Del Mar College and Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi have announced a collaboration to create two Bachelor of Arts degrees available for architecture students beginning in Fall 2026. The four-year program in Science and Architecture and the five-year program in Architecture will allow students to continue their studies in Corpus Christi and prepare them to earn their licensure to practice architecture in Texas.

Passed by the Texas A&M System Board of Regents on Aug. 28, the program will be available through TAMU-CC and located at Del Mar’s Oso Creek Campus as a satellite program, along with Del Mar’s A.A. in Architecture. Faculty for upper-division classes will be provided by the university.

“I grew up here in Corpus and I wanted to be a licensed architect. I had to go to a different school somewhere else in Texas to meet that requirement. 

There was nothing around here,” said Laura Wright Bienek, director and associate professor of the Architecture and Drafting Technology program at Del Mar.

“Because it really is difficult for some students to leave their community…they have family commitments, costs, jobs…providing that avenue to help them realize their dreams is something that was really, really important to us.”

Since the start of Oso Creek Campus’s development, plans to establish an accredited architectural program have been in place. The campus was designed with large, spacious buildings and advanced facilities like 3D printers, laser engravers, and technology “which will help students lead into their higher education.” 

Such technology also prepares students for the Architect Registration Examination (ARE), a crucial exam to earn their professional license.

As the first architecture program accredited by the National Architecture Accrediting Board (NAAB) in the Coastal Bend, and the ninth in Texas, the upcoming B.A. programs will provide students with the opportunity to complete the ARE without leaving the area.

Although they will not launch until Fall 2026, 256 students are already enrolled in the architecture department, 74 of them specifically in the transfer program. All students will have the option to continue their education with TAMU-CC or transfer elsewhere, however, the enrollment rate succeeding the B.A. program’s introduction is expected to “burst at the seams very quickly.”

Interested students may get ahead of their studies in Spring 2026 with classes focused on drafting technology or in Summer 2026 with drawing and sketching classes. The B.A. programs are expected to open applications by June 2026.

“It has been my mission to try to deliver a quality, accredited architectural education here to Corpus Christi,” said Wright Bienek. “[Our students] deserve it.”