The Department of City and Regional Planning at Cornell University provides a dynamic, rigorous, and supportive context for addressing the most urgent planning questions of our time.
Our faculty and students plan for a sustainable future, confront inequality, transform the built environment, engage communities, and re-imagine planning by reflecting on theories, practices, contradictions, and politics. At CRP, the next generation of planners and urbanists hone critical disciplinary planning and urban studies skills through a wide selection of courses offered by the department, the college, and Cornell, a world-class Ivy League university.
Our Priorities
Place-Based Collaborative Research
We work closely with communities, planners, and scholars across places and disciplines to exchange ideas and develop data-driven theories and practices that shape public discourse and engage critical social issues.
Justice, Equity, Sustainability
We study the built environment, governance, policymaking, and everyday life to address justice, equity, and sustainability in planning for infrastructure, affordable housing, and climate adaptation.
Connecting Multiple Scales
We embrace theories and practices that draw connections across neighborhood, city, regional, and global scales to shape cities and regions now and for the future.
Global Practice, Local Impact
We work in cities and communities across the Global North and South to bring together different ways of teaching, learning, and practicing that create new possibilities in planning.
"My main commitment as a scholar has been primarily about studying inequities that arise from market externalities. While my training is in economics, my research interests have always related to issues of importance to cities and planners."
"Fascinated with urban form and spatial patterns since I was a little kid, I became curious about the institutional, cultural, and socio-economic processes that produced very different urban and regional landscapes."
"I love the extraordinary intimate insights preservation provides into the social and cultural life of communities and how the field engages communities and people for projects and sites to be identified, have meaning, and be implemented."
"Planning processes often contribute to communal trauma, and communities respond with resistance in the varying ways that they can. In this fight for place, I believe we can identify strategies for care and repair that can lead to more just futures."
Degree Programs
Urban and Regional Studies (B.S. URS)
Four-year, undergraduate Bachelor of Science in Urban and Regional Studies
Two-year, professional, accredited Master of Regional Planning
Two-year Master of Science in Regional Science
Historic Preservation Planning (M.A. HPP)
Two-year Master of Arts in Historic Preservation Planning
City and Regional Planning (Ph.D. CRP)
Doctoral degree in City and Regional Planning
Doctoral degree in Regional Science
Landscape Architecture (M.R.P. / M.L.A.)
Dual master's degree in Regional Planning and Landscape Architecture
Real Estate (M.R.P. / M.P.S. RE)
Dual master's degree in Regional Planning and Real Estate
Reimagining Informal Housing in Mathare, Kenya
Negotiating the challenges of safe, reliable, and affordable housing, Cornell AAP architecture and planning students collaborated with Slum Dwellers International and local residents to explore alternative housing design and construction strategies for Mathare, an informal settlement in Nairobi, Kenya.
Historic Marker Celebrates Pearl S. Buck's Stop in Ithaca
City and Regional Planning Professor Thomas J. Campanella spearheaded the initiative to recognize Buck's first Ithaca home (1924–25) on Forest Home Drive. The new marker was unveiled during an on-site ceremony on Sunday, December 8, the Cornell Chronicle reports.
Hochul Set to Resurrect Congestion Pricing at $9
The City: Associate Professor of City and Regional Planning Nicholas J. Klein adds his perspective to this article on the revival of congestion pricing in New York City.
Friday, November 15, 2024It's Unfair to Force People Out of Their Homes. Climate Change Demands That We Do It Anyway
Fast Company: Associate Professor of City and Regional Planning Linda Shi adds insight to this article covering a more holistic approach to the relocation of communities impacted by climate change.
Wednesday, October 23, 2024'Key to the City' Review: The Right Way to Rezone
The Wall Street Journal: A review of Professor of City and Regional Planning and Real Estate Sara Bronin's recently released book.
Friday, October 11, 2024Unlocking the Hidden Power of Zoning, for Good or Bad
Bloomberg: In her new book, Sara Bronin, Professor of City and Regional Planning and Real Estate, shows how land use regulations shaped US cities and makes a case for using these rules for progressive aims.
Friday, October 4, 2024
Demographic Ageing: an Opportunity to Rethink Economy, Society, and Regions
CRP Professor Mildred Warner and Xue Zhang (Ph.D. RS '19) are among the authors of this paper, suggesting that an "active aging" agenda requires rethinking the economy, urban form, and societal responses.
How Can We Support NYC's Housing Coops in Adapting to Climate Change?
Coauthored by Associate Professor of City and Regional Planning Linda Shi and Environmental Defense Fund Senior Analyst Anushi Garg (M.R.P. '20), this post focuses on New York City, the housing affordability crisis, and the impacts of climate change.
A Portrait of New York City by Air in 1924
In this article written by CRP Professor Thomas J. Campanella, we read about the days before Google Maps, when an intrepid inventor with three camera-equipped biplanes captured groundbreaking views of Gotham in its Jazz Age glory.
Julian Hartman: Controversy in Cambridge — Planning Kendall Square
Visit a lecture that traces controversies in the 1960s and 1970s over the purpose of Kendall Square and the future of Cambridge.
Xuanyi Nie: Statecraft, Speculation, and the Territorialized Healthcare Infrastructures
Attend a lecture exploring the political economy of healthcare infrastructures in China.
Lynn M. Ross: Making the Connection — Urbanism, Civic Life, and Democracy
Attend a lecture that explores the critical role that urbanists can play in supporting engagement in civic life and democratic practice.
AAP Launchpad: Spring 2025
Join us for a special AAP event showcasing recent books written and edited by Cornell AAP faculty.
Student Focus
