AUD60

For sixty years, UCLA Architecture and Urban Design (UCLA AUD) has pursued a better tomorrow through design. Grounded in a culture of collaboration and experimentation, UCLA AUD is where emerging designers and a diverse community committed to creativity, rigor, and shared purpose come together to imagine new possibilities, test bold strategies, and shape the future.

As UCLA AUD celebrates its 60th anniversary in 2026, we honor the legacy of our students, faculty, and collaborators—the buildings and communities we've shaped, the innovations and policies we've pioneered, and the knowledge we've created. We also look forward with ambition and purpose, ready to design for a city and world in constant flux. AUD60 is also a celebration of Los Angeles—a city whose pioneering architecture and innovation inspire the world. What we create here echoes globally, and UCLA AUD is committed to advancing ideas that shape both our city and our world.

From January through June 2026, AUD offers a series of public programs that honor and reflect on our institution’s rich legacy.

Join us this year in Los Angeles for our AUD60 celebration:
Thursday, January 22: Public lecture by Kai-Uwe Bergmann (MArch ‘93) (5:30pm, Perloff Hall/Decafe). Thursday, March 12: Exhibition opening, “Core Samples,” curators Samaa Elimam and Michael Osman (6pm, Perloff Hall/Gallery and Courtyard). Monday, April 13: Public lecture by Mark Lee (5:30pm, Perloff Hall/Decafe). Monday, April 20 and Tuesday, April 21: Conference: “Transitioning Worlds: Designing for a World in Flux,” organizers Natasha Sandmeier, Mariana Ibañez, Kutan Ayata (Perloff Hall/Decafe). Monday, May 18: Distinguished Alumni Lecture: Hsinming Fung (MArch ‘80) (5:30 pm, Perloff Hall/Decafe). Monday, June 8 and Tuesday, June 9: Rumble 2026, “The Rumble,” organizers Hitoshi Abe, Georgina Huljich, Mohamed Sharif (Perloff Hall).

In 1966, twenty students enrolled in the newly founded UCLA Graduate School of Architecture and Urban Planning, led by Dean George Dudley and three founding faculty members: Denise Scott Brown, Henry Liu, and Peter Kamnitzer. Harvey Perloff, considered “the dean of American urban planners,” succeeded Dudley and would reshape design education at UCLA and beyond. These early years cast the institution as a beacon of design innovation and profound engagement between the academy and the world.

The department advanced these values throughout the following decades, with notable moments like the 1974 “The Whites and the Grays” conference, a series of technological advances in the 80s and 90s, and expanded cultural production throughout the past 25 years. Now, under the leadership of Chair Mariana Ibañez, UCLA AUD weaves together the voices, visions, and aspirations of its first six decades, and looks toward the decades and questions that lie ahead with hope and a profound belief in the power of design. Check out AUD's companion feature for a full look at UCLA AUD’s history.

AUD60’s six public programs celebrate this milestone through dialogue and community: lectures by luminary practitioners who studied and taught at AUD, alongside an exhibition (Core Samples) and a conference (Transitioning Worlds) that mine the institution’s past and forecast its future. Finally, Rumble 2026 offers a chance to look at it all in one place–a concentrated, supercharged celebration of UCLA AUD, a conclusion of one chapter and an invitation to the opening of the next.

“Between our history, our community, and our potential, UCLA AUD holds a fascinating role in Los Angeles, in the world, and in the history and the future of design,” says Mariana Ibañez, UCLA AUD Chair and Associate Professor. “We experiment fearlessly–with new materials, new methods of making, and new ways of thinking. This defines who we are, and offers a generous, promising blueprint for our future.”

“UCLA AUD is a community of change makers boldly imagining what the world can be," says Professor Lionel Popkin, interim dean of UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture. "A powerhouse of impactful real-world projects with research grounded in curiosity, critical thinking, and collective action—AUD has worked for 60 years to shape a better future.”

All programs are free and open to the public. Bookmark AUD’s News and Events page, and follow us on Instagram, for previews and look-backs of our AUD60 program as well as other programs and updates at UCLA AUD.