Course Syllabus ● Spring 2014 UP426: Urban Design and Planning

What many practicing planners do not often realize is that through their daily duties they are shaping the urban form of their cities, and in essence are more active urban designers than any other profession. Urban design is about creating neighborhoods, districts, cities and regions, extending far beyond yet being inclusive of architecture, streetscape, aesthetics and the design of a plaza or building. It is about arranging land uses, transportation networks and amenities in order to create a fabric that can foster healthy, functional and vibrant communities. This course will explore the fundamentals of urban design as they relate to all scales of the built environment- including regions, cities, districts, neighborhoods, blocks and parcels- and will reinforce the basics of sound community planning. Focusing on the neighborhood and public space as the quintessential building blocks, we will explore how these cities and areas have changed, and how the advent of the automobile, rapid suburbanization, and past planning practices have created challenges for today’s planners and urban designers. We will learn how to analyze and measure design, how to apply its principles, how to understand the design process of creating new areas and the fundamentals of retrofitting existing ones, and why connectivity and walkability are critical to healthy communities