Harvard's Urban Planning Transition

What does the Harvard Design School's Master in Urban Planning degree stand for?

"The new degree program adopted a new name, Master in Urban Planning, to replace the old city and regional planning moniker, and that reflected far more than a nominal difference. The new degree locates its intellectual core in its singular focus on the built environment. Here's a proposed mission statement: The Harvard Urban Planning program teaches students how to understand, analyze, and influence the variety of forces—social, economic, cultural, legal, political, ecological, technological, aesthetic, and so forth—shaping the built environment. More than any individual creative act, these forces affect the “form, function, and feel” of the built environment in ways not fully appreciated by scholars and professionals alike. The built environment, in turn, shapes the quality of human experience at work, residence, and play, thereby linking Design School-styled urban planning to a central human project worthy of any profession."

Thanks to Chris Steins