Urban Design and Planning (BA/BS)

About this programme

Urban design and planning deals with critical issues of human settlement and urban development. The Department of Urban Design and Planning fosters an integrative approach to education and research in planning the physical environment. The academic program includes the social, behavioral, and cultural relationships between people and the form and quality of their built and natural environment; the financial, administrative, political, and participatory dimensions of planning, design, and development; and the informational base for making deliberate decisions to shape urban areas and regions, bringing analysis together with vision. Departmental faculty are active participants in interdisciplinary research units, including the Institute for Hazard Mitigation Planning and Research, the Urban Form Laboratory, the Urban Ecology Research Laboratory, the Runstad Center for Real Estate Studies, and the Northwest Center for Livable Communities.