Urban Placemaking and Management at Pratt
We prepare professionals for this rapidly growing field. You’ll learn to create successful, vibrant, equitable, and economically viable public spaces using a bottom-up, community-driven, people-centric approach. Our program is for students with professionally oriented undergraduate education, professional degrees, or professional experience in architecture, engineering, environmental or landscape design, urban planning, or a background in geography, social sciences, and management. You’ll be immersed in the core skills of analysis, conceptual design, and management of the public realm in cities.
We also offer a 9-credit Advanced Certificate in Urban Placemaking. For more information on both the Advanced Certificate and MS program, Contact: David Burney, Academic Director, Urban Placemaking and Management, dburn135@pratt.edu.
Student Work
Take a look at examples of work by recent Urban Placemaking and Management graduates.
The Experience
Interdisciplinary, socially engaged, and justice-driven, our tight-knit community is connected by a shared mission for transformative change. With class sizes of just 8-12, you’ll collaborate closely with your team, faculty, and community partners to learn the skills needed to create strategies and systems that meet real-world challenges.
Studio Culture
You’ll strengthen your skills through two studios in which you’ll work in teams. Your first studio (the Lab Analysis class) allows you to tackle real placemaking challenges and connects you with a public space managed by a business improvement district, community-based group, or another organization. Your second studio will be an interdisciplinary studio with students from the other GCPE programs.
Internships and Fellowships
Students have the opportunity to gain work experience in the field at some of the leading placemaking organizations in New York City.
The program provides a few students with the opportunity to do independent research focusing on placemaking. Past fellowship topics include public art and creative placemaking, European placemaking, architecture and place-based theory, place and identity, secret spaces, and placemaking in Southeast Asia.
Study Abroad
Immersing yourself in another culture is an incredible experience that can extend the boundaries of creativity. Study abroad programs are an integral part of the college experience, and Pratt has deep connections with university partners around the world. See where you can go.
Pratt Institute has a strong relationship with the main architecture school in Havana, Cuba and each spring semester, as part of a course of study, students have the opportunity to spend a week in Havana working on a placemaking project.
Learning Resources
We develop disciplinary fluency in our program of study and we celebrate the interdisciplinary nature of design critical to address the plurality and complexity of the environments in which we operate. Learning resources
Our Faculty
Pratt’s distinguished faculty of outstanding creative professionals and scholars share a common desire to develop each student’s potential and creativity to the fullest. Bringing different views, methods, and perspectives they provide a rigorous educational model in which students make and learn. See all Graduate Center for Planning and the Environment faculty and administrators.
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David Burney
Academic Director of Urban Placemaking Management; Visiting Associate Professor
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Erin Lilli
Visiting Professor
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Lida Aljabar
Visiting Assistant Professor
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Emily Ahn Levy
Visiting Assistant Professor
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Margaret Walker
Visiting Assistant Professor
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Jack Travis
Adjunct Professor; SCPS Lecturer
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John Shapiro
Professor
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Stephen Davies
Visiting Assistant Professor
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Gabriel Vignoli
Visiting Professor
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Ronald Shiffman
Visiting Professor
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Signe Nielsen
Adjunct Professor
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Carlos Rodriguez Estevez
Visiting Assistant Professor
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Jonathan Martin
Professor
Our Alumni
Pratt’s distinguished alumni are leading diverse and thriving careers, addressing critical challenges and creating innovative work that reimagines our world.
Where They Work
- Carolyn Levine, 2021, founder of This Must be the Place
- Devshri Shah, 2021, Senior Urban Planner, IBI Group
- Jackson Chabot, 2019, Director of Advocacy and Organizing, Open Plans
- Claudia de la Cruz, 2019, Planner, New York City Department of City Planning
- Vaidehi Mody, 2020, Senior Planning Consultant, New York City Housing Authority
Success Stories
With Ahmad Shaibani, MS City and Regional Planning ’17
Prattfolio Story
Scenes from Trips Abroad
Article
Open Streets and Open Dialogues
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Ready for More?
HERE’S HOW TO APPLY | OUR CAMPUS & BEYOND |
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Join us at Pratt. Learn more about admissions requirements, plan your visit, talk to a counselor, and start your application. Take the next step. | You’ll find yourself at home at Pratt. Learn more about our residence halls, student organizations, athletics, gallery exhibitions, events, the amazing City of New York and our Brooklyn neighborhood communities. Check us out. |
Upcoming Information Sessions
All times ET
GCPE Advanced Certificate Info Session
Tuesday, September 10, 2024 4:30pm -5:30pm (virtual)
GCPE MS Graduate Admissions Info Session
Thursday, September 12, 2024 10am -12pm (virtual)
Thursday, October 10, 2024 3 – 5pm (In Person + Campus Tour + Studio Visit)
Tuesday, November 12, 2024 10am – 12pm
Thursday, November 21, 2024 10am-12pm (Virtual 1:1’s)
Thursday, February 18, 2025 9:30am – 10:30am (Virtual)