diff --git a/lib/spack/spack/architecture.py b/lib/spack/spack/architecture.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..2701fab90c9e17c584b02447157d413cacbfe54e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/lib/spack/spack/architecture.py
@@ -0,0 +1,89 @@
+##############################################################################
+# Copyright (c) 2013, Lawrence Livermore National Security, LLC.
+# Produced at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
+#
+# This file is part of Spack.
+# Written by Todd Gamblin, tgamblin@llnl.gov, All rights reserved.
+# LLNL-CODE-647188
+#
+# For details, see https://github.com/llnl/spack
+# Please also see the LICENSE file for our notice and the LGPL.
+#
+# This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
+# it under the terms of the GNU General Public License (as published by
+# the Free Software Foundation) version 2.1 dated February 1999.
+#
+# This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
+# WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the IMPLIED WARRANTY OF
+# MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the terms and
+# conditions of the GNU General Public License for more details.
+#
+# You should have received a copy of the GNU Lesser General Public License
+# along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation,
+# Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA
+##############################################################################
+import os
+import re
+import platform
+
+from llnl.util.lang import memoized
+
+import spack
+import spack.error as serr
+
+
+class InvalidSysTypeError(serr.SpackError):
+    def __init__(self, sys_type):
+        super(InvalidSysTypeError, self).__init__(
+            "Invalid sys_type value for Spack: " + sys_type)
+
+
+class NoSysTypeError(serr.SpackError):
+    def __init__(self):
+        super(NoSysTypeError, self).__init__(
+            "Could not determine sys_type for this machine.")
+
+
+def get_sys_type_from_spack_globals():
+    """Return the SYS_TYPE from spack globals, or None if it isn't set."""
+    if not hasattr(spack, "sys_type"):
+        return None
+    elif hasattr(spack.sys_type, "__call__"):
+        return spack.sys_type()
+    else:
+        return spack.sys_type
+
+
+def get_sys_type_from_environment():
+    """Return $SYS_TYPE or None if it's not defined."""
+    return os.environ.get('SYS_TYPE')
+
+
+def get_sys_type_from_platform():
+    """Return the architecture from Python's platform module."""
+    sys_type = platform.system() + '-' + platform.machine()
+    sys_type = re.sub(r'[^\w-]', '_', sys_type)
+    return sys_type.lower()
+
+
+@memoized
+def sys_type():
+    """Returns a SysType for the current machine."""
+    methods = [get_sys_type_from_spack_globals,
+               get_sys_type_from_environment,
+               get_sys_type_from_platform]
+
+    # search for a method that doesn't return None
+    sys_type = None
+    for method in methods:
+        sys_type = method()
+        if sys_type: break
+
+    # Couldn't determine the sys_type for this machine.
+    if sys_type is None:
+        return "unknown_arch"
+
+    if not isinstance(sys_type, basestring):
+        raise InvalidSysTypeError(sys_type)
+
+    return sys_type
diff --git a/lib/spack/spack/util/architecture.py b/lib/spack/spack/util/architecture.py
deleted file mode 100644
index a020c74a7ac513ca7641fd27ca43521385dda0f7..0000000000000000000000000000000000000000
--- a/lib/spack/spack/util/architecture.py
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,46 +0,0 @@
-##############################################################################
-# Copyright (c) 2013, Lawrence Livermore National Security, LLC.
-# Produced at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
-#
-# This file is part of Spack.
-# Written by Todd Gamblin, tgamblin@llnl.gov, All rights reserved.
-# LLNL-CODE-647188
-#
-# For details, see https://github.com/llnl/spack
-# Please also see the LICENSE file for our notice and the LGPL.
-#
-# This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
-# it under the terms of the GNU General Public License (as published by
-# the Free Software Foundation) version 2.1 dated February 1999.
-#
-# This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
-# WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the IMPLIED WARRANTY OF
-# MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the terms and
-# conditions of the GNU General Public License for more details.
-#
-# You should have received a copy of the GNU Lesser General Public License
-# along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation,
-# Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA
-##############################################################################
-
-import sys
-
-
-def os_is_in(*args):
-    """
-    Return True if any element in the list is equal to sys.platform, False otherwise
-
-    :param args: list of names to be checked
-    :return: True or False
-    """
-    return any(map(lambda x: x == sys.platform, args))
-
-
-def os_is_not_in(*args):
-    """
-    Return True if none of the elements in the list is equal to sys.platform, False otherwise
-
-    :param args: list of names to be checked
-    :return: True or False
-    """
-    return not os_is_in(*args)