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.
Highlights
Register Now for Urban Studies Summer Programs
At The Department of City and Regional Planning (CRP), we believe urbanists can and should take up some of our world's most complex and urgent challenges — from decarbonization and climate adaptation to accessibility and housing to fair governance and policymaking — and come together to create thriving, healthy places for people of all generations and identities. Spend your summer at Cornell and immerse yourself in the critical questions that shape cities today.
CRP Department Highlights 2024
Browse a selection of CRP images from the fall 2024 semester in AAP's Flickr gallery.
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.
"Books opened my imagination and shaped my intellectual growth, addressing my insatiable curiosity. My interest in historic preservation stems from linkages between ideas, activities, and objects throughout the world."
"My interdisciplinary research in the areas of property, land use, historic preservation, and energy focuses on how law and policy can foster more equitable, sustainable, well-designed, and connected places."
"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."
"Local government is ubiquitous. It is usually pragmatic, interested in key environmental, economic, social or political challenges, a potential actor for community development. This is why I find working at this scale across the world so interesting."
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
Ratan N. Tata Posthumously Honored with Inaugural Distinguished Alumni Award
Milstein Hall's auditorium was at capacity for the April ceremony, during which speakers shared personal reflections on Tata's wide-ranging impact and legacy.
Robinson-Appel Award Recipients Create Community-Engaged Solutions to Social Challenges
Keishaun Wade (B.S. URS '25) received a Robinson-Appel Humanitarian Award to honor his significant involvement in community engagement. The $2,500 award goes toward innovative, community-engaged learning projects dedicated to tackling social challenges.
How Zoning Quietly Reshaped the World
Fast Company: Professor of City and Regional Planning and Real Estate Sara Bronin explains how zoning has become the hidden force that shapes everything from the house you can afford to how you get to work.
Tuesday, May 6, 2025What Should New York City Do About Tourist Helicopters?
Bloomberg: CRP Professor Thomas J. Campanella wrote this article about the new restrictions on non-essential helicopter flights after a deadly crash in April.
Tuesday, May 6, 2025Cities With the Most Affordable Rent
WalletHub: Professor of City and Regional Planning and Real Estate Sara Bronin shares steps that local policymakers can take to increase the affordability of rental housing.
Monday, April 21, 2025CRP Faculty on Zwei auf Eins
Radio Eins: Associate Professor of City and Regional Planning Stephan Schmidt discusses his research into the cooling effect of urban green spaces on the radio show Zwei auf Eins on Radio Eins, Radio Berlin Brandenburg [Audio is in German and starts at 26:30].
Monday, March 10, 2025
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.
AAP Commencement Weekend
AAP will hold its commencement ceremony beginning at 11 a.m. on Sunday, May 25, 2025, in Bailey Hall.
AAP Summer Exhibition 2025
Visit AAP this summer for a cross-departmental exhibition featuring student work from the 2024–25 academic year that showcases the college's creative and critical practices.
Reunion 2025
Mark your calendars and celebrate with old and new friends at the College of Architecture, Art, and Planning during Cornell Reunion Weekend on June 7, 2025.
Student Focus
