Undergraduate Programs

Bachelor of Arts in Urban Studies and the Built Environment

OVERVIEW

The undergraduate Bachelor of Arts in Urban Studies and the Built Environment program is a four-year liberal arts degree at the Bernard and Anne Spitzer School of Architecture. The Urban Studies and the Built Environment major is open to undergraduate students from across the City College of New York interested in studying cities and urban life.

Studying in New York City, the most populous city in the United States, majors in Urban Studies and the Built Environment will wrestle with the ethics of citymaking as they prepare to serve as stewards of our cities, drawing on their multidisciplinary education to assess and respond to changes in the urban condition.

The curriculum consists of five required courses introducing students to the general themes of the city through the lens of the built environment and exposing them to various methods of research, analysis, and communication. Each core course addresses questions of environmental impact, social justice, and the role of the built environment professions (including design and planning alongside real estate development, transportation administration, and municipal governance) in managing urban growth and neighborhood change. To complete the program, students are also required to undertake a two-semester capstone project. Throughout their studies, students will benefit from the resources and faculty of the Spitzer School of Architecture without majoring in architectural design.

Graduates of this program will be prepared to enter non-design careers in the built environment professions, including urban planning consultancies, city agencies, real estate development firms or brokerages, social service and community-based non-profits, transportation logistics companies, and business development and marketing positions within the AEC (architecture, engineering, and construction) sector.

This program will also prepare students for graduate study in the professional fields of urban planning (including at programs within CUNY) or real estate development as well as advanced graduate study at the master’s or doctoral level in urban studies, sociology, geography, or architectural history.

How to Apply

Courses

Introduction to Urban Studies

This class offers an introduction to the multidisciplinary field of urban studies. First, we define what the city is and examine how it has been studied by various disciplines. Second, we explore the material and spatial forms of cities, considering how they are organized, built, and connected to natural systems. Third, we consider the social experience of urban inhabitants, including the opportunities, challenges, and inequalities created by urban cohabitation.

Please note: Students may take IAS 22200, Introduction to Urban Studies and Planning (evening course, 4 credits at the Division for Interdisciplinary Studies, CWE) to satisfy this core requirement.

SOC 10500: Individual, Group, and Society: An Introduction to Sociology

Core: The City in History

This course offers an introduction to the history of cities through time and across cultures—from the emergence of proto-urban settlements in Anatolia some 9,000 years ago to the rise of contemporary megacities such as Lagos or Shenzhen. Throughout the semester, we will consider urban forms in their economic, social, political, and cultural contexts, exploring, among other themes, the notions of citizenship and urbanity, the relationship between urban form and urban life, the process of urbanization, and the search for the ideal city.

Core: Techniques of Urban Communication

This course helps students to develop fluency and visual literacy in multimedia communication about the built environment and to master qualitative tools of place-based analysis and representation, including interviews, video editing, photography, digital cartography, and writing for non-expert and non-academic audiences. Informed by a deep dive into the history of mutual influence between documentary media and urban discourse over the past century, this course will expose students to the history and the vanguard of storytelling techniques and philosophies. This legacy is of growing importance as the worlds of media production and design increasingly converge. From new job opportunities for design and planning professionals to new expectations for business development, community engagement, and strategic communication, today’s urbanists must be critical storytellers.

Working with data and material from coursework or original research, each student will create a multimedia documentary project about a neighborhood in New York City that includes video, photography, descriptive writing, maps, and infographics.

Prerequisites: Introduction to Urban Studies and The City in History

Core: Social Justice and the Built Environment

This seminar surveys a range of distinct yet overlapping social justice movements and investigates their relationship to urban development and the physical city. By applying global debates to local campaigns for equity in the built environment, this seminar will view New York City as a laboratory of experiments that link activism and design.

Students will be expected to develop their own positions on the context, tactics, and outcomes of various social justice movements and campaigns — and to articulate the role of the built environment professions (architecture, landscape architecture, and urban design and planning) in resisting or supporting the quest for justice and equity in the contemporary city.

Prerequisites: Introduction to Urban Studies and The City in History.

Capstone Project I

This course provides the theoretical and methodological foundation necessary for accomplishing advanced independent study research in urban studies. Each student will work with a faculty advisor and tailor their project to their interests within urban studies. Over the semester, students will formulate a detailed, cohesive, and well-researched proposal. Students will identify and refine a topic of interest, solidify a body of critically pertinent research methods and referents, and develop an intellectually engaging independent design research project. Students must meet with the Capstone advisor before the beginning of the semester and submit a 3-page written research proposal; proposals must be approved before the start of class.

Prerequisites: Social Justice and the Built Environment, and Techniques of Urban Communication

Capstone Project 2

In this course, students will synthesize their capstone project. To further tailor their project to their interests within urban studies, each student, or team of students, will continue working with their paired faculty advisor. Students will either participate in a practical, in-the-field collaborative project or will pursue individual research. A sustained individual project or thesis will be produced, allowing students to synthesize their education in urban studies. The project should be presented to, and open to the interaction of, a wide public audience.

Prerequisites: Capstone Project I

Elective 1

Elective 2

Elective 3

Elective 4

Elective 5

General Education/Pathways Core:

Fixed Core/12 Credits: English Comp 1 & 2, Math & Quantitative Reasoning, Life & Physical Sciences
Flexible Core/18 Credits: World Cultures & Global Issues- Literature, World Cultures & Global Issues- History, Creative Expression, Individual & Society, Scientific World
Additional CCNY requirements: 12 credits in CLAS College Option

Curriculum

Urban Studies Major: Course structure and student schedule:

The major will require 36 credits including:

15 credits in the core curriculum (5 courses)
15 credits of elective seminars (number of courses depends on the student’s program). **At least one of the elective seminars must fulfill the requirement for a quantitative analysis class (which can be found in various statistics classes in the departments of Economics, Sociology, or Psychology) and one in social theory / qualitative research (which can be found in Sociology, Anthropology, and Political Science.) Please see advisor for a list of current CCNY elective offerings.
6 credits of Capstone project (2 courses)

Other Important Program Information

Study Abroad

Spitzer students have several options to study abroad – over the summer session or for an entire semester. Spitzer students have a range of choices for countries to study in at the City College level and CUNY level.

CCNY Study Abroad

Global CUNY

Career Development and Job Opportunities

With over 50 years of training students in New York City, the Spitzer School and its alumni network have vast and varied connections with city agencies, firms – large and small, as well as construction companies and design firms. Students are encouraged to utilize the robust services provided by the CCNY Career & Professional Development Institute.

Athletics

CCNY is a NCAA Division III school. Some Architecture students participate in a sport while enrolled at Spitzer, but due to the rigorous nature of the program and conflicting practice & game schedules, it can be difficult to partake.

The primary goal of the City College of New York Athletic Department is to provide an environment where student-athletes can excel academically, athletically and personally. The goals and objectives in the strategic plan reflect the commitment to excellence as the Athletic Department strives to fulfill its purpose in empowering student-athletes to develop into well rounded, responsible and mature leaders. Interested students should contact the CCNY Athletics Department for more information at www.ccnyathletics.com