Professor Charles P. Graves joined the Civil Engineering faculty in 1958 charged with converting the architectural option to a professional degree program.
As the college's enrollment increased it moved to temporary off-campus quarters in the Reynolds Building, an old tobacco warehouse.
Prior to coming to UK Dean Eardley served as a professor at the Architectural Association, London, England, Princeton, and The Cooper Union.
He had served as Associate director of Education, IAUS, as a visiting critic at Harvard University, and is a partner of the firm of Chan and Mohney Architecture.
Speaks also heads Big Soft Orange, a Dutch-American urban research group based in Rotterdam and Los Angeles.
In 2018 the university announced plans to renovate the Reynolds Building and consolidate the College of Design at the former tobacco warehouse.
Ann Whiteside-Dickson, former director of the University of Kentucky School of Interior Design, served as interim dean until 2015.