🎓Open to students who hold a professional degree in architecture or landscape architecture; exceptions possible.
The Master of Urban Planning in Urban Design program at Spitzer is a three-semester, design lab-based program for students interested in taking on the challenges of a rapidly urbanizing world.
The program’s interdisciplinary curriculum integrates design, research, ecological thinking, and infrastructure planning — equipping students with the technical expertise, vision, and leadership skills required to plan complex urban systems. Through collaborative design research with other Spitzer programs and centers, as well as partnerships with public and private institutions, students tackle projects that address topics such as environmental concerns and the evolving role of technology.
Graduates emerge as leaders in urban design and architectural firms, government planning agencies, policy-focused nonprofits, and academia.
Detailed information on course structure, schedule, and requirements:
Per-semester course load: 15 credits
Fall Term 1
UD 61001: Urban Design Lab I - 6 credits
This course constitutes the first half of a year-long design research lab. Organized around a series of lectures and design workshops, the course will develop research agendas to analyze and catalyze imaginative urban studies. The course will also provide students with critical tools to examine social, environmental, and technological concerns in design processes. These include but are not limited to geospatial mapping, environmental simulations and planning, urban anthropology, and economic and data analysis.
Corequisite: UD 61100
UD 61100: Urban Design Seminar I - 3 credits
This course constitutes the first half of a year-long design seminar. The seminar provides opportunities to develop in-depth competency in topics that support and broaden the design curriculum; it complements Design Lab I through seminar-style learning and/or digital lab coursework.
Corequisite: UD 61001
UD 61510: Topics in Urban Histories and Theories - 3 credits
Courses offered under this rubric will introduce students to the study of cities and built environments through time and across cultures. Exploring urbanism in a variety of geographical and historical contexts, students will critically probe issues of design, technology, ecology, planning, and socially situated practices in their relation to broader historical and environmental frameworks.
UD 61520: Topics in Urban Ecologies and Technologies - 3 credits
Courses offer under this rubric productively tap into expertise such as infrastructural engineering, environmental planning, urban ecology, big data technology, and digital protocols to gain competency and insight into the forces that are fundamentally reshaping our built environments. The aim is to research, model, analyze, simulate and/or manage key urban ecological and technological concerns.
Spring Term 2
UD 62001: Urban Design Lab II - 6 credits
This course constitutes the second half of a year-long design research lab. The course expands on the research agendas developed in Design Lab I while deepening the understanding of social, environmental, and technological concerns in design processes. Tools used include but are not limited to geospatial mapping, environmental simulations and planning, urban anthropology, and economic and data analysis.
Prerequisites: UD 61001, UD 61100
Corequisite: UD 62100
UD 62100: Urban Design Seminar II - 3 credits
This course constitutes the second half of a year-long design seminar. The seminar provides opportunities to develop in-depth competency in topics that support and broaden the design curriculum; it complements Design Lab II through seminar-style learning and/or digital lab coursework.
Prerequisites: UD 61001, UD 61100
Corequisite: UD 62001
UD 61530: Topics in Socially Situated Practices - 3 credits
Courses offered under this rubric redefine the objectives and scope of urban design by foregrounding racial, social, and environmental justice as primary drivers and areas of enquiry. Emergent protocols and concerns from spatio-social practices, urban anthropology, sociology, and public health afford students a new agency for working with underserved communities and collectives, allowing them to question and radically reimagine urban power structures.
UD 61510: Topics in Urban Histories and Theories - 3 credits
Courses offered under this rubric will introduce students to the study of cities and built environments through time and across cultures. Exploring urbanism in a variety of geographical and historical contexts, students will critically probe issues of design, technology, ecology, planning, and socially situated practices in their relation to broader historical and environmental frameworks.
Fall Term 3
UD 73000: Urban Design Lab III / Capstone - 6 credits
This course constitutes the third design research lab and will act as a capstone project for students to deploy agendas, competencies, strategies, and methods developed in the first year of the program. The capstone project will allow students to carry out faculty-guided or independent research — subject to approval — in urbanism as it relates to a wide range of concerns, including social and environmental justice, technology, and infrastructure.
Prerequisites: UD 62001, UD 62100
Corequisite: UD 73100
UD 73100: Urban Design Seminar III / Capstone - 3 credits
This course constitutes the third design seminar. The seminar provides opportunities to develop in-depth competency in topics that support and broaden the design curriculum; it complements Design Lab III / Capstone seminar-style learning and/or digital lab coursework.
Prerequisites: UD 62001, UD 62100
Corequisite: UD 73000
UD 61520: Topics in Urban Ecologies and Technologies - 3 credits
Courses offer under this rubric productively tap into expertise such as infrastructural engineering, environmental planning, urban ecology, big data technology, and digital protocols to gain competency and insight into the forces that are fundamentally reshaping our built environments. The aim is to research, model, analyze, simulate and/or manage key urban ecological and technological concerns.
Urbanism Elective - 3 credits
Students will choose a relevant course from a list of electives curated by faculty, drawing from offerings within and beyond the Spitzer School.
