San Francisco Institute of Architecture
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The San Francisco Institute of Architecture (SFIA) was founded in 1991 by Fred A. Stitt. The initial goal was to systematically redesign architecture education and test the results. The school was co founded by Lou Marines, recent CEO of the national American Institute of Architects. A year later Marines separated from SFIA to pursue continuing education professional development programs.
From the opening semester of one class and 12 students, SFIA grew to a full 15 class semester program and an average of 60 students per semester. Fees we're kept low to help students avoid debt, but this slowed down progress of school acceptance and accreditation.
Despite lack of accreditation, graduates of SFIA have gone on to teach at other schools, become licensed architects, and enter the profession in a variety of roles from contractors and developers to green building consultants and administrators to such agencies as the San Francisco Department of the Environment.
In 2004 SFIA began to offer distance learning courses for students around the world.
In October 2007 SFIA relocated to Berkeley, California. Fred plans to spin off SFIA programs as franchises in other cities. Since other architecture schools are slow to adapt and adopt green building into their curricula, SFIA will provide alternative education that is much desired by students and the profession at large.
