The Master of Science in Urban Planning and Policy (MUPP) trains leaders interested in building just and sustainable solutions to today’s critical urban problems. The program combines the expertise in urban planning, policy analysis, and data analytics from the School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs with expertise in physical planning, design, and data visualization from the School of Architecture. Its curriculum provides students with a solid foundation in research design and statistics, economic analysis, legal foundations planning, and the history of urban development and urban planning. Students also specialize in one of four concentrations: Urban Design and Physical Planning; Urban Analytics; Urban Sustainability and Resilience; and Urban Development Policy and Planning.

The two-year Master of Urban Planning degree provides students with the knowledge, skills and experience to become a professional planner. The MUP program is built around a core curriculum, general electives, a planning studio, a departmental colloquium, and a culminating professional project or thesis. Our program is fully accredited by the Planning Accreditation Board. Graduates of our program find diverse job opportunities in government agencies, international agencies, development authorities, nonprofit organizations, community groups, land development firms and consulting companies.

The Urban and Regional Studies Institute is an interdisciplinary degree program oriented toward examining and understanding the broad range of problems and challenges associated with the nation’s cities and regional areas. There are many career opportunities in community development, urban/regional planning, local government, and local government management. This national award-winning program includes classroom, research, and field experience. In addition to formal course work, students are encouraged to undertake independent study, become involved in community service projects, participate in field studies, and accept internships in local agencies.

The M.S. in Architecture, Urban Design (MSAUD) post-professional program focuses on the intersection of urban forms, applied technology, climate resilience, ecosystems, and socio-cultural aspects of cities. In the advanced design studios, you’ll learn how to be an agent of change by responding to critical issues within the global context of 21st-century urbanism.

The MSAUD is a program at the forefront of urban design research focused on issues of urbanization through the exploration of social, cultural, technological, and environmental domains. The program focuses on four main areas to project scenarios for FUTURE CITIES and URBAN INNOVATION:

• Interscalar forms of urbanization
• Climate Resilience
• Applied Urban Technology
• Socio-cultural aspects of Cities

Gain a global perspective on urbanism through the study of iconic New York City and diverse urban metropolitan regions around the world. The MSAUD builds on your existing professional degree in architecture, landscape or urban design. While studying in New York City, you’ll connect with organizations, institutions, stakeholders, and the larger community throughout the metropolitan area. You’ll also develop a global perspective on urbanism through international travel and project work. Recent sites have included Paris, Naples, Milan, and Shanghai.

The professionally accredited M.U.P. program prepares students for careers in planning practice. Such careers involve public service at all levels of government, in private consulting practice, in the nonprofit sector, and in a wide variety of organizations in need of planning services. The program also prepares students for advanced work leading to the Ph.D. degree and a career in teaching and research.

The Master in Urban Design, is a three (optional four) 36 credit semester program that provides students with a design experience investigating the guiding principles for building regions, cities and communities. The degree is STEM-designated which allows international students to apply for OPT for up to 36 months after graduation.

Guided by imperatives of sustainability and resilience, the program conceptualizes cities as an extension of the ecological transect across the natural to human habitat, providing students with a range of experiences from rural to urban.

Program Director Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, recognized for her foundational role in the development of the movement called the New Urbanism, leads the program that invites students to explore design, policy and management tools for place-making as a vehicle for improving quality of life in a variety of urban settings. The impact of the built environment on health, retrofitting the suburban landscape, real estate development as community building, adaptation to climate change, and urban growth and revitalization, are topics prominent in course offerings and faculty research.

The three-semester curriculum begins in the fall each year with foundation courses in urban design and real estate development, in an Interdisciplinary approach structured by environmental, social and economic goals. The spring semester intensifies students' engagement with contemporary urban challenges such as climate resilience, healthy community design, and repair of suburban sprawl. The summer semester provides a concluding experience that aggregates prior topics in an international setting that challenges goals of sustainability and resource conservation. As part of the curriculum, students participate in the National Charrette Institute certification course, a training in public outreach and participatory planning, and collaborate with real estate development students in two special projects: a national design and development competition, and a local community revitalization plan. These experiences and the course work shared with the Master of Real Estate Development and Urbanism program provide a focus on implementation. The optional fourth semester of the Master of Urban Design program is a semester-long independent study design project or thesis. In recent years these have focused on topics such as greening a Brazilian City, socially integrated public housing in China, and an analysis of principles and metrics of Smart Cities and New Urbanism.

Other resources that enrich the urban design student's experience in the School include the Center for Community and Urban Design (CUCD), engaging students in community outreach projects in South Florida and The Caribbean, and the Archive of the New Urbanism, housed in the School of Architecture Library. The Archive is a growing resource of documents, with both texts and images that support research related to urban design. Also, Research Affiliates from around the world join the faculty annually to study the state-of-the-art in urban design and architecture.

Guiding the ever evolving program are faculty members Charles Bohl, Jaime Correa, Eric Firley, Jean Francois Lejeune, Victor Deupi and Joanna Lombard, internationally recognized in research, publication and design.

While the Master of Urban Design is a post-professional program, structured for students with a professional degree in architecture, those holding a degree in engineering, planning or landscape architecture may apply for admission. A preparatory summer course may be required for non-architects, to be determined by the admission process.

Planning is a discipline concerned with effective change and development in a positive and beneficial manner. Our department offers the only degreed Urban and Regional Planning in the SUNY system. The program emphasizes technical skills and it is applied in nature - many of the courses taught by professional planners currently employed by local planning agencies. In particular, our GIS offerings provide students with highly marketable skills. Upper division classes are small (10-20 students), which facilitates individual attention.