In 1830, the Architecture College was established in St. Petersburg in affiliation with the Academy of Arts. In 1842, the College was merged with the College of Civil Engineers (established in 1832) into the Civil Engineering College (SU) that laid the basis for the Institute of Civil Engineers (established in 1882).

Those were the first in Russia educational institutions training specialists in civil engineering and architecture. At the Architecture College the stress was made on the architectural and artistic creativity, while the College of Civil Engineers focused on engineering and technical aspects. After the merge in 1842, both specializations were included in the general educational course. The total training lasted for six years. Of those, two final grades were dedicated to practicing in the construction mastership, architectural design, and costing. During the entire educational course, all students were engaged in drawing n less than eight hours per week. The best students were sent for internship abroad, a tradition borrowed from the Academy of Arts, where the architectural department was more focused on the artistic rather than engineering aspects of architecture. Since 1859, best graduates received the rank of engineer-architects; up to 15 students each year. Prior to the 1880s, such outstanding architects as R. B. Bernhard, A. A. Bertels, A. R. Geschwend, N.V. Dmitriev, I.S. Kitner graduated from the College.

In 1882, the SU was transformed into the Institute of Civil Engineers (IGI). By the end of the 19th century, the course of “Civil Architecture” was divided into several disciplines: “Parts of Buildings,” “Heating and Ventilation,” “Agricultural Architecture.” Gradually, the course of the “Art of Construction” was divided into two: “Geodesy” (1860) and “Construction Materials” (1896).

The type of specialists trained at the IGI stayed the same from the SU times and up until 1905. Civil engineers received fundamental training in architectural design, history of architecture, and construction technology. The interconnection of architectural and constructional disciplines provided for the universality and multifunctional capacities of future specialists. Institute graduates could work as architects, design engineers, superintendent engineers: along with the in-depth engineering training they had vast knowledge in artistic, graphic, and architectural and construction disciplines. 

In 1905, architectural specialization was introduced to graduation design projecting. The Institute started publishing illustrated albums of students’ architectural works (the most interesting designs of senior students). Those were used as study guides and facilitated popularization of architectural education. 

In 1906, a specialized architectural department was established. Prior to WWI, the number of students significantly went up; the department was extremely popular with 4-5 applicants for each student seat. A deep-rooted and efficient school, harmonically combining engineering and architectural and artistic training, got established.

In 1882 – 1918, the Institute trained over 15 hundred specialists. Among them were prominent architects G.V. Baranovsky, A.F. Bubyr, N.V. Vasilyev, A.I. Dmitriev, A.I. Zazersky, brothers V.A. and G.A. Kosyakovy, S.S. Krichinsky, A. A. Ol, M. M. Peretyatkovich. During the pre-revolutionary period, 360 institute graduates designed and constructed over two thousand buildings in St. Petersburg, one fourth of the historical St. Petersburg. Among there constructions were the Passage on Nevsky Avenue, A.V. Suvorov Museum, Kshesinskaya’s Mansion, the mosque, a grand department store on Bolshaya Konyushennaya Street. 

The construction boom in Petrograd was interrupted by the Revolution and the Civil War. However, professors and young teachers educated at the IGI before the Revolution accumulated the expertise and brought their experience and knowledge to the post-revolutionary higher education.

Since 1919, the Institute was under the supervision of the Russian People’s Commissariat of Education. It had three departments: architectural, civil engineering, and road engineering. In 1921, the Institute was transferred under administration of the Main Directorate of Professional Education. The number of students more than tripled; many “proletarian” students were accepted for studying. The educational process was complicated by frequent reforms and changing of directors. However, up to 1924, many pre-revolutionary traditions and orientation on traditional architecture were preserved.

One of young teachers, civil engineer A.S. Nikolsky led the movement for constructivism, a new trend in architecture. In the 1920-1930s, architects L. A. Ilyin, G. A. Simonov, A. S. Nikolsky and many others were implementing the new trend in practice. In Leningrad they created ensembles of Tractornaya Street, residential blocks in Novaya Derevnya (New Village), on the Tkachey Street, and others districts. Architect L.A. Ilyin developed design project of a public center of the Narvsky District (presently, Kirovsky District) and the first city master plan for Leningrad, promoting the city development to the south. Among the landmark buildings of that period was the Gorky Palace of Culture. Architects A.A. Vesnin and V.A. Vesnin took part on the all-world contest for the design project of the Palace of Soviets in Moscow. 

In the 1923/1924 academic year, the faculties were replaced by the department of architecture and civil engineering and department of engineering and sanitary. 1924 became a watershed year for the institute. The total number of students exceeded 800 people. Up to the end of the 1920s, the institute was training civil engineers, a part of which was majoring at the architectural and civil engineering department. 

In 1929/1930 academic year, the departments were transformed into faculties again, and a civil engineering and architecture faculty was established. In 1930, the architectural faculty of the Leningrad Higher Fine Art and Engineering Institute (presently, St. Petersburg Repin State Institute of Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture) was transferred to the faculty.

In the 1932/1933 academic year, the total number of specializations at the institute (then named LIIKS) was reduced to seven, among which remained the “architecture of residential and public buildings.” In the early 1933, senior students of the Moscow Communal Civil Engineering Institute’s Department of Green Civil Engineering were transferred to LIIKS and included in the composition of the faculty of architecture under the specialization of “softscape” which had remained at LIIKS only until the graduation of this group of students. 

In the 1936/1937 academic year, unified education for the three first years of studying was introduced at the architectural faculty. Specialization on residential and public buildings and urban planning started with the seventh semester.

Since 1930 to 1938, annual number of graduates amounted to 300 people or even more. In those years, N.V. Baranov, future chief architect of Leningrad and N.F. Khomutetsky, Rector of the Institute (1948-1952) graduated from the faculty. 

Faculty graduates and teachers, architects A.A. Ol, G. A. Simonov, V. A. Kamensky, S. I. Evdokimov and others played an active role in the pre-war development of major residential blocks in new Leningrad districts. Schools, kindergartens, other public buildings were erected by design projects of A. S. Nikolsky, B. R. Rubanenko, O. I. Guriev, L. M. Khidekel. Three-auditorium movie theaters “Moscow” and “Giant” were erected by architects L. M. Khidekel and A.I. Gerello and L.D. Krichevsky. Faculty graduate V.N. Semenov was the Chief Architect of Moscow. In 1932, a group of leading Soviet architects and experts under his command developed and published a “Draft Moscow City Plan”. The main concepts of the “Draft” made the basis of the First General City Plan of Moscow approved by the Government in 1935. 

The faculty was solving the challenges of training specialists of the new, socialist formation. Many names of architects and civil engineers, graduates of the faculty of that period, were broadly known not only in our country but far beyond its borders: President of the USSR Academy of Architecture V.A. Vesnin; Members of the Academy of Architecture A.A. Vesnin, A.S. Nikolsky, V.P. Semenov, N.P. Severov, creator of the DneproHPS and Moscow metro P.P. Rottert; and many other prominent architects. Pre-was graduates of the architectural faculty formed the basis of the largest design organizations of Leningrad: Lenproekt, Giprogor, Promstroyproekt, Gipromez, Giprobum, Gorproekt, etc.

By the end of the pre-war period, the Architecture Faculty was one of the four faculties of the Institute.

Since the very first months of the Great Patriotic War, professors and teachers of the faculty were working for the need of the defense of Leningrad. During the war, in the years of the siege, teachers and students remaining in Leningrad were solving problems connected with the defense of the city, preservation of architectural monuments. They created firing points, disguised buildings, sheltered historical and architectural memorials, monitored exploitation of buildings. Professors V.N. Sokolovsky, V.G. Gevirts, G.V. Nikitin, I.G. Popov, V.F. Ivanov and others made surveys of objects damaged by bombs and shells. Under the artillery bombardment, institute staff K.D. Khalturin, S.N. Davydov, O.N. Shilina, M.M. Nalimov, D. A. Kyucharyants and others took measurements of many architectural facilities. With the participation of expert architects, the issues of disguising Leningrad, its military facilities, and sheltering historical architectural and artistic monuments were solved. A.I. Gegello disguised Smolny, V.I. Pilyavsky, as the chief architect of the Admiralty, ensured its safety and conservation; N. B. Baranov led the sheltering of Leningrad monuments.

However, already during the war years, plans for the post-war restoration of Leningrad and its unique suburbs were developed under direction of N.V. Baranov and A.I. Naumov.

Quite a few teachers, students, and graduates of the faculty, as of the institute, were fighting at the fronts. Architect A. Veselovsky, a major of the Polish Army, was awarded with the top military award of the PRP: the Grunevald Cross Order. Architect students L. Zalgaller, Yu. Gordeyev, N. Novoselov were platoon commanders of a mortar battalion and got killed in May 1942 in the Volkhov front. Secretary of the Leninsky Komsomol District Committee Alexander Golubkov graduated from the Faculty of Architecture right on the eve of going to the front where he became a commissar of a guard battalion. He was killed in August 1942 nearby Stalingrad where the guardsmen defended their positions to the death.

Associate Professor N.F. Khomutetsky served as political officer of the 49th Army and made with it all the way from Moscow to the Elbe River. Major Khomutetsky was honored with three combat orders. Architect S.A. Permsky (graduate of 1939) was the commander of the artillery battery of the “Batiets” armored train. Among the artillery guns on the train was the famous gun from the “Aurora” Cruiser. 

In the post-war years, in addition to architects specializing in the design of particular buildings and facilities, the faculty started to train urban-planning architects which met the demands of the boisterously growing civil construction in the country destroyed by the war. The leading departments of the Faculty of Architecture took part in the elaboration on vital issues in the science of architecture. A major contribution to the history of architecture made professors G. G. Grimm, V. I. Pilyavsky, V. N. Tamporovsky, N. F. Khomutetsky. The faculty members published many works on architecture and town planning: A.I. Naumov, V.I. Pilyavsky, N.F. Khomutetsky, G.N. Buldakov, etc. N.V. Baranov published two capital works on urban development: “Modern Town Planning” and “The composition of the city center.” Of particular importance are the works of graduates and professors of the Faculty of V. L. Hoffman and L. A. Serk in the field of industrial architecture.

In 1946, the Committee for the Affairs of Higher Education was transformed to the Ministry of Higher Education and the Institute got under its subordination. In the late 1950s, in connection with a sharp “change in landmarks” in architecture and construction (abolishment of “architectural extravagances”), the Institute had to undergo a painful stage of restructuring the ideology of teaching, changes of educational programs, and thematic of grade projects. And first of all, it concerned the Faculty of Architecture. 

In 1954, an All-Union Congress of Builders dedicated to industrialization of the construction took place in the Kremlin. In 1955, the USSR Government adopted resolutions on the issues of construction and architecture concerning the type design practice and industrialization in the construction and abolishment of “architectural extravagances.” This led to an overall restructuring of educational plans and programs in the architectural specialization and practically of all its disciplines. The requirements of integration of the educational process with actual practices were significantly strengthened. At that time, the head of the Department of Architectural Design was the Chief City Architect V.A. Kamensky which facilitated strengthening of such integration. 

In 1957, the Institute received from the city authorities one more building located in #5 Boitsova Lane. After re-planning and reconstruction, the Faculty of Architecture moved into it in 1958. Since the early 1960s, the yearly number of graduates went up from 50 to 125, with 50 majoring in urban planning.

The 1960s were rather hard for the Institute fighting for keeping its leading positions in the architectural and civil engineering education. The Institute and the faculty succeeded in these efforts, to a big extent thanks to the fact that many of its graduates, by then already prominent engineers and architects, had been teaching at it. Among those were D.S. Goldgor, S.I. Evdokimov, I.N. Kuskov, N.N. Nadezhin.

For many years positions of the chief city architects occupied graduates of the Faculty; this shows its high authority and ranking. Since 1958, the City Chief Architect V.A. Kamensky and his deputy A.I. Naumov were heading the development of technical and economic justifications for the Master City Plan of Leningrad, and then of the Plan itself (approved in 1966). In 1971–1992, the architectural development of the city was consequently led by faculty graduates G.N. Buldakov and S.I. Sokolov. 

In 1978, all educational plans and programs were cardinally redeveloped. New aims agreed with the qualification characteristics requirements; a major attention was paid to educational research activities.

By the beginning of the 1979/1980 academic year, a new and more spacious building was built for the faculty of Architecture at #6 Krasnoarmeiskaya Street. It had dedicated group auditoriums, an exhibit hall, a sculpture shop, and well equipped department premises

The economically hard 1990s, thanks to the dedication of the “indigenous” staff and efforts of Rector Yu.P. Panibratov’s administration, the Institute and the Faculty went through without major losses. In 1993, the institute got the university status and a new name of the St. Petersburg State University of Civil Engineering and Architecture (SPbGASU). The new status stipulated strengthening of the humanitarian and fine arts cycle of disciplines which made a positive impact on the Faculty of Architecture.

Graduates of the faculty made major contributions to the post-war restoration of our and other cities in the country. In the1950s, numerous residential and public buildings and entire new districts of Leningrad were designed at the architectural shops of the Lenproject Institute; the project leaders were graduates and teachers of the faculty: A.A. Ol, A.V. Vasiliev, D.S. Goldgor, O.I. Guriev, S.I. Evdokimov, V.A. Kamensky, V F. Belov, N. M. Nazarin, G. I. Ivanov, A. P. Shcherbenk, A. P. Ivanov, V. A. Potapov.

In the 21st century, the Faculty of Architecture continued its active development. In 2012, the Department of Design of Architectural Environment was established; it was formed on the basis of the previously existing Department of Urban Planning and Urban Design.

A new structure, the Small Faculty of Architecture appeared. It was established for dissemination of information about the architectural specialization, preparation for university enrollment, and raising general public awareness regarding the theory of arts and architecture.

Presently, the teaching staff of the faculty comprises about one hundred teachers; they all have vast practical experience in architectural design and urban planning. In the composition of our teachers we have eight doctors of architecture (six professors), 44 candidates of science, one corresponding member of the Academy of Architecture, and one advisor of the Russian State Academy of Architecture and Civil Engineering Sciences. 

Altogether, more than a thousand students study at the faculty; of those, about 10% are foreign nationals (from China, Vietnam, Mali, Morocco, the Baltic countries, Tunisia, the CIS countries, etc.).

Training at the faculty is going under six Bachelor’s degree educational programs and three Master’s degree educational programs. Our students can major in such fields as “Architecture,” “Reconstruction and Restoration of Architectural Heritage,” “Design of Architectural Environment,” ‘Urban Panning,” and “Landscape Architecture.” 

The faculty has well-equipped training shops for classes in the specialty and drawing, and a unique lithography shop. It also has a state-of-the-art computer center and modern graphic application packages (AvtoCAD 2000, 3DMax, ARC+, ArchiCAD), exhibit halls and a modeling shop. The faculty provides its students with perfect opportunities for designing residential and public buildings, urban and landscape design, environmental design of various purposes. 

The Faculty of Architecture provides training in the field of architectural design and reconstruction of residential and public buildings, interiors and the urban environment, as well as the design, construction and operation of the engineering infrastructure of the city.