Urban Planning Program

Columbia University GSAPP

Master of Science in Urban Planning

MS. UP

Urban Planning

Columbia GSAPP

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Overview

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413 Avery Hall @gsapp_planning up@arch.columbia.edu

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Urban Planning - Overview

The Urban Planning Program has as its mission the education of individuals in the (1) fundamental economic and political processes that shape the built environment of cities, (2) ways in which governments, community-based organizations, private sector actors, and political mobilizations produce and influence these processes, and (3) crafting of collective efforts to improve the quality of life of city residents. The tensions among market forces, civil society, and the goals of planning are of major concern. Particular attention is given to the importance of expert knowledge and the quest for social justice.

In pursuit of these goals, the program focuses on the ideas and techniques developed by planners and social activists since the emergence of the planning profession in the early twentieth century. To this, the faculty adds knowledge from the social sciences, architecture and urban design, historic preservation, and the humanities.

Columbia University’s Urban Planning faculty consists of leading national and international scholars who conduct research in the field of planning as well as highly regarded practicing professionals who connect students to practical issues and perspectives. Recent faculty research has focused on gentrification in African-American neighborhoods of New York City, slum dwellers in African cities, minority small business development, office building conversion in Lower Manhattan, and informal sector work and gender relations in India. The faculty has broad interests that range from water and sanitation in Calcutta and social housing in Germany to affordable housing and the problems of low-wage immigrants in New York City to the rebuilding of neighborhood economies in New Orleans.

Throughout the curriculum, the emphasis is on real-world problems and how planners can act to improve the lives of urban residents. In doing so, the program takes the cities of the world as its laboratory.

With the program located in New York City, one of the global centers of international commerce and culture and a city experiencing population growth, it looks to the city’s planning issues for studios, classroom examples, and thesis topics. Still, the problems of cities — whether they be London or Sao Paulo, Las Vegas or Nairobi — can be understood only in a global context. By the end of their time in the program, students are competent to analyze issues, develop plans, and advise policymakers on the important issues related to the growth and development of cities. They do so with the intent of making cities more just, more equitable, and more prosperous.

Faculty

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Urban Planning - Faculty

Lance Freeman Program Director

Peter Marcuse Emeritus Professor Bob Beauregard Professor Elliott Sclar Professor David King Assistant Professor Clara Irazabal Assistant Professor In addition to the full-time faculty, around twentyfive Urban Planning professionals serve as Adjunct Professors creating a valuable network for students.

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Degree Requirements

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Semester 2 Spring

Semester 3 Fall

Semester 4 Spring

Core Courses 4 x 3/6 pts: 27 pts

Planning Techniques

Planning Studio (6 pts)

Thesis I

Thesis II

Distribution/ Electives 4 x 3 pts: 12 pts

Intro to GIS

Distribution/ Electives 4 x 3 pts: 12 pts

Economics for Planners

Distribution/ Electives 4 x 3 pts: 12 pts

Planning History and Theory

Distribution/ Electives 3 x 3 pts: 9 pts

Planning Law

Total: 60 pts

Elective/ Concentration Course

Elective/ Concentration Course

Elective/ Concentration Course

Elective/ Concentration Course

Elective/ Concentration Course

Elective/ Concentration Course

Elective/ Concentration Course

Elective/ Concentration Course

Elective/ Concentration Course

Elective/ Concentration Course

Elective/ Concentration Course

15 pts

15 pts

15 pts

15 pts

Students are required to complete 60 points for the M.S. in Urban Planning: 27 points in required courses and 33 points between courses in a concentration and electives of their own choosing.

Students may take courses offered in the Urban Planning Program, the School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation in general, or from classes in other departments and schools at Columbia to fulfill some or all of their elective requirements.

Students are required to take at least one Methods course in their time here. Methods courses include: Advanced GIS, Fundamentals of Urban Digital Design, Presentations as Strategic Planning Tools, Negotiations for Planners, and Techniques of Project Evaluation. Each student is required to write a Master’s thesis during his or her second year of study.

Note: First-year students may choose to take Planning Law and Intro to GIS in the fall or spring semesters. No extra tuition is charged between 12 and 19 points.

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Urban Planning - Degree Requirements

Semester 1 Fall

Course

Curriculum

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Urban Planning - Curriculum

The faculty shares a core pedagogic belief that the best professional education takes place in an environment of learning by doing, reinforced by classroom work and group projects. Planners must have a thorough understanding of the economic, social, political, and physical forces that shape the built environment. These beliefs are implemented through program offerings that include familiarity with the range of analytic and research techniques used by planners, a semesterlong studio project, and courses in planning history and theory.

Planning education is designed to produce individuals who have a general knowledge of urban and regional development (and planning interventions to shape that development) and specialized knowledge in a sub-discipline of planning. The four concentration options include: Housing and Community Development; International Planning; Land Use, Transportation, and the Environment; and Urban and Economic Development.

Students take a minimum of four courses in a Concentration.

Land Use, Transportation, and the Environment Transportation, land use and the environment are the physical essence of urban life. The policy and planning challenges that confront these subjects are largely the responsibilities of regional and local governments. Traffic congestion, infrastructure investment, transit service and climate change are now debated and addressed at these levels. These three concerns (transportation, land use and the environment), are increasingly quality of life issues as communities pursue meaningful policies to improve sustainability, walkability, cycling, public health, clean air and economic competitiveness. The courses offered through GSAPP Urban Planning are tailored to train future local leaders to think critically about solutions to these complex challenges. We seek to educate our students so that they better understand the costs, benefits and trade-offs associated with the economic, environmental and equity aspects of transportation, land use and environmental policies. Our courses are designed to approach these problems specifically from an urban planning perspective rather than one of engineering or economics.

Students tour the 7 Subway Line extension

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This concentration prepares students for community and neighborhood planning and decision-making. While the skill set of this concentration is widely applicable, there is an emphasis placed on disadvantaged communities in the United States, as they are often marginalized or overlooked in conventional planning processes. Students choosing this concentration will learn: 1) How to gather and analyze neighborhood and “small-area� data 2) How to foster community involvement in planning processes 3) How to understand and contextualize housing markets, labor markets, property markets, economic development decisions, and other critical planning spheres and 4) Planning techniques and public policies that directly impact distressed communities.

Urban Planning - Curriculum

Housing and Community Development

Studios frequently meet with local constituencies to gain community feedback

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Urban and Economic Development Two of the most important functions of cities are generating jobs and creating wealth. With jobs, people have income and using that income can strive to live well. With wealth, people are able to fund governments, cultural institutions, and civic organizations. The purpose of this concentration is to provide students with foundational knowledge in how cities perform these functions. It involves an understanding of local and city-level economic development, urban economies, global relationships, redevelopment activities, and real estate investment among other concerns. In selecting courses for this concentration, students should attend to economic and urban development at various spatial scales from the neighborhood to the global and consider various approaches to economic development from microfinance and small businesses to infrastructure investment.

Urban Analytics The concentration prepares professionals to conceptualize strategies for using the increasing abundance and availability of data to inform planning efforts, undertake architecture and design projects, and solve urban problems. To that end students will acquire skills in data science, data visualization, geographic information systems, multivariate statistical analysis, research design, in addition to the planning skills taught in the core UP curriculum.

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The International Development concentration prepares planners to work on development issues overseas, with governments, community based, or membership based organizations, private consulting firms, and international development agencies. The concentration provides multidisciplinary training in theories, analytic methods, and practical skills required for working effectively in developing nations, regions, and cities.

Contexts of “development� politics, cultures, and economics relevant to the transformations are presented and studied in different courses to identify special challenges they face. Since International Development processes and projects may refer to any planning subfield, this concentration cuts across the others offered by our program. Students can develop an international development concentration for example, in transportation and land use, housing and community development, or economic development.

Urban Planning - Curriculum

International Development

Spring break offers an opportunity for students in international studios to visit their site, Port of Spain, Trinidad & Tobago

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Studios

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Recent studio offerings include:

Guiding Sustainable Development in the East Port of Spain Promoting Bus Rapid Transit Options on the New Tappan Zee Bridge and I-287 Corridor Gowanus Bay Terminal (GBX): Planning Red Hook’s Resilient Industrial Ecosystem The Future of Public Housing: An Analysis of Infill Development in East Harlem Moynihan Station: Planning for a New Midtown Destination Re-Imagining Tokyo’s Aoyama Street Rio das Pedras: Urban Upgrading in Rio de Janeiro

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Urban Planning - Studioes

Studio is the core teaching model of an architecture school.

In architecture studio, students work with their faculty to create individual designs, whereas in the Columbia University Planning studio, there is a real client with a real-world issues that will be analyzed by students working as a team under the direction of the faculty member. The plan that results will reflect data analysis, design analysis, and economic analysis, and will have encouraged students to consider “best practices” in planning as well as encouraged innovative thinking. Studio takes place in the spring of the students’ first year, and is a way of integrating classroom learning with practical experience early in the students’ education here. Advanced Studios on often multidisciplinary topics are offered for second-year students.

Creative Village Studio visiting downtown Orlando site

Design guidelines created by Rio das Pedras Studio

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Urban Planning - Studios Bus Rapid Transit studio examined the viability of BRT lanes on the new Tappan Zee Bridge

Moynihan Station studio created programming proposals for the former Farley Post Office, Amtrak’s new headquarters

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Courses

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Required Courses This course addresses the history of the planning profession in the United States with its intellectual evolution, while focusing on planning functions and planning roles. The course considers multiple rationales and alternative means of understanding and practicing planning. Particular attention is paid to the interplay of power and knowledge, ethics and social responsibility and issues of race, gender, class and identity. Consideration to some aspects of history and theory of planning in other parts of the world is included in comparative perspective.

Economics For Planners

Cities are run by city governments. These governments are providers of Infrastructure and goods themselves and they also regulate the provision of goods by private firms; they promote health and welfare through land use and environmental regulation; and they are charged with ensuring that political power and economic resources will be distributed equitably. Yet governments operate in societies where resource allocation is governed primarily by markets. Economics provides tools, frequently controversial to guide decisions about when and how government should be involved in providing or subsidizing services and in shaping market activity.

Planning Methods

This is an introductory course designed to help prepare students for common analysis methods used in planning practice. Common methods of analysis are covered using publicly available data sets and data collected through assignments.

Through weekly readings, lectures and lab sessions students will gain a basic understanding of the tools and skills required in planning practice.

Planning Law

This core course explores the legal foundations of planning in the United States. Case studies and legal readings provide the foundations to understanding zoning, environmental law, aesthetic regulations, and housing policies.

Introduction To Geographic Information Systems

This course provides instruction in GIS techniques for land use analysis using ArcGIS. Students enrolled in the course use real world scenarios to learn the spatial visualization techniques necessary for effective communication in the planning field. The course is held in the School’s GIS Laboratory, a computer facility dedicated to the instruction of computer applications.

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Urban Planning - Courses

History and Theory of Planning

Courses often involve group work and collaborative projects

Planning for the Moynihan Station transportation hub

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Elective Courses Advanced GIS is a research seminar aimed at covering a variety of advanced techniques in geographic information systems analysis, for both practice and research. As a skills-based seminar, the course operates with a two-fold mission: (1) to critically discuss the theories, concepts, and research methods involved in spatial analysis and (2) to learn the techniques necessary for engaging those theories and deploying those methods. There is a dedicated focus on the urban environment and spatial relationships that arise from the urban context.

Cities, Nature, And Technology

The purpose of this course is to explore how human and non-human realities are intertwined in the making, re-making, and un-making of cities. The focus is on the materiality of buildings, “natural” forms (e.g., wetlands, rivers), infrastructures (e.g., sewers, streets), plant and animal life, structures (e.g., billboards, cellphone towers), and people. The course’s perspective is derived from actor-network theory and writings on assemblages, “vibrant matter,” cyborg urbanism, infrastructure and development, and the metabolism of the city. The goal is to provide the student with an historical and holistic understanding of the evolution of cities that privileges assemblages of human things, objects, and nature. Explicitly rejected is that intervention involves autonomous and empowered humans who engage a passive urban materiality.

Developing Urban Informality

This seminar exposes, explores and questions contemporary, acknowledged urban planning programs and urban design strategies dealing with informality. To this purpose, it will showcase related texts and projects that can be understood as historical paradigms and paradoxes of current programs developing urban informality. These international case studies will include, among others, examples from Indonesia, Hong-Kong, Thailand, Kenya, Peru, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Nicaragua, India, UK, and Argentina.

Environment, Climate Change, And Vulnerability Of Urban Cities: Our New “Normal”

Climate change (CC) constitutes one of the most urgent issues of our time. This course explores the vulnerability of urban populations making emphasis on context specific impacts in low and middle-income nations. Using case studies we will analyze how climate change impacts different social groups in

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Urban Planning - Courses

Advanced GIS

our cities, identifying adaptation and mitigation strategies being currently implemented. Tools to draw on climate change scientific data and the uncertainty inherent in future projections, will be provided.

Ethnic Enclaves

Ethnic enclaves occupy a unique place in the development of American cities. This course will explore how ethnic enclaves are formed and how they fade, issues of immigration and expansion, planning strategies—both successes and failures—and it will re-assess theories of how ethnic enclaves function, including ethnic enclave economic (EEE) theory, a leading formulation of how enclaves operate economically that has come under increasing challenge.

Fundamentals Of Urban Digital Design

This course teaches digital methods of creating visual information, and is designed to build those skills fundamental to understanding and communicating projects from the scale of the building to that of the city. Classes will observe and discuss techniques of effective visual communication and teach the methods and details of realizing such work using the computer.

Inside Urban Transit

The aim of this course to offer students first hand, detailed knowledge of the inside workings of large urban transportation systems. Specifically students will be primarily familiarized with the specifics of New York MTA and its subsidiary agencies, however experiences of other major urban transport networks will also be introduced.

Introduction to Community Development

The objective of the course is to prepare students to develop strategies for revitalizing forlorn inner city neighborhoods.

By the end of the course students will understand the various theories of neighborhood change, be able to use these theories to inform the development of revitalization strategies, and be familiar with techniques for analyzing and diagnosing neighborhood trends relevant to community development.

Introduction To Environmental Planning

This course provides an introduction to the background and practice of environmental planning through a review of the history of urban environmental planning thought and an investigation into the impacts of urbanization at different scales.

Students will also be introduced to the tools of environmental planning in order to evaluate issues in both developed and developing countries.

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Introduction to Housing

Introduction To Transportation Planning

This course provides an introduction and overview of transportation modes, the characteristics of transportation planning policies and procedures with their effect on the location, economic development of urban places and the related land use patterns. The growing dilemma in moving goods and freight will be introduced as both components continue to increase their share of overall trips. The role of the environmental impact statement and the increasing interest in environmental justice will be discussed. The governance of transportation as it has evolved for more than half a century with the federal mandated metropolitan transportation planning organization (MPO) will also be evaluated.

Negotiations For Planners

Planners spend much of their time negotiating; yet generally devote little time thinking about how to negotiate. They tend to focus only on the outcomes achieved in bargaining, and fail to explore how the processes or tactics on which they relied could have been varied to attain even better results. Our goal is to explore both the theoretical and practical aspects of negotiations. In this seminar, we shall review the literature dealing with negotiating, engage in negotiations in a variety of settings and study the negotiating process.

NYC Land Use Approvals

The course will take a real-world approach in examining the various land use approval processes in New York City. Students will review the ULURP public review process, the Board of Standards and Appeals variance process, the Landmarks Preservation Commission procedures, and other elements of governmental approval processes. Students will attend public hearings, review past cases, and critically analyze what gets approved, what does not, and why. By following current and past development projects through these processes, students will get an understanding of the interplay between planning and politics.

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Urban Planning - Courses

This course will address many of the housing issues that have vexed Planners and policy makers for decades. Examples of such questions include: Why is there a shortage of affordable housing? Should everyone be guaranteed a right to decent housing? When, if ever, should the government intervene in the provision of housing? This course will provide students with the analytical skills to address the questions listed above. In addition, students will learn to take advantage of the plethora of housing data available so as to be able to assess housing market conditions in a particular locality. With these skills students will be better prepared to formulate effective housing policies.

Physical Structure of Cities

This lecture course focuses on the historic emergence of contemporary practice of urban planning. Beginning with the birth of the industrial city in the 19th century, the course takes its subject matter from early planning attempts such as tenement house regulation and garden cities up to contemporary concerns with postmodernism, new urbanism, and sustainable development. The course focuses principally upon the American experience but also draws from Western Europe.

Planning For Disasters, Recovery, And Resilience

This course focuses on the physical, social, economic and policy aspects of natural and human-made disasters. Particular attention will be given to basic issues of land use and development, institutional policies and response, and the political response to disasters in the immediate and long run. Students will examine a variety of issues and tools, including disaster prevention and recovery programs, disaster planning as part of the redevelopment process, risk and vulnerability assessment, hazard mitigation, urban design and preservation, and community and local participation.

Planning For Emerging Economies

This course will focus on contemporary urban challenges that emerging economies are facing as part of the interconnected world economy and society. These challenges range from increasing competition for economic growth, to environmental protection versus economic development, housing reform and slum upgrading in the process of urban renewal, rising conflicts over land use and property rights, urban-rural migration, and the rising power of social media. Students will have the opportunity to take a comparative perspective on how countries with different institutional settings deal with similar urban planning problems. Cases covered in the course will be drawn from countries in Asia, Latin America, and Africa.

Politics Of International Placemaking

Students in this course will spend the semester addressing contemporary planning issues from across the globe. The students will develop semester-long group projects which critically analyze and compare the nuanced differences across planning contexts, assess the level of effectiveness of planning approaches used in addressing such conditions and their resulting place-based effects, and envision better planning practices to make progress in the attainment of more just cities.

Private Partnerships, Privatization, And The New City Government

The current budget deficits that local governments face have given new life to the call to “reinvent government.� Public/

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Urban Planning - Courses

Public Housing studio work revisioning contextual zoning and parking requirements

Course field trips take students to underground transportation projects

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private partnerships and privatization raise questions both about the proper role of government on the one hand, and about who governs on the other. They also raise the practical question of how best to manage them, given that the criteria for “best� must involve not only considerations of financial costs but of also of access and control. The course will examine when public/private partnerships and privatization make sense as well as the structure of the new government and the tools available for its governance.

Public Financing Of Urban Development

This course is an introduction to how public entities (cities, states, public benefit corporations) finance urban development by issuing public securities. We will start with an examination of how public entities leverage limited capital resources through the issuance of debt, including a review of statutory and political considerations as well as limitations put on such debt. We will explore the limitations of tax exempt financing and the kinds of development that can qualify for such financing. By examining different kinds of development financing, including mass transit, health care facilities, schools, public utilities, airports and housing, the class will see the major forms of tax exempt financing that are available.

Quantitative Methods

The purpose of this class is to introduce students to the concepts, techniques and reasoning skills necessary to understand and undertake quantitative research. By the end of the semester students will be able to: 1) Design a quantitative research proposal 2) Conceptualize a quantitative statistical model 3) Estimate a quantitative statistical model 4) Interpret the results of descriptive analyses, t-tests, chi-square and multivariate regression analyses. Students will learn and hone their skills through a combination of attending weekly class meetings, participating in weekly labs, completing written assignments and writing a research paper that tests a hypothesis using quantitative techniques.

Real Estate Finance And Development

The course is intended for planners who are interested in real estate development and financing, but who need an introductory explanation of concepts and valuation techniques.

Topics within the course include: Introduction to Real Estate Markets and Cycles; Real Estate Cash Flows and Valuations; Financing Income-Producing Real Estate Properties Financing Real Estate Development – construction Liquidity Risk and the benefits of Diversification Important Entities in the Real Estate Industry Evaluating the Financial Performance and Strength of Real Estate Entities Important Real Estate transactions.

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Site Planning & Support Systems for Development

Sustainable Zoning & Land Use Regulation

Sustainable Zoning and Land Use Regulations introduces the basic techniques of land use control as practiced in the United States today with an emphasis on regulations that support green building practices and promote sustainable development patterns. Guided by readings from a wide range of sources (including adopted and proposed sustainable ordinances), the course will be structured as both a seminar and lecture format incorporating the following: 1) General Land Use Regulations, 2) Sustainable Land Use Regulations, 3) Growth Management, 4) Residential Regulations / Development Fees, and 5) Regulation of Aesthetics.

Techniques Of Project Evaluation

The course has two parts: cost benefit analysis and economic development. Cost benefit analysis deals with the taxpayer as a consumer while economic development, which is fast emerging as an important function of government, deals with the taxpayer as a worker in need of employment and with businesses as a source of tax revenues.

Territorial Imperative: Twentieth Century New Towns

Central to the logic of New Towns during the 20th century was the precise delineation of territory. Modern land use, planning and urban design practices were based on the rationalization of parcels of land which could thereby be exchanged, regulated and controlled. The class will also undertake the documentation of a number of New Towns because further interpretation, comparisons, analysis, comprehension and evaluation is precluded in the absence of such data. The study of plans and sections, occupants and programs, scale and size, infrastructure and siting, and policy and planning frameworks will allow us to understand more precisely the methods, means – and, perhaps, the varied ends – of the territorial imperative.

With their dramatic rise in Asia as well as the active renovation of many extant examples, historic New Towns may yet offer new possibilities.

Transportation Finance And Economics

This course explores the environmental, social and economic issues of sustainable transportation. Much of the class focuses on mass transit, which reflects the importance of transit in cities and the funding priorities of federal, state and

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Urban Planning - Courses

This course introduces students to the specific techniques employed by planners and developers to achieve a livable and healthful urban environment through effective and efficient site design.

local governments. Other topics covered include high speed rail, freight and shipping, local planning and the future of the automobile. Students will explore the incentives that shape our current system, new technologies that will influence transportation in the future and unintended consequences of well-meaning policies. Special concern for the equity effects of sustainable transportation is included.

Transportation and Land Use Planning

This course is an overview of land use and transportation policy and planning drawing primarily on the United States experience with autos and transit. By introducing principles of urban planning, civil engineering, economics and public policy, students will learn about how to use planning tools, policies and other infrastructure investments to help develop effective places and networks. By the end of this course students will be able to think critically about the transportation and land use implications of accessibility, environmental and urban design policies. In addition, students will understand the mutually reinforcing incentives of transportation and land use systems at local, regional and national scales.

Urban Design For Planners

This course is an introduction to urban design through weekly discussions and design workshops. The discussions focus on the history, theory, and analysis of urban forms, spaces, landscapes, and systems through presentations and case studies. The workshops develop a project-based exchange and application of the interdisciplinary ideas and techniques – from art and architecture to landscape architecture and environmental engineering – that designers use in developing projects in the urban context.

Urban Redevelopment Policy

The purpose of this course is to familiarize the student with the processes by which governments, private investors, and residents transform the uses, social composition, physical appearance, and market value of previously-developed, urban sites. We will focus on the history, rationales, financing, implementation, and social impacts of these initiatives. To begin, we will review the history of government-subsidized redevelopment and explore the types of government incentives (e.g., tax abatements) available to developers. We will also delve into the key actors and the politics of redevelopment and investigate large, high-density, mixed-use (HDMU) projects in New York City and elsewhere.

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Urban Planning - Courses

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Columbia GSAPP

Student Life Formal education is supplemented with varied extracurricular activities, which students are encouraged to attend. Evening guest lectures, the Lectures in Planning Series, the student magazine URBAN, and student government. As part of an accredited planning program, students enjoy the benefits of the American Planning Association (APA), specifically networking events and educational opportunities through the New York Metro Chapter of APA.

Program Council

Program Council is composed of a group of planning students elected by their peers who act as coordinators and communicators between the students and the faculty and GSAPP administration.

PSO

The Columbia Planning Student Organization (PSO) holds professional development and social events for UP students.

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Lectures in Planning Series (LiPS) is a weekly lecture and discussion that brings scholars and practitioners to GSAPP in order to discuss current ideas and issues in planning research and practice.

URBAN Magazine

URBAN is a magazine created, edited, and published by students of Columbia University’s Urban Planning Program. URBAN is published and printed twice a year as Spring and Fall issues.

Urban China Network

UCN brings students, scholars and practitioners from different disciplines into the discussion of China’s urbanization. UCN holds an annual Urban China Forum in the fall.

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Urban Planning - Student Life

LiPS

Student Body

Cover Design: Kees Bakker

Countries of Origin, 2012-2014

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2015–2016