located approximately 30 miles North of Southwestern College, is the second nearest public architecture program to our service area.

California Polytechnic State University, Pomona, is the southernmost public five-year professional baccalaureate architecture program. However, this institution is approximately two and a half hours away from Southwestern College’s Chula Vista campus, and it is impacted. Furthermore, approximately 57% of our architecture students are place-bound due to the high cost of living, work responsibilities, and family obligations, which affect their ability to move outside our region. A local architectural baccalaureate program would be an equitable opportunity for students to pursue a degree employers most often require. 

San Diego’s local architecture transfer institutions are private. As such, when our students transfer to any of these institutions, they can expect to pay the following:

• NewSchool of Architecture and Design [5-yr. program] | Approximate tuition for three years: $89,073.

• Woodbury University [5-yr. program] (Closed their San Diego campus in May 2024) | Approximate tuition for three years: $130,176.

• USD [4-yr. program] | Approximate tuition for two years: $111,380.

If the proposed Bachelor of Science in Transborder Environmental Design program is approved, tuition for a California Community College bachelor's degree would be capped at $10,560 for all four years. This program would be affordable for students and promote economic mobility by allowing them to attain a four-year degree without being inundated with student loan debt. 

At the Southwestern College Advisory Committee Meeting on May 17, 2023, local leaders in the architecture and design community shared that our region lacks talent. David Keitel, Former San Diego Chapter President of the American Institute of Architects and Principal Architect at Domus Studio Architecture, expressed how difficult it was to hire qualified candidates in entry-level positions with the skills necessary to begin working on a project from day one. 

The architecture faculty asked the advisory committee about their willingness to hire candidates with a four-year architectural degree versus a five-year architecture degree, and they were all in agreement that they would hire a candidate based on the skills demonstrated in their portfolio as opposed to the type of degree earned. 

They expressed the need for an architectural program that would prepare students for the profession, in addition to teaching about design, architectural theory, and how to use various visualization software. Southwestern College designed the proposed Bachelor of Science in Transborder Environmental Design with feedback from our advisory committee, TAAE, and the needs of local industry in mind. 

Regional architecture firms looking to hire entry-level draftspeople and architectural interns at the San Diego Chapter of the American Institute of Architects’ virtual job fair in 2021 also expressed frustration with the difficulty of filling these positions. Southwestern’s architecture faculty participated in AIA SD’s virtual job fair and met with several firms. Their discussions revealed that architecture firms are struggling to find candidates trained as draftspeople and architectural technicians who can work on the production side of architectural projects as soon as they begin working. 

According to the Center of Excellence, there is a supply gap of 262 jobs annually in San Diego County and 2,453 statewide for Architecture and Engineering Managers. Southwestern College’s goal is for TED to prepare students to be ready with the technical knowledge and skills needed to meet the needs of industry upon graduation. They will be ready to begin working on construction documents and specifications, help design, work on graphic representation, visualization, and model-making. Ultimately, they would have the knowledge and experience to serve in a managerial capacity as a project architect or designer. 

This information demonstrates the need to grow opportunities in the fields of architecture and environmental design and increase the number of degrees earned in our region. As stated by local design professionals:

• It is worth noting that several top Architecture companies require a bachelor's degree as a prerequisite for employment, thereby limiting the chances of many skilled individuals from joining the profession. - Oretola Thomas, Architect / Design Studio Manager - Designing Justice + Designing Spaces

• I strongly believe that the ability for SWC to provide an architectural baccalaureate degree would be a huge boon to the architectural community here in San Diego. Considering the size of the region that San Diego supports there is a lack of notable architecture programs similar to what is seen further up the coast in places like Los Angeles, the Bay Area, Portland, and Seattle. What this means is that talented people from our communities have no serious opportunities to pursue an architectural education close to home, thereby taking their creativity, ideas, and value with them elsewhere. If SWC were able to provide that opportunity to our local community, not only would it make the possibility of entering the profession more attainable and affordable for many more people, it also provides a more direct line to the growing network of firms and design companies in the area. - Chris Luna, Educator and Spatial Designer for MW Steele Group

• I can also say that from my own direct experience in the workforce that employers have a preference for candidates with the proposed degree and are willing to pay bachelor's degree holders more than those with an associate's degree. - David Hupp, Roesling Nakamura Terada Architects

• The cost for an architectural education, at a major institution, can be a potential deterrent to minority students seeking a higher education, strictly due to a lack of available resources. The opportunity to provide an education to prospective minority students at a reasonable cost will be paramount to more students of varied ethnicities being prepared to meet the coming challenges of future decades. - Michael D. Robinson, AIA | NCARB | NOMA President, San Diego Chapter of the National Organization of Minority Architects

• At CROstudio, we consistently seek individuals who are not only talented architects but also possess the ability to navigate the complexities of cross-border design and urbanism. The graduates of this program will be precisely the type of professionals we look for to join our practice. Their training in both the theoretical and practical aspects of transborder environmental design will make them highly sought after in the industry, particularly in a region as unique and complex as ours. The impact of the TED program on students and the industry will be profound, equipping them to work effectively on both sides of the border with a deep understanding and sensitivity to the transborder dynamics that influence urban planning, architecture, and government policies. - Marcel Sanchez Prieto, FAAR., USD Associate Professor, Partner CROstudio, Founding Member of TAAE/ATEA (Transborder Association of Architectural Education)

Southwestern College is the sole public institution of higher education offering an architecture program in South San Diego County. The nearest public baccalaureate program in architecture is over two hours away. There is a critical need for a local and affordable program to meet our students’ needs and the demands of industry. The labor market data for the San Diego-Imperial region highlights a substantial disparity between the projected need for architecture-related jobs and the current supply of graduates from regional colleges. The proposed Bachelor of Science in Transborder Environmental Design program is well-positioned to address this gap by contributing to a skilled workforce and meeting the region's growing demand for qualified architecture and environmental design professionals.

California Community Colleges interested in offering baccalaureate degrees must continue offering associate degrees in the same academic discipline. As such, Southwestern College’s Associate in Science, Architecture degree serves as the lower-division foundation of the proposed Bachelor of Science in Transborder Environmental Design (TED) degree program. 

Students interested in pursuing a Bachelor of Science in Transborder Environmental Design at Southwestern College must first earn their Associate in Science, Architecture degree, then apply for TED by submitting a baccalaureate program admission application and a portfolio of architectural coursework, work samples, and creative endeavors. 

Once accepted, TED students would form part of a 24-student cohort who will begin their upper-division studies during the summer semester of their third-year. They will then complete upper-division courses during the subsequent fall, winter, and spring semesters. These students are expected to graduate at the end of the spring semester of their fourth year of study. 

All courses designated as an upper-division major requirement must be completed with a minimum grade of "C" for each course in the major.