Adjacent is focused around the idea that your architectural education can extend into many facets of professional deployment. Adjacent uses discussions, workshops, and social events as catalysts towards open and transparent conversations. Adjacent believes in sharing knowledge and tapping professional networks to gain insight into a variety of professional environments, adjacent career paths, market conditions, and ultimately, how students can take steps towards their dream careers.

The New York Metro Chapter’s Student Representatives Committee (SRC) of the American Planning Association provides a means for Urban Planning students’ interests to be represented within APA and promotes student participation in the organization at the local and national levels. SRC presents a host of networking and professional development opportunities for students at New York City’s five urban planning schools and emerging planning professionals, including conferences, Q&A sessions, company tours, as well as the annual end-of-year APA Student Showcase. All urban planning students are eligible for an APA Student Membership.

Architecture + Advocacy (A+A) is a design collective dedicated to leveraging architecture as a tool for social justice. Rooted in collaboration and community engagement, A+A works with underserved populations to co-create spaces that reflect their needs, stories, and aspirations. Through educational programming, participatory design, and hands-on building initiatives, A+A challenges conventional power dynamics in the built environment and promotes equity, accessibility, and agency in architectural practice.

ASAPP is a student organization open to all GSAPP students interested in studying issues related to the Asian/Pacific Islander (API) community. The group focuses on API perspectives in architecture, planning, and preservation through academic, social, career, and cultural events, while also exploring opportunities outside of school, and building a strong and supportive community.

B—SIDE (Beside) is an experimental publishing project founded at Columbia GSAPP that turns toward the margins of architecture. B–SIDE attends to the edges, foregrounding overlooked influences, minor practices, and adjacent disciplines. Through experimental forms of publishing, B–SIDE opens architectural discourse to wider voices, methods, and ways of seeing.

Founded by Juke Jose, Ching-Chen Liu, Fern Sripongtakanul, Hilary Kusuma, Patrick Rodriguez, and Fion Li in 2025. With Tianrun Li and Bolun Qiu.

The Black Student Alliance at Columbia GSAPP is concerned with the recognition and understanding of the African diaspora by providing community, acting as a source of collegial support, and crafting meaningful, interrogative spaces for the many voices of the GSAPP community to speak, engage in deliberate, careful, and shared modes of study within the school, and explore forms of exchange beyond the institution.

The Columbia Entrepreneurial Development Club’s mission is to foster a collaborative community of aspiring real estate developers, providing resources, education, and extensive networking opportunities to empower members in their entrepreneurial pursuits. Through seminars and real-world project experiences, the club strives to contribute to innovative and sustainable development projects. This club’s goal is to create a platform where members can share knowledge, gain practical skills, and build lasting relationships within the real estate industry.

Fire Escape is a student-led, semesterly, publication that aims to bring together students in hopes of expanding what our idea of the student body, as a group, can be, under an umbrella of play, collaboration and friendship. Fire Escape is nothing other than a funnel for students wanting desperately to be involved with other students. Fire Escape wants to know what you think and see what you make. Fire Escape disregards notions of good and bad, beautiful and ugly, correct and incorrect. Fire Escape takes stances on matters of love and life, and leaves the rest to questions. For all that is left behind in studio and beyond, Fire Escape is curious.

GreenSAPP’s mission is for students to engage with the climate-centered resources and community of Columbia and New York City. The organization gathers interested students across GSAPP for discussion, events, and site visits related to green built environment topics, including climate adaptation, green building, net zero, environmental conservation, and community engagement. GreenSAPP serves as a platform for green student initiatives and leadership as we step into our roles as leaders in shaping the built environment.

GSAPP GAP brings together students from all programs who are interested in creating a more equitable built environment. It is a platform to bridge critical connections between our work and the communities we impact. In order to accomplish this in a holistic and comprehensive way, we emphasize interdisciplinary collaboration and approach the gaps between our programs as areas of opportunity to explore, expand, and/or connect in new ways.

GSAPP GAP engages in site visits, participate in community events, and host guest lectures to learn from local practitioners who are already implementing this community-oriented intersectionality. GAP fosters opportunities to tangibly work toward a socially-conscious built environment.

NOMA (National Organization of Minority Architects) is an association comprised of designers, architects, and allied professionals involved in creating a more diverse and inclusive design industry. The GSAPP NOMA Student Chapter utilizes professional and social programs to become a more equitable institution and connect students to the greater NOMA community. NOMA’s chapter promotes inclusivity through learning environments, professional development opportunities and social awareness through every design discipline.

GSAPPX+ is a student-run initiative open to all GSAPP students concerned with the understanding of gender and women equity. The group champions learning and unlearning through the power of conversation. GSAPPX+ cultivates a discourse that highlights and amplifies a diversity of voices engaged in the fields of design and the built environment. GSAPPX+ uses a combination of casual meetings and external events to nurture a collective notion of gender equity and individual empowerment to inform an inclusive and collaborative future.

The Hotel and Hospitality Development Club seeks to explore the contemporary landscape of hotels, restaurants, entertainment venues, and members’ clubs through guided site visits, informal networking opportunities, and dialogues with industry professionals. The club’s goal is to understand the creative and quantitative elements within hospitality development through an understanding of market analysis, the deal-making process, and design execution. The Hotel and Hospitality Development Club will utilize New York as a landscape to dissect changes within the landscape and to gain deep knowledge and appreciation for hospitality development.

JSAPP is open to all GSAPP students interested in fostering a dialogue about Judaism through intellectual, social, and religious events while upholding the values of “Tikkun Olam”; to help make the world more just and compassionate through acts of kindness, social justice, community service, and ethical living.

LatinGSAPP is an interdisciplinary student organization dedicated to the promotion, discussion and reflection of contemporary issues and ideas in Latin America. We recognize the importance and timeliness of thoughtful practice and research in the region of Latin America and by Latin Americans across the globe. Our primary objective is to raise awareness of this work and encourage cooperative involvement.

Masaha is a student association that investigates contemporary issues facing the Arab world. Using the historic Saha as precedent, Masaha creates a platform where diverse perspectives coexist to question and redefine the many Arab identities. The association aims to connect creative students across disciplines to contribute to the improvement and development of scholarship that focuses on the Arab world. In an existential time where we are witnessing cities being flattened to the ground, while others ascend vertically and unsustainably, this association offers this platform for people who are interested in learning about our past, present, and future issues that continue to shape our cities and shape us. Masaha is a non-profit, non-political, non-religious professional organization that is open to all GSAPP students.

The Public Interest Development Club is a multidisciplinary student organization at GSAPP that provides a forum for real estate development, urban planning, and architecture students to collaborate, learn, and explore opportunities that could contribute to positive social impact. Topics of discussion will include innovations in affordable housing production and policy, supporting community development initiatives, transit-oriented development, emerging financial mechanisms, and advocating for environmental justice.

QSAPP (Queer Students of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation) is a student organization that seeks to foster both conversation and community among students, allies, faculty, and alumni of GSAPP. We actively explore contemporary queer topics and their relationships to the built environment through an engagement with theory and practice. Recently, QSAPP explored the problem of LGBTQ homeless youth and its intersection with design which resulted in a publication. This academic year, as part of a mission to support structural change, QSAPP will initiate a project we are tentatively calling Disappearing Queer(s); an exploration of individuals and spaces that have fostered queer activism and have been part of the lived experiences of queer people in New York City, with a particular focus on communities and neighborhoods that are underrepresented in the queer canon. All interested students, faculty, and staff are invited to attend meetings and events and reach out to our organizers for more information.

The Real Estate Private Equity Club, associated with the Columbia GSAPP MSRED program, is committed to bringing accomplished leaders from across the real estate private equity industry to engage with our real estate-focused student body and community.

The Club’s goal is to provide a platform that drives meaningful discussions through dynamic events and speaker series presentations. Through enhancing the knowledge of prevailing market trends, gaining an understanding of current industry practices, as well as building and strengthening relationships, the organization hopes to educate and inspire future real estate private equity business leaders.

The GSAPP Student Council is an elected student body, made up of representatives of every program at the school. Student Council representatives are elected every Fall and serve a full calendar year, until the following Fall semester or until a representative graduates.

TOXOS is Greek for “arrow of poison.” This is our metaphorical tool that traces design systems and seeks out novel intervention through departmental intersection within Columbia. We are building a collective of emerging professionals of which are typically siloed. We are dedicated to convening radically different ways of knowing, and grounding those conversations in action through local service. This collaboration engine will meet between labs and studios across Columbia. Anchored at GSAPP, we frame one “hyperproblem” each term and create visible, repeatable ways for our community to collaborate through which we will create a database/archive of both physical and digital artifacts - a framework which will be built to grow over time. As GSAPP continues to build opportunities for greater enmeshment between its programs, we hope to amplify this mission.

Urban China Network (UCN) is an student organization founded in May 2013 by a group of Columbia GSAPP Urban Planning students with a strong interest in China’s urban issues. UCN aims to bring students, scholars, as well as practitioners from various disciplines in the Greater New York area into the discussion of China’s urbanization, and ultimately to facilitate the communication between cities in China and the U.S.

URBAN is a magazine created, edited, and published by students of Columbia University GSAPP’s Urban Planning Program. As a forum for discussion among the students, faculty, and alumni of the program and GSAPP, each semester’s publication opens its pages to all realms of urban planning.

Taking advantage of this diverse city that we are in, Urban Observation Squad hopes to bring together curious individuals from across the GSAPP community to explore different areas of NYC in organized walking trips guided by predetermined themes.

During these trips, participants will be encouraged to produce photos, videos, audio recordings, sketches, or other creative outputs. In this way, Urban Observation Squad hopes to produce a dialogue between different perspectives via the curation of an end-of-semester exhibition, website, or zine. In the academic setting, Urban Observation Squad, as GSAPP students, intimately interact with the built environment, but are limited by the outputs and projects required by our classes. Urban Observation Squad hopes this student organization can be a space that transcends academic disciplinary boundaries and encourages creative dialogue amongst students from different backgrounds.

The mission of Women’s Affordable Housing Network (WAHN), a group open to all GSAPP students, is to empower and develop women with the intention of working in the affordable housing sector through partnership, networking, allyship, advocacy, mentorship, and community engagement. We foster a supportive environment where individuals can bring their authentic selves, enabling the exchange of the brightest ideas. By uniting our expertise, passion, and resources, we aim to transform the affordable housing landscape, ensuring equitable access to secure and sustainable housing for all.

Mission Statement for Women in Real Estate Development at Columbia University

Goal: Empower students at the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation (GSAPP) to achieve successful careers in real estate and foster an inclusive industry environment. Women in Real Estate Development at Columbia University will not only support its members’ individual career aspirations, but also hope to inspire change, encourage innovation, and develop a supportive community in real estate.
Synopsis: This club provides GSAPP students with crucial resources, opportunities, and networks to thrive in various sectors such as private equity, investment banking, and development.
Objectives:
Enhance Opportunities: This club is committed to expanding career prospects for students by facilitating access to internships, job openings, and exclusive projects within the real estate sector.
Networking and Collaboration: Organize extensive networking events and foster partnerships with industry leaders, influential alumni, and professionals. WiRED’s collaboration will extend to other chapters, such as NYU’s Women in Real Estate Development group, to broaden our network and facilitate entrepreneurship between institutions.
Career Development Sessions: Offer interactive sessions on resume development, technical skills and interview preparation, tailored to the strategic positioning of women in the real estate job market.
Educational Lectures: Our “Lunch Box Lectures” series will invite women in the industry to share their journeys, offering insights and advice on navigating the field.
Mentorship Programs: Establish mentorship programs pairing candidates with experienced professionals within Columbia’s network. This initiative aims to provide guidance, support, and valuable industry insights.