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Urban Planning Personal Statement Examples

  • 1 Personal Statement Example Links
  • 2 Career Opportunities
  • 3 UK Earnings Potential For Urban Planners
  • 4 Similar Courses in UK
  • 5 UK Curriculum
  • 6 Notable Alumni in Urban Planning

Personal Statement Example Links

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Ever been fascinated by the intricacies of designing and managing urban spaces? Inspired by the idea of shaping the future of cities, creating sustainable and liveable environments?

If so, a degree in Urban Planning could be your ideal journey. This multidisciplinary field equips you with the knowledge and skills to understand urban growth, plan for its impacts, and design urban spaces that enhance community and environmental wellbeing.

This exciting profession offers the unique opportunity to shape the future of cities and communities across the UK.

Urban planners work collaboratively with architects, engineers, and local authorities to create sustainable and vibrant urban spaces that cater to the diverse needs of their residents.

By pursuing a degree in urban planning or a related field, you’ll develop essential skills in spatial analysis, policy development, and problem-solving. As an urban planner, you’ll have a direct impact on the lives of millions, from designing public spaces and transport networks to ensuring access to essential services and green spaces.

If you’re passionate about making a difference and have a keen interest in creating liveable, inclusive, and environmentally conscious cities, a career in urban planning could be the perfect fit for you.

👍 When writing a personal statement : Highlight your passion for the course, demonstrating your understanding of it. Use relevant personal experiences, coursework, or work history to showcase how these have fostered your interest and readiness for the course.

Career Opportunities

A degree in urban planning can lead to a variety of different career opportunities. Those with a degree in urban planning can pursue careers in government, private industry, and nonprofit organizations.

In government, urban planners can work for local, state, and federal agencies. These jobs may involve developing and implementing plans for urban development, zoning and land use, transportation, and housing. They may also be involved in urban renewal, historic preservation, and environmental protection.

In the private sector, urban planners can work for architecture and engineering firms, real estate development companies, and consulting firms. They may be involved in developing plans for new developments, analyzing the economic impact of proposed projects, and preparing reports and presentations for clients.

Urban planners can also pursue careers in nonprofit organisations. They may work for organisations that focus on affordable housing, community development, and environmental protection. They may also be involved in research, policy analysis, and advocacy.

Urban planners can also find employment in the academic sector. They may work as professors or researchers at universities, colleges, and research institutes. They may also be involved in teaching, research, and public outreach.

Finally, urban planners can pursue careers in the media and communications industries. They may be involved in writing and editing publications, producing documentaries, and creating websites and other digital media. They may also be involved in public relations, marketing, and advertising.

UK Earnings Potential For Urban Planners

The average earnings for someone with a degree in urban planning vary depending on the country, region, and type of job. In the United Kingdom, the average salary for a qualified urban planner is around £45,000 per year. However, salaries can range from £25,000 to £70,000 depending on the experience and qualifications of the individual.

In terms of trends in the job market, there has been an increase in demand for urban planners over the past few years. This is due to the growing need for planning services in the UK, as well as the increased focus on sustainability and green infrastructure. Additionally, the development of smart cities has created a need for urban planners to help create and manage these projects. As a result, job opportunities for urban planners are expected to continue to grow in the near future.

Similar Courses in UK

Applicants interested in urban planning might also consider the following UK courses or careers, which share similarities in terms of subject matter or skillsets:

  • Architecture: Architecture focuses on the design of individual buildings and structures, often working in collaboration with urban planners. A degree in architecture can lead to a career as a licensed architect or other roles within the construction and design industries.
  • Landscape Architecture: Landscape architecture is concerned with the design and planning of outdoor spaces, such as parks, gardens, and urban green spaces. Graduates may work as landscape architects or in related fields, such as environmental planning or public space management.
  • Geography: Geography degrees can cover both human and physical aspects of the discipline, including urban development, environmental management, and spatial analysis. Careers in geography include roles in environmental consulting, cartography, GIS, and policy development.
  • Civil Engineering: Civil engineers design and manage the construction of infrastructure projects, such as roads, bridges, and public utilities. A degree in civil engineering can lead to a career as a civil engineer, project manager, or consultant.
  • Transportation Planning: Transportation planning focuses on the design and management of transportation systems within urban and regional areas. Graduates may work as transportation planners, traffic engineers, or consultants in public and private sectors.
  • Urban Design: Urban design is an interdisciplinary field that focuses on the physical layout, appearance, and functionality of urban spaces. A degree in urban design can lead to careers in urban design consulting, development planning, and regeneration projects.
  • Real Estate and Property Management: These degrees focus on property valuation, development, and management within the urban context. Graduates may pursue careers in real estate development, property management, or real estate consultancy.
  • Environmental Planning: Environmental planning degrees explore the intersection of urban development and environmental sustainability. Graduates may work in environmental consulting, policy development, or land use planning roles.
  • Regional and Town Planning: This field covers broader aspects of planning and development, such as land use, transportation, and housing policy. Graduates may work as town or regional planners, policy analysts, or development consultants.
  • Sustainable Development: Sustainable development degrees emphasize the integration of social, economic, and environmental aspects of urban planning. Graduates may pursue careers in sustainability consulting, environmental policy, or community development.

UK Curriculum

The key topics and modules covered in an urban planning course typically include:

  • Planning Theory and Practise: This module covers the principles and theories of urban planning, including topics such as urban form, land use, infrastructure, and sustainability. It also includes an introduction to the legal and administrative aspects of urban planning.
  • Urban Design: This module focuses on the physical design of cities, including topics such as urban morphology, public space, and transportation systems. It also covers the principles of urban design, including the use of technology, materials, and public engagement.
  • Planning History and Politics: This module covers the history of urban planning, including the development of urban planning theory and practise. It also looks at the political context of urban planning, including the role of public policy and the influence of stakeholders.
  • Research Methods: This module covers the methods used to collect and analyze data for urban planning. It includes topics such as survey design, data analysis, and geographic information systems.
  • Professional Practise: This module focuses on the practical aspects of urban planning, including topics such as project management, public engagement, and communication. It also covers the ethical and legal considerations of urban planning.

In addition to the key topics and modules, urban planning courses may also include hands-on experience or practical work. This could include field trips to observe urban planning in action, group projects to develop plans for a particular site, or intern.

Notable Alumni in Urban Planning

Here are three notable alumni who obtained a degree in Urban Planning:

  • Janette Sadik-Khan – She is a former commissioner of the New York City Department of Transportation (2007-2013) and a principal with Bloomberg Associates. Known for her work in promoting pedestrian and cyclist safety, Sadik-Khan earned her Bachelor’s degree from Occidental College and a J.D. from Columbia Law School, but she also holds a Master’s degree in Urban Planning from Columbia University.
  • Mitchell Silver – Commissioner of the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, Silver is an award-winning planner known for his work in creating equitable and sustainable cities. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Architecture from Pratt Institute and a Master’s degree in Urban Planning from Hunter College.
  • Brent Toderian – He served as Chief Planner for Vancouver, Canada, from 2006 to 2012. Toderian is globally recognized for his innovative work in urban planning and urban design, including his influential role in the creation of the EcoDensity initiative. He studied Environmental Science and Urban Planning at the University of Waterloo in Canada.

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Urban and regional planning personal statements

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On this page you'll find a collection of real personal statements written by students applying to study urban and regional planning and related courses at university.

These personal statements are written by real students - don't expect them all to be perfect! But by reading through a few of these samples, you'll be able to get some ideas and inspiration for your own personal statement. 

Urban and regional planning personal statement examples

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Real Estate Personal Statement

The catalyst of my desire to study Real Estate stems from a young age: when walking around the cobbled streets of Moray Place in Edinburgh's New Town, I was left with a simple question: "why was this street so different to the rest of the New Town?". A few years later, an answer appeared on a BBC programme 'The Secret History of Our Streets': it explained the social change in Edinburgh at the time and that the upper-middle classes wanted to move away from the highly polluted Old Town to the modern and cleaner New Town. The Earl of Moray decided to create the largest Georgian Terrace in Europe, Moray Place. For me, learning that there was so much more to this one street really stirred up a personal interest in the world of Property and Real Estate.

Following on from that, I started looking at property prices around Edinburgh by using Rightmove and subscribing to The Property Hub, receiving three issues a year since early 2016. This was not enough, however, and I wanted to see how a real estate agency operates away from my local city. I was lucky enough to secure a week of work experience at Wetherell's and Carter Jonas in Mayfair, London. In this week, I was taken aback by the complexity of it all, learning legal processes, seeing how changing political climates affect property, and more. During my time at Wetherell's, I was shown a legal process called 'Know Your Customer', which must be used before the purchasing of any property in the UK. This process is used to firstly identify the customer's legitimacy, to avoid money laundering schemes, and to make sure there has been no suspicious behaviour in the past. This Real Estate Law is a part of the course that I find particularly interesting. During my time in London, I independently organised a session with a real estate agent at Knight Frank. I had done some research prior to the session and asked if I could be given an introduction to LonRes, the property data network used by some of the most established real estate companies in the United Kingdom. I was shown how to use the data network, and even helped gather data for a client on the average price per square foot in the area where she was wishing to purchase property. I also learned that the sales process is often a collaborative process, and that many agencies in London and across the UK work together and share data to assist one another.

Taking Geography and Politics for A Level has given me a firm base to study my chosen degree: I have studied housing deprivation and the need for more housing development projects in deprived areas of the UK in Geography coursework, whilst in Government and Politics I have strengthened my knowledge on both the political framework and current political climate in the United Kingdom. Classical Civilisation has given me essential essay writing skills which will be invaluable at university. Outside of school, I had two part-time jobs over the summer: picking 'wild oats' on a farm and working in an engineering factory. Both jobs required good time keeping, enthusiasm and the ability to work in a team. I believe these skills are some of the qualities needed to be successful at university, and would certainly be applicable to my chosen career path. This academic year, I was appointed to the role of School Prefect, giving me responsibilities in supervising and guiding younger members of the school. I am also the anti-bullying representative for my house, a role which requires patience and pastoral skills. I am a keen sportsman and have represented the school at rugby and cricket. This has taught me to communicate well and work with a wide range of personalities.

I see this degree course as the start of a career that I have wished to pursue for a long time. I am ready for this next step in my education in Real Estate and university will help me enhance my knowledge of a subject I have a great passion for.

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Real Estate Development and Design

University of California, Berkeley

About the Program

The development of urban real estate is one of the most powerful forces shaping our buildings, cities, and metropolitan regions.  From finance to design, the choices we make about what to build, where to build, and how to build influence urban sustainability, equity, and resilience — today and for years to come.

Our rapidly urbanizing world faces major challenges, ranging from climate change to social inequality. We need real estate professionals who have a deep knowledge of how development can bring positive benefits to society and the environment, and who understand the power of design to make cities efficient, livable, distinctive, and valued.

The Nancy and Douglas Abbey Master of Real Estate Development + Design (Abbey MRED+D) is an interdisciplinary degree program that trains real estate practitioners to build sustainable, equitable, and innovative large- and small-scale real estate projects.

The curriculum educates diverse students to accelerate their careers in real estate with a firm foundation in finance, law and construction while centering principles of innovative, sustainable design and social equity, enabling graduates to tackle the built environment's pressing challenges, such as climate change, rising inequality and the housing shortage. Through cases, experiential learning, studios, industry-leading practitioner faculty and guest-lecturers, and the diverse perspectives, Abbey MRED+D students continuously improve their leadership, management, communication and foundational real estate skills, with a focus on design + urbanism, sustainability + resilience, and equity + inclusion.

Visit Department Website

Master's Degree Requirements

The Abbey MRED+D degree requires students to complete a minimum of 36 units, including a capstone. The curriculum includes twelve (12) required courses and the opportunity to take up to 12 units of electives.

Required Courses 

Course List
CodeTitleUnits
Construction and Development Project Management3
Integrated Development, Architecture + Urbanism for Real Estate4
Real Estate Economics + Market Analysis2
Foundation Principles for Real Estate Development + Finance4
Applications in Real Estate Finance3
Real Estate Capital Markets3
Professional Practice of Real Estate Development3
Land Development Law and Regulations3
Sustainable Real Estate Development3
Development + Design Studio4
Equitable + Resilient Development2
Capstone Project2

Sample Electives*

Students have the opportunity to customize their program by taking electives in areas of interest to them. Some common electives offered in recent years are indicated below. In addition, students may petition to take electives not included on this list. Note that some elective classes may not be offered each year.

Course List
CodeTitleUnits
Sustainability Colloquium1,2
Introduction to Planning and Environmental Law3
Global Urban Inequalities3
U.S. Housing, Planning, and Policy3
Methods of Project Analysis4
CYPLAN 290An Interdisciplinary Approach to Land Development + Investment3
Asset Management3
Climate Change and Business Strategy3
LAW 257Real Estate Transactions and Litigation1
Ecological Analysis4
Energy and Environmental Markets3
Negotiations and Conflict Resolution3
Real Estate Investment Analysis and Sustainability3
Real Estate Development3
Real Estate Finance and Securitization3
Active Communicating1
Nonprofit Boards1
Impact Startup Disco1
Entrepreneurship3
Venture Capital and Private Equity3
Global Real Estate Intensive1
Small-Scale Real Estate Development3
Internship in Real Estate Development + Design1-3

Note: Subject to space availability (we cannot guarantee enrollment in specific elective courses for everyone). Enrollment in electives is subject to the procedures for the programs and Schools that offer these courses.

Required Application Materials

Transcripts (unofficial)

Two to Three Letters of Recommendation

Statement of Purpose*

Personal History Statement*

Resume/CV (Supporting Materials)

Video Question

Portfolio (strongly encouraged)

TOEFL or IELTS Scores (required for most international applicants)

GRE or GMAT Scores (optional)

*EDL: Emerging Development Leaders. Typically, applicants to MRED+D have at least two years of post-graduate work experience in a real estate-related field. EDL applicants have less than two years of full-time post-graduate work experience at the time of application. They must address why they feel now is the right time to pursue the MRED+D in their essays. No more than 10% of the cohort will comprise EDL students, and Emerging Development Leaders will engage in additional career development and mentorship opportunities throughout the year.

Transcripts

You must hold or expect to hold a bachelor’s degree from a U.S. school accredited by one of the AACRAO regional accrediting agencies prior to the beginning of classes. International applicants must hold a degree equivalent to a U.S. bachelor’s degree from a recognized academic institution.

Required Records:

Upload unofficial transcripts from all institutions where you obtained credit toward your undergraduate degree to the application for the departmental initial review. Unofficial transcripts must include at a minimum the name of the institution, your full name, and a chronological listing of all classes, grades, and credit hours. If your academic records do not include official evidence of the award of your degree, you must also submit additional documents that verify the degree conferral, such as a diploma or degree certificate. We also like to see transcripts from institutions where you received a graduate degree or completed post-graduate coursework, if applicable.

If your transcript is in a language other than English, then you must provide an official translation issued from your university or by certified members of the American Translators Association. Upload the original transcript and translation as one PDF.

Physical copies of official transcripts for college-level work will be required if admitted.

Please note that any discrepancy between uploaded transcripts and official transcripts could result in the denial of your application or withdrawal of your offer of admission.

Letters of recommendation

We require two letters of recommendation that provide the admissions committee with third-party, qualitative accounts of your potential for success.  However, you may submit up to three letters of recommendation if you like. The online application will prompt you for three letters of recommendation; if you are only submitting the required two, just enter your own name and an alternative email address (or [email protected]) into the third space.  

We strongly prefer that letters of recommendation come from a current direct supervisor, former direct supervisor, or other individuals with whom you have had significant professional interaction.* Please select individuals who know you well and who will take the time to write thorough and thoughtful letters on your behalf. The title of those you select is not important. What does matter is how closely your letter writers have worked with you and whether they can attest to your value as an employee, your professional accomplishments, your personal qualities, and your potential for success in the future. We have found the most helpful letters to be recent, relevant, and written specifically for this application, taking into account your goals for post-graduation. We discourage letters of recommendation from subordinates, family, friends, or professors. If you are reapplying to the MRED+D program, please ensure at least one recommendation is from a new reference and was written after your previous application was submitted.

When completing the online application, you will enter the email address of your recommender and click "Submit to Recommender," which sends your letter writer instructions for how to upload their letters directly to your application. You are responsible for ensuring that both required recommendations are submitted prior to the application deadline.  

*Academic references are generally not preferred EXCEPT for EDL applicants.

Applicants are required to complete two essays. Although we do not have a required minimum or maximum word count, the suggested length of each is around 1-to-2 pages single-spaced. 

Statement of Purpose

Our essay question was created to provoke honest, thoughtful responses to help us get to know you. The admissions committee is interested in learning how your professional or other experiences and achievements equip you and motivate you to pursue the Abbey MRED+D degree. 

You should describe what you are passionate about that motivates you to make an impact on the world. What are your short- and long-term career goals, how have your interests shaped these goals, and how will the MRED+D degree enable you to build on your prior professional experience to achieve these goals?

The Statement should demonstrate that you understand the MRED+D program and its goals, and should include discussion of how your interests align with our pillars of equity, sustainability and design.

Personal History Statement

Anything that can give the admissions committee a sense of you as a person belongs here. This may include personal histories that have shaped your interest in Real Estate Development + Design. Any information relating to the context of your achievement or challenges you have overcome would also be appropriate here. We also encourage you to highlight any experiences that show your understanding of historically underrepresented groups, and your commitment to serving them with your Abbey MRED+D degree.

Curriculum Vitae (CV) or Resume (Supporting Materials)

We are interested in learning about your work and experience. Please upload your most current resume or curriculum vitae in chronological format. If applicable, please also include honors, awards, languages spoken, and associations you belong to. Note that we do not require submissions in the "Sampling of Relevant Written Work" and "Publications and Presentations" sections.

Upload a  video  to the Audio/Visual page in the application where, in 2 minutes or less, you tell us what drives your interests in real estate development + design and what you see yourself doing after you graduate from the MRED+D program. Please spend about one minute addressing each part of the  question . Do not read your essays--there may be overlap in content, but please speak naturally in the video.

Evidence of English Proficiency

All applicants who have completed a basic degree in a country/region in which the official language is not English are required to submit official evidence of English language proficiency. This requirement applies to institutions from Bangladesh, Nepal, India, Pakistan, Latin America, the Middle East, Israel, the People’s Republic of China, Taiwan, Japan, Korea, Southeast Asia, most European countries, and countries in Africa in which English is not the official language.

If you have completed at least one year of full-time academic course work with grades of B or better in residence at a recognized U.S. institution, you do not need to take a test of English proficiency. Instead, you must upload an unofficial transcript from the recognized U.S. institution.  The following courses will not fulfill this requirement: 1) courses in English as a Second Language, 2) courses conducted in a language other than English, 3) courses that will be completed after the application is submitted, and 4) courses of a non-academic nature.

If you have questions about whether you must provide evidence of English proficiency, please email us at [email protected] with a summary of your academic history.

While a portfolio is not required, we strongly encourage applicants to submit images of work, brief writing samples, and/or past projects with your application. It is helpful for us to see work that is representative of your professional experience to date. Please keep these materials to no more than 10-12 pages in length. You may redact any confidential information as needed.

GRE or GMAT Scores

Professional development activities, career services:.

The Abbey MRED+D program offers an array of workshops, networking and speaking events, and employer presentations to best prepare our students to obtain real estate development positions after graduation. There are also myriad opportunities to network with industry practitioners--including alumni and Doug Abbey --through career events, guest lectures in class, and MRED+D's own lecture series. Students' career journeys are divided into three parts, one per academic term: self-discovery, career discovery, and career placement.

Internships:

Students may obtain part-time internships while completing their degree. They may receive course credit and/or be compensated by the employer.

Real Estate Competitions:

Students compete in myriad case competitions, primarily in the Spring, that allow them to hone their skills, connect with industry practitioners, and produce tangible work product that they can provide during their job searches. Examples of competitions in which our students have participated include, among others:

*Bank of America Low-Income Housing Challenge *CASE Competition *Hack-A-House (Ivory Innovations) *HUD Innovation in Affordable Housing Student Design and Planning Competition *Kellogg Real Estate Venture Competition *NAIOP SF Bay Area Real Estate Challenge, also known as "Golden Shovel" (direct competition between Berkeley and Stanford) *Real Estate Joint Venture Mock Negotiation *ULI Gerald Hines Student Competition *UT Austin National Real Estate Challenge

Clubs and Professional Organizations:

Students take part in the Berkeley Real Estate Club (BREC), which allows real estate graduate students from across campus to come together for speaking events, networking opportunities and case competitions. Membership is drawn primarily from the College of Environmental Design (the Abbey MRED+D's home school, which also includes architecture, landscape architecture, city and regional planning, and urban design graduate students), Berkeley Law School, the Haas School of Business, and the Goldman School of Public Policy.

The Abbey MRED+D provides students with membership in several professional organizations, such as the Urban Land Institute (ULI), NAIOP (the Commercial Real Estate Development Association), and ICSC (the International Council of Shopping Centers); the cohort attends the ULI Fall Meeting (in Las Vegas for Fall 2024) all together each year. We also offer optional ARGUS training.

Alumni Association:

Berkeley has an extensive network of alumni working in real estate in the Bay Area, nationally, and abroad. Students are encouraged to participate in Berkeley Real Estate Alumni Association (BREAA) activities while enrolled and to join BREAA upon graduation. BREAA includes graduates from the College of Environmental Design (including MRED+D), the Haas School of Business, Berkeley Law School, and other Berkeley schools and colleges, and it maintains active chapters in the Bay Area, Los Angeles and New York City.

Related Courses

Rdev 200 construction and development project management 3 units.

Terms offered: Fall 2020 Introduction to materials, means, methods and vocabulary of construction and sustainable building systems. Structural materials, building envelope, costs, labor conditions, conventional practices, and key regulatory factors shaping project design. Practical understanding of reading construction drawings, construction sequencing, building materials, building systems, building code and legal documents. Relationship between feasibility, budget, design, function and ri sk. Construction and Development Project Management: Read More [+]

Hours & Format

Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture and 1 hour of laboratory per week

Additional Format: Three hours of lecture and one hour of laboratory per week.

Additional Details

Subject/Course Level: Real Estate Development + Design/Graduate

Grading: Letter grade.

Construction and Development Project Management: Read Less [-]

RDEV 205 Equitable + Inclusive Development 1 Unit

Terms offered: Fall 2020 Equitable and inclusive approaches to real estate development. Historical perspective of racial injustice in low-income communities of color, including gentrification and displacement. How real estate development can either ameliorate or exacerbate inequality and injustice in relation to race, class, ethnicity, and gender. Best practices and innovative new tools and strategies to ensure the benefits of new development are broadly shared with communities. Equitable + Inclusive Development: Read More [+]

Fall and/or spring: 5 weeks - 3 hours of lecture per week

Summer: 8 weeks - 2 hours of lecture per week

Additional Format: Two hours of lecture per week for 8 weeks. Three hours of lecture per week for five weeks.

Equitable + Inclusive Development: Read Less [-]

RDEV 209 Integrated Development, Architecture + Urbanism for Real Estate 4 Units

Terms offered: Prior to 2007 This course interrogates how development forces produce our streets, neighborhoods, towns, cities and metropolitan regions. It is focused on a critical understanding of development practices and their impact on urban form as well as the social, economic, cultural and environmental nature of cities, exploring these topics through a review of selected Case Studies. The course includes invited presentations from development, design, and planning industry professionals. This course will investigate how Development, Architecture and Urbanism are intertwined, contending that cities are our most sustainable resource, holding the key to our social, economic, and culturally equitable future, as well as our planet’s environmental stewardship. Integrated Development, Architecture + Urbanism for Real Estate: Read More [+]

Summer: 12 weeks - 6 hours of lecture per week

Additional Format: Six hours of lecture per week for 12 weeks.

Integrated Development, Architecture + Urbanism for Real Estate: Read Less [-]

RDEV 210 Real Estate Economics + Market Analysis 2 Units

Terms offered: Fall 2020 This course teaches students the fundamentals of real estate development finance and economics. Grounded in an understanding of urban economics in large cities, the class will examine the factors in national, regional and local real estate markets that determine development needs and opportunities. Financial analysis skills and analytical processes will be developed for evaluating private and public sector development and investment sources employed across all major property classes and land uses. The class will discuss aspects of financial feasibility throughout the scope of the development process from market and predevelopment analysis and site selection to lease-up or sales of the final product. Real Estate Economics + Market Analysis: Read More [+]

Objectives & Outcomes

Course Objectives: Acquire an understanding of the economic and market impacts of different real estate development product types Develop critical financial analysis skills and knowledge to evaluate real estate development markets and opportunities Gain financial knowledge and principles which support sustainable and more equitable real estate development Understand how urban economics and investment markets impact urban land and real estate development production and viability

Summer: 12 weeks - 3 hours of lecture per week

Additional Format: Three hours of lecture per week for 12 weeks.

Real Estate Economics + Market Analysis: Read Less [-]

RDEV 215 Real Estate Financial Modeling 1 Unit

Terms offered: Prior to 2007 This course is designed to facilitate a mastery of financial modeling (pro forma) skills required of real estate developers through a hands-on approach using Microsoft Excel. It is designed to develop students’ ability to think critically about how real estate value is created and develop analytical tools used to derive it. Active participation in class is a must, as the sessions are designed to be collaborative. Students will review reading materials in advance and be expected to come prepared to build pro formas in real time. Real Estate Financial Modeling: Read More [+]

Fall and/or spring: 8 weeks - 2 hours of lecture per week

Additional Format: Two hours of lecture per week for 8 weeks.

Real Estate Financial Modeling: Read Less [-]

RDEV 220 Foundation Principles for Real Estate Development + Finance 4 Units

Terms offered: Fall 2020, Fall 2018 Fundamentals of real estate development finance. Financial analysis skills and analytical tools for evaluating private and public development and investment in real estate, over all product types. Site selection, market analysis, financial feasibility, design and legal considerations, construction, lease-up, operations, and property sales. Decision-making scenarios to evaluate and assess development concepts and project viability. Funding sources for market rate and affordable development. Foundation Principles for Real Estate Development + Finance: Read More [+]

Summer: 12 weeks - 4 hours of lecture and 1.5 hours of laboratory per week

Additional Format: Four hours of lecture and one and one-half hours of laboratory per week for 12 weeks.

Foundation Principles for Real Estate Development + Finance: Read Less [-]

RDEV 225 Applications in Real Estate Finance 3 Units

Terms offered: Prior to 2007 This course is designed to facilitate a mastery of core finance and valuation skills required of real estate developers through a practical approach using real world examples / case studies. It is designed to develop students’ ability to think critically about how real estate value is created and develop analytical tools used to derive it. The primary emphasis in the course is on the acquisition, development, financing, and repositioning of real estate projects. Active participation in class is a must. Students will review case materials in advance and students will be expect to come prepared to discuss their understanding of value. Applications in Real Estate Finance: Read More [+]

Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture per week

Additional Format: Three hours of lecture per week.

Applications in Real Estate Finance: Read Less [-]

RDEV 235 Real Estate Capital Markets 3 Units

Terms offered: Not yet offered This course seeks to acquaint the student with the structure, instruments, and institutions of real estate capital markets. In so doing, the course considers the linkages between real estate and general capital markets. The course also reviews the major features of both residential and non-residential primary and secondary mortgage markets, including the structure and performance of residential and commercial mortgage-backed securities, and exposes students to public sources of real estate equity finance, including real estate investment trusts (REITs). Finally, the course examines recent developments in global real estate capital markets. Real Estate Capital Markets: Read More [+]

Real Estate Capital Markets: Read Less [-]

RDEV 240 Professional Practice of Real Estate Development 3 Units

Terms offered: Spring 2020 Fundamental practices in private, public, and non-profit real estate development. Perspectives of project managers, investment specialists, bankers and lawyers, architects, planners, contractors and property managers representing companies from around the Bay Area following the life cycle/sequence of a real estate project. Approaches to understanding and incorporating community perspectives. Familiarity with professional work products, contracts, schedules and documents handled or produced by practitioners on a daily basis as course materials. Professional Practice of Real Estate Development: Read More [+]

Summer: 8 weeks - 6 hours of lecture per week

Additional Format: Three hours of lecture per week. Six hours of lecture per week for 8 weeks.

Professional Practice of Real Estate Development: Read Less [-]

RDEV 250 Land Development Law and Regulations 3 Units

Terms offered: Spring 2021 An advanced course in implementation of land use and environmental laws and regulatory controls. The theory, practice and impacts of zoning, growth management, development systems, and other techniques of land use control. Objective is to acquaint student with a range of regulatory techniques, related economic considerations, and the legal, administrative-political equity aspects of their implementation. Land Development Law and Regulations: Read More [+]

Land Development Law and Regulations: Read Less [-]

RDEV 260 Sustainable Real Estate Development 3 Units

Terms offered: Prior to 2007 This course is aimed at real estate development students to gain an understanding of the need and urgency of incorporating sustainable practices into real estate projects, and to understanding how best to do so in an economical way. The course will be structured around seven major concepts as defined below: 1. Why Green Real Estate Development Makes Sense. 2. Government Regulations 3. Green Development Strategies 4. Green Design Considerations 5. Cost / Benefits Modeling 6. Certification Programs 7. Pre-Occupancy & Post Occupancy Considerations Sustainable Real Estate Development: Read More [+]

Additional Format: Additional activites: field trip required.

Sustainable Real Estate Development: Read Less [-]

RDEV 270 Development + Design Studio 4 Units

Terms offered: Spring 2020 This course will involve a real world site to provide students with the experience and skills necessary to synthesize real estate development + design projects. As developers and designers, students need to understand: the development process, program, how development teams work, what makes good design and how it adds value, and how to propose a feasible, innovative project from multiple constraints. Students will learn how to gather and evaluate market, construction , and environmental data to inform design choices; evaluate the physical, market, and public policy constraints of a given site; apply best practices of redevelopment; advance innovative design solutions, and communicate their development proposal to a professional audience. Development + Design Studio: Read More [+]

Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 8 hours of studio per week

Additional Format: Eight hours of studio per week.

Development + Design Studio: Read Less [-]

RDEV 277 Equitable + Resilient Development 2 Units

Terms offered: Not yet offered The course will include discussions of various approaches to resilience and engage multi-disciplinary experts who bring resilience into their research or professional work at multiple scales: building, district, city, and region. Major infrastructure system investments and equitable community co-benefits are also key topics as they impact the physical and financial requirements for site design and development. We will examine new approaches to urban design , equity, insurance, and policy that can be applied to students’ parallel design projects. Equitable + Resilient Development: Read More [+]

Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 2 hours of lecture per week

Summer: 12 weeks - 2.5 hours of lecture per week

Additional Format: Two hours of lecture per week. Two and one-half hours of lecture per week for 12 weeks.

Equitable + Resilient Development: Read Less [-]

RDEV 280 Capstone Project 2 Units

Terms offered: Spring 2020 In this course you will conduct an original investigation in order to acquire new knowledge within a framework set by a client in practice. The primary goal of this research class is to deepen your personal understanding of a particular topic or issue in real estate development. A key secondary goal is to help address a practical aim or objective of your client. Capstone Project: Read More [+]

Summer: 8 weeks - 4 hours of lecture per week

Additional Format: Two hours of lecture per week. Four hours of lecture per week for 8 weeks.

Capstone Project: Read Less [-]

RDEV 285 Capstone Preparation 1 Unit

Terms offered: Prior to 2007 This course in intended to assist students in defining their independent capstone research project, including the core research question(s), appropriate sources, methods, and scope, with a goal of producing a comprehensive Capstone Proposal by the end of the course (mid-semester). Given the short time frame available for Capstone during the Summer Semester, this course is designed to prepare students to embark directly on the research and summary phases of their projects at the conclusion of this course. Through lectures, assigned readings, meetings with the Instructor, much self-guided research, and the completion of three benchmark assignments this Semester, students will develop their Capstone research question and argument. Capstone Preparation: Read More [+]

Fall and/or spring: 8 weeks - 2 hours of seminar per week

Additional Format: Two hours of seminar per week for 8 weeks.

Grading: Offered for satisfactory/unsatisfactory grade only.

Capstone Preparation: Read Less [-]

RDEV 290 Special Topics in Real Estate Development + Design 1 - 5 Units

Terms offered: Summer 2024, Spring 2021, Fall 2020 Course examines current problems and issues in the field of real estate development + design. Topics may vary from year to year and will be announced at the beginning of the semester. Special Topics in Real Estate Development + Design: Read More [+]

Rules & Requirements

Repeat rules: Course may be repeated for credit when topic changes. Students may enroll in multiple sections of this course within the same semester.

Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 1-5 hours of lecture per week

Additional Format: One to five hours of lecture per week.

Special Topics in Real Estate Development + Design: Read Less [-]

RDEV 297 Internship in Real Estate Development + Design 1 - 3 Units

Terms offered: Spring 2022, Spring 2021, Spring 2020 Internships are off-campus experiential learning activities designed to provide students with opportunities to make connections between the theory and practice of academic study and the practical application of that study in a professional work environment. Internships offer the opportunity to experience a career while gaining relevant skills and professional connections. Internships are completed under the guidance of an on-site supervisor and a faculty sponsor, who in combination with the student will create a framework for learning and reflection. For-credit internships are open only to students who have completed at least 9 course credits, and have a GPA of at least 3.0. Internship in Real Estate Development + Design: Read More [+]

Course Objectives: An understanding of how real estate development and design coursework ties to professional careers of interest Develop professional connections and identify a strategy for maintaining those connections Gain insight into a possible career path of interest while learning about the industry in which the organization resides, organizational structure, and roles and responsibilities within that structure.

Student Learning Outcomes: Ability to articulate what was learned and how it will be apply to your professional career goals Identification of additional skills that will need to be developed to ensure career readiness. This might include learning a new technology, developing a broader network, additional coursework, etc. Identification of professions that may be of interest as a result of this experience

Prerequisites: 1) Students must have successfully completed RDEV core classes in the summer and be in good academic standing. 2) Students must have an approved internship application by the Executive Director of the MRED+D program

Repeat rules: Course may be repeated for credit with advisor consent.

Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 2-8 hours of internship per week

Summer: 12 weeks - 3-9 hours of internship per week

Additional Format: Two to eight hours of internship per week. Three to nine hours of internship per week for 12 weeks.

Internship in Real Estate Development + Design: Read Less [-]

Contact Information

Real estate development + design.

316 Bauer Wurster Hall

Phone: 510-664-5204

[email protected]

Print Options

When you print this page, you are actually printing everything within the tabs on the page you are on: this may include all the Related Courses and Faculty, in addition to the Requirements or Overview. If you just want to print information on specific tabs, you're better off downloading a PDF of the page, opening it, and then selecting the pages you really want to print.

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Urban design personal statement example.

It is difficult to ignore the accelerating growth of urbanization, caused by profound changes in the world economics. This is, particularly, evident in the arena of rapidly developing countries like China, where the expansion of urban space is currently facing a shortage of professional designers, predominantly, due to the lack of Chinese universities specialising in this field. Being an enthusiastic and determined person, I am prepared to take an advantage of the created opportunities, especially, for the reason that Urban Design has become a major subject not only of my studies but also interest.

Since childhood I was engaged in many creative activities. From kindergarten to junior high school I was attending painting and drawing courses, which endowed me with a more acute sense of color, sculpt and space, which is vital for an excellent designer. At the same time, I enjoyed making handcrafted models of plains, steamboats, cars and etc., which trained my hands adeptly. I am glad to have developed this essential skill which has been, particularly, valuable during design projects, where appearance of the model plays an important role in its presentation.

Along with love for nature, my interests and skills laid the grounds of my 3-year study in Landscape Architecture, which, due to educational system of my country did not result in a Bachelor Degree. Being a perfectionist, I could enjoyably spend several hours and even days working on a model or painting. As a result, my hard work and sincere devotion to the subjects earned me a rewarding place among the top students of University. My course belongs to the Department of Urban Construction - College of Engineering, thus, I additionally gained some basic knowledge in this fields.

During my internship at Landscape Architecture Design Institute I participated in two main projects “Focus plan” of Ningbo Harbor Park and “Master Plan” of Community where I was serving as the Design Assistant. From the designers I learnt not only how to modify and draw all kinds of blueprints accurately, but also about current problems in design.

To obtain a Bachelor qualification I chose to study for another 2 years abroad, in Korea. In preparation, I studied Korean language for over 1 year, which, along with previously acquired academic knowledge allowed me to enter the 3rd year of the course. In Korea, the Landscape Architecture is run by Departament of Urban Planning and Civil Engineering and closely intercorrelates with Urban Design and Planning courses.

In my first semester I became very interested in the problems of Chinese Urban development such as the lack of green and public spaces, which, unfortunately, could not be tackled by my former field of study - Landscape Architecture. Owing to the large support and encouragement from my supervisor, Professor Lee, I decided to proceed with a new field of study - Urban Design.

Heartened by similarities between the two fields and stimulated by the challenges of unknown, I soon became very fond of the new subject. In spite of my new and old speciality, I will graduate with a degree in Engineering Science since the course is run by the College of Engineering. For my final assignment, I am working on a new town design project, which was ordered from the university by Korean government. My contribution to this large group project lies in designing outskirts of the town.

Studying in a foreign country and language significantly developed my independence and mature attitude which, I believe, will become an asset to my learning in the UK. To improve my English skills I attend English language classes twice a week. I have an American friend, who lives next to my room, and we often play basketball and watch English movies. In my spare time I like reading historical and geographical books, which partly satisfy my passion for travel, teaching me about various cultures. One day I would like to go traveling around the world and enjoy different food and beautiful sceneries in reality. The books are also a great source of inspiration and new ideas for design, which I often implement in my projects.

The education in British institution would remarkably broaden my horizons to Western approach in Urban Design, which, in combination with my previously obtained knowledge and experience in Eastern countries, would endow me with a valuable ability of innovative synthesis. Thus, your university, well known for its deep expertise, proficient teaching staff and excellent facilities, is a highly desirable place for me to commence my Master programme.

After my postgraduate studies I would like to take an opportunity to stay in the UK and gain some working experience in one of the British companies. I believe that my commitment, skills and passion for the subject make me a suitable candidate for your course.

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Master of Urban Planning (MUP)

Save the world, be a planner. The Master of Urban Planning is an accredited, professional degree oriented towards excellence for planning practice. A master's degree is the normal academic qualification for planning and planning-related positions. Our graduates excel in careers in the public, private and not-for-profit sectors.

Why urban planning at KU?

The urban planning program is an accredited, two-year master’s degree program within the School of Public Affairs & Administration. We have a long history of training planners for successful, rewarding careers.  Our combination of dedicated and knowledgeable professors and instructors, engaged and talented students, and real-world planning opportunities available in and around Lawrence, Kansas City, and Topeka make us confident you will have an empowering experience as a student at KU.

Urban planning will prepare you to strengthen communities and inspire hope for the future as you learn how to identify and solve problems related to people and nature living next to one another. A degree in urban planning will put you on track to make the world a better place with career opportunities in sustainability, transportation, housing, community building, environmental conservation, governance, non-profits, advocacy, and more.

Domestic Student Application Deadlines

Fall admission: July 1

Spring admission: Dec. 1

Summer admission: May 1

International Student Application Deadlines

Fall Admission: May 1

Spring Admission: Nov. 1

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Our program

  • Focuses on full-time, in-person master’s degree students, pursuit of paid internships, real-world projects, and compassion for self and others. Part-time study is possible.
  • Offers subject matter that reflects the state-of-the-art of policy planning and analysis, planning education, and planning practice.
  • Provides a curriculum flexible enough to respond to the emerging needs of society and the planning profession.
  • Gives students applied skills needed for entry-level professional positions, as well as the fundamentals of theory and methods that will enable them to move up to higher positions or pursue advanced study.
  • Assists students in developing personal qualities essential to be an effective professional planner, such as creativity, judgment, integrity, initiative, and the ability to work amicably and effectively with others.

Specializations

  • Housing and development planning .
  • Sustainable land use planning .
  • Transportation planning .
  • You can specialize in a specific area of interest or choose a broader focus.
  • Our curriculum results in graduates who are versatile and sought after by employers.

Housing and development planning

  • Within the broad profession of planning, many planners choose to work in the area of housing and community development.
  • They pursue careers in neighborhood revitalization, affordable housing development, and local economic development.
  • They are employed in the private sector by real estate developers and real estate lenders, in the non-profit sector by community development corporations, and in the public sector by housing authorities and state housing finance agencies, plus many other organizations and firms.  
  • The housing and development specialization prepares planners to contribute to the profession in this area with an array of courses that address the theories and policies that drive the many housing and community development programs administered at the federal, state, and local levels.  
  • The courses also address the methods of market analysis and project feasibility pursued in the field.  
  • Courses address what works and does not work in the field so as the better utilize scarce resources to achieve success.
  • Students are prepared on how to achieve greater social justice in our cities and neighborhoods.

Sustainable land use planning

  • Planners look out for the long term consequences of current decisions and sustainable land use planners do this by focusing on how we make use of land and other natural resources.
  • Humans, other animals, and plants cannot help but occupy space and there is only so much to go around.
  • Sustainable land use planning seeks to make the best use of that space balancing the competing values of equity, ecology, economy, and quality of life for today and tomorrow.
  • Sustainable land use planners study human and natural systems to provide guidance and recommend policies and designs to decision makers for the long-term viability of communities.
  • Common careers for sustainable land use planners include working for cities and counties creating visions for the future and managing day-to-day development based on long range plans.
  • Those same sorts of skills are sought by consulting firms who hire planners to then work with public sector planners, developers, or property owners.  
  • Sustainable land use planners also work for regional, state, or federal level agencies and governments often in the areas of air or water quality. In addition, they can work in the real estate development field.  
  • Sustainable land use planning is a flexible specialization as it forms the foundation for transportation, housing, and development.

Transportation planning

  • Transportation is an integral element of urban life.
  • Transportation networks facilitate the movement of people and goods, while also having a considerable impact on urban form and the creation of socioeconomic spaces.
  • Transportation occurs at the intersection of planning and politics, and resulting decisions can have resounding impacts throughout a city and region. Issues faced by transportation planners are increasingly complex and interdisciplinary, which require a diverse skillset to address.  
  • Students in this concentration will develop skills in data analysis, technology, policy development, and design as it relates to transportation planning.
  • The transportation planning focus area prepares students for professional work in transportation related entities at local, regional and national levels, and in private firms which are engaged in transportation planning.

Accelerated degree programs

The urban planning program offers accelerated master's degrees between planning and other University departments. These accelerated master's programs allow well-qualified students to earn a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in five years, rather than the six years it would take to earn each degree separately.

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Dual degree programs

The urban planning program offers dual degrees between planning and other University departments. Each of these dual degree programs allows a student to earn two KU degrees while reducing the number of hours required to complete each of those degrees.

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Get more info on admission, deadlines, tuition and financial aid, career paths, curriculum, and more when you fill out the form below. We’ll be in touch to answer any questions and help you get started.

Questions about the MUP?

Program and admission information Derek Bixler, Graduate Program Coordinator [email protected] 785-864-6814 

Internship & professional development Cari Ann Kreienhop, Graduate Programming Manager [email protected] 785-864-3665 

Issues submitting application KU Graduate Studies [email protected] 785-864-3140

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Department of Urban Studies and Planning

The Department of Urban Studies and Planning (DUSP) offers four degree programs: a Bachelor of Science in Planning; a two-year professional Master in City Planning (MCP); a one-year Master of Science in Urban Studies and Planning (reserved for mid-career students); and a PhD in Urban Studies and Planning. In addition, DUSP has other, nondegree programs and affiliations: the Special Program in Urban and Regional Studies (for mid-career professionals from developing countries); the Community Innovators Lab ; the Center for Advanced Urbanism ; and the SENSEable City Lab . Once students are admitted and enrolled at MIT, it is possible to apply for certificate programs in urban design (offered jointly with the Department of Architecture) or environmental planning.

City and regional planners in the United States and other parts of the world are involved not only in physical and economic development, but also in management of the environmental, social, and design consequences of development. They engage in a variety of activities aimed at shaping the forms and patterns of human settlements, and at providing people with housing, public services, employment opportunities, and other crucial support systems that comprise a decent living environment. Planning encompasses not just a concern for the structure and experience of the built environment, but also a desire to harness the social, economic, political, and technological forces that give meaning to the everyday lives of men and women in residential, work, and recreational settings. Planners operate at the neighborhood, metropolitan, state, national, or international level, in both the public and the private sectors. Their tasks are the same: to help frame the issues and problems that receive attention; to formulate and implement projects, programs, and policies responsive to individual and group needs; and to work with and for various communities in allocating economic and physical resources most efficiently and most equitably.

Planners are often described as "generalists with a specialty." The specialties offered at MIT include city design and development; housing, community, and economic development; international development; and environmental policy and planning, as well as cross-cutting opportunities to study urban information systems, multi-regional systems, and mobility systems. These planning specialties can be distinguished by the geographic levels at which decision making takes place—neighborhood, city, regional, state, national, and global. Subspecialties have also been described in terms of the roles that planners are called upon to play, such as manager, designer, regulator, advocate, educator, evaluator, or futurist.

A focus on the development of practice-related skills is central to the department's mission, particularly for students in the MCP professional degree program. Acquiring these skills and integrating them with classroom knowledge are advanced through the department's field-based practicum subjects and research, and through internship programs. In fieldwork, students acquire competence by engaging in practice and then bringing field experiences back into the academic setting for reflection and discussion. Students may work with community organizations, government agencies, or private firms under the direction of faculty members involved in field-based projects with outside clients. In some cases, stipends may be available for fieldwork or internship programs. The Department of Urban Studies and Planning is committed to educating planners who can advocate on behalf of underrepresented constituencies.

During the month of January, the department offers a series of "mini-subjects" in specialized fields not covered by the regular curriculum, including both noncredit and for-credit offerings.

Specific opportunities for concentration and specialization available to students are detailed in the descriptions of the degree programs that follow.

Bachelor of Science in Planning (Course 11)

Urban science and planning with computer science (course 11-6), five-year sb-mcp option, minor in urban studies and planning, minor in international development, minor in public policy, hass concentrations, undergraduate study.

The Department of Urban Studies and Planning offers a Bachelor of Science in Planning; HASS Minors in Urban Studies and Planning, International Development, and Public Policy; and a variety of HASS concentrations. There is also an accelerated SB/MCP program which allows exceptional students to complete their undergraduate and master's degree work in five years.

In addition, DUSP also hosts MIT's Teacher Education Program (TEP), described under Career and Professional Options in the Undergraduate Education section. TEP provides an option for students interested in exploring new ideas in teaching and learning as applied to K-12 schools. Studies in TEP can also lead to licensure in math or science teaching at the high school or middle school levels.

The Department of Urban Studies and Planning offers an interdisciplinary preprofessional undergraduate major designed to prepare students for careers in both the public and private sectors. The major also provides a foundation for students who are considering graduate work in law, public policy, international development, urban design, management, and planning. The subjects in the major teach students how the tools of economics, policy analysis, political science, and urban design can be used to solve social and environmental problems in the United States and abroad. In addition, students learn the skills and responsibilities of planners who seek to promote effective and equitable social change.

After satisfying the core requirements, students use their electives to pursue a specific track. We suggest one of the following, but will accept self-designed options to better meet a student's interest: urban and environmental policy and planning; urban society, history, and politics; or urban and regional public policy. The required laboratory emphasizes urban information systems and offers skills for measurement, representation, and analysis of urban phenomena. In the laboratory subject, students also explore the ways emerging technology can be used to improve government decision making.

Students are encouraged to develop a program that will strengthen their analytic skills, broaden their intellectual perspectives, and test these insights in real-world applications. Students must complete a senior project that synthesizes what they have learned. This project may consist of an analysis of a public policy issue, a report on a problem-solving experience from an internship or other field experience, or a synthesis of research on urban affairs.

Urban settlements and technology around the world are rapidly co-evolving as flows of population, finance, and politics are reshaping the very identity of cities and nations globally. We already see rapid and profound change, especially in mega-cities, including pervasive sensing, the growth and availability of continuous data streams, advanced analytics, interactive communications and social networks, and distributed intelligence. Examples of new technologies facilitated by or requiring big data and new informatics concentrated in urban areas include, but are not limited to, autonomous vehicles, sensor-enabled self-management of natural resources, cybersecurity for critical infrastructure biometric identity, the sharing or gig-economy, and continuous public engagement opportunities through social networks and data and visualization.

The Bachelor of Science in Urban Science and Planning with Computer Science (Course 11-6) emphasizes the development of fundamental skills in urban planning and policy, including ethics and justice; statistics, data science, geospatial analysis, and visualization; and computer science, robotics, and machine learning. The Course 11-6 program provides numerous opportunities for field-based problem-solving experience through labs, UROP assignments and client-based courses in which students synthesize and empirically integrate what they are learning about theory and practice at the intersection of computer and urban science. Students also have the opportunity to specialize though the selection of a customized concentration of upper-level electives in data visualization, applied spatial analysis, design, and public policy. Students in the program are full members of both departments and of two schools, Architecture and Planning and Engineering.

Email for more information or call 617-253-1933.

Undergraduate Course 11 majors may apply for admission to the department's Master in City Planning (MCP) program in their junior year. Students accepted into the five-year program receive both the Bachelor of Science and the MCP at the end of five years. Admission is intended for those undergraduates who have demonstrated exceptional performance in the major and show commitment to the field of city planning. Criteria for admission include the following:

  • A strong academic record in Course 11 subjects
  • Letters of reference from departmental faculty
  • Practical experience in planning, which could be gained through internships, practicums, studios, Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program experiences, summer jobs, etc.
  • A mature and passionate interest for the field that warrants further study

Students can obtain more information on the five-year program from Sandra Wellford, undergraduate administrator, Room 7-346A, 617-253-9403.

The six-subject Minor in Urban Studies and Planning offers students the opportunity to explore issues in urban studies and planning in some depth. Students initially take two Tier I subjects that establish the political, economic, and design contexts for local, urban, and regional decision making. In addition, students choose four Tier II elective subjects, which provide an opportunity to focus on urban and environmental policy issues or to study urban problems and institutions. Students are encouraged to craft a minor that reflects their own particular interests within the general parameters of the minor program requirements and in consultation with the minor advisor.

Requirements
Introduction to Urban Design and Development12
Making Public Policy12
Electives
Select four Course 11 elective subjects 36-48
Total Units60-72

The HASS Minor in International Development aims to increase students' ability to understand, analyze, and tackle problems of global poverty and economic development in the developing world. Challenges include increasing urbanization; the need for industrial growth as well as jobs for an increasing number of educated youth; the crisis of resources and infrastructure; the fragmentation of state capacity and rising violence; ethical and moral issues raised by development planning; the role of appropriate technology and research; and popular discontent. The minor emphasizes problem-solving, multidisciplinarity, and an understanding of institutions at various levels—from the local to the global—as the keys to solving today’s problems in emerging countries.

The six-subject minor is structured into two tiers. The subjects in the first tier provide a general overview of the history of international development and major theories and debates in the field, and an introduction to the dilemmas of practice. They also introduce the challenges of applying models of interventions across contexts and the importance of understanding local institutional frameworks and political economies across scales and levels of governance.

Subjects in the second tier offer an array of more specialized and advanced subjects to allow students greater depth in specific sectors and international development issues such as public finance, infrastructure and energy, sustainability, the role of technology policy, the form and structure of cities, the politics of urban change and development, the role of law and public policy in development, and the rethinking of development in terms of human rights.

Tier I: Introduction to International Development Theories and Practice
Select two of the following:24
Introduction to International Development
D-Lab: Development
Urbanization and Development
Tier II: Specialized Topics in International Development
Select four of the following (in consultation with the minor advisor):42-48
Making Public Policy
City to City: Comparing, Researching, and Reflecting on Practice
Project Appraisal in Developing Countries
Budgeting and Finance for the Public Sector
Human Rights at Home and Abroad
Urban Energy Systems and Policy
Law, Social Movements, and Public Policy: Comparative and International Experience
D-Lab: Water, Sanitation and Hygiene
Total Units66-72

Additional subjects not listed above may be included in the minor at the discretion of the minor advisor.

Further information can be obtained from Professor Balakrishnan Rajagopal , Room 9-432, 617-253-6315.

The interdisciplinary HASS Minor in Public Policy is intended to provide a single framework for students interested in the role of public policy in the field of their technical expertise. Because the Course 11 major has a strong public policy element and several subjects are redundant, Course 11 majors are not eligible for the Minor in Public Policy.

DUSP offers clusters of subjects that satisfy the Institute requirement. These three-subject clusters allow students either to develop competence within a specific discipline or to explore a particular policy problem. Possible areas of concentration include: designing the urban environment, environmental policy, urban history, policy analysis and urban problems, legal issues and social change, and education. Sample programs are available online.

The DUSP concentration focusing on education can also lead to Massachusetts licensure in teaching math and science at the middle and high school levels. This requires taking:

Education Concentration Subjects
Educational Theory and Practice I12
Educational Theory and Practice II12
Educational Theory and Practice III12
Core Subjects
Introduction to Education: Looking Forward and Looking Back on Education12
Introduction to Education: Understanding and Evaluating Education12

More information is available from Eric Klopfer, Room E15-301, 617-253-2025.

Master in City Planning

Simultaneous master's degrees in city planning and architecture, simultaneous master's degrees in city planning and transportation, simultaneous master's degrees in city planning and real estate development, master of science in urban studies and planning, doctor of philosophy, graduate programs in transportation, environmental planning certificate, urban design certificate, nondegree programs, graduate study.

The Department of Urban Studies and Planning offers graduate work leading to the Master in City Planning and the Doctor of Philosophy. In conjunction with the Center for Real Estate, the department also offers a Master of Science in Real Estate Development. These programs are open to students from a variety of backgrounds. Urban studies, city planning, architecture, urban design, environmental planning, political science, civil engineering, economics, sociology, geography, law, management, and public administration all offer suitable preparation. For further information concerning academic programs in the department, application for admission, and financial aid, contact Graduate Admissions, Room 9-413, 617-253-9403.

The principal professional degree in the planning field is the Master in City Planning (MCP). The Department of Urban Studies and Planning provides graduate education for men and women who will assume professional roles in public, private, and nonprofit agencies, firms, and international institutions, in the United States and abroad. The department seeks to provide MCP students with the skills and specialized knowledge needed to fill traditional as well as emerging planning roles. The MCP is accredited by the American Planning Association.

The two-year Master in City Planning degree program emphasizes mastery of tools for effective practice and is therefore distinct from undergraduate liberal arts programs in urban affairs or doctoral programs that emphasize advanced research skills. MCP graduates work in a broad array of roles, from "traditional" city planning to economic, social, and environmental planning, as well as urban design. In addition to its basic core requirements, the program offers four areas of specialization: City Design and Development; Environmental Policy and Planning; Housing, Community, and Economic Development; and International Development. MCP students, in their application to the department, select one of these areas of specialization and, when applicable, indicate interest in cross-cutting programs in transportation planning, urban information systems, and regional planning.

Each student's plan of study in the MCP Program is set forth in a program statement developed jointly by the student and faculty advisor during the student's first term. Linked to career development goals, the program statement describes the purposes and goals of study, the proposed schedule of subjects, the manner in which competence in a specialization is developed, and an indication of a possible thesis topic.

Degree Requirements

Students are expected to take a minimum of 36 credit units each term (at least three subjects, though more frequently four), yielding at least 126 total units, in addition to the thesis.

A collection of subjects and requirements to be taken during the student's two years in the MCP program constitute a "core experience" viewed as central to the professional program. The core subjects and requirements include the following:

Gateway: Urban Studies and Planning 112
Gateway: Urban Studies and Planning 212
Planning Economics4
Microeconomics 8
Introduction to Spatial Analysis and GIS 6
Quantitative Reasoning and Statistical Methods for Planning I 12
Introduction to Critical Qualitative Methods 6
Urban Design Skills: Observing, Interpreting, and Representing the City 8
At least one core practicum subject, selected from an approved list, during the two-year program
A thesis preparation seminar in the area of specialization, taken during the second or third term of study

Students identified as having weaker writing skills are also encouraged to take a writing course.

All students are required to submit a thesis on a topic of their choice. The department encourages MCP students to avoid the traditional perception of the thesis as a "mini-dissertation," and to think instead of a client-oriented, professional document that bridges academic and professional concerns. While most of the thesis work occurs during the last term of the second year, students are urged to begin the process of defining a thesis topic early in the second year through their participation in a required thesis preparation seminar.

Students in the MCP Program are encouraged to integrate fieldwork and internships with academic coursework. The Department of Urban Studies and Planning provides a variety of individual and group field placements involving varying degrees of faculty participation and supervision. Academic credit is awarded for field experience, although some students choose instead to participate in the work-study financial aid program. The department also sponsors a variety of seminars in which students have an opportunity to reflect on their field experiences.

The City Design and Development (CDD) group engages, researches, and projects the physical planning of cities, regions, and their built and natural environments, at scales and locations that range from urban neighborhoods and city cores to outer suburbs. Graduates work in a variety of private, public, and nonprofit roles as urban designers, planning and design consultants, municipal and regional planners, managers of public agencies, advocates of historic and landscape preservation, housing, and land use regulations, real estate development, and as planners of transportation and mobility systems. CDD is closely associated with faculty and students in the Department of Architecture's Urbanism field, the Center for Advanced Urbanism, Center for Real Estate, SENSEable City Lab, and Media Lab. Many subjects are cross-listed with these groups. CDD's diverse educational offerings, ranging from studios to seminars, lectures, and workshops, ensure that every student can develop unique competence and intellectual depth in the field. CDD students may also elect to pursue the Urban Design Certificate ,  for those who wish to be involved in shaping the physical form and logistical function of cities, or pursue an additional year of study through DUSP's SM in Advanced Urbanism .  Individual faculty within CDD also work in areas that include landscape urbanism; resilient cities and housing; land use planning and regulation; innovation districts; parametric urbanism; and much more. 

The Center for Advanced Urbanism—jointly administered by faculty from the CDD group and the Urbanism group in the Department of Architecture—is a research-based institution dedicated to implementing new collaborative models of design and urban research.

The Environmental Policy and Planning (EPP) group emphasizes the study of how society conserves and manages its natural resources and works to promote sustainable development. Areas of concern include the role of science in environmental policy-making, climate change mitigation and adaptation, sustainable international development, adaptive ecosystem management, environmental justice, global environmental treaty making, environmental regulation, energy efficiency and renewable energy, the role of private corporations in environmental management, the public health impacts of environmental planning, infrastructure planning, and the mediation of environmental disputes. Students investigate the interactions between built and natural systems; the effectiveness of different approaches to environmental planning and policymaking; techniques for describing, modeling, forecasting, and evaluating changes in environmental quality; approaches to environmental policy analysis; strategies for stakeholder involvement in environmental planning; and mechanisms for assessing the choices posed by the environmental impacts of new technology in local, state, national, and international contexts.

The Housing, Community, and Economic Development (HCED) group focuses on the equitable development of communities in the United States, at the neighborhood, city, and regional scales. Its mission is to prepare professionals with the skills and knowledge to be responsible leaders of public, private, and nonprofit sector organizations and networks engaged in equitable development. The group is driven by a deep faculty commitment to expanding opportunity and improving quality of life for historically disadvantaged groups. HCED emphasizes ongoing, empowering partnerships with those affected by change—often those who are organizing to lead local improvement efforts. Many faculty and students also have an interest in global markets and federal and state policy. For decades, the group’s faculty and students have helped shape policy, practice and research in housing, economic, workforce, and comprehensive community development. Increasingly, HCED connects to efforts that promote public health, environmental sustainability, and more inclusive “digital cities” as well. HCED promotes an integrated and dynamic approach to learning, helping prepare students for careers as problem solvers who can perform in varied roles: policy analyst or policy maker, advocate and organizer, mediator, evaluator, program designer, investor and entrepreneur, project developer and manager. At the doctoral level, HCED prepares students not only to produce but also to shape the next generation of creative teaching and scholarship.

The International Development Group (IDG) draws on the experiences of developing and newly industrializing countries throughout the world as the basis for advice about planning at the local, regional, national, and global levels. IDG provides students with an integrated view of the institutional, legal, historical, economic, technological, and sociopolitical factors that have shaped successful planning experiences and how they translate into action. Class content and faculty expertise include economic development at various scales; human rights and rights-based approaches to development, ethical and moral issues raised by development planning, the challenge of planning amidst popular discontent; regional planning (including decentralization); finance and project evaluation; housing, human settlements, and infrastructure services (transportation, telecommunications, water, sanitation, sewerage); institutions of economic growth; law and economic development; industrialization and industrial policies (including privatization); poverty-reducing and employment-increasing interventions including informal sector, nongovernment organizations, and small enterprises; comparative urban and metropolitan politics and policy; property and land rights, comparative property and land use law, collective action, and common property issues (water, forestry, grazing, agriculture); human rights and development; conflict and social dynamics in cities; post-conflict development; and globalization and governance.

Urban Information Systems (UIS) is a cross-cutting group that connects faculty, staff, and students who are interested in the ways information and communication technologies impact urban planning. Research topics include building neighborhood information systems to facilitate public participation in planning; exploring the complex relationships underlying urban spatial structure, land use, transportation, and the environment; modeling urban futures and metropolitan growth scenarios; and experimenting with mobile computing, location-based services, and the community building, planning, and urban design implications of ubiquitous computing. Associated faculty are engaged in many related research projects through the SENSEable City Lab, the Civic Data Design Lab, the Urban Mobility Lab, the Center for Advanced Urbanism, and MIT-wide interdisciplinary research initiatives such as the Future Urban Mobility project in Singapore. Through seminars and related activities, we share experiences and find ways to collaborate on the technical, planning, and social science aspects of making information technology–enabled urban futures more responsive to public and private interests in ways that are transparent and equitable.

Much of UIS's work involves the development and use of planning-related software and the urban analytics, spatial analysis tools, and systems (such as GIS and distributed geoprocessing) that are increasingly important parts of urban planning methods and metropolitan information infrastructures. However, UIS interests go beyond the development and use of specific technologies and extend to an examination of the ripple effects of computing, communications, and digital spatial information on current planning practices and on the meaning and value of the impacted communities and planning institutions.

Students who have been admitted to either the Department of Urban Studies and Planning or the Department of Architecture can propose a program of joint work in the two fields that will lead to the simultaneous awarding of two degrees. Degree combinations may be MCP/MArch or MCP/SMArchS. A student must apply by the January deadline prior to beginning the last full year of graduate study for the first degree: MCP and SMArchS. SMArchS students must apply during their first year at MIT (by the end of the first term); MArch students must apply during or before their second year. Students are first approved by the Dual Degree Committee and then considered during the spring admissions process. All candidates for simultaneous degrees must meet the requirements of both degrees, but may submit a joint thesis.

Students who have been admitted to study for the Master in City Planning or the Master of Science in Transportation may apply to the other program during their first year of study and propose a program of joint work in the two fields that will lead to the simultaneous awarding of two degrees. Details of this program are provided under Interdepartmental Programs in the Civil and Environmental Engineering section.

Students who have been admitted to the Master in City Planning Program or the Master of Science in Real Estate Development Program may apply to the other program during their first year of study and propose a program of joint work in the two fields that will lead to the simultaneous awarding of two degrees. Students may submit a joint thesis.

Under special circumstances, admission may be granted to candidates seeking a one-year Master of Science (SM) degree. The SM is intended for professionals with a number of years of distinguished practice in city planning or related fields who have a clear idea of the courses they want to take at MIT, the thesis they want to write, and the DUSP faculty member with whom they wish to work. That faculty member must be prepared to advise the candidate when at MIT and to submit a letter of recommendation so indicating as part of the candidate's application. This process means that prior to submitting an application the candidate must contact the appropriate DUSP faculty member to establish such a relationship. The SM does not require the candidate to take the core courses, which are mandatory for MCP candidates. As indicated above, a thesis is required. For further information concerning the SM option, contact Graduate Admissions, Room 7-346, 617-253-9403.

The PhD is the advanced research degree in urban planning or urban studies. Admission requirements are substantially the same as for the master's degree, but additional emphasis is placed on academic preparation, professional experience, and the fit between the student's research interests and the department's research activities. Nearly all successful applicants have previously completed a master's degree.

The doctoral program emphasizes the development of research competence and the application of research methods to exploring critical planning questions. Students work under the mentorship of a faculty advisor. They may focus their studies on any subfield of planning in which the faculty in the department have expertise.

After successful completion of coursework, students are required to take oral and written qualifying general exams in two fields: an intellectual discipline (city design and development, international development, public policy, urban information systems, regional and urban economics, or urban sociology) and a field to which this discipline is applied and that coincides with the student's research interest and possible dissertation topic. Doctoral candidates are expected to complete the qualifying general examinations before beginning their third year of residence. Upon completing the qualifying general examination and a colloquium about the dissertation proposal, a PhD candidate must write and successfully defend a doctoral dissertation that gives evidence of the capacity to do independent and innovative research.

A minimum of 72 units plus 36 units for the dissertation (a minimum of 108 units) is required for the PhD degree.

Interested and qualified students can undertake joint doctoral programs with the Department of Political Science or the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering.

Advanced Urbanism Concentration

The Norman B. Leventhal Center for Advanced Urbanism (LCAU), together with the Department of Architecture and MIT Department of Urban Studies and Planning, have established a collaborative doctoral-level concentration in advanced urbanism. At MIT, advanced urbanism is the field that integrates research on urban design, urbanization, and urban culture. The doctoral concentration in advanced urbanism is intended for those who have at least one professional design degree (in architecture, landscape architecture, urban design, etc.). A successful applicant will have research interests in urbanism that align with faculty research in both DUSP and Architecture. In this spirit, the student’s dissertation committee is expected to include faculty from both departments. More broadly, an advanced urbanism doctoral student is expected to engage with the research community at the LCAU and within their home department throughout their time at MIT. 

Admissions applications for the DUSP side of this program are submitted directly through the department’s regular PhD admissions process, with the same January 3 deadline. Those interested in being considered for an Advanced Urbanism doctoral fellowship should indicate this in their applications. In the process of application review, the DUSP PhD admissions committee will identify strong applicants who fit the advanced urbanism program profile and nominate them for further consideration by a joint advanced urbanism admissions committee. The applicant selected by this joint committee would, in turn, be admitted as part of the regular DUSP PhD admissions process. Upon arrival at MIT, students holding the advanced urbanism doctoral fellowship through DUSP will be expected to complete all DUSP doctoral degree requirements plus additional requirements for the advanced urbanism concentration. Tuition support and research assistantships are provided by LCAU. Additional details can be found on the LCAU website .

Interdisciplinary Programs

MIT provides a broad range of opportunities for transportation-related education. Courses and classes span the School of Engineering, the Sloan School of Management, and the School of Architecture and Planning, with many activities covering interdisciplinary topics that prepare students for future industry, government, or academic careers.

A variety of graduate degrees are available to students interested in transportation studies and research, including a Master of Science in Transportation and PhD in Transportation , described under Interdisciplinary Graduate Programs.

Students in the MCP and PhD program who complete a prescribed set of subjects are awarded a Certificate in Environmental Planning. 

Students in the MCP, MArch, or SMArchS programs who complete a specific curriculum of subjects in history and theory, public policy, development, studios and workshops, and a thesis in the field of urban design are awarded a Certificate in Urban Design by the School of Architecture and Planning. 

A limited number of nondegree students are admitted to the department each term. This special student status is especially designed for professionals interested in developing specialized skills, but is also available to others.

The MIT Community Innovators Lab (CoLab) supports faculty and students to work with low-income and excluded people in the United States, Latin America, and the Caribbean, tapping their energy, creativity, and in-depth knowledge of the issues they face to tackle poverty, climate change, and mass urbanization. Launched in 2007, CoLab supports faculty and student collaboration on field-based projects working with departments, laboratories, and centers across the Institute on action research while providing important resources to community leaders.

CoLab offers instruction and tools—practice-based classes, study groups, tutoring, coaching, mentoring, as well as IAP courses in reflective practice, civic engagement, action research, use of social media, storytelling, and visual mapping—to help students embed and apply technical learning in real societal contexts, equipping them with the resources they will need to take leadership roles in an increasingly complex world. Its dense network of innovative practitioners in the US, Latin America, and the Caribbean augment faculty instruction with field-based coaching, helping to train the next generation of practitioners and scholars committed to addressing social exclusion and sustainability—two of the greatest global challenges of our time.

In addition to work in communities, CoLab hosts regular programs that bring nationally recognized leaders to share their work and help inform the Institute’s research agenda. The Mel King Community Fellows Program convenes an annual cohort of advanced practitioners from a range of relevant fields who are grappling with challenges of equitable and sustainable development. CoLab also provides community and industry leaders with private deliberative space in which they can explore emerging issues while allowing students up-close opportunities to participate in collaborative brainstorming sessions. Along with CoLab workshops, CoLab Radio (the center's blog) and online programming, roundtables, speaker series, and lunchtime talks, these activities enliven and enrich the Institute’s intellectual community by infusing it with a powerful diversity of voices and insights.

CoLab is located in Room 9-419. Further information can be found on the CoLab website and CoLab blog .

The Special Program for Urban and Regional Studies (SPURS) is a one-year program designed for mid-career professionals from developing and newly industrializing countries. SPURS was founded in 1967 as part of the Department of Urban Studies and Planning (DUSP), which has a long-standing commitment to bringing outstanding individuals to MIT to reflect on their professional practice in the field of international development. The program is designed to nurture individuals, often at a turning point in their professional careers, to retool and reflect on their policy-making and planning skills. SPURS Fellows return to their countries with a better understanding of the complex set of relationships among local, regional, and international issues. SPURS has hosted over 676 women and men from more than 117 countries in Latin America, Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and Eastern and Central Europe. SPURS alumni/ae hold senior level positions in both the public and private sectors in their countries. 

For further information contact Nimfa de Leon, Room 9-435, 617-253-5915 or visit the SPURS website . 

For further information concerning academic programs in the department, application for admission, and financial aid, contact Graduate Admissions, Room 9-413, 617-253-9403.

Faculty and Teaching Staff

P. Christopher Zegras, PhD

Professor of Urban Planning and Transportation

Head, Department of Urban Studies and Planning

Mariana Arcaya, ScD

Professor of Urban Planning and Public Health

Eran Ben-Joseph, PhD

Class of 1922 Professor

Professor of Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning

Alan M. Berger, MLA

Professor of Urban Design and Landscape Architecture

(On leave, spring)

Phillip L. Clay, PhD

Professor Post-Tenure of Urban Studies and Planning

Nicholas de Monchaux, MArch

Professor of Architecture

Professor of Urban Studies and Planning

Head, Department of Architecture

Joseph Ferreira Jr, PhD

Professor Post-Tenure of Urban Planning and Operations Research

Dennis M. Frenchman, MArch, MCP

Professor Post-Tenure of Urban Design and Planning

David M. Geltner, PhD

Professor Post-Tenure of Real Estate Finance

Amy K. Glasmeier, PhD

Professor of Economic Geography and Regional Planning

Erica C. James, PhD

Professor of Medical Anthropology and Urban Studies

Professor of Anthropology

Eric Klopfer, PhD

Professor of Comparative Media Studies

Professor of Education

Interim Head, Literature Section

Head, Comparative Media Studies/Writing Program

Janelle Knox-Hayes, PhD

Professor of Economic Geography and Planning

Jennifer S. Light, PhD

Bern Dibner Professor of the History of Science and Technology

Brent D. Ryan, PhD

Professor of Urban Design and Public Policy

Bishwapriya Sanyal, PhD

Ford International Professor

Professor of International Development and Planning

Hashim Sarkis, PhD

Professor of Urban Planning

Dean, School of Architecture and Planning

Anne Whiston Spirn, PhD

Cecil and Ida Green Distinguished Professor

Professor of Planning

Professor of Landscape Architecture

Lawrence E. Susskind, PhD

Ford Professor in Urban Studies

Professor of Urban and Environmental Planning

J. Phillip Thompson, PhD

Professor of Political Science and Urban Planning

Lawrence Vale, DPhil

Ford International Professor in Urban Studies

Professor of Urban Design and Planning

Jinhua Zhao, PhD

Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering

Member, Institute for Data, Systems, and Society

Siqi Zheng, PhD

Samuel Tak Lee Professor

Professor of Urban and Real Estate Sustainability

Associate Professors

Gabriella Carolini, PhD

Associate Professor of International Development and Urban Planning

Catherine D'Ignazio, PhD

Sherman Fairchild Career Development Professor

Associate Professor of Urban Studies and Planning

David Hsu, PhD

Associate Professor of Urban and Environmental Planning

Jason Jackson, PhD

Associate Professor of Political Economy and Urban Planning

Balakrishnan Rajagopal, SJD

Associate Professor of Law and Development

Albert Saiz, PhD

Daniel Rose Professor

Associate Professor of Urban Economics and Real Estate

Andres Sevtsuk, PhD

Charles and Ann Spaulding Career Development Professor

Associate Professor of Urban Science and Planning

Justin Steil, JD, PhD

Associate Professor of Law and Urban Planning

Sarah E. Williams, MCP

Norman B. and Muriel Leventhal Professor

Associate Professor of Information Technologies and Urban Planning

Assistant Professors

Devin Michelle Bunten, PhD

Assistant Professor of Urban Economics and Housing

Karilyn Crockett, PhD

Ford Career Development Professor

Assistant Professor of History and Urban Planning

Delia Wendel, PhD

Assistant Professor of International Development and Urban Planning

Professors of the Practice

Ceasar L. McDowell, EdD

Professor of the Practice of Civic Design

Carlo Ratti, PhD

Professor of the Practice of Urban Technologies

Associate Professors of the Practice

Holly Harriel, EdD

Associate Professor of the Practice of Urban Studies and Planning

Mary Anne Ocampo, MArch

Associate Professor of the Practice of Urban Design and Planning

Kairos Shen, MS

Senior Lecturers

Joseph F. Coughlin, PhD

Senior Lecturer in Urban Studies and Planning

Walter N. Torous, PhD

Senior Lecturer in Real Estate

Cherie Abbanat, MCP

Lecturer of International Development and Urban Studies

Sarah Abrams, MS

Lecturer of Real Estate

James Aloisi, MA, JD

Lecturer in Urban Studies and Planning

Garnette Cadogan, BA

Tunney Lee Distinguished Lecturer

Jennifer Cookke, MS, MBA

Mary Jane Daly, MCP

Ezra Glenn, MA

Christopher Gordon, MS

Eric Huntley, PhD

Lecturer of GIS, Data Visualization and Graphics

John Kennedy, MS

Jeffrey Levine, MS

Lecturer of Economic Development and Planning

W. Tod McGrath, MBA

Julie Newman, PhD

Lecturer of Environmental Planning and Sustainability

Peter Roth, MS, MArch

Gloria Schuck, PhD

Yanni Tsipis, MS

Bruno Verdini Trejo, PhD

Lecturer of Urban Planning and Negotiation

Visiting Lecturers

Kate Mytty, MCP

Visiting Lecturer of Real Estate

Professors Emeriti

Lawrence Bacow, PhD

Professor Emeritus of Urban Planning

Robert M. Fogelson, PhD

Professor Emeritus of Urban Studies

Professor Emeritus of History

Ralph Gakenheimer, PhD

Gary A. Hack, MArch, PhD

Professor Emeritus of Urban Design

Langley C. Keyes Jr, PhD

Ford International Professor Emeritus

Professor Emeritus of City and Regional Planning

Frank Levy, PhD

Daniel Rose Professor Emeritus

Professor Emeritus of Urban Economics

Gary Marx, PhD

Professor Emeritus of Sociology

Paul Osterman, PhD

Nanyang Technological University Professor Emeritus

Professor Emeritus of Human Resources and Management

Professor Emeritus of Urban Studies and Planning

Karen R. Polenske, PhD

Professor Emerita of Regional Political Economy and Planning

Adèle Naudé Santos, MArch, MCP, MAUD

Professor Emerita of Architecture

Professor Emerita of Urban Planning

James Wescoat, PhD

Aga Khan Professor Emeritus

William C. Wheaton, PhD

Professor Emeritus of Economics

Clarence G. Williams, PhD

Adjunct Professor Emeritus of Urban Studies and Planning

Introductory Subjects

11.001[j] introduction to urban design and development.

Same subject as 4.250[J] Prereq: None U (Spring) 3-0-9 units. HASS-H

Examines the evolving structure of cities and the way that cities, suburbs, and metropolitan areas can be designed and developed. Surveys the ideas of a wide range of people who have addressed urban problems. Stresses the connection between values and design. Demonstrates how physical, social, political and economic forces interact to shape and reshape cities over time. Introduces links between urban design and urban science.

L. Vale (fall); A. Sevtsuk (spring)

11.002[J] Making Public Policy

Same subject as 17.30[J] Prereq: None U (Fall) 4-0-8 units. HASS-S; CI-H

Examines how the struggle among competing advocates shapes the outputs of government. Considers how conditions become problems for government to solve, why some political arguments are more persuasive than others, why some policy tools are preferred over others, and whether policies achieve their goals. Investigates the interactions among elected officials, think tanks, interest groups, the media, and the public in controversies over global warming, urban sprawl, Social Security, health care, education, and other issues.

11.003[J] Methods of Policy Analysis

Same subject as 17.303[J] Prereq: 11.002[J] ; Coreq: 14.01 Acad Year 2023-2024: Not offered Acad Year 2024-2025: U (Spring) 3-0-9 units. HASS-S

Provides students with an introduction to public policy analysis. Examines various approaches to policy analysis by considering the concepts, tools, and methods used in economics, political science, and other disciplines. Students apply and critique these approaches through case studies of current public policy problems.

11.004[J] People and the Planet: Environmental Histories and Engineering

Same subject as STS.033[J] Subject meets with 11.204[J] , IDS.524[J] Prereq: None U (Fall) Not offered regularly; consult department 3-3-6 units. HASS-E

Explores historical and cultural aspects of complex environmental problems and engineering approaches to sustainable solutions. Introduces quantitative analyses and methodological tools to understand environmental issues that have human and natural components. Demonstrates concepts through a series of historical and cultural analyses of environmental challenges and their engineering responses. Builds writing, quantitative modeling, and analytical skills in assessing environmental systems problems and developing engineering solutions. Through environmental data gathering and analysis, students engage with the challenges and possibilities of engineering in complex, interacting systems, and investigate plausible, symbiotic, systems-oriented solutions. Students taking graduate version complete additional analysis of reading assignments and a more in-depth and longer final paper. 

A. Slocum, R. Scheffler, J. Trancik

11.005 Introduction to International Development

Prereq: None U (Spring) 3-0-9 units. HASS-S

Introduces the political economy of international economic development planning, using an applied, quantitative approach. Considers why some countries are able to develop faster than others. Presents major theories and models of development and underdevelopment, providing tools to understand the mechanisms and processes behind economic growth and broader notions of progress. Offers an alternative view of development, focusing on the persistence of dichotomies in current theory and practice. Using specific cases, explores how different combinations of actors and institutions at various scales may promote or inhibit economic development. Students re-examine conventional knowledge and engage critically with the assumptions behind current thinking and policy.

11.006 Poverty and Economic Security

Subject meets with 11.206 Prereq: None Acad Year 2023-2024: U (Fall) Acad Year 2024-2025: Not offered 3-0-9 units. HASS-S

Explores the evolution of poverty and economic security in the US within a global context. Examines the impacts of recent economic restructuring and globalization. Reviews current debates about the fate of the middle class, sources of increasing inequality, and approaches to advancing economic opportunity and security. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments.

A. Glasmeier

11.007 Urban and Environmental Technology Implementation Lab

Prereq: None Acad Year 2023-2024: Not offered Acad Year 2024-2025: U (Spring) 2-2-8 units

Real-world clients and environmental problems form the basis of a project in which teams of students develop strategies for analysis and implementation of new sensor technology within cities. Working closely with a partner or client based on the MIT campus or in Cambridge, students assess the environmental problem, implement prototypes, and recommend promising solutions to the client for implementation. Equipment and working space provided. Limited to 12.

11.008 Undergraduate Planning Seminar (New)

Prereq: None U (Fall) 2-0-4 units Can be repeated for credit.

A weekly seminar that includes discussions on topics in cities and urban planning, including guest lectures from DUSP faculty and practicing planners. Topics include urban science, zoning, architecture and urban design, urban sociology, politics and public policy, transportation and mobility, democratic governance, civil rights and social justice, urban economics, affordable housing, environmental policy and planning, real estate and economic development, agriculture and food policy, public health, and international development. Weekly student presentations on local planning issues and current events; occasional walking tours or arranged field trips. May be repeated for credit. Enrollment may be limited; preference to Course 11 and 11-6 sophomores and juniors.

11.011 The Art and Science of Negotiation

Prereq: None U (Fall) 3-0-9 units. HASS-S

Introduction to negotiation theory and practice. Applications in government, business, and nonprofit settings are examined. Combines a "hands-on" personal skill-building orientation with a look at pertinent tactical and strategic foundations. Preparation insights, persuasion tools, ethical benchmarks, and institutional influences are examined as they shape our ability to analyze problems, negotiate agreements, and resolve disputes in social, organizational, and political circumstances characterized by interdependent interests. Enrollment limited by lottery; consult class website for information and deadlines.

11.013[J] American Urban History

Same subject as 21H.217[J] Prereq: None Acad Year 2023-2024: U (Spring) Acad Year 2024-2025: Not offered 2-0-7 units. HASS-H; CI-H

Seminar on the history of institutions and institutional change in American cities from roughly 1850 to the present. Among the institutions to be looked at are political machines, police departments, courts, schools, prisons, public authorities, and universities. Focuses on readings and discussions.

11.014[J] History of the Built Environment in the US

Same subject as 21H.218[J] Prereq: None U (Fall) Not offered regularly; consult department 2-0-7 units. HASS-H; CI-H

Seminar on the history of selected features of the physical environment of urban America. Among the features considered are parks, cemeteries, tenements, suburbs, zoos, skyscrapers, department stores, supermarkets, and amusement parks.

R. M. Fogelson

11.015[J] Riots, Strikes, and Conspiracies in American History

Same subject as 21H.226[J] Prereq: None U (Fall) Not offered regularly; consult department 3-0-9 units. HASS-H; CI-H

See description under subject 21H.226[J] .

11.016[J] The Once and Future City

Same subject as 4.211[J] Prereq: None U (Spring) Not offered regularly; consult department 3-0-9 units. HASS-H; CI-H

Examines the evolving structure of cities, the dynamic processes that shape them, and the significance of a city's history for its future development. Develops the ability to read urban form as an interplay of natural processes and human purposes over time. Field assignments in Boston provide the opportunity to use, develop, and refine these concepts. Enrollment limited.

11.021[J] Environmental Law, Policy, and Economics: Pollution Prevention and Control

Same subject as 1.801[J] , 17.393[J] , IDS.060[J] Subject meets with 1.811[J] , 11.630[J] , 15.663[J] , IDS.540[J] Prereq: None U (Spring) 3-0-9 units. HASS-S

Analyzes federal and state regulation of air and water pollution, hazardous waste, greenhouse gas emissions, and production/use of toxic chemicals. Analyzes pollution/climate change as economic problems and failure of markets. Explores the role of science and economics in legal decisions. Emphasizes use of legal mechanisms and alternative approaches (i.e., economic incentives, voluntary approaches) to control pollution and encourage chemical accident and pollution prevention. Focuses on major federal legislation, underlying administrative system, and common law in analyzing environmental policy, economic consequences, and role of the courts. Discusses classical pollutants and toxic industrial chemicals, greenhouse gas emissions, community right-to-know, and environmental justice. Develops basic legal skills: how to read/understand cases, regulations, and statutes. Students taking graduate version explore the subject in greater depth.

N. Ashford, C. Caldart

11.022[J] Regulation of Chemicals, Radiation, and Biotechnology

Same subject as 1.802[J] , IDS.061[J] Subject meets with 1.812[J] , 10.805[J] , 11.631[J] , IDS.436[J] , IDS.541[J] Prereq: IDS.060[J] or permission of instructor U (Spring) Not offered regularly; consult department 3-0-9 units

Focuses on policy design and evaluation in the regulation of hazardous substances and processes. Includes risk assessment, industrial chemicals, pesticides, food contaminants, pharmaceuticals, radiation and radioactive wastes, product safety, workplace hazards, indoor air pollution, biotechnology, victims' compensation, and administrative law. Health and economic consequences of regulation, as well as its potential to spur technological change, are discussed for each regulatory regime. Students taking the graduate version are expected to explore the subject in greater depth.

11.024 Modeling Pedestrian Activity in Cities

Subject meets with 11.324 Prereq: None U (Spring) 3-0-9 units

Investigates the interaction between pedestrian activity, urban form, and land-use patterns in relatively dense urban environments. Informed by recent literature on pedestrian mobility, behavior, and biases, subject takes a practical approach, using software tools and analysis methods to operationalize and model pedestrian activity. Uses simplified yet powerful and scalable network analysis methods that focus uniquely on pedestrians, rather than engaging in comprehensive travel demand modeling across all modes. Emphasizes not only modeling or predicting pedestrian activity in given built settings, but also analyzing and understanding how changes in the built environment — land use changes, density changes, and connectivity changes — can affect pedestrian activity. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments.

A. Sevtsuk 

11.025[J] D-Lab: Development

Same subject as EC.701[J] Subject meets with 11.472[J] , EC.781[J] Prereq: None U (Fall) 3-2-7 units. HASS-S

See description under subject EC.701[J] . Enrollment limited by lottery; must attend first class session.

S. L. Hsu, B. Sanyal

11.026[J] Downtown

Same subject as 21H.321[J] Subject meets with 11.339 Prereq: None U (Spring) Not offered regularly; consult department 2-0-7 units. HASS-H

See description under subject 21H.321[J] .

11.027 City to City: Comparing, Researching, and Reflecting on Practice

Prereq: None Acad Year 2023-2024: U (Spring) Acad Year 2024-2025: Not offered 3-0-9 units. HASS-S

Introduces students to practice through researching, writing, and working for and with nonprofits. Students work directly with nonprofits and community partners to help find solutions to real world problems; interview planners and other field experts, and write and present findings to nonprofit partners and community audiences.

11.029[J] Mobility Ventures: Driving Innovation in Transportation Systems

Same subject as 15.3791[J] Subject meets with 11.529[J] , 15.379[J] Prereq: None U (Fall) 3-3-6 units

Explores technological, behavioral, policy, and systems-wide frameworks for innovation in transportation systems, complemented with case studies across the mobility spectrum, from autonomous vehicles to urban air mobility to last-mile sidewalk robots. Students interact with a series of guest lecturers from CEOs and other business and government executives who are actively reshaping the future of mobility. Interdisciplinary teams of students collaborate to deliver business plans for proposed mobility-focused startups with an emphasis on primary market research. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. Preference to juniors and seniors.

J. Zhao, J. Moavenzadeh, J. Larios Berlin

11.041 Introduction to Housing, Community, and Economic Development

Subject meets with 11.401 Prereq: None U (Fall) 3-0-9 units. HASS-S

Provides a critical introduction to the shape and determinants of political, social, and economic inequality in America, with a focus on racial and economic justice. Explores the role of the city in visions of justice. Analyzes the historical, political, and institutional contexts of housing and community development policy in the US, including federalism, municipal fragmentation, and decentralized public financing. Introduces major dimensions in US housing policy, such as housing finance, public housing policy, and state and local housing affordability mechanisms. Reviews major themes in community economic development, including drivers of economic inequality, small business policy, employment policy, and cooperative economics. Expectations and evaluation criteria differ for students taking graduate version.

11.045[J] Power: Interpersonal, Organizational, and Global Dimensions

Same subject as 15.302[J] , 17.045[J] , 21A.127[J] Subject meets with 21A.129 Prereq: None Acad Year 2023-2024: Not offered Acad Year 2024-2025: U (Spring) 3-0-9 units. HASS-S

See description under subject 21A.127[J] .

11.067 Land Use Law and Politics: Race, Place, and Law

Subject meets with 11.367 Prereq: None Acad Year 2023-2024: Not offered Acad Year 2024-2025: U (Spring) 3-0-9 units. HASS-S

Explores conceptions of spatial justice and introduces students to basic principles of US law and legal analysis, focused on property, land use, equal protection, civil rights, fair housing, and local government law, in order to examine who should control how land is used. Examines the rights of owners of land and the types of regulatory and market-based tools that are available to control land use, and discusses why and when government regulation, rather than private market ordering, might be necessary to control land use patterns. Explores basic principles of civil rights and anti-discrimination law and focuses on particular civil rights problems associated with the land use regulatory system, such as exclusionary zoning, residential segregation, the fair distribution of undesirable land uses, and gentrification. Introduces basic skills of statutory drafting and interpretation. Assignments differ for those taking the graduate version.

11.074 Cybersecurity Clinic

Subject meets with 11.274 Prereq: None U (Fall, Spring) 2-4-6 units. REST

Provides an opportunity for MIT students to become certified in methods of assessing the vulnerability of public agencies (particularly agencies that manage critical urban infrastructure) to the risk of cyberattack. Certification involves completing an 8-hour, self-paced, online set of four modules during the first four weeks of the semester followed by a competency exam. Students who successfully complete the exam become certified. The certified students work in teams with client agencies in various cities around the United States. Through preparatory interactions with the agencies, and short on-site visits, teams prepare vulnerability assessments that client agencies can use to secure the technical assistance and financial support they need to manage the risks of cyberattack they are facing. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. Limited to 15.

L. Susskind

11.092 Renewable Energy Facility Siting Clinic (New)

Subject meets with 11.592 Prereq: None U (Fall, Spring) 2-4-6 units

Presents methods for resolving facility siting disputes, particularly those involving renewable energy. After completing four modules and a competency exam for MITx certification, students work in teams to help client communities in various cities around the United States. Through direct interactions with the proponents and opponents of facilities subject to local opposition, students complete a stakeholder assessment and offer joint fact-finding and collaborative problem-solving assistance. The political, legal, financial, and regulatory aspects of facility siting, particularly for renewable energy, are reviewed along with key infrastructure planning principles. Students taking the graduate version complete additional assignments. Limited to 15.

Specialized Subjects

11.100 introduction to computational thinking in cities.

Prereq: None. Coreq: 6.100B Acad Year 2023-2024: Not offered Acad Year 2024-2025: U (Fall) 1-0-2 units

Highlights how computer science may inform and impact how cities are conceptualized, planned, designed, regulated, and managed. The first half of the class explores the history of computational approaches in urban planning between around 1950 and 2020. The second half attempts to connect the data science concepts learned in 6.100B to topics in city planning and design. Subject can count toward the 6-unit discovery-focused credit limit for first-year students.

11.107 Tools and Techniques for Inclusive Economic Development

Subject meets with 11.407 Prereq: None U (Fall) 3-0-9 units. HASS-S

Introduces tools and techniques in economic development planning. Extensive use of data collection, analysis, and display techniques. Students build interpretive intuition skills through user experience design activities and develop a series of memos summarizing the results of their data analysis. These are aggregated into a final report, and include the tools developed over the semester. Students taking graduate version complete modified assignments focused on developing computer applications.

11.111[J] Leadership in Negotiation: Advanced Applications

Same subject as 17.381[J] Prereq: 11.011 or permission of instructor U (Fall) 4-0-8 units. HASS-S

Building on the skills and strategies honed in 11.011 , explores advanced negotiation practice. Emphasizes an experiential skill-building approach, underpinned by cutting-edge cases and innovative research. Examines applications in high-stakes management, public policy, social entrepreneurship, international diplomacy, and scientific discovery. Strengthens collaborative decision-making, persuasion, and leadership skills by negotiating across different media and through personalized coaching, enhancing students' ability to proactively engage stakeholders, transform organizations, and inspire communities. Limited by lottery; consult class website for information and deadlines.

11.113 The Economic Approach to Cities and Environmental Sustainability

Subject meets with 11.413 Prereq: 1.010 , 14.30 , 18.650[J] , or permission of instructor U (Spring) Not offered regularly; consult department 3-0-9 units. HASS-S Can be repeated for credit.

Provides a systematic framework of the interplay (both tension and synergy) between urbanization and environmental sustainability from a global perspective. Enhances analytical reasoning and quantitative skills to assist evidence-based empirical study and policy design evaluation. Explores the causes and consequences of urban environmental quality dynamics, and provides econometric tools to quantify such relationships. Examines state-of-the-art research in this field by introducing empirical studies from both developing and developed countries (highlighting fast urbanization). Themes include urban production, households, transportation and form, as well as political economy and climate resilience. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments.

11.119 NEET Seminar: Digital Cities

Prereq: None U (Spring) Not offered regularly; consult department 1-0-2 units Can be repeated for credit.

Seminar for students enrolled in the Digital Cities NEET thread. Focuses on topics around clean energy and sustainability in cities via guest lectures and research discussions.

11.122[J] Law, Technology, and Public Policy

Same subject as IDS.066[J] Subject meets with 11.422[J] , 15.655[J] , IDS.435[J] Prereq: None U (Fall) 3-0-9 units. HASS-S

See description under subject IDS.066[J] .

11.123 Big Plans and Mega-Urban Landscapes

Prereq: None Acad Year 2023-2024: Not offered Acad Year 2024-2025: U (Spring) 3-0-6 units. HASS-S

Explores the physical, ecological, technological, political, economic and cultural implications of big plans and mega-urban landscapes in a global context. Uses local and international case studies to understand the process of making major changes to urban landscape and city fabric, and to regional landscape systems. Includes lectures by leading practitioners. Assignments consider planning and design strategies across multiple scales and time frames.

11.124[J] Introduction to Education: Looking Forward and Looking Back on Education

Same subject as CMS.586[J] Prereq: None U (Fall) 3-6-3 units. HASS-S; CI-H

See description under subject CMS.586[J] . Limited to 25.

11.125[J] Introduction to Education: Understanding and Evaluating Education

Same subject as CMS.587[J] Prereq: None U (Spring) 3-6-3 units. HASS-S; CI-H

See description under subject CMS.587[J] . Limited to 25.

11.127[J] Design and Development of Games for Learning

Same subject as CMS.590[J] Subject meets with 11.252[J] , CMS.863[J] Prereq: None U (Spring) 3-6-3 units. HASS-H

See description under subject CMS.590[J] .

11.129[J] Educational Theory and Practice I

Same subject as CMS.591[J] Prereq: None. Coreq: CMS.586[J] U (Fall) 3-0-9 units. HASS-S

See description under subject CMS.591[J] . Limited to 15; preference to juniors and seniors.

G. Schwanbeck

11.130[J] Educational Theory and Practice II

Same subject as CMS.592[J] Prereq: CMS.591[J] U (IAP) 3-0-9 units

See description under subject CMS.592[J] .

11.131[J] Educational Theory and Practice III

Same subject as CMS.593[J] Prereq: CMS.592[J] U (Spring) 3-0-9 units. HASS-S

See description under subject CMS.593[J] .

11.133[J] Dilemmas in Biomedical Ethics: Playing God or Doing Good?

Same subject as 21A.302[J] , WGS.271[J] Prereq: None U (Fall) Not offered regularly; consult department 3-0-9 units. HASS-S

An introduction to the cross-cultural study of biomedical ethics. Examines moral foundations of the science and practice of western biomedicine through case studies of abortion, contraception, cloning, organ transplantation and other issues. Evaluates challenges that new medical technologies pose to the practice and availability of medical services around the globe, and to cross-cultural ideas of kinship and personhood. Discusses critiques of the biomedical tradition from anthropological, feminist, legal, religious, and cross-cultural theorists.

E. C. James

11.134[J] Infections and Inequalities: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Global Health

Same subject as HST.431[J] Prereq: None U (Spring) Not offered regularly; consult department 3-0-9 units. HASS-S

Examines case studies in infectious disease outbreaks to demonstrate how human health is a product of multiple determinants, such as biology, sociocultural and historical factors, politics, economic processes, and the environment. Analyzes how structural inequalities render certain populations vulnerable to illness and explores the moral and ethical dimensions of public health and clinical interventions to promote health. Limited to 25.

E. James, A. Chakraborty

11.135 Violence, Human Rights, and Justice

Prereq: None U (Spring) Not offered regularly; consult department 3-0-9 units. HASS-S

An examination of the problem of mass violence and oppression in the contemporary world, and of the concept of human rights as a defense against such abuse. Explores questions of cultural relativism, race, gender and ethnicity. Examines case studies from war crimes tribunals, truth commissions, anti-terrorist policies and other judicial attempts to redress state-sponsored wrongs. Considers whether the human rights framework effectively promotes the rule of law in modern societies. Students debate moral positions and address ideas of moral relativism.

11.136 Global Mental Health

Prereq: None U (Fall) Not offered regularly; consult department 3-0-9 units. HASS-S

Provides skills to critically analyze issues of mental health in historical and cross-cultural contexts. Studies mental illness as a complex biopsychosocial experience embedded in particular political and economic frameworks. Examines the relationships among culture, gender, embodiment, and emotional distress; power inequalities and ideas of the "normal" and "abnormal;" and how such conceptions influence care-giving practices, whether in traditional or biomedical contexts. Evaluates how the disciplines of psychology, psychoanalysis, and psychiatry have developed in the West, and considers their influence on mental health interventions in global settings. Limited to 25.

11.137 Financing Economic Development and Housing

Subject meets with 11.437 Prereq: None U (Spring) 4-0-8 units

Studies financing tools and program models to support and promote local economic development and housing. Overview of public and private capital markets and financing sources helps illustrate market imperfections that constrain economic and housing development and increase race and class disparaties. Explores federal housing and economic development programs as well as state and local public finance tools. Covers policies and program models. Investigates public finance practice to better understand how these finance programs affect other municipal operations. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. Limited to 25.

11.138 Crowd Sourced City: Civic Tech Prototyping

Subject meets with 11.458 Prereq: None U (Fall) 3-0-9 units. HASS-S

Investigates the use of social medial and digital technologies for planning and advocacy by working with actual planning and advocacy organizations to develop, implement, and evaluate prototype digital tools. Students use the development of their digital tools as a way to investigate new media technologies that can be used for planning. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments.

S. Williams, C. D'Ignazio

11.139 The City in Film

Subject meets with 11.239 Prereq: None Acad Year 2023-2024: Not offered Acad Year 2024-2025: U (Spring) 2-2-5 units. HASS-H; CI-H

Surveys important developments in urbanism from 1900 to the present, using film as a lens to explore and interpret aspects of the urban experience in the US and abroad. Topics include industrialization, demographics, diversity, the environment, and the relationship between the community and the individual. Films vary from year to year but always include a balance of classics from the history of film, an occasional experimental/avant-garde film, and a number of more recent, mainstream movies. Students taking undergraduate version complete writing assignments that focus on observation, analysis, and the essay, and give an oral presentation. Limited to 18.

11.140 Urbanization and Development

Examines developmental dynamics of rapidly urbanizing locales, with a special focus on the developing world. Case studies from India, China, Mexico, Brazil, and South Africa form the basis for discussion of social, spatial, political and economic changes in cities spurred by the decline of industry, the rise of services, and the proliferation of urban mega projects. Emphasizes the challenges of growing urban inequality, environmental risk, citizen displacement, insufficient housing, and the lack of effective institutions for metropolitan governance.

11.142 Geography of the Global Economy

Subject meets with 11.442 Prereq: None Acad Year 2023-2024: Not offered Acad Year 2024-2025: U (Fall) 3-0-9 units. HASS-S

Analyzes implications of economic globalization for communities, regions, international businesses and economic development organizations. Uses spatial analysis techniques to model the role of energy resources in shaping international political economy. Investigates key drivers of human, physical, and social capital flows and their roles in modern human settlement systems. Surveys contemporary models of industrialization and places them in geographic context. Connects forces of change with their implications for the distribution of wealth and human well-being. Looks backward to understand pre-Covid conditions and then returns to the present to understand how a global pandemic changes the world. Class relies on current literature and explorations of sectors. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments.

11.143 Research Methods in Global Health and Development

Subject meets with 11.243 Prereq: None U (Spring) 3-3-6 units. HASS-S

Provides training for students to critically analyze the relationship between "health" and "development." Draws upon the theory and methods of medical anthropology, social medicine, public health, and development to track how culture, history, and political economy influence health and disease in global communities. Students work in teams to formulate research questions, and collect and analyze qualitative data in clinical and community settings in the greater Boston area, in order to design effective development interventions aimed at reducing health disparities in the US and abroad. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments.

11.144 Project Appraisal in Developing Countries

Prereq: Permission of instructor U (Spring) Not offered regularly; consult department 3-0-9 units

Covers techniques of financial analysis of investment expenditures, as well as the economic and distributive appraisal of development projects. Critical analysis of these tools in the political economy of international development is discussed. Topics include appraisal's role in the project cycle, planning under conditions of uncertainty, constraints in data quality and the limits of rational analysis, and the coordination of an interdisciplinary appraisal team. Enrollment limited; preference to majors.

11.145 International Housing Economics and Finance

Prereq: 14.01 U (Spring) 3-0-6 units Credit cannot also be received for 11.355

Presents a theory of comparative differences in international housing outcomes. Introduces institutional differences in the ways housing expenditures are financed, and the economic determinants of housing outcomes, such as construction costs, land values, housing quality, and ownership rates. Analyzes the flow of funds to and from the different national housing finance sectors. Develops an understanding of the greater financial and macroeconomic implications of the mortgage credit sector, and how policies affect the ways housing asset fluctuations impact national economies. Considers the perspective of investors in international real estate markets and the risks and rewards involved. Draws on lessons from an international comparative approach, and applies them to economic and finance policies at the local, state/provincial, and federal levels within a country of choice. Meets with 11.355 when offered concurrently. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments.

11.147 Budgeting and Finance for the Public Sector

Subject meets with 11.487 Prereq: Permission of instructor U (Spring) Not offered regularly; consult department 3-0-9 units. HASS-S

Examines globally relevant challenges of adequately and effectively attending to public sector responsibilities for basic services with limited resources. Particular attention to the contexts of fiscal crises and rapid population growth, as well as shrinkage, through an introduction to methods and processes of budgeting, accounting, and financial mobilization. Case studies and practice exercises explore revenue strategies, demonstrate fiscal analytical competencies, and familiarize students with pioneering examples of promising budget and accounting processes and innovative funding mobilization via taxation, capital markets, and other mechanisms (e.g., land-value capture). Students taking graduate version explore the subject in greater depth.

G. Carolini

11.148 Environmental Justice: Law and Policy

Subject meets with 11.368 Prereq: None Acad Year 2023-2024: Not offered Acad Year 2024-2025: U (Fall) 3-0-9 units. HASS-S

Introduces frameworks for analyzing and addressing inequalities in the distribution of environmental benefits and burdens, particularly by race and by class. Explores the foundations and principles of the environmental justice movement from the perspectives of social science, public policy, and law. Introduces basic principles of US constitutional and environmental law, with a focus on equal protection and civil rights. Applies environmental justice principles to contemporary issues in urban policy and planning, including effects of and responses to climate change and global heating. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments.

11.149 Decarbonizing Urban Mobility

Subject meets with 11.449 Prereq: None U (Spring) 3-3-6 units

Focuses on measuring and reducing emissions from passenger transportation. After examining travel, energy, and climate conditions, students review existing approaches to transport decarbonization. Evaluates new mobility technologies through their potential to contribute to (or delay) a zero emission mobility system. Students consider the policy tools required to achieve approaches to achieve change. Frames past and future emission reductions using an approach based on the Kaya Identity, decomposing past (and potential future) emissions into their component pieces. Seeks to enable students to be intelligent evaluators of approaches to transportation decarbonization and equip them with the tools to develop and evaluate policy measures relevant to their local professional challenges. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments.

J. Zhao, A. Salzberg

11.150[J] Metropolis: A Comparative History of New York City

Same subject as 21H.220[J] Prereq: None U (Fall) Not offered regularly; consult department 3-0-9 units. HASS-H

See description under subject 21H.220[J] .

11.151[J] Youth Political Participation

Same subject as STS.080[J] Prereq: None Acad Year 2023-2024: Not offered Acad Year 2024-2025: U (Spring) 3-0-9 units. HASS-H

See description under subject STS.080[J] . Limited to 40.

J. S. Light

11.152[J] The Ghetto: From Venice to Harlem

Same subject as 21H.385[J] Prereq: None U (Fall) Not offered regularly; consult department 3-0-9 units. HASS-S

See description under subject 21H.385[J] .

11.153[J] Shanghai and China's Modernization

Same subject as 21H.351[J] Prereq: None U (Fall) Not offered regularly; consult department 2-0-10 units. HASS-H

See description under subject 21H.351[J] .

11.154 Big Data, Visualization, and Society

Subject meets with 11.454 Prereq: None U (Spring) Not offered regularly; consult department 3-0-9 units. HASS-S Credit cannot also be received for 6.8530 , 6.C35[J] , 6.C85[J] , 11.454 , 11.C35[J] , 11.C85[J]

Data visualizations communicate the insights found in data to non-technical audiences. Students develop technical skills to work with big data to expose societal issues and communicate the insights. Focuses on different topics each year. After framing that topic, the first half of the subject focuses on learning to analyze the data with Python. The second half of the subject focuses on learning web-based data visualization tools (JavaScript and D3). Students learn data storytelling concepts and produce web-based data visualizations for their final projects. Throughout, students learn ethical data practices. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments.

S. Williams

11.C35[J] Interactive Data Visualization and Society

Same subject as 6.C35[J] Subject meets with 6.C85[J] , 11.C85[J] Prereq: None U (Spring) 3-1-8 units Credit cannot also be received for 6.8530 , 11.154 , 11.454

See description under subject 6.C35[J] . Enrollment limited.

C. D'Ignazio, A. Satyanarayan, S. Williams

11.155[J] Data and Society

Same subject as IDS.057[J] , STS.005[J] Prereq: None Acad Year 2023-2024: Not offered Acad Year 2024-2025: U (Spring) 3-0-9 units. HASS-H

See description under subject STS.005[J] .

E. Medina, S. Williams

11.156 Healthy Cities: Assessing Health Impacts of Policies and Plans

Subject meets with 11.356 Prereq: None Acad Year 2023-2024: Not offered Acad Year 2024-2025: U (Spring) 3-0-9 units

Examines the built, psychosocial, economic, and natural environment factors that affect health behaviors and outcomes, including population-level patterns of disease distribution and health disparities. Introduces tools designed to integrate public health considerations into policy-making and planning. Provides extensive practical, budgeting, and programming training in the application of health impact assessment tools meant to integrate Health in All Policies, including Health Impact Assessment (HIA) methodology, which brings a health lens to policy, budgeting, and planning debates. Emphasizes health equity and healthy cities, and explores the relationship between health equity and broader goals for social and racial justice. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. Limited to 30.

11.157[J] China's Growth: Political Economy, Business, and Urbanization

Same subject as 15.2391[J] Subject meets with 11.257[J] , 15.239[J] Prereq: None Acad Year 2023-2024: Not offered Acad Year 2024-2025: U (Spring; second half of term) 3-0-3 units

Examines different aspects of the growth of China, which has the second largest economy in the world. Studies the main drivers of Chinese economic growth and the forces behind the largest urbanization in human history. Discusses how to understand China's booming real estate market, and how Chinese firms operate to attain their success, whether through hard-working entrepreneurship or political connections with the government. Explores whether the top-down urban and industrial policy interventions improve efficiency or cause misallocation problems, and whether the Chinese political system in an enabler of Chinese growth or a potential impediment to the country's future growth prospects. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments.

Y. Huang, S. Zheng, Z. Tan

11.158 Behavioral Science, AI, and Urban Mobility

Subject meets with 11.478 Prereq: None U (Fall) 3-0-9 units. HASS-S

Integrates behavioral science, artificial intelligence, and transportation technology to shape travel behavior, design mobility systems and business, and reform transportation policies. Introduces methods to sense travel behavior with new technology and measurements; nudge behavior through perception and preference shaping; design mobility systems and ventures that integrate autonomous vehicles, shared mobility, and public transit; and regulate travel with behavior-sensitive transport policies. Challenges students to pilot behavioral experiments and design creative mobility systems, business and policies. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments.

11.159 Entrepreneurial Negotiation

Subject meets with 11.259 Prereq: None U (Fall; partial term) 1-3-2 units

Combines online weekly face-to-face negotiation exercises and in-person lectures designed to empower budding entrepreneurs with negotiation techniques to protect and increase the value of their ideas, deal with ego and build trust in relationships, and navigate entrepreneurial bargaining under constraints of economic uncertainty and complex technical considerations. Students must complete scheduled weekly assignments, including feedback memos to counterpart negotiators, and meet on campus with the instructor to discuss and reflect on their experiences with the course. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments.

11.162 Politics of Energy and the Environment

Focuses on the politics of making local, state, national and international decisions on energy and the environment. Topics include implementing energy efficiency measures, siting nuclear and alternative energy plants, promoting oil and gas development offshore and in wilderness, adapting to climate change, handling toxic waste, protecting endangered species, and conserving water. Case studies include Cape Wind, disputes over oil and gas exploration in the Arctic, the response to Hurricane Katrina, and efforts to craft and comply with the greenhouse gas emissions limits.

11.164[J] Human Rights at Home and Abroad

Same subject as 17.391[J] Subject meets with 11.497 Prereq: Permission of instructor U (Fall) Not offered regularly; consult department 2-0-10 units. HASS-S

Provides a rigorous and critical introduction to the history, foundation, structure, and operation of the human rights movement. Focuses on key ideas, actors, methods and sources, and critically evaluates the field. Addresses current debates in human rights, including the relationship with security, democracy, development and globalization, urbanization, equality (in housing and other economic and social rights; women's rights; ethnic, religious and racial discrimination; and policing/conflict), post-conflict rebuilding and transitional justice, and technology in human rights activism. No prior coursework needed, but work experience, or community service that demonstrates familiarity with global affairs or engagement with ethics and social justice issues, preferred. Students taking graduate version are expected to write a research paper.

B. Rajagopal

11.165 Urban Energy Systems and Policy

Subject meets with 1.286[J] , 11.477[J] Prereq: 14.01 or permission of instructor U (Fall) 3-0-9 units. HASS-S

Examines efforts in developing and advanced nations and regions. Examines key issues in the current and future development of urban energy systems, such as technology, use, behavior, regulation, climate change, and lack of access or energy poverty. Case studies on a diverse sampling of cities explore how prospective technologies and policies can be implemented. Includes intensive group research projects, discussion, and debate. Students taking the graduate version complete additional assignments.

11.166 Law, Social Movements, and Public Policy: Comparative and International Experience

Subject meets with 11.496 Prereq: Permission of instructor U (Spring) Not offered regularly; consult department 3-0-9 units. HASS-S

Studies the interaction between law, courts, and social movements in shaping domestic and global public policy. Examines how groups mobilize to use law to affect change and why they succeed and fail. Case studies explore the interplay between law, social movements, and public policy in current issues, such as gender, race, labor, trade, climate change/environment, and LGBTQ rights. Introduces theories of public policy, social movements, law and society, and transnational studies. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. Limited to 15.

11.167[J] Global Energy: Politics, Markets, and Policy

Same subject as 14.47[J] , 15.2191[J] , 17.399[J] Prereq: None U (Spring) Not offered regularly; consult department 3-0-9 units. HASS-S Credit cannot also be received for 11.267[J] , 15.219[J]

See description under subject 15.2191[J] . Preference to juniors, seniors, and Energy Minors.

11.169 Global Climate Policy and Sustainability

Subject meets with 11.269 Prereq: None Acad Year 2023-2024: Not offered Acad Year 2024-2025: U (Spring) 3-0-9 units. HASS-S

Examines climate politics both nationally and globally. Addresses economic growth, environmental preservation, and social equity through the lens of sustainability. Uses various country and regional cases to analyze how sociopolitical, economic and environmental values shape climate policy. Students develop recommendations for making climate policy more effective and sustainable. Students taking the graduate version complete additional assignments. Limited to 25.

J. Knox-Hayes

11.170 Cities and Climate Change: Mitigation and Adaptation

Subject meets with 11.270 Prereq: None Acad Year 2023-2024: Not offered Acad Year 2024-2025: U (Spring) 3-0-9 units. HASS-S Can be repeated for credit.

Examines climate adaptation and mitigation responses at the city level. Discusses factors of greatest concern in adapting cities to climate change, including infrastructure; energy, food, and water systems; health; housing; and environmental justice. Various city and regional cases are used to analyze how cities are mobilizing to face climate change and integrate core considerations into urban planning. Working on independent case studies, students analyze how cities make urban planning decisions with respect to climate adaptation. In the process, students practice analytical skills to better understand how urban policies are made, and how they can be improved. Students develop recommendations for making climate adaptation more effective and sustainable at the city level. Assignment requirements differ for students completing the graduate version. Limited to 25.

11.171 Indigenous Environmental Planning

Subject meets with 11.271 Prereq: None U (Spring) 3-0-9 units

Examines how Indigenous peoples' relationships to their homelands and local environments has been adversely affected by Western planning. Explores how these relationships have changed over time as American Indians, Alaska Natives, and other groups indigenous to North America and Hawai'i have adapted to new conditions, including exclusion from markets of exchange, overhunting/overfishing, dispossession, petrochemical development, conservation, mainstream environmentalism, and climate change. Seeks to understand current environmental challenges and their roots and discover potential solutions to address these challenges. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments.

J. Knox-Hayes, L. Susskind

11.173[J] Infrastructure Design for Climate Change

Same subject as 1.103[J] Subject meets with 1.303[J] , 11.273[J] Prereq: Permission of instructor U (Fall) 0-2-4 units

See description under subject 1.103[J] . Enrollment limited; preference to juniors and seniors.

H. Einstein

Laboratories

11.188 introduction to spatial analysis and gis laboratory.

Prereq: None U (Fall, Spring) 3-3-6 units. Institute LAB Credit cannot also be received for 11.205

An introduction to Geographic Information Systems (GIS), a tool for visualizing and analyzing spatial data. Explores how GIS can make maps, guide decisions, answer questions, and advocate for change. Class builds toward a project in which students critically apply GIS techniques to an area of interest. Students build data discovery, cartography, and spatial analysis skills while learning to reflect on their positionality within the research design process. Because maps and data are never neutral, the class incorporates discussions of power, ethics, and data throughout as part of a reflective practice. Instruction and practice in oral and written communication provided.

S. Williams, C. D'Ignazio, E. Huntley

Tutorials, Fieldwork, and Internships

11.uar[j] climate and sustainability undergraduate advanced research (new).

Same subject as 1.UAR[J] , 3.UAR[J] , 5.UAR[J] , 12.UAR[J] , 15.UAR[J] , 22.UAR[J] Prereq: Permission of instructor U (Fall, Spring) 2-0-4 units Can be repeated for credit.

See description under subject 1.UAR[J] . Application required; consult MCSC website for more information.

D. Plata, E. Olivetti

11.UR Undergraduate Research

Prereq: None U (Fall, IAP, Spring, Summer) Units arranged [P/D/F] Can be repeated for credit.

Undergraduate research opportunities in Urban Studies and Planning. For further information, consult the Departmental Coordinators.

11.URG Undergraduate Research

Prereq: None U (Fall, IAP, Spring, Summer) Units arranged Can be repeated for credit.

11.THT[J] Thesis Research Design Seminar

Same subject as 4.THT[J] Prereq: None U (Fall) 3-0-9 units Can be repeated for credit.

Designed for students writing a thesis in Urban Studies and Planning or Architecture. Develop research topics, review relevant research and scholarship, frame research questions and arguments, choose an appropriate methodology for analysis, and draft introductory and methodology sections.

11.THU Undergraduate Thesis

Prereq: 11.THT[J] U (Fall, IAP, Spring, Summer) Units arranged Can be repeated for credit.

Program of research leading to the writing of an SB thesis. To be arranged by the student under approved supervision.

11.189-11.190 Urban Fieldwork

Prereq: None U (Fall, Spring) Units arranged [P/D/F] Can be repeated for credit.

Practical application of city and regional planning techniques to towns, cities, and regions, including problems of replanning, redevelopment, and renewal of existing communities. Includes internships, under staff supervision, in municipal and state agencies and departments.

11.191-11.192 Independent Study

Prereq: None U (Fall, IAP, Spring) Units arranged [P/D/F] Can be repeated for credit.

For undergraduates wishing to pursue further study in specialized areas of urban studies or city and regional planning not covered in regular subjects.

11.193-11.194 Supervised Readings

Reading and discussion of topics in urban studies and planning.

11.S03 Special Subject: Transportation Shaping Sustainable Urbanization: Connections with Behavior, Urban Economics and Planning

Prereq: None U (Fall; partial term) 2-0-1 units

Explores changes in the built environment expected from transportation investments, and how they can be used to promote sustainable and equitable cities. Reflects on how notable characteristics of cities can be explained by their historical and current transportation features. Introduces theoretical basis and empirical evidence to analyze the urban transformation autonomous vehicles will bring and how shared mobility services affect travel behavior, and its implications from an urban planning perspective. Lectures interspersed with guest speakers and an optional field trip. Subject can count toward the 6-unit discovery-focused credit limit for first-year students. Licensed for Fall 2023 by the Committee on Curricula. Limited to 18.

F. Duarte, A. Borges Costa

11.S04 Special Subject: Topics in Affordable Housing

Prereq: None U (Spring) 1-0-2 units

Weekly seminar-style discussions on topics in affordable housing, including federal funding programs, homelessness prevention and shelters, local land use and zoning for affordability, innovative housing models/designs, fair housing laws, the history of public housing in the US, and international comparisons. Subject can count toward the 6-unit discovery-focused credit limit for first year students.

 Ezra Haber Glenn

11.S187 Special Subject: Urban Studies and Planning

Prereq: None U (Fall; second half of term) Units arranged [P/D/F] Can be repeated for credit.

For undergraduates wishing to pursue further study or fieldwork in specialized areas of urban studies or city and regional planning not covered in regular subjects of instruction.

11.S188 Special Subject: Urban Studies and Planning

Prereq: None U (Fall, IAP) Units arranged [P/D/F] Can be repeated for credit.

11.S189 Special Subject: Urban Studies and Planning

11.s195 special subject: urban studies and planning.

Prereq: None U (Fall, Spring) Units arranged Can be repeated for credit.

11.S196-11.S199 Special Subject: Urban Studies and Planning

For undergraduates wishing to pursue further study or fieldwork in specialized areas of urban studies or city and regional planning not covered in regular subjects of instruction. 11.S198 is graded P/D/F.

Master's Core Subjects

11.200 gateway: urban studies and planning 1.

Prereq: None G (Fall) 4-1-7 units

Introduces the theory and practice of planning and urban studies through exploration of the history of the field, case studies, and criticisms of traditional practice.

11.201 Gateway: Urban Studies and Planning 2

Prereq: 11.200 G (Spring) Not offered regularly; consult department 4-1-7 units

Builds on 11.200 by exploring in more detail contemporary planning tools and techniques, as well as case studies of planning and urban studies practice.

11.202 Planning Economics

Prereq: 11.203 G (Fall; second half of term) 3-0-3 units

Students use economic theory tools acquired in 11.203 to understand the mutual processes of individual action and structural constraint and investigate crises in search of opportunities for mitigation and reparation. Investigates a variety of structural crises from throughout the realms of planning, such as: capitalism, climate change, and (in)action; white supremacy, segregation, and gentrification; colonialism, informality, and infrastructure; autocentricity and other legacies of the built environment.

11.203 Microeconomics

Prereq: None G (Fall; first half of term) 3-0-3 units

Students develop a suite of tools from economic theory to understand the mutual processes of individual action and structural constraint. Students apply these tools to human interaction and social decision-making. Builds an understanding of producer theory from the collaborative possibilities and physical constraints that unfold as production is scaled up. Presents consumer theory as the process of individuals doing the best for themselves, their families, and their communities -- subject to the sociostructural constraints under which they operate. Considers alternative frameworks of social welfare, with a specific focus on marginalization and crisis, as well as common policy interventions and their implications under different constructions of welfare.

11.204[J] People and the Planet: Environmental Histories and Engineering

Same subject as IDS.524[J] Subject meets with 11.004[J] , STS.033[J] Prereq: None G (Spring) Not offered regularly; consult department 3-3-6 units

Explores historical and cultural aspects of complex environmental problems and engineering approaches to sustainable solutions. Introduces quantitative analyses and methodological tools to understand environmental issues that have human and natural components. Demonstrates concepts through a series of historical and cultural analyses of environmental challenges and their engineering responses. Builds writing, quantitative modeling, and analytical skills in assessing environmental systems problems and developing engineering solutions. Through environmental data gathering and analysis, students engage with the challenges and possibilities of engineering in complex, interacting systems, and investigate plausible, symbiotic, systems-oriented solutions. Students taking graduate version complete additional analysis of reading assignments and a more in-depth and longer final paper.

11.205 Introduction to Spatial Analysis and GIS

Prereq: None G (Fall, Spring; first half of term) 2-2-2 units Credit cannot also be received for 11.188

An introduction to Geographic Information Systems (GIS): a tool for visualizing and analyzing data representing locations and their attributes. GIS is invaluable for planners, scholars, and professionals who shape cities and a political instrument with which activists advocate for change. Class includes exercises to make maps, query databases, and analyze spatial data. Because maps and data are never neutral, the class incorporates discussions of power, ethics, and data throughout as part of a reflective practice. Limited enrollment; preference to first-year MCP students.

11.206 Poverty and Economic Security

Subject meets with 11.006 Prereq: None Acad Year 2023-2024: G (Fall) Acad Year 2024-2025: Not offered 3-0-9 units

11.220 Quantitative Reasoning and Statistical Methods for Planning I

Prereq: Permission of instructor Acad Year 2023-2024: Not offered Acad Year 2024-2025: G (Spring) 4-2-6 units

Develops logical, empirically based arguments using statistical techniques and analytic methods. Covers elementary statistics, probability, and other types of quantitative reasoning useful for description, estimation, comparison, and explanation. Emphasizes the use and limitations of analytical techniques in planning practice. Restricted to MCP students.

Department-wide Subjects

11.222 introduction to critical qualitative methods.

Prereq: None G (Spring) 3-0-3 units

Introduces qualitative methods as an approach to critical inquiry in urban planning research and practice. Emphasizes the importance of historical context, place-specificity, and the experiences and views of individuals as ways of knowing relationships of power and privilege between people, in place, and over time. Explores a range of critical qualitative methods including those used in archival, interview, observational, visual, and case study analysis.

K. Crockett

11.228[J] Collectives: New Forms of Sharing

Same subject as 4.229[J] Prereq: Permission of instructor G (Spring) 3-0-9 units

See description under subject 4.229[J] . Limited to 15.

Consult R. Segal

11.233 Research Design for Policy Analysis and Planning

Prereq: Permission of instructor G (Fall) 3-0-9 units

Develops skills in research design for policy analysis and planning. Emphasizes the logic of the research process and its constituent elements. Topics include philosophy of science, question formulation, hypothesis generation and theory construction, data collection techniques (e.g. experimental, survey, interview), ethical issues in research, and research proposal preparation. Limited to doctoral students in Course 11.

11.234 Making Sense: Qualitative Methods for Designers and Planners

Prereq: None G (Spring) 3-3-6 units

Surveys uses of qualitative methods and social theory in urban design and planning research and practice. Topics include observing environments, physical traces, and environmental behavior; asking questions; focused interviews; standardized questionnaires; use of written archival materials; use of visual materials, including photographs, new media, and maps; case studies; and comparative methods. Emphasizes use of each of these skills to collect and make sense of qualitative data in community and institutional settings.

11.236 Participatory Action Research (PAR)

Prereq: None G (Fall) 3-0-9 units

Introduces students to participatory action research (PAR), an approach to research and inquiry that enables communities to examine and address consequential societal problems. Explores theoretical and practical questions at the heart of partnerships between applied social scientists and community partners. Focus includes the history of PAR and action research; debates regarding PAR as a form of applied social science; and practical, political, and ethical questions in the practice of PAR. Guides students through an iterative process for developing their own personal theories of practice. Covers co-designing and co-conducting research with community partners at various stages of the research process .Examines actual cases in which PAR-like methods have been used with greater or lesser success; and interaction with community members, organizations, and individuals who have been involved in PAR collaborations. 

11.238[J] Ethics of Intervention

Same subject as 21A.409[J] Prereq: Permission of instructor Acad Year 2023-2024: G (Fall) Acad Year 2024-2025: Not offered 3-0-9 units

An historical and cross-cultural study of the logics and practices of intervention: the ways that individuals, institutions, and governments identify conditions of need or states of emergency within and across borders that require a response. Examines when a response is viewed as obligatory, when is it deemed unnecessary, and by whom; when the intercession is considered fulfilled; and the rationales or assumptions that are employed in assessing interventions. Theories of the state, globalization, and humanitarianism; power, policy, and institutions; gender, race, and ethnicity; and law, ethics, and morality are examined.

11.239 The City in Film

Subject meets with 11.139 Prereq: Permission of instructor Acad Year 2023-2024: Not offered Acad Year 2024-2025: G (Spring) 2-2-5 units

Surveys important developments in urbanism from 1900 to the present, using film as a lens to explore and interpret aspects of the urban experience in the US and abroad. Topics include industrialization, demographics, diversity, the environment, and the relationship between the community and the individual. Films vary from year to year but always include a balance of classics from the history of film, an occasional experimental/avant-garde film, and a number of more recent, mainstream movies. Students taking undergraduate version complete writing assignments that focus on observation, analysis, and the essay, and give an oral presentation.

11.243 Research Methods in Global Health and Development

Subject meets with 11.143 Prereq: None G (Spring) 3-3-6 units

11.244[J] Race, History, and the Built Environment

Same subject as STS.424[J] Prereq: None Acad Year 2023-2024: Not offered Acad Year 2024-2025: G (Spring) 3-0-9 units

Examines how the development of the built environment produces and reproduces conceptions of race - sociobiological theories of human difference. Using historical and cross-cultural cases, tracks the social and political lives of material objects, infrastructures, technologies, and architectures using projects of settler colonialism, nation-building, community development and planning, and in post-conflict and post-disaster settings. Analyzes social theories of race, place, space, and materiality; power, identity, and embodiment; and memory, death, and haunting. Explores how conceptions of belonging, citizenship, and exclusion are represented and designed spatially through analysis of examples, such as the appropriation of land for infrastructure programs, the erasure and commemoration of heritage in public spaces, and the use of the built environment to impose colonial ideologies. Limited to 14 students.

Erica James

11.245[J] DesignX Entrepreneurship

Same subject as 4.245[J] Prereq: Permission of instructor G (IAP) 4-0-2 units

Students in teams accepted to the MITdesignX accelerator begin work on their ventures in this intense two-week bootcamp. Participants identify the needs and problems that demonstrate the demand for their innovative technology, policy, products, and/or services. They research and investigate various markets and stakeholders pertinent to their ventures, and begin to test their ideas and thesis in real-world interviews and interactions. Subject presented in workshop format, giving teams the chance to jump-start their ventures together with a cohort of people working on ideas that span the realm of design, planning real estate, and the human environment. Registration limited to students accepted to the MITdesignX accelerator in the fall.

S. Gronfeldt, D. Frenchman, G. Rosenzweig

11.246[J] DesignX Accelerator

Same subject as 4.246[J] Prereq: Permission of instructor G (Spring) 2-4-6 units

Students continue to work in their venture teams to advance innovative ideas, products, and services oriented to design, planning, and the human environment. Presented in a workshop format with supplementary lectures. Teams are matched with external mentors for additional support in business and product development. At the end of the term, teams pitch their ventures to an audience from across the school and MIT, investors, industry, and cities. Registration limited to students accepted to the MITdesignX accelerator in the fall.

11.250 Transportation Research Design

Prereq: Permission of instructor G (Fall, Spring) 2-0-1 units Can be repeated for credit.

Seminar dissects ten transportation studies from head to toe to illustrate how research ideas are initiated, framed, analyzed, evidenced, written, presented, criticized, revised, extended, and published, quoted and applied. Students learn by mimicking and learn by doing, and design and execute their own transportation research. Limited to 20.

11.251 Frontier of Transportation Research

Prereq: None G (Fall, Spring) 1-0-2 units Can be repeated for credit.

Surveys the frontier of transportation research offered by 12 MIT faculty presenting their latest findings, ideas, and innovations. Students write weekly memos to reflect on these talks, make connections to their own research, and give short presentations.

Jinhua Zhao

11.252[J] Design and Development of Games for Learning

Same subject as CMS.863[J] Subject meets with 11.127[J] , CMS.590[J] Prereq: None G (Spring) 3-6-3 units

See description under subject CMS.863[J] .

11.255 Negotiation and Dispute Resolution in the Public Sector

Prereq: None G (Spring) 4-0-8 units

Investigates social conflict and distributional disputes in the public sector. While theoretical aspects of conflict and consensus building are considered, focus is on the practice of negotiation and dispute resolution. Comparisons between unassisted and assisted negotiation are reviewed along with the techniques of facilitation and mediation.

11.256[J] Encounters and Ruptures: Writing About the Modern City

Same subject as 4.256[J] Prereq: Permission of instructor G (Fall) Not offered regularly; consult department 2-0-7 units

Through extensive reading and writing, students explore the promise and perils of the variegated city, focusing on topics that demand urgent attention: migration, climate change, inequality, racial injustice, and public space. Class strives to create artful narratives by examining how various forms — essay, memoir, longform journalism, poetry, fiction, film, and photography — illuminate our understanding of cities. Special emphasis on the writer as the reader's advocate and on the indispensability of the writer-editor relationship, with the goal of writing with greater creativity and sophistication for specialized and general interest audiences. Limited to 12 students.

11.257[J] China's Growth: Political Economy, Business, and Urbanization

Same subject as 15.239[J] Subject meets with 11.157[J] , 15.2391[J] Prereq: None Acad Year 2023-2024: Not offered Acad Year 2024-2025: G (Spring; second half of term) 3-0-3 units

11.258 Sustainable Urbanization Research Seminar (New)

Prereq: None G (Fall) 2-0-1 units Can be repeated for credit.

Reviews the seminal as well as latest research on the driving forces of urbanization, real estate markets, urban sustainability in both developed and developing economies. Examines the tensions as well as synergies between urbanization and sustainability, and designs and evaluates policies and business strategies that can enhance the synergies while reduce the tensions. Covers various research topics under the umbrella of urbanization under three modules (sustainable urbanization; sustainable real estate; urbanization in emerging economies) where students study the initiation of an idea to its publication, including but not limited to, analyzing, framing, writing and critiquing as parts of the process. Sessions are organized as a semi-structured dialogue.

11.259 Entrepreneurial Negotiation

Subject meets with 11.159 Prereq: None G (Fall; partial term) 1-3-2 units

11.260 Sustainable Development and Institutions

Prereq: None G (Fall) Not offered regularly; consult department 3-0-9 units

Explores the theory and application of the principles of sustainable development as they relate to organizational change management, decision-making processes, goal setting methodology and solution development. Leverages the MIT campus as a living laboratory to gain unique insight into the change management and solution development process. Limited to 18.

11.263[J] Urban Last-Mile Logistics

Same subject as 1.263[J] , SCM.293[J] Prereq: SCM.254 or permission of instructor G (Spring; second half of term) 2-0-4 units

See description under subject SCM.293[J] .

M.  Winkenbach

11.267[J] Global Energy: Politics, Markets, and Policy

Same subject as 15.219[J] Prereq: None G (Spring) Not offered regularly; consult department 3-0-9 units Credit cannot also be received for 11.167[J] , 14.47[J] , 15.2191[J] , 17.399[J]

See description under subject 15.219[J] .

11.268 Laws of the Land: Land Use and Environmental Law and Policy (New)

Prereq: None Acad Year 2023-2024: Not offered Acad Year 2024-2025: G (Fall) 3-0-3 units

Environmental justice and climate change are pressing contemporary concerns.  Crucial dimensions of the exposure of households to environmental harms and benefits are determined by land use and environmental laws.  Land use and environmental laws are also central to reducing carbon emissions and building environmentally sustainable and resilient communities.  Introduces students to the legal and social science dimension of these two crucial areas of law that is well-covered in the current curriculum. Enrollment limited to 30.

11.269 Global Climate Policy and Sustainability

Subject meets with 11.169 Prereq: None Acad Year 2023-2024: Not offered Acad Year 2024-2025: G (Spring) 3-0-9 units

Examines climate politics both nationally and globally. Addresses economic growth, environmental preservation, and social equity through the lens of sustainability. Uses various country and regional cases to analyze how sociopolitical, economic and environmental values shape climate policy. Students develop recommendations for making climate policy more effective and sustainable. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. Limited to 25.

11.270 Cities and Climate Change: Mitigation and Adaptation

Subject meets with 11.170 Prereq: None Acad Year 2023-2024: Not offered Acad Year 2024-2025: G (Spring) 3-0-9 units Can be repeated for credit.

11.271 Indigenous Environmental Planning

Subject meets with 11.171 Prereq: None G (Spring) 3-0-9 units

Examines how Indigenous peoples' relationships to their homelands and local environments has been adversely affected by Western planning. Explores how these relationships have changed over time as American Indians, Alaska Natives, and other groups indigenous to North America and Hawai'i have adapted to new conditions, including exclusion from markets of exchange, overhunting/overfishing, dispossession, petrochemical development, conservation, mainstream environmentalism, and climate change. Seeks to understand current environmental challenges and their roots and discover potential solutions to address these challenges. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. Limited to 25.

11.273[J] Infrastructure Design for Climate Change

Same subject as 1.303[J] Subject meets with 1.103[J] , 11.173[J] Prereq: Permission of instructor G (Fall) 0-2-4 units

See description under subject 1.303[J] .

11.274 Cybersecurity Clinic

Subject meets with 11.074 Prereq: None G (Fall, Spring) 2-4-6 units

Program Group Subjects

11.301[j] introduction to urban design and development.

Same subject as 4.252[J] Prereq: Permission of instructor Acad Year 2023-2024: Not offered Acad Year 2024-2025: G (Spring) 3-0-9 units

Examines the physical and social structure of cities and ways they can be changed. Includes significant thinkers in urban form, 20th-century American city design, urban design and society, global urban design, and design of neighborhoods and streets. Core lectures are supplemented by student papers examining the relationship of contemporary projects to history and theory, and factors of high quality global urban design and development. Guest speakers present cases involving current projects or research illustrating scope and methods of urban design theory and practice. Intended for those seeking an introduction to fundamental knowledge of theory and praxis in city design and development.

11.302[J] Urban Design Politics

Same subject as 4.253[J] Prereq: Permission of instructor G (Spring) 3-0-9 units

Examines ways that urban design contributes to distribution of political power and resources in cities. Investigates the nature of relations between built form and political purposes through close study of public and private sector design commissions and planning processes that have been clearly motivated by political pressures, as well as more tacit examples. Lectures and discussions focus on cases from both developed and developing countries.

11.303[J] Real Estate Development Studio

Same subject as 4.254[J] Prereq: Permission of instructor G (Spring) 6-0-12 units

Focuses on the synthesis of urban, mixed-use real estate projects, including the integration of physical design and programming with finance and marketing. Interdisciplinary student teams analyze how to maximize value across multiple dimensions in the process of preparing professional development proposals for sites in US cities and internationally. Reviews emerging real estate products and innovative developments to provide a foundation for studio work. Two major projects are interspersed with lectures and field trips. Integrates skills and knowledge in the MSRED program; also open to other students interested in real estate development by permission of the instructors.

11.304[J] Site and Environmental Systems Planning

Same subject as 4.255[J] Prereq: Permission of instructor G (Spring) 6-0-9 units

Introduces a range of practical approaches involved in evaluating and planning sites within the context of natural and cultural systems. Develops the knowledge and skills to analyze and plan a site for development through exercises and an urban design project. Topics include land inventory, urban form, spatial organization of uses, parcelization, design of roadways, grading, utility systems, off-site impacts, and landscape strategies.

E. Ben-Joseph, M. A. Ocampo

11.305 Doing Good by Doing Well: Planning and Development Case Studies that Promote both the Public Good and Real Estate Value

Prereq: None G (Fall) 2-0-1 units

Seminar studies how the messy and complex forces of politics, planning and the real estate market have collectively shaped Boston's urban fabric and skyline in the last two decades. Using some of the city's most important real estate development proposals as case studies, students dissect and analyze Boston's negotiated development review and permitting process to understand what it takes beyond a great development concept and a sound financial pro forma to earn community and political support. Throughout the term, students identify strategies for success and pitfalls for failure within this intricate approval process, as well as how these lessons can be generalized and applied to other cities and real estate markets.

11.307[J] China Urban Design Studio

Same subject as 4.173[J] Prereq: Permission of instructor Acad Year 2023-2024: Not offered Acad Year 2024-2025: G (Spring) 0-21-0 units

Design studio that includes architects, urban designers, and city planners working in teams on a contemporary development project of importance in China, particularly in transitional, deindustrializing cities. Students analyze conditions, explore alternatives, and synthesize architecture, city design, and implementation plans. Lectures and brief study tours expose students to history and contemporary issues of urbanism in China. Offered every other spring at MIT in parallel with urban design studio at Tsinghua University, Beijing, involving students and faculty from both schools. Field visit to China will occur in January prior to studio. Limited to 10.

11.308[J] Ecological Urbanism Seminar

Same subject as 4.213[J] Prereq: Permission of instructor G (Spring) 3-0-9 units

Weds the theory and practice of city design and planning as a means of adaptation with the insights of ecology and other environmental disciplines. Presents ecological urbanism as critical to the future of the city and its design, as it provides a framework for addressing challenges that threaten humanity — such as climate change, rising sea level, and environmental and social justice — while fulfilling human needs for health, safety, welfare, meaning, and delight. Applies a historical and theoretical perspective to the solution of real-world challenges.  Enrollment limited.

11.309[J] Sensing Place: Photography as Inquiry

Same subject as 4.215[J] Prereq: None G (Spring) 3-0-9 units

Explores photography as a disciplined way of seeing, and as a medium of inquiry and of expressing ideas. Readings, observations, and photographs form the basis of discussions on landscape, light, significant detail, place, poetics, narrative, and how photography can inform research, design and planning, among other issues. Recommended for students who want to employ visual methods in their theses.  Enrollment limited.

11.312 Engaging Community: Models and Methods for Strengthening Democracy

Prereq: None G (Spring) 3-0-9 units

Examines the demographic complexity of cities and their fundamental design challenges for planners and other professions responsible for engaging the public. Working with clients, participants learn design principles for creating public engagement practices necessary for building inclusive civic infrastructure in cities. Participants also have the opportunity to review and practice strategies, techniques, and methods for engaging communities in demographically complex settings.

C. McDowell

11.313 Advanced Research Workshop in Landscape and Urbanism

Prereq: Permission of instructor Acad Year 2023-2024: Not offered Acad Year 2024-2025: G (Fall) 3-0-9 units

In-depth research workshop on pressing socio-economic and environmental design issue of our time, includes discussion and practices with real-world stakeholders experimenting with new development typologies and technologies. The goal is to generate well-grounded, design-based solutions and landscape infrastructural responses to the physical design problem being addressed. Specific focus and practicum status is adjusted on a year-to-year basis.

11.315[J] Disaster Resilient Design

Same subject as 4.217[J] Subject meets with 4.218 Prereq: None G (Fall) Not offered regularly; consult department 3-0-6 units

See description under subject 4.217[J] . Limited to 15.

Consult M. Mazereeuw

11.318 Senseable Cities

Prereq: Permission of instructor G (Spring) Not offered regularly; consult department 3-0-9 units

Studies how ubiquitous and real-time information technology can help us to understand and improve cities and regions. Explores the impact of integrating real-time information technology into the built environment. Introduces theoretical foundations of ubiquitous computing. Provides technical tools for tactile development of small-scale projects. Limited to 24.

11.320 Digital City Design Workshop

Prereq: Permission of instructor G (Spring) 3-0-9 units

Students develop proposals, at the city and neighborhood scales, that integrate urban design, planning, and digital technology. Aims to create more efficient, responsive, and livable urban places and systems that combine physical form with digital media, sensing, communications, and data analysis. Students conduct field research, build project briefs, and deliver designs or prototypes, while supported by lectures, case studies, and involvement from experts and representatives of subject cities. Limited to 12.

11.321 Data Science and Real Estate

Introduces the principles of data science and how data science is impacting cities and real estate, with a combination of fundamental lectures, guest speakers, and use cases. Explores how data science has been adopted by the real estate industry — from developers to city planners. Presents practical skills in data science and provides the opportunity for students to produce their own work and practice basic coding skills applied to real estate.

11.323 International Real Estate Transactions

Prereq: None G (Spring; second half of term) 3-0-3 units

Focuses on analyzing a variety of unique international real estate investment and development transactions. Blends real estate investing and development decision-making with discussion-based learning from a multidisciplinary standpoint. Seeks to facilitate a richer understanding of domestic (US) real estate transaction concepts by contextualizing them in the general analytical framework underpinning international real estate investment decision-making.

M. Srivastava

11.324 Modeling Pedestrian Activity in Cities

Subject meets with 11.024 Prereq: None G (Spring) 3-0-9 units

11.325 Technological Change & Innovation for Real Estate and Cities

Prereq: None G (Fall; second half of term) 2-0-4 units

Seeks to examine the technological change and innovation that is disrupting the foundation of how we create the built environment. Through a series of educational workshops, students scout, catalog, and track technologies by looking at new real estate uses, products, processes, and organizational strategies at MIT labs and around the globe. Participants contribute to an interactive web tool, "The Tech Tracker," which provides technology intelligence to students and real estate professionals to enhance their understanding of technological progress.

F. Duarte, J. Scott

11.328[J] Urban Design Skills: Observing, Interpreting, and Representing the City

Same subject as 4.240[J] Prereq: None G (Fall; first half of term) 4-2-2 units

Introduces methods for observing, interpreting, and representing the urban environment. Students draw on their senses and develop their ability to deduce, question, and test conclusions about how the built environment is designed, used, and valued. The interrelationship of built form, circulation networks, open space, and natural systems are a key focus. Supplements existing classes that cover theory and history of city design and urban planning and prepares students without design backgrounds with the fundamentals of physical planning. Intended as a foundation for 11.329[J] .

E. Ben-Joseph, M. Ocampo 

11.329[J] Advanced Urban Design Skills: Observing, Interpreting, and Representing the City

Same subject as 4.248[J] Prereq: 11.328[J] or permission of instructor G (Fall; second half of term) 4-2-4 units

Through a studio-based course in planning and urban design, builds on the foundation acquired in 11.328[J] to engage in creative exploration of how design contributes to resilient, just, and vibrant urban places. Through the planning and design of two projects, students creatively explore spatial ideas and utilize various digital techniques to communicate their design concepts, giving form to strategic thinking. Develops approaches and techniques to evaluate the plural structure of the built environment and offer propositions that address policies and regulations as well as the values, behaviors, and wishes of the different users.

E. Ben-Joseph, M. Ocampo

11.330[J] The Making of Cities

Same subject as 4.241[J] Prereq: 11.001[J] , 11.301[J] , or permission of instructor G (Spring) Units arranged

See description under subject 4.241[J] .

L. Jacobi, R. Segal

11.332[J] Urban Design Studio

Same subject as 4.163[J] Prereq: Permission of instructor G (Fall) Units arranged Can be repeated for credit.

See description under subject 4.163[J] .

11.333[J] Urban Design Seminar: Perspectives on Contemporary Practice

Same subject as 4.244[J] Prereq: None G (Spring) 2-0-7 units

Examines innovations in urban design practice occurring through the work of leading practitioners in the fields of architecture, landscape architecture, and urban planning. Features lectures by major national and global practitioners in urban design. Projects and topics vary based on term and speakers but may cover architectural urbanism, landscape and ecology, arts and culture, urban design regulation and planning agencies, and citywide and regional design. Focuses on analysis and synthesis of themes discussed in presentations and discussions.

11.334[J] Advanced Seminar in Landscape and Urbanism

Same subject as 4.264[J] Prereq: Permission of instructor G (Spring) Not offered regularly; consult department 3-0-9 units

Explores theories, practices, and emerging trends in the fields of landscape architecture and urbanism, such as systemic design, landscape urbanism, engineered nature, drosscapes, urban biodiversity, urban mobility, megaregions, and urban agriculture. Lectures, readings, and guest speakers present a wide array of multi-disciplinary topics, including current works from P-REX lab. Students conduct independent and group research that is future-oriented.

11.337[J] Urban Design Ideals and Action

Same subject as 4.247[J] Prereq: None G (Fall) 2-0-7 units

Examines the relationship between urban design ideals, urban design action, and the built environment through readings, discussions, presentations, and papers. Analyzes the diverse design ideals that influence cities and settlements, and investigates how urban designers use them to shape urban form. Provides a critical understanding of the diverse formal methods used to intervene creatively in both developed and developing contexts, especially pluralistic and informal built environments.

11.338 Urban Design Studio

Prereq: 11.328[J] or permission of instructor Acad Year 2023-2024: Not offered Acad Year 2024-2025: G (Fall) Units arranged

Examines the rehabilitation and re-imagination of a city, region, or territory. Analyzes human settlement at multiple scales: regional, citywide, neighborhood, and individual dwellings. Aims to shape innovative design solutions, enhance social amenity, and improve economic equity through strategic and creative geographical, urban design and architectural thinking. Intended for students with backgrounds in architecture, community development, urban design, and physical planning. Limited to 12 via application and lottery.

11.339 Downtown

Subject meets with 11.026[J] , 21H.321[J] Prereq: None G (Spring) Not offered regularly; consult department 2-0-7 units

Seminar on downtown in US cities from the late 19th century to the late 20th. Emphasis on downtown as an idea, place, and cluster of interests, on the changing character of downtown, and on recent efforts to rebuild it. Topics considered include subways, skyscrapers, highways, urban renewal, and retail centers. Focus on readings, discussions, and individual research projects. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments.

11.344[J] Innovative Project Delivery in the Public and Private Sectors

Same subject as 1.472[J] Prereq: None G (Spring; first half of term) 2-0-4 units

Develops a strong strategic understanding of how best to deliver various types of projects in the built environment. Examines the compatibility of various project delivery methods, consisting of organizations, contracts, and award methods, with certain types of projects and owners. Six methods examined: traditional general contracting; construction management; multiple primes; design-build; turnkey; and build-operate-transfer. Includes lectures, case studies, guest speakers, and a team project to analyze a case example.

C. M. Gordon

11.345[J] Entrepreneurship in the Built Environment

Same subject as 1.462[J] Prereq: Permission of instructor G (Fall; first half of term) 2-0-4 units

Introduction to entrepreneurship and how it shapes the world we live in. Through experiential learning in a workshop setting, students start to develop entrepreneurial mindset and skills. Through a series of workshops, students are introduced to the concept of Venture Design to create new venture proposals for the built environment as a method to understand the role of the entrepreneur in the fields of design, planning, real estate, and other related industries.

S. Gronfeldt, G. Rosenzweig

11.350 Sustainable Real Estate: Economics & Business

Offers insight into tension and synergy between sustainability and the real estate industry. Considers why sustainability matters for real estate, how real estate can contribute to sustainability and remain profitable, and what investment and market opportunities exist for sustainable real estate products and how they vary across asset classes. Lectures combine economic and business insights and tools to understand the challenges and opportunities of sustainable real estate. Provides a framework to understand issues in sustainability in real estate and examine economic mechanisms, technological advances, business models, and investment and financing strategies available to promote sustainability. Discusses buildings as basic physical assets; cities as the context where buildings interact with the built environment, policies, and urban systems; and portfolios as sustainable real estate investment vehicles in capital markets. Enrollment for MSRED, MCP, and MBA students is prioritized.

Zheng, Siqi; Tan, Zhengzhen

11.351 Real Estate Ventures I: Negotiating Development-Phase Agreements

Focuses on key business and legal issues within the principal agreements used to control, entitle, capitalize, and construct a mixed-use real estate development. Through the lens of the real estate developer and its counter-parties, students identify, discuss, and negotiate the most important business issues in right of entry, purchase and sale, development, and joint-venture agreements, as well as a construction contract and construction loan agreement. Students work closely with attorneys who specialize in the construction of such agreements and with students from area law schools and Columbia University and New York University. Enrollment limited to approximately 25; preference to MSRED students. No listeners.

W. T. McGrath

11.352 Real Estate Ventures II: Negotiating Leases, Financings, and Restructurings

Focuses on key business and legal issues within the principal agreements used to lease, finance, and restructure a real estate venture. Through the lens of the real estate developer and its counter-parties, students identify, discuss and negotiate the most important business issues in office and retail leases, and permanent loan, mezzanine loan, inter-creditor, standstill/forbearance, and loan modification (workout) agreements. Students work closely with attorneys who specialize in the construction of such agreements and with students from area law schools and New York University and Columbia University. Single-asset real estate bankruptcy and the federal income tax consequences of debt restructuring are also addressed. Limited to 25; preference to MSRED students; no Listeners.

11.353[J] Securitization of Mortgages and Other Assets

Same subject as 15.429[J] Prereq: 11.431[J] , 15.401 , or permission of instructor G (Spring; second half of term) 3-0-3 units

Investigates the economics and finance of securitization. Considers the basic mechanics of structuring deals for various asset-backed securities. Investigates the pricing of pooled assets, using Monte Carlo and other option pricing techniques, as well as various trading strategies used in these markets. Limited to 55.

11.355 International Housing Economics and Finance

Prereq: 11.202 , 11.203 , 14.01 , or permission of instructor G (Spring) 3-0-6 units Credit cannot also be received for 11.145

Presents a theory of comparative differences in international housing outcomes. Introduces institutional differences in ways housing expenditures are financed, and economic determinants of housing outcomes (construction costs, land values, housing quality, ownership rates). Analyzes flow of funds to and from the different national housing finance sectors. Develops an understanding of the greater financial and macroeconomic implications of mortgage credit sector, and how policies affect ways housing asset fluctuations impact national economies. Considers perspective of investors in international real estate markets and risks and rewards involved. Draws on lessons from international comparative approach, applies them to economic and finance policies at the local, state/provincial, and federal levels within country of choice. Meets with 11.145 when offered concurrently. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments.

11.356 Healthy Cities: Assessing Health Impacts of Policies and Plans

Subject meets with 11.156 Prereq: None Acad Year 2023-2024: Not offered Acad Year 2024-2025: G (Spring) 3-0-9 units

11.360 Community Growth and Land Use Planning

Seminar, workshops, and fieldwork on strategies to use municipal land use regulations to shape urban growth and equity. Practicum workshop builds skills in civic engagement, policy-relevant research, zoning regulations, and physical design and planning. The workshop begins with implementation of qualitative and quantitative research into the existing built environment, social, economic, and political context. It continues with the planning, design, and implementation of community engagement strategies to shape goals and vision for the projects. The practicum then explores land use scenarios, design and innovative zoning and regulatory techniques, to improve equity in the areas of housing, environment, economic development, mobility, and the public realm. Projects arranged with small teams serving municipal clients experiencing pressures of urban growth and change in Massachusetts. Preference to MCP second year students.

11.365 Sustainable Urbanization Practicum

Prereq: None G (Spring) Not offered regularly; consult department 3-0-9 units

Working with a city development client (city government/real estate developer/NGO) in a fast-urbanizing region, practicum provides students an opportunity to synthesize policy, planning or urban science solutions towards sustainable urbanization, within the constraints of a client-based project. Priority is given to MCP students.

11.367 Land Use Law and Politics: Race, Place, and Law

Subject meets with 11.067 Prereq: None Acad Year 2023-2024: Not offered Acad Year 2024-2025: G (Spring) 3-0-9 units

Explores conceptions of spatial justice and introduces students to basic principles of US law and legal analysis, focused on land use, equal protection, civil rights, fair housing, and local government law, in order to examine who should control how land is used. Examines the rights of owners of land and the types of regulatory and market-based tools that are available to control land use. Explores basic principles of civil rights and anti-discrimination law and focuses on particular civil rights problems associated with the land use regulatory system, such as exclusionary zoning, residential segregation, the fair distribution of undesirable land uses, and gentrification. Introduces basic skills of statutory drafting and interpretation. Assignments differ for those taking the graduate version.

11.368 Environmental Justice: Law and Policy

Subject meets with 11.148 Prereq: None Acad Year 2023-2024: Not offered Acad Year 2024-2025: G (Fall) 3-0-9 units

11.371[J] Sustainable Energy

Same subject as 1.818[J] , 2.65[J] , 10.391[J] , 22.811[J] Subject meets with 2.650[J] , 10.291[J] , 22.081[J] Prereq: Permission of instructor G (Fall) 3-1-8 units

See description under subject 22.811[J] .

M. W. Golay

11.373[J] Science, Politics, and Environmental Policy

Same subject as 12.885[J] Subject meets with 12.385 Prereq: Permission of instructor G (Fall) 3-0-6 units

See description under subject 12.885[J] .

S. Solomon, J. Knox-Hayes

11.381 Infrastructure Systems in Theory and Practice

Prereq: ( 14.01 and ( 11.202 or 11.203 )) or permission of instructor Acad Year 2023-2024: Not offered Acad Year 2024-2025: G (Spring) 3-0-9 units

Examines theories of infrastructure from science and technology studies, history, economics, and anthropology in order to understand the prospects for change for many new and existing infrastructure systems. Examines how these theories are then implemented within systems in the modern city, including but not limited to, energy, water, transportation, and telecommunications infrastructure. Seminar is conducted with intensive group research projects, in-class discussions and debates.

11.382 Water Diplomacy: The Science, Policy, and Politics of Managing Shared Resources

Prereq: Permission of instructor Acad Year 2023-2024: Not offered Acad Year 2024-2025: G (Spring) 3-0-9 units

Examines the history and dynamics of international environmental treaty-making, or what is called environmental diplomacy. Emphasizes climate change and other atmospheric, marine resource, global waste management and sustainability-related treaties and the problems of implementing them. Reviews the legal, economic, and political dynamics of managing shared resources, involving civil society on a global basis, and enforcing transboundary agreements. Focuses especially on principles from international relations, international law, environmental management, and negotiation theory as they relate to common-pool resource management.

11.383[J] People and Profits: Shaping the Future of Work

Same subject as 15.662[J] Prereq: None G (Spring) 3-1-8 units

See description under subject 15.662[J] .

A. Stansbury

11.387 Environmental Finance and Political Economy

Prereq: Permission of instructor G (Fall) Not offered regularly; consult department 3-0-9 units

Examines the sociopolitical, cultural and economic dimensions of the financialization of environmental goods and services. Provides an introduction to key financial terms, practices, and institutions; analyzes the logics and origins of environmental finance, as well as the operation and implications of particular systems such as carbon-trading, REDD and ecosystem service pricing and swapping. Limited to 15.

11.388[J] Dimensions of Geoengineering

Same subject as 1.850[J] , 5.000[J] , 10.600[J] , 12.884[J] , 15.036[J] , 16.645[J] Prereq: None G (Fall; first half of term) Not offered regularly; consult department 2-0-4 units

See description under subject 5.000[J] . Limited to 100.

J. Deutch, M. Zuber

11.401 Introduction to Housing, Community, and Economic Development

Subject meets with 11.041 Prereq: None G (Fall) 3-0-9 units

11.402 Urban Politics: Race and Political Change

Examines the place of US cities in political theory and practice. Particular attention given to contemporary issues of racial polarization, demographic change, poverty, sprawl, and globalization. Specific cities are a focus for discussion.

J. P. Thompson

11.403 Urban China Research Seminar

Prereq: Permission of instructor G (Fall) Not offered regularly; consult department 2-0-7 units Can be repeated for credit.

Examines the behavioral foundations and key policy issues of urban development, real estate markets, and sustainability in China. Discusses urban agglomeration economies, place-based investment, and urban vibrancy; economic geography of innovation and entrepreneurship; real estate dynamics and housing policies; land use and transportation; and urban quality of life and green cities, focusing on China but with some international comparisons.

11.404 Housing Policy and Planning in the US and Abroad

Explores the policy tools and planning techniques used to formulate and implement housing strategies at local, state and federal levels. Topics include America's housing finance system and the causes of instability in mortgage markets; economic and social inequity in access to affordable housing; approaches to meeting community housing needs through local and state planning programs; programs for addressing homelessness; and emerging ideas about sustainable development and green building related to housing development and renovation. Introduces comparative policy approaches from other countries.

11.405 Political Economy & Society

Prereq: Permission of instructor G (Fall) Not offered regularly; consult department 3-0-6 units

Focuses on the connection (or not) between mind (theory) and matter (lived experience). Examines basic tenets of classical and recent political economic theories and their explication in ideas of market economies, centrally planned economies, social market economies, and co-creative economies. Assesses theories according to their relation to the lived experiences of people in communities and workplaces.

11.407 Tools and Techniques for Inclusive Economic Development

Subject meets with 11.107 Prereq: Permission of instructor G (Fall) 3-0-9 units

Introduces tools and techniques in economic development planning. Extensive use of data collection, analysis, and display techniques. Students build interpretive intuition skills through user experience design activities and develop a series of memos summarizing the results of their data analysis. These are aggregated into a final report, and include the tools developed over the semester. Students taking graduate version will complete modified assignments focused on developing computer applications.

11.409 The Institutions of Modern Capitalism: States and Markets

Prereq: None G (Fall) 2-0-10 units

Investigates the relationship between states and markets in the evolution of modern capitalism. Critically assesses the rise of what Karl Polanyi and Albert Hirschman have referred to as "market society:" a powerful conceptual framework that views the development of modern capitalism not as an outcome of deterministic economic and technological forces, but rather as the result of contingent social and political processes. Exposes students to a range of conceptual tools and analytic frameworks through which to understand the politics of economic governance and to consider the extent to which societal actors can challenge its limits and imagine alternative possibilities. Sub-themes vary from year to year and have focused on racial capitalism, markets and morality, urban futures, and the global financial crisis. Limited to 25.

11.411 The Political Economy of Planning

Prereq: None Acad Year 2023-2024: Not offered Acad Year 2024-2025: G (Fall) 3-0-9 units

Introduces students to key planning ideas and practices that shape the political economy of planning: the way that planning interventions generate distributional effects that create winners and losers across different spatial and temporal scales. Highlights ways in which planning interventions seek to order society and shape spaces, as well as the ways these efforts have been contested and resisted. Takes a global and comparative perspective, surveying planning ideas and experiences across diverse contexts. Develops analytic tools to understand the broad field of planning theory and the asymmetries of power that these imply in planning practice. Planning is a complex and multifaceted set of endeavors, and as such the class is interdisciplinary, drawing from planning theory and history as well as sociology, political science, geography, history, and the design disciplines.

11.413 The Economic Approach to Cities and Environmental Sustainability

Subject meets with 11.113 Prereq: 11.220 , 14.300 , or permission of instructor G (Spring) Not offered regularly; consult department 3-0-9 units Can be repeated for credit.

11.422[J] Law, Technology, and Public Policy

Same subject as 15.655[J] , IDS.435[J] Subject meets with 11.122[J] , IDS.066[J] Prereq: None G (Fall) 3-0-9 units

See description under subject IDS.435[J] .

11.427[J] Labor Markets and Employment Policy

Same subject as 15.677[J] Prereq: Permission of instructor G (Spring) 3-0-9 units

See description under subject 15.677[J] . Preference to graduate and PhD students.

11.429[J] Real Estate Markets: Macroeconomics

Same subject as 15.022[J] Prereq: 11.431[J] or permission of instructor G (Spring; first half of term) 3-0-3 units

Applies the latest economic thinking and research to the task of analyzing aggregate real estate market time series, assessing risk, and developing forecasts. Presents the premise that because of capital durability and construction lags, real estate markets exhibit some degree of mean reversion and as such are at least partially predictable. Examines the extent and causes of market volatility across different markets and types of property. Long-term aggregate trends impacting the real estate sector, from demographics to technology, discussed. Limited to 30.

11.430[J] Leadership in Real Estate

Same subject as 15.941[J] Prereq: None G (Fall; first half of term) 3-0-3 units

Designed to help students deepen their understanding of leadership and increase self-awareness. They reflect on their authentic leadership styles and create goals and a learning plan to develop their capabilities. They also participate in activities to strengthen their "leadership presence" - the ability to authentically connect with people's hearts and minds. Students converse with classmates and industry leaders to learn from their insights, experiences, and advice. Limited to 15.

11.431[J] Real Estate Finance and Investment

Same subject as 15.426[J] Prereq: Permission of instructor G (Fall) 4-0-8 units

Concepts and techniques for analyzing financial decisions in commercial property development and investment. Topics include property income streams, discounted cash flow, equity valuation, leverage and income tax considerations, development projects, and joint ventures. An introduction to real estate capital markets as a source of financing is also provided. Limited to graduate students.

11.433[J] Real Estate Economics

Same subject as 15.021[J] Prereq: 14.01 , 15.010 , or 15.011 G (Fall) 4-0-8 units

Develops an understanding of the fundamental economic factors that shape the market for real property, as well as the influence of capital markets in asset pricing. Analyzes of housing as well as commercial real estate. Covers demographic analysis, regional growth, construction cycles, urban land markets, and location theory as well as recent technology impacts. Exercises and modeling techniques for measuring and predicting property demand, supply, vacancy, rents, and prices.

11.435 Mixed-Income Housing Development

Prereq: None G (Spring; first half of term) 3-0-3 units

Provides an overview of affordable and mixed-income housing development for students who wish to understand the fundamental issues and requirements of urban scale housing development, and the process of planning, financing and developing such housing. Students gain practical experience assembling a mixed-income housing development proposal.

L. Reid, W. Monson

11.437 Financing Economic Development and Housing

Subject meets with 11.137 Prereq: None G (Spring) 4-0-8 units

11.438 Economic Development Planning

Prereq: 11.203 , 11.220 , and permission of instructor Acad Year 2023-2024: Not offered Acad Year 2024-2025: G (Spring) 3-0-9 units

Focuses on the policy tools and planning techniques used to formulate and implement local economic development strategies. Includes an overview of economic development theory, discussion of major policy areas and practices employed to influence local economic development, a review of analytic tools to assess local economies and how to formulate strategy. Coursework includes formulation of a local economic development strategy for a client. Limited to 15.

11.439 Revitalizing Urban Main Streets

Prereq: Permission of instructor Acad Year 2023-2024: Not offered Acad Year 2024-2025: G (Fall) 4-0-11 units

Workshop explores the integration of economic development and physical planning interventions to revitalize urban commercial districts. Covers: an overview of the causes of urban business district decline, revitalization challenges, and the strategies to address them; the planning tools used to understand and assess urban Main Streets from both physical design and economic development perspectives; and the policies, interventions, and investments used to foster urban commercial revitalization. Students apply the theories, tools and interventions discussed in class to preparing a formal neighborhood commercial revitalization plan for a client business district. Limited to 15.

11.440 Housing and Social Stratification in the United States

Prereq: None Acad Year 2023-2024: Not offered Acad Year 2024-2025: G (Spring) 3-0-9 units

Investigates how housing — markets, policies, and individual and collective actions — stratifies society. Students develop structural frameworks to understand the processes of stratification. Grounding work and research in history, students identify the ways that housing markets and housing market interventions reflect, reinforce, and (occasionally) combat social inequities. Through extensive writing and rewriting, students frame their work in terms of overlapping crises, including gentrification, flight, shortage, and homelessness.

D. M. Bunten

11.441 Planning, Economic Development, and Municipal Public Finance

Explores the relationship between municipal planning initiatives and local public finance. Introduces a variety of tools, including annual fiscal year budgeting, development of capital improvement plans, user fees, and local property taxation. Municipal powers to levy taxes on items such as meals, hotel rooms, and sales and their effects on land use decisions are analyzed. Tools for economic development, such as tax increment finance, explored in the context of the potential benefits and drawbacks of such tools for a local economy. Also explores how planners can encourage more inclusive budgeting decisions through tools such as participatory budgeting. Students complete a final project on a municipal finance tool and its relationship to local planning goals.

11.442 Geography of the Global Economy

Subject meets with 11.142 Prereq: None Acad Year 2023-2024: Not offered Acad Year 2024-2025: G (Fall) 3-0-9 units

11.449 Decarbonizing Urban Mobility

Subject meets with 11.149 Prereq: None G (Spring) 3-3-6 units

11.450 Real Estate Development Building Systems

Prereq: None G (Fall; first half of term) 2-0-1 units

Provides students with a concise overview of the range of building systems that are encountered in professional commercial real estate development practice in the USA. Focuses on the relationship between real estate product types, building systems, and the factors that real estate development professionals must consider when evaluating these products and systems for a specific development project. Surveys commercial building technology including Foundation, Structural, MEP/FP, Envelope, and Interiors systems and analyzes the factors that lead development professionals to select specific systems for specific product types. One or more field trips to active construction sites may be scheduled during non-class hours based on student availability.

11.452 Planning against Evictions and Displacement

Prereq: None Acad Year 2023-2024: G (Spring) Acad Year 2024-2025: Not offered 3-0-9 units

Combines state-of-the-art research on evictions and displacement globally (in the context of the global crisis of evictions, land grabbing, and gentrification) with the study of policy and practical responses to displacement, assisted by selected case studies. First half covers explanations about the mechanisms and drivers of displacement, while the second half introduces and evaluates policy and legal responses developed by many actors. Analyzes the use of UN and national standards on displacement as well as the use of tools such as the Eviction Impact Assessment Tool. Limited to 15 graduate students.

11.454 Big Data, Visualization, and Society

Subject meets with 11.154 Prereq: None G (Spring) Not offered regularly; consult department 3-0-9 units Credit cannot also be received for 6.8530 , 6.C35[J] , 6.C85[J] , 11.154 , 11.C35[J] , 11.C85[J]

11.C85[J] Interactive Data Visualization and Society

Same subject as 6.C85[J] Subject meets with 6.C35[J] , 11.C35[J] Prereq: None G (Spring) 3-1-8 units Credit cannot also be received for 6.8530 , 11.154 , 11.454

See description under subject 6.C85[J] .

11.457 More than Data: Smart Cities, Big Data, Civic Technology and Policy

Prereq: None G (Spring) Not offered regularly; consult department 3-0-6 units

Discussions of future directions in the 'smart cities' debate. Begins by framing the current smart city with past trends such as the efficient city movement of the 1930s and the Modernist city of the 1950s and 60s. Examines current trends in big data, civic apps, Code for America, the open data movement, DIY data collections devices, and their policy impacts.

11.458 Crowd Sourced City: Civic Tech Prototyping

Subject meets with 11.138 Prereq: None G (Fall) 3-0-9 units

11.461[J] Technocracy

Same subject as STS.463[J] Prereq: None G (Fall) Not offered regularly; consult department 3-0-9 units

See description under subject STS.463[J] .

11.466[J] Technology, Globalization, and Sustainable Development

Same subject as 1.813[J] , 15.657[J] , IDS.437[J] Prereq: Permission of instructor G (Fall) 3-0-9 units

See description under subject IDS.437[J] .

11.469 Urban Sociology in Theory and Practice

Introduction to core writings in urban sociology. Explores the nature and changing character of the city and the urban experience, providing context for the development of urban studies research and planning skills. Topics include the changing nature of community, neighborhood effects, social capital and networks, social stratification, feminist theory and critical race theory, and the interaction of social structure and political power. Subject will take place in the Massachusetts Correctional Institution at Norfolk with half of the class from MIT and half of the class from MCI-Norfolk. Limited to 25.

11.472[J] D-Lab: Development

Same subject as EC.781[J] Subject meets with 11.025[J] , EC.701[J] Prereq: None G (Fall) 3-2-7 units

See description under subject EC.781[J] . Enrollment limited by lottery; must attend first class session.

S. L. Hsu, A. B. Smith, B. Sanyal

11.474 D-Lab: Water, Sanitation and Hygiene

Subject meets with EC.715 Prereq: None G (Spring) 3-0-9 units

Focuses on disseminating Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) innovations in low-income countries and underserved communities worldwide. Structured around project-based learning, lectures, discussions, and student-led tutorials. Emphasizes core WASH principles, appropriate and sustainable technologies at household and community scales, urban challenges worldwide, culture-specific solutions, lessons from start-ups, collaborative partnerships, and social marketing. Mentored term project entails finding and implementing a viable solution focused on education/training; a technology, policy or plan; a marketing approach; and/or behavior change. Guest lecturers present case studies, emphasizing those developed and disseminated by MIT faculty, practitioners, students, and alumni. Field trips scheduled during class time, with optional field trips on weekends. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. Limited to 20.

S. E. Murcott, S. L. Hsu

11.477[J] Urban Energy Systems and Policy

Same subject as 1.286[J] Subject meets with 11.165 Prereq: 11.203 , 14.01 , or permission of instructor G (Fall) 3-0-9 units

Examines efforts in developing and advanced nations and regions. Examines key issues in the current and future development of urban energy systems, such as technology, use, behavior, regulation, climate change, and lack of access or energy poverty. Case studies on a diverse sampling of cities explore how prospective technologies and policies can be implemented. Includes intensive group research projects, discussion, and debate.

11.478 Behavioral Science, AI, and Urban Mobility

Subject meets with 11.158 Prereq: Permission of instructor G (Fall) 3-0-9 units

11.480 Urbanization and Development

Examines developmental dynamics of rapidly urbanizing locales, with a special focus on the developing world. Case studies from India, China, Mexico, Brazil, and South Africa form the basis for discussion of social, spatial, political and economic changes in cities spurred by the decline of industry, the rise of services, and the proliferation of urban mega projects. Emphasizes the challenges of growing urban inequality, environmental risk, citizen displacement, insufficient housing, and the lack of effective institutions for metropolitan governance. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments.

11.484 Project Appraisal in Developing Countries

Covers techniques of financial analysis of investment expenditures, as well as the economic and distributive appraisal of development projects. Critical analysis of these tools in the political economy of international development is discussed. Topics include appraisal's role in the project cycle, planning under conditions of uncertainty, constraints in data quality and the limits of rational analysis, and the coordination of an interdisciplinary appraisal team. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. Enrollment limited; preference to majors.

11.485 Southern Urbanisms

Prereq: None Acad Year 2023-2024: G (Fall) Acad Year 2024-2025: Not offered 2-0-10 units

Guides students in examining implicit and explicit values of diversity offered in "Southern" knowledge bases, theories, and practices of urban production. With a focus on Sub-Saharan Africa, considers why the South-centered location of the estimated global urban population boom obligates us to examine how cities work as they do, and why Western-informed urban theory and planning scholarship may be ill-suited to provide guidance on urban development there. Examines the "rise of the rest" and its implications for the making and remaking of expertise and norms in planning practice. Students engage with seminal texts from leading authors of Southern urbanism and critical themes, including the rise of Southern theory, African urbanism, Chinese international cooperation, Brazilian urban diplomacy, and the globally-driven commodification of urban real estate.

G. Carolini 

11.486 Peace and Conflict Geographies

Explores the spatialization of conflict and peace from perspectives within the humanities and social sciences. Examines claims on territory, resources, and homeland; traces the legacies of violence in landscapes both personal and public; considers the use of planning and architecture to build peace; and attends to experiences of displacement and dispossession. Discusses how conflict and peace geographies provide insight into various scales of power and repair that shape how individuals live together.

11.487 Budgeting and Finance for the Public Sector

Subject meets with 11.147 Prereq: None G (Spring) Not offered regularly; consult department 3-0-9 units

11.490 Law and Development

Prereq: Permission of instructor G (Spring) Not offered regularly; consult department 2-0-10 units

Examines the role of law in development and introduces economic and legal theories. Topics include formality/informality of property, contracts and bargaining in the shadow of the law, institutions for transparency and accountability, legitimation of law, sequencing of legal reform, and international economic law aspects. Studies the roles of property rights in economic development, the judiciary and the bureaucracy in development, and law in aid policy. Includes selected country case studies. Limited to 15.

11.493 Property and Land Use Law for Planners

Examines legal and institutional arrangements for the establishment, transfer, and control over property and land under American and selected comparative systems, including India and South Africa. Focuses on key issues of property and land use law regarding planning and economic development. Emphasizes just and efficient resource use; institutional, entitlement and social relational approaches to property; distributional and other social aspects; and the relationship between property, culture, and democracy.

11.494 Cities of Contested Memory

Explores relationships between built environments and memory to consider the spaces and spatial practices in which the future of the past is imagined, negotiated, and contested. Focuses on three areas of critical importance to understanding the nature of memory in cities today: the threats that rapid urban development pose to the remembrance of urban pasts; the politics of representation evident in debates over authorized and marginalized historical narratives; and the art and ethics of sensitively addressing the afterlives of violence and tragedy. Emphasizes group discussions and projects as means to explore collective and counter memories, the communities that are formed therein, and the economic, social, and political forces that lift up certain memories over others to shape the legacy of the past. Limited to 15.

11.495 Governance and Law in Developing Countries

Prereq: Permission of instructor G (Fall) Not offered regularly; consult department 2-0-10 units

Examines the multiple dimensions of governance in international development with a focus on the role of legal norms and institutions in the balance between state and the market. Analyzes changes in the distribution of political and legal authority as a result of economic globalization. Topics include the regulation of firms; forms of state and non-state monitoring; varieties of capitalism, global governance and development; and good governance, including transparency and accountability mechanisms, the role of the judiciary and legal culture, and tools for measuring governance performance.

11.496 Law, Social Movements, and Public Policy: Comparative and International Experience

Subject meets with 11.166 Prereq: Permission of instructor G (Spring) Not offered regularly; consult department 3-0-9 units

11.497 Human Rights at Home and Abroad

Subject meets with 11.164[J] , 17.391[J] Prereq: None Acad Year 2023-2024: Not offered Acad Year 2024-2025: G (Fall) 2-0-10 units

Provides a rigorous and critical introduction to the history, foundation, structure, and operation of the human rights movement. Focuses on key ideas, actors, methods and sources, and critically evaluates the field. Addresses current debates in human rights, including the relationship with security, democracy, development and globalization, urbanization, equality (in housing and other economic and social rights; women's rights; ethnic, religious and racial discrimination; and policing/conflict), post-conflict rebuilding and transitional justice, and technology in human rights activism. Students taking graduate version expected to write a research paper.

11.499 Master of Science in Real Estate Development Thesis Preparation

Prereq: None G (Spring; first half of term) 2-0-1 units

Designed to give students the tools and information needed to successfully complete a master's level thesis. Seminar topics include, but are not limited to: research data sets, different types and styles of theses, the writing and editing process, library services, and the use of humans as experimental subjects in research. CRE faculty share their areas of interest to assist in choosing an advisor. Seminar assignments guide students toward developing a thesis topic and realistic work plan to adequately achieve their research and writing goals. Objective is for each student to have sufficient knowledge to author a fully developed thesis topic and formal proposal by the end of the term. Limited to MS in Real Estate Development candidates.

11.520 Workshop on Geographic Information Systems (GIS)

Prereq: 11.205 or permission of instructor G (Fall, Spring; second half of term) 2-2-2 units

Includes spatial analysis exercises using real-world data sets, building toward an independent project in which students critically apply GIS techniques to an area of interest. Students build data discovery, cartography, and spatial analysis skills while learning to reflect on power and positionality within the research design process. Tailored to GIS applications within planning and design and emphasizes the role of reflective practice in GIS. Enrollment limited; preference to MCP students.

11.521 Spatial Database Management and Advanced Geographic Information Systems

Prereq: 11.205 and Coreq: 11.220 ; or permission of instructor G (Spring) Not offered regularly; consult department 3-3-6 units

Extends the computing and geographic information systems (GIS) skills developed in 11.520 to include spatial data management in client/server environments and advanced GIS techniques. First half covers the content of 11.523 , introducing database management concepts, SQL (Structured Query Language), and enterprise-class database management software. Second half explores advanced features and the customization features of GIS software that perform analyses for decision support that go beyond basic thematic mapping. Includes the half-term GIS project of 11.524 that studies a real-world planning issue.

J. Ferreira

11.522 Research Seminar on Urban Information Systems

Prereq: Permission of instructor G (Fall) Not offered regularly; consult department 2-4-6 units Can be repeated for credit.

Advanced research seminar enhances computer and analytic skills developed in other subjects in this sequence. Students present a structured discussion of journal articles representative of their current research interests involving urban information systems and complete a short research project. Suggested research projects include topics related to ongoing UIS Group research.

11.523 Fundamentals of Spatial Database Management

Prereq: 11.205 or permission of instructor G (Fall; first half of term) 2-2-2 units

Develops technical skills necessary to design, build, and interact with spatial databases using the Structured Query Language (SQL) and its spatial extensions. Provides instruction in writing highly contextual metadata (data biographies). Prepares students to perform database maintenance, modeling, and digitizing tasks, and to critically evaluate and document data sources. Databases are implemented in PostgreSQL and PostGIS; students interface with these using QGIS.

E. Huntley 

11.524 Advanced Geographic Information System Project

Prereq: ( 11.205 and 11.220 ) or permission of instructor G (Fall; second half of term) Units arranged Can be repeated for credit.

Provides instruction in statistical approaches for analyzing interrelation, clustering, and interdependence, which are often key to understanding urban environments. Covers local and global spatial autocorrelation, interpolation, and kernel density methods; cluster detection; and spatial regression models. Develops technical skills necessary to ask spatial questions using inferential statistics implemented in the R statistical computing language. Prior coursework or experience in geographic information systems (GIS) at the introductory level required; prior coursework or experience in R is preferred.

11.526[J] Comparative Land Use and Transportation Planning

Same subject as 1.251[J] Prereq: None G (Spring) 3-0-9 units

Focuses on the integration of land use and transportation planning, drawing from cases in both industrialized and developing countries. Highlights how land use and transportation influence the social organization of cities, assigning privileges to certain groups and segregating or negating access to the city to other groups. Covers topics such as accessibility; the use of data, algorithms, and bias; travel demand and travel behavior; governance; transit-oriented development; autonomous vehicles; transportation and real estate; and social, environmental, and health implications of land use and transportation. Develops students' skills to assess relevant policies, interventions, and impacts.

11.529[J] Mobility Ventures: Driving Innovation in Transportation Systems

Same subject as 15.379[J] Subject meets with 11.029[J] , 15.3791[J] Prereq: None G (Fall) 3-3-6 units

Explores technological, behavioral, policy, and systems-wide frameworks for innovation in transportation systems, complemented with case studies across the mobility spectrum, from autonomous vehicles to urban air mobility to last-mile sidewalk robots. Students interact with a series of guest lecturers from CEOs and other business and government executives who are actively reshaping the future of mobility. Interdisciplinary teams of students collaborate to deliver business plans for proposed mobility-focused startups with an emphasis on primary market research. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments.

11.540 Urban Transportation Planning and Policy

Examines transportation policymaking and planning; its relationship to social and environmental justice; and the influences of politics, governance structures, and human and institutional behavior. Explores the pathway to infrastructure, how attitudes are influenced, and how change happens. Examines the tensions and potential synergies among traditional transportation policy values of individual mobility, system efficiency, and "sustainability." Explores the roles of the government; analysis of current trends; transport sector decarbonization; land use, placemaking, and sustainable mobility networks; the role of "mobility as a service;" and the implications of disruptive technology on personal mobility. Assesses traditional planning methods with a critical eye, and through that process considers how to approach transportation planning in a way that responds to contemporary needs and values, with an emphasis on transport justice.

11.543[J] Transportation Policy, the Environment, and Livable Communities

Same subject as 1.253[J] Prereq: Permission of instructor Acad Year 2023-2024: Not offered Acad Year 2024-2025: G (Spring) 3-0-9 units

Examines the economic and political conflict between transportation and the environment. Investigates the role of government regulation, green business and transportation policy as a facilitator of economic development and environmental sustainability. Analyzes a variety of international policy problems, including government-business relations, the role of interest groups, non-governmental organizations, and the public and media in the regulation of the automobile; sustainable development; global warming; politics of risk and siting of transport facilities; environmental justice; equity; as well as transportation and public health in the urban metropolis. Provides students with an opportunity to apply transportation and planning methods to develop policy alternatives in the context of environmental politics. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments.

J. Coughlin

11.544[J] Transportation: Foundations and Methods

Same subject as 1.200[J] , IDS.675[J] Subject meets with 1.041[J] , IDS.075[J] Prereq: 1.000 , ( 1.00 and 1.010 ), or permission of instructor G (Spring) 3-1-8 units

See description under subject 1.200[J] .

11.547[J] Global Aging & the Built Environment

Same subject as SCM.287[J] Prereq: None G (Spring) 3-0-9 units

Combines classroom lectures/discussion, readings, site visits, and field study to provide students with experience in various research techniques including stakeholder analysis, interviewing, photography and image analysis, focus groups, etc. Students examine the impacts of global demographic transition, when there are more older than younger people in a population, and explore emerging challenges in the built environment (e.g., age-friendly community planning, public transportation access, acceptance of driverless cars, social wellbeing and connectivity, housing and community design, design and use of public and private spaces, and the public health implications of climate change and aging).

J. F. Coughlin

11.592 Renewable Energy Facility Siting Clinic (New)

Subject meets with 11.092 Prereq: None G (Fall, Spring) 2-4-6 units

11.601 Theory and Practice of Environmental Planning

Required introductory subject for graduate students pursuing the Environmental Planning Certificate. Strongly suggested for MCP students pursuing EPP as their specialization. Also open to other graduate students interested in environmental justice, environmental ethics, environmental dispute resolution, and techniques of environmental problem-solving. Taught comparatively, with numerous references to examples from around the world. Four major areas of focus: national environmental policymaking, environmental ethics, environmental forecasting and analysis techniques, and strategies for collaborative decision-making. 

11.630[J] Environmental Law, Policy, and Economics: Pollution Prevention and Control

Same subject as 1.811[J] , 15.663[J] , IDS.540[J] Subject meets with 1.801[J] , 11.021[J] , 17.393[J] , IDS.060[J] Prereq: None G (Spring) 3-0-9 units

11.631[J] Regulation of Chemicals, Radiation, and Biotechnology

Same subject as 1.812[J] , IDS.541[J] Subject meets with 1.802[J] , 10.805[J] , 11.022[J] , IDS.061[J] , IDS.436[J] Prereq: IDS.540[J] or permission of instructor G (Spring) Not offered regularly; consult department 3-0-9 units

Focuses on policy design and evaluation in the regulation of hazardous substances and processes. Includes risk assessment, industrial chemicals, pesticides, food contaminants, pharmaceuticals, radiation and radioactive wastes, product safety, workplace hazards, indoor air pollution, biotechnology, victims' compensation, and administrative law. Health and economic consequences of regulation, as well as its potential to spur technological change, are discussed for each regulator regime. Students taking the graduate version are expected to explore the subject in greater depth.

N. Ashford, C.Caldart

11.651[J] USA Lab: Bridging the American Divides

Same subject as 15.679[J] Prereq: None G (Spring) 3-1-5 units

See description under subject 15.679[J] .

L. Hafrey, C. McDowell

11.652[J] Research Seminar on Technology and the Work of the Future

Same subject as STS.465[J] Prereq: None Acad Year 2023-2024: Not offered Acad Year 2024-2025: G (Spring) 3-0-9 units

See description under subject STS.465[J] . Limited to 15.

D. Mindell, E. B. Reynolds

11.701 International Development Planning: Foundations

Offers a survey of the histories and theories of international development, and the main debates about the role of key actors and institutions in development. Includes a focus on the impact of colonialism, the main theoretical approaches that have influenced the study and practice of development, as well as the role of actors such as states, markets, and civil society in development. Focuses on the interactions between interventions and institutions on local, national, and global/transnational scales. Offers an opportunity to develop a focus on selected current topics in development planning, such as migration, displacement, participatory planning, urban-rural linkages, corruption, legal institutions, and post-conflict development. Restricted to first-year MCP and SPURS students.

Tutorials, Research, and Fieldwork Subjects

11.800 reading, writing and research.

Prereq: 11.233 ; Coreq: 11.801 G (Spring) 3-0-6 units

Required subject intended solely for 1st-year DUSP PhD students. Develops capacity of doctoral students to become independent scholars by helping them to prepare their first-year papers and plan for their dissertation work. Focuses on the process by which theory, research questions, literature reviews, and new data are synthesized into new and original contributions to the literature. Seminar is conducted with intensive discussions, draft writing, peer review, revisions, and editing. Guest speakers from faculty and advanced students discuss strategies and potential pitfalls with doctoral-level research.

11.801 Doctoral Research Paper

Prereq: None. Coreq: 11.800 ; permission of instructor G (Spring) 3-0-6 units

Students develop a first-year research paper in consultation with their advisor.

11.901 Independent Study: Urban Studies and Planning

Prereq: Permission of instructor G (Fall, IAP, Spring) Units arranged Can be repeated for credit.

Opportunity for independent study under regular supervision by a faculty member.

11.902 Independent Study: Urban Studies and Planning

Prereq: Permission of instructor G (Fall, IAP, Spring) Units arranged [P/D/F] Can be repeated for credit.

11.903 Supervised Readings in Urban Studies

11.904 supervised readings in urban studies.

Prereq: Permission of instructor G (Fall, Spring, Summer) Units arranged Can be repeated for credit.

11.905 Research Seminar in Urban Studies and Planning

Special research issues in urban planning.

11.906 Research Seminar in Urban Studies and Planning

Prereq: None G (Fall, IAP, Spring) Units arranged [P/D/F] Can be repeated for credit.

11.907 Urban Fieldwork

Practical application of planning techniques to towns, cities, and regions, including problems of replanning, redevelopment, and renewal of existing communities. Includes internships, under staff supervision, in municipal and state agencies and departments.

11.908 Urban Fieldwork

Prereq: None G (Fall, IAP, Spring) Units arranged Can be repeated for credit.

11.909 Graduate Tutorial

Prereq: None G (Fall) Units arranged [P/D/F] Can be repeated for credit.

Planned programs of instruction for a minimum of three students on a planning topic not covered in regular subjects of instruction. Registration subject to prior arrangement with appropriate faculty member.

11.910 Doctoral Tutorial

Prereq: None G (Fall) Not offered regularly; consult department 3-0-3 units

Required subject exclusively for first-year DUSP PhD candidates, but with multiple colloquium sessions open to the full department community. Introduces students to a range of department faculty (and others) by offering opportunities to discuss applications of planning theory and planning history. Assists in clarifying the departments intellectual diversity. Encourages development of a personal intellectual voice and capacity to synthesize and respond to the arguments made by others.

L. Vale, J. Zhao

11.912[J] Advanced Urbanism Colloquium

Same subject as 4.275[J] Prereq: Permission of instructor G (Fall, Spring) 1-1-1 units Can be repeated for credit.

See description under subject 4.275[J] . Preference to doctoral students in the Advanced Urbanism concentration.

Consult S. Williams

11.919 PhD Workshop (New)

Prereq: None G (Fall, Spring) 0-1-0 units Can be repeated for credit.

The workshop features doctoral student progress on dissertation formulation and findings across all years, panels of particular interest to doctoral students as identified by their representatives on the PhD Committee, and an intellectual space for the sharing of ideas and initiatives within the doctoral community and across the department, including faculty.  Limited to all doctoral students in residence.

11.920 Planning in Practice

Prereq: Permission of instructor G (Fall, IAP, Spring, Summer) Units arranged [P/D/F] Can be repeated for credit.

Familiarizes students with the practice of planning, by requiring actual experience in professional internship placements. Enables students to both apply what they are learning in their classes in an actual professional setting and to reflect, using a variety of platforms, on the learning -- personal and professional -- growing out of their internship experience. Through readings, practical experience and reflection, empirical observation, and contact with practitioners, students gain deeper general understanding of the practice of the profession.

11.930 Advanced Seminar on Planning Theory

Prereq: None G (Spring) 2-0-10 units

Introduces students to key debates in the field of planning theory, drawing on historical development of the field of urban/regional/national planning from 1900 to 2020 in both the US and in newly industrializing countries. Class objectives are for students to develop their own theory of action as they become sensitized to issues of racial and gender discrimination in city building, and understand how planning styles are influenced by a range of issues, including the challenge of ethical practice.

11.960 Independent Study: Real Estate

Prereq: None G (Fall, IAP, Spring, Summer) Units arranged [P/D/F] Can be repeated for credit.

11.961 Independent Study: Real Estate

Prereq: None G (Fall, IAP, Spring, Summer) Units arranged Can be repeated for credit.

11.962 Fieldwork: Real Estate

Practical application of real estate techniques in the field.

11.963 Independent Study: Real Estate

Prereq: Permission of instructor G (Fall, IAP, Spring, Summer) Units arranged Can be repeated for credit.

11.964 Independent Study: Real Estate

11.985 summer field work.

Prereq: None G (Summer) Units arranged [P/D/F] Can be repeated for credit.

Practical application of planning techniques over the summer with prior arrangement.

S. Wellford

11.S938 Special Subject: Urban Studies and Planning

Prereq: None G (Spring) Units arranged Can be repeated for credit.

For graduate students wishing to pursue further study in advanced areas of urban studies and planning not covered in regular subjects of instruction.

11.S939 Special Subject: Urban Studies and Planning

For graduate students wishing to pursue further study in advanced areas of urban studies and city and regional planning not covered in regular subjects of instruction.

11.S940-11.S944 Special Subject: Urban Studies and Planning

Prereq: Permission of instructor G (Fall, Spring) Units arranged Can be repeated for credit.

11.S948 Special Subject: Urban Studies and Planning

Prereq: Permission of instructor G (Fall) Units arranged Can be repeated for credit.

11.S945-11.S949 Special Subject: Urban Studies and Planning

11.s950-11.s957 special seminar: urban studies and planning.

Prereq: Permission of instructor G (Fall, IAP) Units arranged [P/D/F] Can be repeated for credit.

For graduate students wishing to pursue further study in advanced areas of urban studies and city and regional planning not covered in regular subjects of instruction

11.S958 Special Seminar: Urban Studies and Planning

Prereq: Permission of instructor G (Fall) Units arranged [P/D/F] Can be repeated for credit.

11.S959 Special Seminar: Urban Studies and Planning

11.s965 special subject: real estate.

Prereq: Permission of instructor G (Fall; second half of term) Units arranged [P/D/F] Can be repeated for credit.

Small group study of advanced subjects under staff supervision. For graduate students wishing to pursue further study in advanced areas of real estate not covered in regular subjects of instruction.

11.S966 Special Subject: Real Estate

Prereq: Permission of instructor G (Fall, IAP, Spring, Summer; second half of term) Units arranged Can be repeated for credit.

11.S967 Special Subject: Real Estate

Prereq: Permission of instructor G (Spring; first half of term) Not offered regularly; consult department Units arranged Can be repeated for credit.

11.S968 Special Seminar: Real Estate

Prereq: Permission of instructor G (Spring) Not offered regularly; consult department Units arranged [P/D/F] Can be repeated for credit.

11.S969 Special Seminar: Real Estate

11.s970 special seminar: real estate.

Prereq: Permission of instructor G (Spring; second half of term) Units arranged Can be repeated for credit.

Consult Catalog Faculty

11.THG Graduate Thesis

Program of research and writing of thesis; to be arranged by the student with supervising committee.

MIT Academic Bulletin

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Outside of Bauer Wurster Hall, facing east.

Submit applications through the UC Berkeley Graduate Division .

Application Deadlines

  • Master of Real Estate Development + Design (MRED+D) (round one)
  • PhD in City and Regional Planning, PhD in Landscape Architecture & Environmental Planning
  • Master of City Planning (MCP), Master of Landscape Architecture & Environmental Planning (MLA), Master of Urban Design (MUD)
  • Concurrent degrees: Master of Architecture (MArch) + MCP, MArch + MLA, MArch + MS CEE with Structural Engineering concentration
  • Master of Advanced Architectural Design (MAAD), MArch, MS Architecture, PhD in Architecture
  • Info sessions for architecture graduate programs
  • MRED+D (round two)

For admissions criteria, application deadlines, and more, visit the admission page of the department you wish to apply to.

  • Architecture , Landscape Architecture + Environmental Planning , City & Regional Planning , Real Estate Development & Design (MRED+D) , Urban Design
  • UC Berkeley Graduate Application
  • Application Fee
  • Statement of Purpose
  • Personal History Statement
  • Three Letters of Recommendation
  • Examinations
  • TOEFL/IELTS
  • Transcript(s)
  • Grade Point Average
  • Resume or Curriculum Vitae
  • Portfolio of Creative Work
  • Recent Publication, Report, or Writing Sample
  • UC Berkeley begins accepting applications in early September for the following fall term only (no spring admissions) and on a full-time basis.
  • Please allow yourself at least 1 hour prior to the  deadline  to submit your application.
  • Late applications or changes to the application after the deadline will NOT be accepted.
  • You do NOT have to complete the entire application at one time.
  • After submitting your application, you will receive an email from UC Berkeley’s  Graduate Admissions Office  confirming your submission.
  • We strongly encourage that you log back into your application to monitor the status of materials received/processed, such as fee waivers, test scores, and recommendations.
  • If you are a U.S. Citizen or current Permanent Resident, the application fee is $135.
  • For all others, the application fee is $155.
  • The Fee Waiver policy is set by the university and all documentation is reviewed by UC Berkeley’s Graduate Admissions Office. ONLY the Graduate Admissions Office can provide approval for an application fee waiver.
  • The form to request a fee waiver is included in the payment section of the online application.
  • To be considered for a fee waiver, applicants MUST select the waiver payment option and upload any required supporting documents BEFORE submitting the online application.
  • There are no fee waiver options for international applicants.
  • If you do not submit a payment or select the waiver payment option/upload supporting documents by the deadline, the program(s) will NOT review your application and you will NOT be considered for admission.
  • Please discuss (with clarity and focus) why you want to study your proposed subject field, why you want to study at UC Berkeley, and how our program can help you achieve your academic and professional goals.
  • Your competence and intellectual potential to undertake research is among the most important criteria considered by the admissions committee.

Architecture PhD and MS Applicants Only 

Architecture PhD and Master of Science applicants should structure their Statement of Purpose as follows:

  • Part 1: Goals (500 words).  A statement describing your general academic and career goals, the field(s) in which you would like to study, and why you wish to attend UC Berkeley in particular (you may want to refer to specific classes, faculty, or research projects that interest you). Your ideas should be clear, specific and persuasive.
  • Part 2: Research Proposal (500 words).  An example of a specific research proposal that you may wish to undertake while at UC Berkeley. You may present a single proposal, or perhaps two alternates, about your dissertation. Although you are not committed to do precisely what you propose (and, in fact, it is expected that your ideas will evolve during your studies), the committee will use this proposal to assess your ability to conceptualize a research plan. Your research proposal should succinctly frame a research question, articulate why it is important, demonstrate an understanding of the relevant literature and gaps in current knowledge, and identify what types of research methods one might apply to address the problem. If possible, identify faculty in architecture and/or other departments with whom you would like to work.

MArch Applicants Only

Architecture Masters of Architecture & MArch Concurrent Degree applicants should structure their Statement of Purpose as follows:

Application Essay Part 1 (500 words). Write a short essay that responds to the following question.

What do you want to contribute to the field of architecture during your time at Berkeley and after? How will Berkeley contribute to these aspirations?

  • Please describe how your personal background informs your decision to pursue a graduate degree.
  • How you have overcome barriers to access in higher education;
  • Evidence of how you have come to understand the barriers faced by others;
  • Evidence of your academic service to advance equitable access to higher education for women, racial minorities, and individuals from other groups that have been historically underrepresented in higher education;
  • Evidence of your research focusing on underserved populations or related issues of inequality, or evidence of your leadership among such groups
  • To view additional tips please visit   Writing the Personal Statemen t .

Architecture PhD and Master of Science applicants should structure their Personal History Statement as follows:

  • It should describe relevant aspects of your life story and achievements, as well as educational and cultural opportunities or circumstances that supported or deprived you of such achievements; family background; economic circumstances; special interests and abilities; and community or social service involvement.
  • Throughout, be selective in describing things that specifically relate to your academic goals and intellectual pursuits.
  • In particular, please be sure to focus on details of your research experience, and how your background has prepared you for the next stage of your studies.

Masters of Architecture & MArch Concurrent Degree applicants should structure their Personal History Statement as follows:

Application Essay Part 2 (500 words). Choose one of the following questions below to share more thoughts.

1. What is at stake for the future of architecture?

2. For whom do you want to design and why?

3. What does your application not say about you?

  • The strongest letters are from individuals who have supervised your work in either an academic, employment or community service capacity.
  • Your recommenders are encouraged to describe SPECIFIC EXAMPLES of your work that demonstrate your intellectual ability, creativity, initiative, leadership potential, and promise for graduate study in your desired field.
  • Enter the recommender’s contact information
  • Select your answer for the “access waiver” question
  • Provide your signature
  • Click “send”
  • Thereafter, you should notify your recommenders that they will receive an email from  UC Berkeley’s   Graduate Admissions Office :  [email protected] . The email’s subject line will be “Recommendation request from [Applicant Name] for the University of California, Berkeley” and the body of the email will outline the steps required to upload their letter to the application system.
  • All letters are due by the application deadline.
  • You may submit your application BEFORE your recommendations are in the application system.
  • If your recommenders have technical issues (e.g. did not receive email or cannot upload their letter to the application system), please contact the  department Graduate Advisors .

Applicants to the CED’s graduate programs may be required to take the   Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) / International English Language Testing System (IELTS) . See the table below for the examination(s) required by your program. Please plan ahead and schedule your examinations at least one month prior to the application deadline so that we may have timely receipt of your scores. It can take up to  2.5 weeks  for your scores to be received and matched to your application.

We will be allowing the TOEFL iBT Special Home Edition . Please note that your exam must be administered by Educational Testing Services (ETS)

The GRE is no longer required for admission to:

For PhD and MS programs, the GRE is optional.

For all other programs not listed, please contact the department.

  • This applies to institutions in Bangladesh, Burma, Nepal, India, Pakistan, Latin America, the Middle East, the People’s Republic of China, Taiwan, Japan, Korea, Southeast Asia, most European countries, and Quebec (Canada)
  • For Fall 2023, tests taken before June 1, 2021 will not be accepted even if your score was reported to UC Berkeley electronically.
  • For purposes of admission, your most recent TOEFL score must be at least  90  for the Internet-based test (IBT), and  570  for the paper-based format (PBT).
  • MyBest Scores will NOT be accepted.
  • You must send your TOEFL scores to UC Berkeley’s institution code: 4833.
  • You are NOT required to list a department code.
  • After you request ETS to send your official scores to Berkeley, it takes approximately 2.5 weeks for your scores to match with your application.
  • Please plan ahead and schedule your examinations at least one month prior to the application deadline so that we may have timely receipt of your scores.
  • If you do not see your scores as verified in the application system, please contact the Department Graduate Advisors (provide your full name and birthdate). We will attempt to search for and match your scores to your application. If we cannot match your scores with your application, you must again request that ETS send your scores and pay the fee.
  • Please schedule your TOEFL in advance through the   ETS/TOEFL website .
  • More information about evidence of English Language Proficiency, including qualifying for an exemption, can be found  here .
  • For Fall 2023, tests taken before June 1, 2021, will not be accepted even if your score was reported to UC Berkeley electronically.
  • For purposes of admission,  your most recent IELTS overall Band score must be at least a  7  on a 9-point scale.
  • For identification purposes, please use the  Graduate Admissions Office’s address : University of California, Berkeley, Graduate Division, Sproul Hall Room 318, MC 5900, Berkeley, CA, 94720.
  • Mailed score reports will NOT be accepted.
  • If you do not see your scores as verified in the application system, please contact the  Graduate Admissions Office:  [email protected]  and provide your full name and birthdate. They will attempt to search for and match your scores to your application. If they cannot match your scores with your application, you must again request that the testing center send your scores and pay the fee.
  • Please schedule your IELTS in advance through the  IELTS website .
  • Please make sure that transcript images are properly rotated, and not sideways or upside-down, and  remove your Social Security number and birth date before submitting.
  • Applicants (domestic and international) who completed degrees OUTSIDE of the U.S. must upload transcripts AND degree certificates.
  • If you studied abroad, attended a community college, participated in summer sessions, and/or extension programs, please upload EACH transcript separately.
  • It is NOT necessary to submit separate transcripts if the courses, credits, and GRADES appear on your bachelor’s degree or recognized equivalent transcript.
  • If you ACCEPT your offer of admission, an OFFICIAL transcript verifying the degree conferral date for your bachelor’s degree or recognized equivalent will be required to be sent IMMEDIATELY to  UC Berkeley’s   Graduate Admissions Office  BY MAIL (in a sealed envelope) to: University of California, Berkeley, Graduate Division, Sproul Hall Room 318, MC 5900, Berkeley, CA 94720 or BY EMAIL to  [email protected] .
  • A G.P.A. of 3.0 or better (on a 4-point scale) for all coursework completed AFTER the first two years of UNDERGRADUATE study is required (this is known as your Advanced G.P.A.).
  • Please calculate your Advanced G.P.A. using a GPA Calculator .
  • This calculation EXCLUDES any coursework completed AFTER the completion of your bachelor’s degree or recognized equivalent.
  • For applicants whose undergraduate institution does NOT utilize a 4-point scale, the calculation of an AGPA is NOT required. Please enter your university’s GPA into the Other Scale GPA box.
  • Your curriculum vitae/resume provides a complete accounting of your educational, research, volunteer, and other experiences (including relevant professional work experience and internships).
  • Please fully cite publications and conference papers.

A digital portfolio of design related content is required for applicants to the following degree programs:

  • Master of Architecture
  • Master of Advanced Architectural Design
  • Master of City Planning — Urban Design Concentration
  • Master of Landscape Architecture — First and Second Professional Degrees
  • Master of Urban Design

PORTFOLIO FAQs

  • Architecture applicants can submit a portfolio up to 10 MB. City Planning and Landscape Architecture applicants can submit a portfolio up to 12 pages in length. MUD applicants can submit a portfolio up to 20 pages in length.
  • Pages should be 8 1/2″x11″ format with a two-page spread equaling two pages. Landscape Architecture portfolios should be single-paged.
  • Please note that any extra pages will NOT be reviewed. Title page and/or table of contents may be submitted, and do not count toward the page count.
  • The portfolio should showcase recent, high-quality work and will be assessed on both content and overall design. Any material that is NOT entirely the applicant’s own work must be clearly identified (e.g. include information describing your individual contributions to a group project).
  • Applicants without professional training may submit work that shows other evidence of visual creativity (studio art, photography, drawing, painting, graphic design, GIS mapping, construction/renovation, web-based projects, etc.) and demonstrates interest in and aptitude for design.
  • The file size must be no larger than 10MB.
  • If your portfolio PDF file exceeds 10MB, try compressing it in Adobe Acrobat.
  • Master of Landscape Architecture — Environmental Planning Emphasis
  • Master of Science in Architecture
  • PhD in Architecture
  • PhD in City and Regional Planning
  • PhD in Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning (recent publication required, whether published or pending publishing)
  • The publication, report, or writing sample should support the applicant’s Statement of Purpose and clearly demonstrate research and writing abilities and/or analytical skills.
  • Publication, report, or writing sample must be saved as a single file in PDF format, 50 pages maximum (no minimum page requirement), and submitted via the UC Berkeley Graduate Division online application. File size must be no larger than 10MB.
  • Any material that is not entirely the applicant’s own work must be clearly identified (e.g. include information describing your individual contributions to a group project).
  • Architecture PhD and MS applicants wishing to work with Simon Schleicher or Luisa Caldas, please incorporate a portfolio of work with your recent publications.

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Personal Statement for masters in urban planning

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Apartments to rent in Moscow (Russia) - 200 results

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Find apartment options on the map of Moscow

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Botels in Moscow

Soho beach hotel.

Building 23, 39 Leningradskoye Highway,Moscow City,125212, Moscow, Russia

To the hotel

Homestays in Moscow

Versal na tverskaya.

ul. Tverskaya 12/7, Flat 269, Moscow, Russia

Comnata V 1 Minute Ot Metro Strogino

Stroginskiy Bul'Var 26 К 2 Кв.313, Moscow, Russia

Hotels in Moscow

Patriki apartment.

Ulitsa Spiridonovka 26, Moscow, Russia

Moscow Suites Noviy Arbat

22 Noviy Arbat Street, Moscow, Russia

Kvart Boutique City Hotel

Rayevskogo Str., 3, Moscow, Ru, Moscow, Russia

Apelsin On Olkhovskaya Hotel

Olkhovskaya Str, 23 Bld 1, Moscow, Russia

Sky Apartments Moscow City Mibc

Presnenskaya Nab., 12, Moscow, Russia

Tricolor Apartments

Prospekt Mira - 188B Building 2 - 129128 - Moscow - Ru, Moscow, Russia

Corstan Baumanskaya Hotel

23 Ol'Khovskaya Ulitsa, Moscow, Russia

Guest houses in Moscow

Apartment na kuzne.

Pyatnitskaya Ulitsa 20 B2, Moscow, Russia

Bed & Breakfasts in Moscow

Hotel on valovaya 8/18.

Valovaya Str., 8-18, Moscow, Russia

Apartments in Moscow

Rusapart on lenivka apartment.

Volkhonka Street 9 Building 2, Moscow, Russia

Mama Ro Apartments At Chistye Prudy

Gusyatnikov Pereulok 4, Bld. 3, 101000, Moscow, Russia, Moscow, Russia

Axis.Moscow Arbat Apartment

11 Arbat Street Floor 5, Moscow, Ru, Moscow, Russia

Domumetro On Profsoyuznoya Street Apartment

Profsoyuznaya Street Area, Moscow, Russia

Apartment On Belorusskaya

Gruzinskiy Val 18/15, Moscow, Russia

Lux-Apartments

Ovchinnikovskaya Naberezhnaya 18/1, Moscow, Russia

Pathos Na Lubyanke Apartment

Varsonofevskiy Pereylok 8 Bld 2, Moscow, Russia

Aparthotels in Moscow

Sky apartments rentals service.

Presnenskaya Nab. - 12 - Moscow, Moscow, Russia

Apartment Deals in Moscow

  • Add property
    
USD61.5333Rub.-0.04
EUR68.5358Rub.-0.12
CNY8.97105Rub.+0.03
city,

Analysis of real estate market in Moscow Oblast, Russia:

  ,   ,
  ,  
RUB: USD: /m² EUR: /m²
USD: /ft²GBP: /ft² CHF: /m²
CNY: /m²JPY: /m²
Change of cost per square foot in per week (USD):
Change of average apartment cost in rubles per week,
1.4 thousand apartments$119.86 million79.7 thousand m²
857.8 thousand ft²
flats/apartments in secondary housing market
1 bedroom apartments29.4%418$25.52 million15.6 thousand m²
167.7 thousand ft²
2 bedroom apartments38.6%549$45.90 million30.1 thousand m²
323.8 thousand ft²
3 bedroom apartments26.9%383$39.33 million27.5 thousand m²
295.8 thousand ft²
multi-bedroom apartments5.1%72$9.11 million6.56 thousand m²
70.6 thousand ft²
average apartment cost per square foot/meter
1 bedroom apartments
2 bedroom apartments
3 bedroom apartments
multi-bedroom apartments
flats/apartments cost on 06.01.2020
1 bedroom flat37.3 m²401.1 ft²
2 bedroom flat54.8 m²589.7 ft²
3 bedroom flat71.8 m²772.4 ft²
4+ bedroom flat91.0 m²980.1 ft²
| | |
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  3. Big Misconception About Estate Planning

  4. Estate Planning Essentials: Understanding Trusts and Probate in Real Estate

  5. 𝐃𝐨𝐧'𝐭 𝐟𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞 "𝐆𝐮𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐞𝐝 𝐑𝐞𝐧𝐭" 𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐩!

  6. The Best Tips for Writing Your Personal Statement for Residency Plus My Actual Personal Statement!

COMMENTS

  1. PDF Personal Statement for an Urban Planning Program

    Personal Statement for an Urban Planning Program Every day on the bus home from work, we pass by a row of abandoned houses. Their windows are boarded up, the paintwork on the front doors is faded and peeling, and the front yards are overgrown with weeds. It always seems faintly tragic to me: a lonely, desolate scene of wasted potential.

  2. Urban Planning Personal Statement Examples

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  3. Urban Planning Personal Statement Examples

    The average earnings for someone with a degree in urban planning vary depending on the country, region, and type of job. In the United Kingdom, the average salary for a qualified urban planner is around £45,000 per year. However, salaries can range from £25,000 to £70,000 depending on the experience and qualifications of the individual.

  4. Postgraduate Personal Statement Example: Real Estate

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  5. PDF EXAMPLES OF PERSONAL STATEMENTS

    I see urban planning as a possibility for change, a discipline that uses the knowledge we have to strive towards a new relationship with each other and with the earth. My goal is a job working on urban and community planning in the public sector or in private consulting. I hope to work to help to create a more sustainable urban environment. The

  6. PDF REAL ESTATE

    Personal Statement Example: Real Estate ... as well as urban housing, urban management and urban land use in urban economics. Therefore, an equally interdisciplinary postgraduate course can provide students ... helping them invest, develop and contribute to urban planning and construction. My personal and professional goals align positively ...

  7. Master of City Planning

    The Master of City Planning (M.C.P.) degree combines a common core curriculum with the opportunity to specialize in one or more of the following concentration areas: Environmental Planning and Healthy Cities. Housing, Community, and Economic Development. Transportation Policy and Planning. Urban Design.

  8. Urban and regional planning personal statements

    Urban and regional planning personal statements. On this page you'll find a collection of real personal statements written by students applying to study urban and regional planning and related courses at university. These personal statements are written by real students - don't expect them all to be perfect!

  9. Real Estate Personal Statement

    Real Estate Personal Statement . Submitted by Phillip . The catalyst of my desire to study Real Estate stems from a young age: when walking around the cobbled streets of Moray Place in Edinburgh's New Town, I was left with a simple question: "why was this street so different to the rest of the New Town?". A few years later, an answer appeared ...

  10. Personal Statement Example Urban Planning 2

    Personal-statement-example-Urban-Planning-2 - Free download as PDF File (.pdf), Text File (.txt) or read online for free. The document is a personal statement for an urban planning program. It summarizes the author's motivation to pursue a career in urban planning. The author grew up working class and was bothered by the sight of abandoned houses near their home, seeing it as wasted potential.

  11. Real Estate Development and Design

    The Nancy and Douglas Abbey Master of Real Estate Development + Design (Abbey MRED+D) is an interdisciplinary degree program that trains real estate practitioners to build sustainable, equitable, and innovative large- and small-scale real estate projects. The curriculum educates diverse students to accelerate their careers in real estate with a ...

  12. Urban Planning Personal Statement Example

    Urban Planning Personal Statement Example. London is the most populous city in the European Union (Office of National Statistics 16/10/06) and further additions to the EU countries of membership, conflicts and political instabilities abroad mean it shall continue to grow. People need high quality homes, employment, public services and ...

  13. Urban Design Personal Statement Example

    Urban Design Personal Statement Example. It is difficult to ignore the accelerating growth of urbanization, caused by profound changes in the world economics. This is, particularly, evident in the arena of rapidly developing countries like China, where the expansion of urban space is currently facing a shortage of professional designers ...

  14. Master of Urban Planning (MUP)

    The urban planning program is an accredited, two-year master's degree program within the School of Public Affairs & Administration. We have a long history of training planners for successful, rewarding careers. Our combination of dedicated and knowledgeable professors and instructors, engaged and talented students, and real-world planning ...

  15. Department of Urban Studies and Planning < MIT

    The Department of Urban Studies and Planning offers graduate work leading to the Master in City Planning and the Doctor of Philosophy. In conjunction with the Center for Real Estate, the department also offers a Master of Science in Real Estate Development. These programs are open to students from a variety of backgrounds.

  16. Graduate Admissions

    Info sessions for architecture graduate programs. January 16. MRED+D (round two) For admissions criteria, application deadlines, and more, visit the admission page of the department you wish to apply to. Architecture, Landscape Architecture + Environmental Planning, City & Regional Planning, Real Estate Development & Design (MRED+D), Urban Design.

  17. Graduate Certificate in Real Estate Development

    The Department of Urban and Public Affairs offers a Graduate Certificate in Real Estate Development (GCRED) that equips graduates with the skills necessary to optimize real estate investments. The program may be completed in conjunction with the Master of Urban Planning program without the need to take any additional courses; the GCRED courses ...

  18. alina personal statement .doc

    View alina personal statement .doc from ENGLISH 301 at kabianga University College. Personal Statement Urban planning has gained importance when it comes to the development of communities, especially ... country by building real estate projects for middle income earners that has also played a major role in my interest in this particular field ...

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