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Graduate School of Design
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Cambridge, MA 02138

Urban Planning and Design

Master in Urban Planning Degree Requirements 2006-2007
Harvard Graduate School of Design

 

I. INTRODUCTION


Urban planners play a central role in fostering a productive, sustainable, and equitable built environment. That built environment encompasses private and public buildings, infrastructure, and public spaces, all arrayed spatially in land-use and form-based patterns deeply affecting the quality of human experience at work, home, and play. In Harvard’s Master in Urban Planning (MUP) degree program, students learn how to plan for the development, preservation, and enhancement of this built environment. In particular, the program teaches students how to understand, analyze, and influence the variety of forces – social, economic, cultural, legal, political, ecological, aesthetic, and other forces – shaping the built environment. Students learn how to understand these forces through deep immersion in the histories and theories of urban planning and urbanism as profession and phenomenon; how to analyze these forces through intelligent application of qualitative, quantitative, and representational techniques; and how to influence these forces through creative interventions and thorough facility with laws, institutions, the economy, design, and politics.

Core courses and methods requirements provide students with fundamental knowledge and technical skills used by urban planners to generate, evaluate, and implement ideas, plans, and projects. Areas of concentration, supervised by faculty members, are pursued through groupings of elective courses within four pre-approved topical areas, or within an area specially crafted by the student and a faculty member. Studios addressing domestic and international projects allow students, individually or as members of collaborative teams, to think creatively and apply interdisciplinary problem-solving methods to planning questions. Students may choose to write a thesis in their fourth and final term. Elective courses at the Design School and elsewhere present a wide range of knowledge and skills for students to sample and master.

 

II. CURRICULUM REQUIREMENTS


A candidate will be recommended for the MUP degree upon satisfactory completion of 80 units. Four terms of full-time residence are normally required for award of the degree. Under special circumstances, students may receive permission to reduce their course loads and extend their studies over a longer period of time. Students typically take 20 units of required and elective courses each term. Lecture and seminar courses are usually four units, studios are usually eight units. Over the two years, students are required to take 28 units of Core Courses, 12 units of courses satisfying the Methods Requirement (Analytic Methods, Economic Methods, and Implementation Methods), 12 units of courses satisfying the Area of Concentration Requirement, and at least one option studio. Students complete another eight units with another studio option, an independent thesis, or elective courses. Finally, students take an additional 20 units of elective courses. At the beginning of each year, the program assigns each student an individual faculty advisor to assist in organizing intellectually their studies. Concurrent and joint degree program candidates must consult the rules governing concurrent and joint degrees for information on residency and other program requirements.

The curriculum for the MUP degree may be understood as having six components:

1. Core Course Requirement (28 units)

Students must take the following courses:

First Term

  • GSD 1121: Elements of Urban Planning (12 units)
  • GSD 5101: Histories and Theories of Urban Interventions (4 units)
  • GSD 5103: Public and Private Development (4 units)

Second Term

  • GSD 1122: Urban Planning Studio (8 units)

Students may not obtain exemptions from any core course requirement.

2. Methods Requirement (12 units)

Students must take four units of courses satisfying each of the three Methods Requirements, for a total of 12 units:

  • Analytic Methods
  • Course:
  • GSD 5214: Analytic Methods of Urban Planning (4 units)
  • Alternate course approved by faculty advisor and program director

  • Economic Methods
  • Course:
  • GSD 5203: Markets and Market Failure (4 units)
  • Alternate course approved by faculty advisor and program director

  • Implementation Methods
  • Course:
  • GSD 5206: Planning and Environmental Law (4 units)
  • GSD 5201: Urban Politics and Land-Use Policy (4 units)
  • Alternate course approved by faculty advisor and program director

 

Students seeking to take an alternate course to satisfy a Methods Requirement must file a Petition to Substitute Alternate Course Satisfying Methods Requirement form. Students seeking to exempt themselves fully from a Methods Requirement must file a Petition to Exempt from Methods Requirement form. In order to exempt themselves from a Methods Requirement, students must pass an exemption exam administered by the urban planning program at the beginning of the fall term. It is the student’s responsibility to pursue an exemption in a timely manner.

3. Declaration of Area of Concentration Requirement (12 units)

Students must declare an Area of Concentration, satisfied by 12 units of elective courses, at the beginning of their third term. The purpose of the Area of Concentration requirement is to encourage students to delve more deeply into a specific subject area of urban planning through a grouping of courses that together provide such depth. The four pre-approved Areas of Concentration have concentration advisors who prepare course lists and otherwise guide students in selecting appropriate courses and acquiring knowledge within their Area of Concentration. The four pre-approved Areas of Concentration are:


Students who wish to formulate their own individualized Area of Concentration instead of selecting one of the four pre-approved Areas of Concentration must prepare a description of their individualized area, secure the agreement of a faculty member to serve as the student’s individualized concentration advisor, and obtain the approval of the MUP program director. In the past, individualized areas of concentration have included such areas as environmental planning, regulations and the built environment, and planning in developing countries. Core courses, methods requirement courses, studios, and independent thesis may not be used to satisfy the Area of Concentration Requirement. All students must submit a Declaration of Area of Concentration form to the MUP program office at the beginning of their third term, not later than the date their study card is due.

4. Studio Options (8 to 16 units)

In addition to the two core first-year studios of GSD 1121: Elements of Urban Planning and GSD 1122: Urban Planning Studio, students are required to enter the school-wide lottery and take at least one studio option offered by any department of the school (UPD, Architecture, or Landscape Architecture) in either their third or fourth term. For the other term, a student may take another studio or elective courses or the independent thesis (in the fourth term). To take elective courses instead of a studio option, the student must have obtained a grade of pass or above in a previous studio. All students must file a Petition to Select Studio Option or Elective Courses form no later than the first Monday in May of their second term.

5. Independent Thesis (8 units, plus 4 units for course on preparation of thesis proposal)

Students may undertake an independent thesis (8 units) during their fourth and final term. A prerequisite to the independent thesis is successful completion of GSD 9204: Preparation of Thesis Proposal (4 units), as well as agreement by a faculty member to serve as thesis advisor and approval of the student’s faculty advisor. Students must file a Petition to Complete Independent Thesis form preliminarily suggesting their intentions not later than the first Monday in May of their second term. A final Petition to Complete Independent Thesis form must be submitted at the end of the student’s third term following successful completion of GSD 9204: Preparation of Thesis Proposal, singed again by the proposed thesis advisor and the student’s faculty advisor.

6. Elective Courses (12 to 20 units)

Students take elective courses offered by the Design School, other Harvard schools, and MIT to advance their specific intellectual interests as well as to satisfy their Area of Concentration. Note that core courses, methods requirement courses, studios, and independent thesis are never considered elective courses. Elective courses complete the 80 units of total credit required for the MUP degree.

 

III. CURRICULUM SCHEDULE


The following schedule must be followed over the two-year program:

First Term
GSD 1121 12 units Elements of Urban Planning Studio
GSD 5101 4 units Histories and Theories of Urban Interventions
GSD 5103 4 units Public and Private Development

Second Term
GSD 1211 8 units Urban Planning Studio
12 units: Courses satisfying Methods Requirement, Area of Concentration Requirement, and/or electives

Third Term
8 units: Studio Option* or elective courses
12 units: Courses satisfying Methods Requirement, Area of Concentration Requirement, and/or electives

Fourth Term
8 units: Studio Option* or GSD 9302: Independent Thesis or elective courses
12 units: Courses satisfying Methods Requirement, Area of Concentration Requirement, and/or electives

*Students who have obtained a grade of pass or above in a studio may take elective courses in lieu of a studio option in either their third or fourth term. Students in their fourth and final term may complete an independent thesis (8 units) in lieu of a studio option upon successful completion, during their third term, of GSD 9204: Preparation of Thesis Proposal and the receipt of necessary approvals.

 

IV. ADMINISTRATIVE FORMS


In order to make administration of the MUP degree program requirements easier and more transparent for students, faculty, and staff, students must use the following five forms, appended below, to avail themselves of various options and to document fulfillment of degree requirements:

________________________________________________________________________

Jerold S. Kayden
Co-Chair, Department of Urban Planning and Design
Director, Master in Urban Planning Degree Program

Prepared by Jerold Kayden, 8/06