Specialization: Urban Design
The Urban Design Certificate Program provides students with specialized training through the collaboration of faculty in the College's three professional programs: architecture, landscape architecture, and urban design and planning. The program's goal is to provide students with the fundamental theories, methods, and substantive content of urban design as a base for professional knowledge and a generative source for the future. Training is based on the fundamental assumption that urban designers design: the process of design and the problem-solving contributions of designers are as important as understanding the qualitative product of design--the urban environment.

Particular interests within the program include a concern for regionalism, the evolution of urban form, and the contemporary city. In addition, the program emphasizes understanding of the phenomena of place-making and the connections between site, people, culture, and the built landscape.

Candidates for the Certificate must have a physical design background or, with approval of the Director, obtain the equivalent during their residency in the program. The curriculum normally consists of seven quarters of work. There is a required core curriculum consisting of seminar and small-lecture courses, three urban design studios, and an urban design thesis. In addition, the student must take courses in the following areas: one each in urban form and history, quantitative methods, urban development and two in urban design methods.

For more detailed information, please refer to the prospectus of the Urban Design Certificate Program.