Welcome to the Department of Urban Planning and Design

Welcome to the Department of Urban Planning and Design. It was at Harvard University that the first formal North American programs in city and regional planning (1923) and urban design (1960) were established. Since then, Harvard has played a leading role in the education of urban planners and urban designers.

The Department of Urban Planning and Design is home to both professions, offering a first professional degree in urban planning and a post-professional degree in urban design. Composed of internationally experienced scholars and practitioners, the department's faculty explores the built environment from diverse disciplinary backgrounds and points of view. The department's pedagogically innovative combination of interdisciplinary studios, lecture courses, seminars, and independent study, coupled with a relatively small student size of roughly 100 individuals drawn from around the world, creates an intimate, engaged educational atmosphere in which students thrive and learn.

Students take full advantage of the curricular and extracurricular offerings of the GSD's other departments of landscape architecture and architecture. The Department also draws upon the significant resources of Harvard University as a whole. Two professorships are shared with the Kennedy School of Government and the Urban Planning program administers a joint degree program with the Law School and the Kennedy School. Students often cross-register in courses offered by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, the Kennedy School, the Business School, the Law School, and the School of Public Health. Students also cross-register in courses offered by the neighboring Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Rahul Mehrotra, Chair of the Department of Urban Planning and Design

Check out the Official Urban Planning and Design Facebook Page.