Practitioners agree that most planners, architects, and MBAs leave universities grounded in a theoretical understanding of their discipline, but with little practical experience with realities of the development process: the market and non-market dynamics, the multidisciplinary teams on which they will work, or skill in presenting to a real client. This educational “hole” makes graduates less effective development team members, policy makers, lenders or equity partners.

UrbanPlan for graduate school creates land use professionals–developers, planners, architects, investors, and policy makers–who are more sophisticated and effective when they enter the workforce.

The primary target is graduate students whose focus is land use: city and regional planning, MBA/real estate, and architecture. It can also be effective in carefully selected fourth-year undergraduate classes.

UrbanPlan moves students from a theoretical and ideological understanding of their discipline to the practical realities and demands of the development team and process.

What Teachers say about UrbanPlan

“UrbanPlan helped my students internalize the complex, interrelated, economic, and political aspects of public/private development…. The UP “roles” forced students to experience the impact of each development decision and tradeoff through the lens of a particular stakeholder: developer, politician, neighborhood group. That will have a positive impact on the communities where they will work.“

– Hilary Nixon, PhD. Assistant Professor, Urban & Regional Planning, San Jose State University