Discover how to advance social, environmental, and climate justice and empower communities. Our groundbreaking program—with a grassroots legacy extending back more than half a century—equips you with the technical expertise to support these movements.
Put your passion for social justice to work in our program. You’ll develop the skills to plan, design, and implement transformational solutions for metropolitan areas, cities, neighborhoods, and communities using creativity, innovation, and advocacy. Our evening classes allow you to continue your career while our small class sizes of 8–12 students foster a tight-knit community. Our interdisciplinary, wide-ranging program prepares you for public, private, and nonprofit work.
Curricular Information
Pratt’s accredited Urban and Community Planning (UCP) program equips students with the perspectives and skills to plan and implement equity-building improvements in neighborhoods, cities, and metropolitan areas. We teach participatory practice as the best way to advocate for just, equitable communities, emphasizing transformative change through creativity, innovation, and advocacy. Pratt’s MSUCP requires 50 credits. The schedule of classes allows students to enter in the fall or spring* and complete their studies in two years. To promote specialized or interdisciplinary study, half of the credits are in elective seminars and studios. Students are encouraged to take electives and interdisciplinary advanced studios from the three sister programs of the Graduate Center for Planning and the Environment (GCPE) to customize a course of study that suits their academic and professional goals.
About
Pratt’s MSUCP ranks fourth nationally among master’s degree-granting institutions that do not also grant PhDs (Planetizen, 2019). The 50-credit curriculum provides students with strong foundational knowledge in history, theory, law, economics, planning and research methods, data visualization, and spatial analysis. Take thematic electives within the UCP program on transportation, urban design, community development, land use, open space resilience, affordable housing, or topical special courses. Take an interdisciplinary approach and meet your own academic goals by choosing electives from the three sister programs in the GCPE, the School of Architecture, or across the Institute.
Community of Practice
All full-time and part-time faculty are practitioners and are deeply engaged in building equity through their own work in the public, private, and nonprofit sectors, and they bring their commitment and their experience into the classroom. Small class sizes mean that you are building your professional network as soon as you walk into the classroom by learning directly from professionals who are helping to shape the city. While the campus is in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn, the work takes place all around New York City and beyond.
Impact
UCP students acquire skills and actively apply them as early as their first semester through internships, fellowships, and experiential learning opportunities. Coursework in UCP studios and practicums often results directly in advocacy campaigns, funding proposals, constituent briefings, and policy innovation. In studio classes, students learn from faculty-practitioners and work with real clients facing significant planning challenges, consistent with the UCP emphasis on participatory planning and equity issues. Recent studios have taken students to work on scenario planning through gaming for a culturally responsive and equitable future managed retreat in Far Rockaway, Queens; on implementation strategies for a community-based plan for a just transition-inspired, green re-industrialization of the Sunset Park, Brooklyn, waterfront; and to create innovative, asset-based, racially just recommendations to address wealth and income gaps in rapidly gentrifying Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. Independent, applied research in the form of a thesis or a demonstration of professional competence allows students to transition from UCP into practice upon graduation.
An Investment in Your Future UCP welcomes students from all backgrounds, honors prior related work experience and graduate-level classes with course credit, provides generous merit scholarships upon admission, and offers an array of paid fellowships, internships, and assistantship opportunities to offset tuition and contribute to students’ developing professional networks. On-campus partnerships with the Pratt Center for Community Development and the Spatial Analysis Visualization Initiative (SAVI) provide further opportunity for professional growth and internships. Customized advisement helps students connect to courses, thesis topics, and professional networks that build toward careers. Alumni have risen to the tops of their fields in affordable housing, community economic development, transportation, government, community development, and advanced research.
Students shall demonstrate both professional competency in the planning field and the ability to independently pursue original thinking and research.
Students shall demonstrate a foundational understanding of planning theory and values, especially participatory planning, urban conditions, and trends, especially in the community planning context; equity and sustainability at multiple scales; and a balance of theory and practice, especially with regard to the use of ideas and information.
Students shall demonstrate technical proficiency consistent with the highest standards of the profession, including quantitative methods, qualitative methods, and written, oral, and graphic communication skills.
Students shall demonstrate knowledge and proficiency in planning practice, potentially with a concentration in community development, physical planning, urban sustainability, and historic preservation.
Students shall demonstrate collaborative skills, critical thinking, and an ability to lead in an interdisciplinary environment enabled through service-learning opportunities.
Students shall exit Pratt as engaged professionals on the path to participate meaningfully in the field, help preserve the environment for generations to come, and foster inclusive planning and just cities.
Students and full-time and part-time faculty are connected, enriched, and advanced in their professions through formal collaboration on service-oriented projects, research, and publication.
Work in partnership with community-based organizations across New York City, making an impact while building foundational knowledge to:
Develop policies and solutions in partnership with community stakeholders to advance affordable housing, equitable transit, and sustainable land use.
Promote social and environmental justice through asset-based community development, which expands community cooperation, wealth, and control.
Advance climate justice goals through sustainable development and management practices.
We take an integrated approach to urban and community planning, working at the intersections of environmental planning, housing, transportation, economic development, and the numerous disciplines that overlap in urban and community planning. This nimble strategy is rooted in our legacy of hands-on, grassroots action and technical assistance.
A Legacy Intertwined with New York History
Pratt has been at the forefront of community engagement since faculty member Ronald Shiffman cofounded the Pratt Center for Community Development—then called the Pratt Institute Center for Community and Environmental Development (PICCED)—in 1963. For more than half a century, the planning program has continued to champion an experimental, boundary-pushing approach to building community power.
A Flexible Path: Interdisciplinary Study
You’ll have an opportunity to customize your curriculum by taking classes in the other Graduate Center for Planning and the Environment (GCPE) programs and to develop an interdisciplinary approach needed to tackle the most pressing challenges using today’s approaches and technologies.
Institutional Partnerships and Resources
As a student, you are connected to a wealth of institutional resources. Through partnerships with the Pratt Center and the Spatial Analysis Visualization Initiative (SAVI), you gain pathways for fellowships, internships, and professional growth. Furthermore, you can enhance your knowledge of design and fabrication of the built environment by taking advantage of the Pratt maker spaces and labs—a unique opportunity to integrate hands-on making with planning research.
Internships and More Opportunities for Hands-On Work
As early as your first semester, you can apply new skills through internships, fellowships, and experiential learning. Our program 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.
Recent examples of studio projects include supporting the development of a People’s Plan for Coney Island, 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.
Our Faculty
All full-time and part-time faculty members are practitioners and deeply engaged in building equitable and sustainable communities through their own work in the public, private, and nonprofit sectors. 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. See firsthand the range of opportunities available to those with planning degrees.
Chairperson, Center for Planning and the Environment
Career Paths After Graduation
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:
Yuri Chang, ’22, is now a Director at Karp Strategies
Shweta Iyer, ’22, is now an Analyst – Policy and Stakeholder Engagement at Karp Strategies
Matt Ladd, ’22, is now the Real Estate Project Manager at St. Nick’s Alliance
Ethan Schwimmer, ’22, is now an Associate Consultant-Transportation Planner at WSP USA
Carl Shumate, ’22, is now the Assistant District Manager at Manhattan Community Board 3
Michaela Brochetti, ’23, is now a Project Coordinator for the Business Preparedness and Resiliency Program at the NYC Department of Small Business Services
Lindsey Cassone, ’23, is now an Environmental Planner at VHB
Suzanne Goldberg, ’23, is now a Planner at BFJ Planning
Sophia Hull, ’23, is now an Environmental Planner at Hudson County Division of Planning
Shelby Ketchum, ’23, is now the Inflation Reduction Act Specialist at Seattle City Light
Kieran Micka-Malloy, ’23, is now the Energy Advisor at the Pratt Center for Community Development
Leanna Molnar, ’23, is now an Emergency Management Analyst at NYU Langone Health
Agata Naklicka, ’23, is now a Manhattan Borough Planner at the NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development
James Tschikov, ’23, is now a Manhattan Borough Planner at the NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development
Career Support for Life
Students and alumni can schedule one-on-one appointments with career strategists in Pratt’s Center for Career and Professional Development. A career strategist can work with you to develop your job/internship search strategies and life and business plans, as well as review résumés, cover letters, websites, and other marketing materials.
Join us at Pratt. Learn more about admissions requirements, plan your visit, talk to a counselor, and start your application. Take the next step.
Whether your goal is to advance your career, pivot to a new field, or explore your craft or groundbreaking research, our 33 graduate programs provide the rigor and support to achieve your vision. Explore our graduate programs in architecture, fine arts, design, information studies, and the liberal arts and sciences. Learn More.
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.
Space is limited! Sign up now for a once in a lifetime learning experience! 01: Credit: Courtney Knapp
02: Students in front of the Frederick Douglass Monument in Rochester, NY. (Credit: Courtney Knapp)
03: DJDS staff members Allan Co and Shelley Davis Roberts worked with alums Becca Abellera, and Noah Miller to assemble a prototype at the Pratt Institute. (Credit: Courtney Knapp and Jen Potter) [Two different versions of the graphic. One is arranged by time, the other by look.]
04: Students stop at the construction site of the Brooklyn Detention Center during an Abolitionist Walking Tour led by Courtney Knapp. (Credit: Emily Ahn Levy)
05: Students during a spring break trip in upstate NY for the Abolitionist and Decarceral Planning course: (top to bottom) Harriet Tubman’s home, Harriet Tubman’s gravesite, the Alliance for Family Justice offices. (Credit: Courtney Knapp)
Join fellow Planners Network members and allies to commemorate 50 years of progressive planning and hear about the future of comprehensive planning in NYC.
Co-sponsored by Pratt Institute’s Urban and Community Planning program.
Remarks on the history of Planners Network:
Tom Angotti, Professor Emeritus, Hunter College, Planners Network founding member
Comprehensive planning speakers:
• Juan Camilo Osorio, Associate Professor, Pratt
• Brooklyn Borough President’s Office Land Use and Policy Team, The 2025 Comprehensive Plan for Brooklyn
• Katherine Mella, The Bronxwide Plan, Northwest Bronx Community and Clergy Coalition
• with Tara Duvivier, Pratt Center for Community Development, member, Thriving Communities Coalition
• and moderated by Eve Baron, Associate Professor, Pratt
Refreshments and plenty of time to mingle!
RSVP: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfJed_kKBuhiZhoNAUrkvExKU_Xf3wwRZCX47J_Emc06IuBFA/viewform
Are you passionate about making cities more livable, equitable, and sustainable? Do you want to create healthy spaces for people of all generations and backgrounds? Do you want to help decarbonize cities and help them adapt to a changing climate? Are you concerned about congestion, gentrification, displacement, and the lack of affordable housing?
Consider a field that starts with people and unites policy, design, economics, environment, and society: Urban Planning! Planning students learn how and why cities function, strategies to transform cities, and skills like design software, economic modeling, and facilitation. Develop your career in government, the private sector, or with non-government agencies helping communities in the U.S. or abroad.
New York City can become your classroom! Join us for an open house bringing together all eight planning programs in the New York City region. Get inspired by alumni working in the field, and hear from program directors about what makes their programs unique. Begin your search here, then attend a future information session to find your best fit.
🔗 Yes, tell me more & reserve my spot! 👉 https://tiny.pratt.edu/N6UGeb1Wn
#UrbanPlanning #GradSchool #NYC #OpenHouse
Last week our planning program welcomed graduates now working at NYC HPD, BFJ Planning, City Council and HR&A Advisors to share their professional journeys. Current students gained valuable insights on career paths and contemporary planning challenges from those who once sat in their seats. These connections between past and present Pratt planners truly enrich our learning community! #PrattPlanning #AlumniNetwork #PlanningCareers
Pratt students in Trent Lethco's Transportation Planning class gained valuable insights from Citi Field's VP of Transportation about the real-world applications of Transportation Demand Management (TDM). They learned firsthand how major venues strategically encourage sustainable transit options and manage traffic flow to create smooth game day experiences for thousands of Mets fans.
#TransportationPlanning #TDM #CitiField
🦭 PIPSA x NYC Parks: Exploring urban ecology beyond the classroom. Pratt planning students joined Urban Park Rangers at Orchard Beach to observe seal migration through Long Island Sound—connecting planning practice with natural systems that shape our coastal communities. #PrattPlanning #PIPSA #UrbanEcology
Great chat today with GCPE Professor John Shapiro on “Not In My Term of Office” on the political and financial realities of dealing with climate change impacts. Paraphrasing: We have to think in terms of 50 year plans, with an equity orientation, harnessing technology and merging it with community control. @pratt_ses @prattgcpe
UCP faculty together at the annual faculty retreat doing a “Shared History, Shared Future” exercise led by the inimitable Prof Courtney Knapp. It was fun, and hopeful, and a good reminder of our shared mission! @prattgcpe
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![Space is limited! Sign up now for a once in a lifetime learning experience! 01: Credit: Courtney Knapp
02: Students in front of the Frederick Douglass Monument in Rochester, NY. (Credit: Courtney Knapp)
03: DJDS staff members Allan Co and Shelley Davis Roberts worked with alums Becca Abellera, and Noah Miller to assemble a prototype at the Pratt Institute. (Credit: Courtney Knapp and Jen Potter) [Two different versions of the graphic. One is arranged by time, the other by look.]
04: Students stop at the construction site of the Brooklyn Detention Center during an Abolitionist Walking Tour led by Courtney Knapp. (Credit: Emily Ahn Levy)
05: Students during a spring break trip in upstate NY for the Abolitionist and Decarceral Planning course: (top to bottom) Harriet Tubman’s home, Harriet Tubman’s gravesite, the Alliance for Family Justice offices. (Credit: Courtney Knapp)](https://www.pratt.edu/architecture/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2023/04/610217142_2413079945801333_1122306231490118604_n-361x640.jpg)
