ARCHITECTURE

1932
developments in the field
Office of Education for US Department of Interior
survey indicates 62 colleges and universities offer
one or more courses in real estate. By 1936 this number
rises to 73. 11
ond phase of the course was added, that of brokerage
practice, and a practical real estate broker or operator
augmented the legal theory with business practice.
Prior to 1920 the instruction for the most part was either
non-academic or juristic.” 16
1933
1934
1936
1938
Homer Hoyt publishes One Hundred Years of Land
Values in Chicago. Later Hoyt joins the Federal Housing
Administration (FHA). 12
FHA mortgage insurance program begins. This and
other forms of federal aid transform real estate financing
and make older real estate textbooks inadequate.
[See HH: 1939]
Urban Land Institute founded. 13
real estate education
Richard Ely, Northwestern University, in his autobiography:
“Throughout all recorded history, the relation
of the people to land has been an important factor
in civilization. Land is the original source of wealth;
the earth is utilized to supply us with food, clothing,
shelter, recreation, and culture. The field of land economics
reaches the end of the earth and to the minutest
detail of economic interest.” 14
1950s
1954
developments in the field
Architecture schools at University of Michigan, University
of Southern California, and Cornell begin
training urban planners and architects jointly in studios
that are co-taught by an architect, a city planner,
and an economist. 17 While Arthur Weimer is head
of the department, Indiana University produces the
largest number of real estate doctorates and faculty
in the U.S.
Through its Program in Economic Development
and Administration, the Ford Foundation begins a
project to reform business education in the United
States. James E. Howell, a Ford consultant, believes
that business programs enroll too many under-qualified
students with faculties dominated by
individuals who resist economic analysis and other
social-science methods. These reports also recommended
that courses in “minor” fields including real
estate be reduced. 18
1945
1946
developments in the field
Increased enrollment in business schools after
World War II. This leads to strong demand for faculty
as well as an interest in rectifying perceived weaknesses
in American business education. 15 University
of Florida develops a separate real estate division
within its business school.
real estate education
Daniel D. Gage, University of Oregon: “Actually [real
estate] represents not a new vocation but a reallocation
of functions previously performed by other occupational
groups on a part-time basis. . . . Naturally the
pioneer sponsors of courses in realty were confronted
with the problem of securing competent instructors
and textbooks. In the earlier period it was felt that
real estate was pretty much legal in nature, therefore
courses hinged about problems of conveyance . . . A sec-
1956
1960s
1961
real estate education
Art Weimer, dean of the Indiana University School of
Business: “Typically, courses in real estate are taught
either from the point of view of land economics or from
the standpoint of the real estate business itself. It is
contended here that a more appropriate approach to
the teaching of real estate courses is that of the business
manager or administrator.” 19
developments in the field
Universities including University of Texas, University
of Pennsylvania, Penn State, University of Illinois,
and UCLA begin offering doctoral programs with a
concentration in real estate in their business schools.
real estate education
Richard Ratcliff, University of Wisconsin: “It is the
thesis of this essay that urban land economics as a sub-
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