Director: Richard Plunz

The Urban Design Program is focused on the state of the city in the 21st century, especially cities that have come of age in the modern industrial era and now face the transition to new forms and meanings.  The program weaves a dialogue between New York City, which is its primary focus, and other world capitals with analogous contemporary conditions; moving between recent theoretical debate on future urbanism, and applied projects that directly engage the realities of the transformation of the post-industrial city. The program attempts to engage both the daily reality of our urban condition and the theoretical abstraction of current academic debate; not one to the exclusion of the other.  Urban Design is pursued as a critical re-assessment of conventional approaches relative to questions of site, program, infrastructure, and form-mass, as they have been defined by urban design practice during the past century. The Urban Design curriculum is pedagogically unique on the role of architecture in the formation of a discourse on urbanism at this moment of post-industrial development and indeed, of post-urban sensibility relative to traditional Euro-American settlement norms.

Director: Vishaan Chakrabarti

Real Estate is at the epicenter of the forces shaping our world today, be it the economy, the environment, or the planetís inexorable march towards urbanization. Columbiaís rigorous Masters of Science in Real Estate Development program -- structured in the context of the worldís most innovative laboratory for architecture, planning and preservation -- provides an unrivaled platform to tackle these pressing issues and understand real estate within the complex context of the urban built environment. The three semester professional program is uniquely positioned to provide students with a holistic curriculum by focusing on core financial and management competencies while simultaneously giving students an unmatched chance to comprehensively understand the professionís allied fields, including law, construction, politics, architecture and urbanism. Building off the extraordinary resources of Columbia University and the City of New York, students learn from both industry leaders who provide current real world knowledge, and outstanding faculty who provide a lifelong theoretical underpinning. Armed with these experiences, our students graduate with a unique opportunity to become the optimistic, opportunistic and visionary developers our new world will require.

Director: Felicity D. Scott

The Masters of Science in Critical, Curatorial, and Conceptual Practices in Architecture (CCCPArch) is designed to offer advanced training in the fields of architectural criticism, publishing, curating, exhibiting, writing, and research through a two-year, full-time course of intensive academic study and independent research. The program recognizes that architectural production is multi-faceted and that careers in architecture often extend beyond traditional modes of professional practice and academic scholarship, while at the same time reflecting and building upon them.

Director: Ms. Danielle Smoller, New York
Mr. Patrick O'Connor, Paris

The Shape of Two Cities: New York-Paris Program is designed to develop a student's critical appreciation of urban forms, their genesis, and the role of architecture, preservation, and planning in the creation of the contemporary urban environment. As a one-year intensive liberal arts program with a strong studio component, the curriculum focuses on both design issues and the urban history and theory of these two cities. In addition the program provides an introduction to the disciplines of architecture, urban studies, and planning for highly motivated undergraduates who have completed at least two years of study at their home institutions or for post baccalaureate students interested in preparing for graduate studies. Previous study in these disciplines is not required for admission to the program, allowing students from a broad range of academic and professional backgrounds to participate. The program's curriculum is designed to provide students with a better understanding of the design and urban studies disciplines as they are practiced in both New York and Paris, offering a unique context that engages students as well as critics and instructors from architecture, urban studies, and other fields with a critical dialogue across cultures using two of the world's great cities.