Urban and Community Planning at Pratt
Pratt’s Urban and Community Planning program is where you can put your passion for social justice to work. You’ll develop the skills to plan, design, and implement transformational solutions for metropolitan areas, cities, neighborhoods, and communities—using creativity, innovation, and advocacy.
Experiential learning opportunities working in partnership with communities allow you to make an impact while building foundational knowledge to:
- develop policies and solutions for affordable housing, equitable transit, and sustainable land use.
- promote social justice through asset-based community development.
- achieve climate justice goals through sustainable development and management practices.
We also offer a 9-credit Advanced Certificate in Community Planning. For information on both the MS program and Advanced Certificate, contact: Eve Baron, Academic Director, MS in Urban and Community Planning, ebaron@pratt.edu.
Student Work
Take a look at examples of work by recent Urban and Community Planning, MS graduates, and imagine what you might be able to do!
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. Evening classes allow you to continue working or to take internships during the day. You’ll have an opportunity to customize your curriculum by taking classes in the other GCPE programs, and to develop an interdisciplinary approach needed to tackle the most pressing challenges using today’s approaches and technologies.
Community of Practice
Customized advisement helps you connect to courses, thesis topics and professional networks that build toward careers. Small class sizes mean that you are building your professional network as soon as you walk into the classroom, learning directly from practicing professionals who are helping to shape the city. While the campus is located in historic Clinton Hill, Brooklyn, the work takes place all around New York City and beyond. You’ll gain exposure to the network of grassroots and community-based organizations leading the charge for change. On-campus partnerships with the Pratt Center for Community Development, Spatial Analysis Visualization Initiative (SAVI), and Pratt’s research opportunities and facilities provide even more pathways for fellowships, internships, and professional growth. Take your research a step further, enhancing your knowledge of design and fabrication of the built environment, by taking advantage of the Pratt Maker spaces and labs.
Internships and Experiential Learning
As early as your first semester, you can apply new skills through internships, fellowships, and experiential learning in advocacy campaigns, funding proposals, constituent briefings, and policy innovation. New York City presents a wealth of opportunities to become involved in crucial planning issues inside and outside the classroom. In studio classes, you’ll work with real clients facing significant planning and equity challenges.
Recent examples of studio projects include a community-centered plan for the reuse of the Kingsbridge Armory in the Bronx based on the vision of community partners Mothers on the Move and the Northwest Bronx Community Clergy Coalition; a travel studio in Atlanta, Georgia that worked in coalition with local organizations and an affordable housing developer to create plans for a “Just Transition for Vine City;” and a Bronx-based housing strategy to help home health care workers to live in safe, affordable housing in proximity to their clients and to benefit from a robust health care infrastructure.
Internships are a great way to deepen your skills and hone your practice. The Urban and Community Planning has strong ties to dozens of local nonprofits, community-based organizations, community development corporations, civic groups, public agencies, and private consulting firms eager to hire Pratt students as interns.
Study Abroad
Immersing yourself in another culture is an invaluable 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. Urban and Community Planning students have opportunities to study in such diverse locations as Rio de Janeiro, Puerto Rico, Havana, Cuba, the Netherlands, and Tokyo, Japan. These travel abroad experiences are made stronger by our connections to local grassroots, civic, and academic institutions and opportunities to engage in local issues.
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. Learn about resources.
Our Faculty
All full-time and part-time faculty are practitioners and deeply engaged in building equity through their own work in the public, private and nonprofit sectors. They bring the commitment, and their experience, into the classroom and into their interactions with you. You’ll learn from top professionals working in diverse capacities–from directors of nonprofits, to city agency and governmental leaders, to planners working in private firms, to community planners and organizers, to landscape architects, to policy analysts. You’ll see firsthand the range of opportunities available to those with planning degrees.
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Eve Baron
Chairperson, Center for Planning and the Environment
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Jonathan Martin
Professor
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John Shapiro
Professor
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Juan Camilo Osorio
Associate Professor
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Ronald Shiffman
Visiting Professor
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Mercedes Narciso
Adjunct Associate Professor
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Samara Swanston
Visiting Assistant Professor
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David Kallick
Visiting Assistant Professor
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Mark Winston Griffith
Visiting Assistant Professor
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Tara Duvivier
Senior Planner; Visiting Assistant Professor
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Sophonie Joseph
Adjunct Associate Professor
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David Burney
Academic Director of Urban Placemaking Management; Visiting Associate Professor
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Courtney Knapp
Professor
Our Alumni
Urban and Community Planning alumni have risen to the tops of their fields in affordable housing, community economic development, transportation, government, community development and advanced research.
Take a look at where recent graduates work:
- Matt Ladd, 2022, is now the Real Estate Project Manager at St. Nick’s Alliance
- Ethan Schwimmer, 2022, is now an Associate Consultant-Transportation Planner at WSP USA
- Yuri Chang, 2022, is now a Director at Karp Strategies
- Carl Shumate, 2022, is now the Assistant District Manager at Manhattan Community Board 3
- Amron Lee, 2022, is now a Project Associate at Hester Street
- Shweta Iyer, 2022, is now an Analyst – Policy and Stakeholder Engagement at Karp Strategies
- James Tschikov, 2023, is now a Manhattan Borough Planner at the NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development
- Agata Naklicka, 2023, is now a Manhattan Borough Planner at the NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development
- Leanna Molnar, 2023, is now an Emergency Management Analyst at NYU Langone Health
- Kieran Micka-Malloy, 2023, is now the Energy Advisor at the Pratt Center for Community Development
- Shelby Ketchum, 2023, is now the Inflation Reduction Act Specialist at Seattle City Light
- Suzanne Goldberg, 2023, is now a Planner at BFJ Planning
- Lindsey Cassone, 2023, is now an Environmental Planner at VHB
- Sophia Hull, 2023, is now an Environmental Planner at Hudson County Division of Planning
- Michaela Brochetti, 2023, is now a Project Coordinator for the Business Preparedness and Resiliency Program at the NYC Department of Small Business Services
Success Stories
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With Ahmad Shaibani, MS City and Regional Planning ’17
Prattfolio Story
Scenes from Trips Abroad
Article
Ready for More?
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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)
Social media
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