April 4, 2007 -- The University of Virginia School of Architecture was ranked first among the nation’s graduate architecture programs for sustainable design practices and principles in the eighth annual “America's Best Architecture and Design Schools” study conducted by the Design Futures Council. The graduate architecture program ranked fifth overall, and the graduate landscape architecture program ranked sixth, tied with the University of Michigan and the Rhode Island School of Design.

“This number one ranking acknowledges our innovative design curricula in both architecture and landscape architecture,” said Karen Van Lengen, the dean of the School of Architecture. “It also reflects the excellent performance by both the faculty and students in achieving this recognition.”
The survey asks professionals in the fields of engineering, design and architecture to reflect on recent graduates hired during the past five years and to consider "how prepared for real-world practice" they have been and then to indicate from which schools the best-prepared hires had graduated. The results were published in the 2007 edition of DesignIntelligence.

In a separate survey that asked deans and department chairs to name the schools that they considered to be model programs, the University's landscape architecture program tied for first place with Harvard University and Guelph University in Ontario, Canada. The same group of academics listed the graduate architecture program sixth, tied with the University of Pennsylvania. 

The Design Futures Council is a global network of design community professionals whose mission is to explore trends, changes and new opportunities in design, architecture, engineering and building technology.