Location:

Brooklyn, United States

Program Type:

Full Degree

Degree Level:

Master

Specialty:

Urban Affairs & Planning

Program Overview

Program Description:

City and Regional Planning focuses on participatory and hands-on planning; sustainable and equitable communities; and urban design / placemaking. Lodged in a School of Architecture within a world-famous art school, the program values creative thinking as well as analysis.

The CRP features studio learning—with three studios instead of the usual one. Studios entail professional-level teamwork on real projects on behalf of civic and community clients from the city’s diverse neighborhoods. The largely interdisciplinary studios provide a rich environment for peer learning, reflection through action, honing skills, improving teamwork and leadership skills, and problem solving. The CRP draws its faculty from the top ranks of New York City’s vast array of civic and community organizations, public agencies, and national consultancies. These “scholar-practitioners” assure a practical outlook that emphasizes skills and best practices as much as theory.

In CRP students enjoy an extraordinary 80 percent success rate in finding meaningful internships and jobs while attending Pratt, in equal parts due to Pratt’s studio-based pedagogy, the contacts afforded by high-powered practitioner faculty, and courses running at night (just for this reason). The CRP program’s rate of employment six months after graduation is 95 percent—among the highest in the Institute.
Interdisciplinary and specialized study

The CRP is part of the Programs for Sustainable Planning and Development (PSPD). Once completing the core coursework in the CRP program, students are free to take electives in the three other PSPD programs, allowing for cross-disciplinary specialization as well as experimentation. Further, the CRP and other PSPD programs can be sequenced to allow students to graduate with two advanced degrees at considerable savings in time and money, including the potential for a single thesis for both degrees. Finally, an open door allows CRP students to take selected courses at Brooklyn Law School. CRP students can even pursue a joint degree in city planning and law.

The PSPD further provides CRP students with the ability to specialize in one of six focus areas (each with its own advisor), in addition to being able to design their own degree. The most common focus areas are as follows (in order of popularity):

• Community Development
• Physical Planning and Contextual Urban Design
• Placemaking and Transportation
• Sustainability and Resiliency Planning
• Preservation Planning
• Progressive Real Estate Practice

Additional Program Information

Accreditation:

Accredited program through the Planning Accreditation Board

Financial Aid:

Yes