College of Architecture & Urban Planning

caupHistory
In June of 2001, a new college at PLM was born to help transform the City of Manila back into a vibrant, world-class tourist destination. The Buhayin ang Maynila project was able to serve as a beacon to many not only in their daily lives, but to the belief that this city 'can be great again.' This thrust on urban renewal must be sustained in the institutionalization of its programs by way of a permanent home centered on urban planning. Thus, the College of Architecture and Urban Planning was established.

The Bachelor of Science in Architecture program was first offered in the university in 1987. The basic objective of opening this unique 5-year discipline is to extend equal opportunity to economically-challenged but deserving students of Manila. Along with Fine Arts, the program was attached to the College of Engineering and Technology.

Training in the College of Architecture and Urban Planning is more like a job than school. Given this orientation, the College has earned the trust and confidence of its peers and leaders. The architecture program continues to relish in its own place within the university. The College prides itself of reaping numerous honors and citations for PLM, both in local and national arena. These achievements are the result of a strong partnership built around team spirit unique in PLM.

Vision
It will become a partner of choice as an active provider of competent industry players in today's built-environment market.

Mission
• Transforming mindsets to highly competitive outlooks.
• Create values mutually beneficial to students and the institution by providing opportunities of borderless cooperation.
• Constant adherence to excellence in professionalism, creativity, teamwork and leadership.

Governing Spirit
• Creation of an immediate evaluation platform focusing on industry-driven variables
• Establishment of a research-oriented mentorship practices highly adaptable to young but inquisitive minds
• Adoption of a consultative planning policy discernable to industry-based professionals and dynamic academic partners

Graduates do Matter
Although quite a small college, its graduates really do matter. Architecture, many would like to believe, is a career reserved only for the rich. PLM proved them wrong and until this day, the famous Intramuros refuge for Manila's poor has maintained a reputation of academic dominance and excellence in higher education. With almost 100% of its graduates passing the licensure examinations, the college plays a major role in transforming old Manila into a network of micro-communities, planning satellite activity centers in pocket parks and idle open spaces, as well as establishing a blue print of maximum tolerable dwelling patterns in congested barangays in the City.

Other placers would soon follow the likes of Architects Ricardo A. Reyes and Patrick N. Rodriguez. In the June 2005 Board Exam for Architecture, PLM was ranked 4th out of 60 architecture schools nationwide with Marc Rhojel C. Cortez placing 5th in the top ten column of successful examinees. January 2007 produced another board topnotcher in Rafael Banaag III (9th place) with 81% passing rate against a national rate of 36%.

As of October 2008, a total of 405 student spread into seventeen (17) batches, or an average of 23.8 students per year, graduated from the program. The first group of 10 graduates completed the program in 1992. Two years after (PRC requires that a graduate prior to taking a board exam has to undergo a 2-year diversified industry exposure), PLM produced its first Architect led by Architect Antonio G. Sevilla Jr. who maintains a very successful Architect's Consultancy and Construction Services Office.

Based on the records of the Professional Regulations Commision (PRC), PLM has sustained a record of consistently good performance in as far as the percentage of candidates passing the board exam. Back in 1998, Mr. Marlou B. Campaner, a 1996 graduate whose mother works as a casual employee at the Manila City Hall and whose father labors the road of the city with his tricycle topped that year's June Examination. Placing 1st among the more than 1000 examinees was a solid proof that PLM can easily dominate any arena given an equal chance. Architect Campaner is now among the leading lights in the City Planning and Development Office of the City of Manila.