Nauset Regional High School in Eastham appears to have closed its architecture program. School officials won’t say why.
Developed and taught by architect Richard Tichnor, the program was unusual among local public high schools.
Peter McMahon, founding director of the Cape Cod Modern House Trust, said he isn’t aware of any other program like it on Cape Cod. Students learned about design, drawing, and model-making directly from Tichnor, and some had the opportunity to intern with the Modern House Trust.
“It was every semester for many years,” McMahon said. “It really wetted their appetite.”
He said the trust gave its interns a small scholarship for college, and many would study architecture, engineering, or a related field.
“Old interns of mine are now at Pratt, and at UMass, and at Roger Williams,” he said. “They often really excel, because … some of those kids had, like, six semesters of architecture in high school.”
Their projects were impressive, he said.
“There was one girl — oh, my God — who made these freakishly good models,” he said. “And then she also started making furniture — kind of ambitious, large furniture.”
He said Nauset ended the architecture program at the close of the last school year. Other personnel changes happened around the same time, including the non-renewal of a drama teacher’s contract.
Then-Superintendent Brooke Clenchy was retiring at the end of the school year.
The appointment of a new superintendent, Glenn Brand, had been announced about five months prior to the changes. He did not return messages seeking comment about the closure of the architecture program.
Nauset Principal Patrick Clark would not talk about the curriculum change.
“To answer your question I would be violating our standard of not discussing personnel matters,” he said in an email. “Thank you for your understanding.”
Courses titled Architectural Design I, II, III, and IV remain listed online in the 2025-2026 Nauset Regional High School Program of Studies.
Tichnor, the architect who taught the courses, declined to comment.
