The Department of Urban Planning and Design

"Rescaling the University: Vertical Campuses and Postindustrial Urban Restructuring in Western Sydney" by Justin Cawley (MAUD '20) — Recipient of the Urban Planning and Design Thesis Prize in Urban 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 professional degree in urban planning and a post-professional degree in urban design. More
Degree Programs
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MAUD / MLAUD Master of Architecture in Urban Design / Master of Landscape Architecture in Urban Design
The program leading to the Master of Architecture in Urban Design and the Master of Landscape in Urban Design is intended for individuals who have completed a professional program in Architecture or Landscape Architecture and who have a strong interest in engaging the practice and theory of contemporary urbanism.
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MUP Master in Urban Planning
Accredited by the Planning Accreditation Board and open to students with an undergraduate degree, the two-year professional Master in Urban Planning degree program emphasizes planning to develop, preserve, and enhance the built environment. Students learn how to understand, analyze, and influence the variety of forces-social, economic, cultural, legal, political, ecological, and aesthetic, among others-shaping the built environment.
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MUP and MLA/MArch/MDES/MPA/MPP/JD/MPH Concurrent and Joint Degrees
Students in the Master in Urban Planning (MUP) program can undertake concurrent degrees with other departments at the GSD and joint degrees with certain schools outside the GSD. Concurrent and joint degree students must be in full-time residence for at least one additional year beyond the longer of the two degree programs.
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 180 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 Department of Architecture and Department of Landscape Architecture. The Department of Urban Planning and Design also draws upon the significant resources of Harvard University as a whole. The Urban Planning program administers joint degree programs with the Kennedy School, the Law School, and the School of Public Health. Students often cross-register in courses offered by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, the Business School, the Kennedy 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
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Inside Urban Planning and Design
First-ever compendium of indigenous technologies provides a powerful toolkit for climate-resilient design
The design field is at an inflection point. It must challenge its repertoire, rethink technology,…
Further Reading: Eve Blau’s Baku: Oil and Urbanism
Baku—like Dubai and other major cities flush from the oil industry—has seen an upsurge of…
Student Q&A: Steven Gu (MUP ’21)
Hometown Philadelphia, PA Undergraduate School and Major…
Work in Progress: Nan Yang’s Modern Food Supply System
Nan Yang (MLA I ’20) describes her final project for the option…
The Ugliest Building in Washington: Students navigate federal pressures and local values in rethinking FBI site
In late July 2020, Congress could not reach a compromise on a new coronavirus relief…
Student Q+A: Aeshna Prasad (MAUD ’21)
Hometown Mumbai, India Undergraduate School and Major NMIMS’s Balwant Sheth School of…
Stephen F. Gray: “We have a name for the uneven distribution of exposure and risk along racial lines, and it’s not COVID-19. It’s structural racism.”
COVID-19 is a dangerous new reality, spreading indiscriminately and without regard for skin color or…
2020 graduate Juan Reynoso bridges the worlds of public health and urban planning
Excerpted from a Harvard Gazette series of profiles showcasing some of…
Work in Progress: Sarah Fayad’s strategy for equitable distribution of affordable housing in Los Angeles
Sarah Fayad (MLAUD '20) describes her final project for the option…
Excerpt: Defining the Just City Beyond Black and White, by Toni L. Griffin
“Five years ago, the Harvard Graduate School of Design’s Just City…