The program was organized around a rigorous sequence in the history and theory of architecture and an intensive design tutorial taught by the institute's fellows.

The Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies re-opened in 2003 due in a large part in the 9/11 renewal awareness in the critical impact of built form—how it is experienced, mediated, remembered and imaged—on our daily lives.

The new Institute purports that this new awakening in the power and role of architecture exposed a need for an independent, multidisciplinary think-tank, or pedagogical “free speech zone”, in which to question, provoke, debate, experiment, explore and rethink the future of the metropolis at all scales.

[1] The new institute's goal is to keep alive the improvisational spirit that made the old Institute at its apogee a mecca for young architects and critics like Peter Eisenman, Rem Koolhaas, Aldo Rossi, Charles Gwathmey, Frank Gehry, Diana Agrest, Rafael Moneo, Robert Stern, Bernard Tschumi, Michael Graves, Richard Meier, Kenneth Frampton, Manfredo Tafuri, Gandelsonas, and Vidler, among others.

While schools of architecture like Columbia University, Cooper Union, and Pratt Institute have better success at creating greater intellectual friction and stimulation than the above-mentioned private organizations, they are to a great degree hampered by the requirements of professional accreditation.