LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION

The City of San Diego provides a wonderful "classroom without walls" for students of Design Institute.

San Diego is alive with visual interest, from its gracious old missions to the bold excitement of Horton Plaza and the Gaslamp Quarter. The natural beauty of Balboa Park, the houses designed by Irving Gill, Louis Kahn's monumental Salk Institute, the Hotel del Coronado, and the vibrant colors of the buildings across the border in Mexico make San Diego an ideal city in which to live, learn and work.

Often called "America's Finest City," San Diego has an extraordinary climate. If you enjoy swimming, running, boating, surfing, hiking, biking, ballooning, windsurfing, hang-gliding, horseback riding, or just sitting on a great beach, all of these activities are available throughout the year in one of the most beautiful settings anywhere.

• Our San Diego campus is about 10 minutes from the Pacific Ocean – the beaches are beautiful and the weather is mostly sunny.

• The campus is convenient to freeways and services – downtown San Diego, Balboa Park, the San Diego Zoo, Mission Bay, La Jolla.

• Affordable housing, movies, restaurants, concerts, theater, comedy clubs, great museums and fantastic shopping are within close proximity to the campus.

• The campus includes six buildings; 30,000 sq. feet devoted exclusively to interior design - with spacious classrooms, drafting studios, computer labs (with 100 computers loaded with design and architectural software, plus advanced printers and plotters), lighting lab, sample room, student lounges, administrative offices and convenient parking.

• The library is large and comfortable and houses thousands of design books, periodicals, catalogs and audio–visual materials available for student use – and a great librarian to help you find exactly what you need.

There is no housing on campus but there are many excellent housing choices in the neighborhood. "The neighborhood" is full of college students. The campus of UCSD (University of California, San Diego) is just a few miles away. Students may arrange for their own living accommodations close to the school. Additional information about housing in the area is available through the Admissions office. This service is provided as a courtesy to students.