Sustainable Planning & Urban Design (PLAN)
Hands-On Learning
Environmental Design Core
Anchored through a combination of lecture courses and studio instruction, our core curriculum builds upon studios where students solve design problems at interrelated scales of the built environment: buildings, landscapes and urban systems.
- Intro to environmental product of design, 8-week studio
- Intro to architecture, 8-week studio
- Core technology 1
- ENVD Colloquium
- Core lecture: Design Theory & Thinking
- Intro to landscape architecture, 8-week studio
- Intro to sustainable planning & urban design, 8-week studio
- Core technology 2
- Core lecture: History of the Built Environment
- Choice of core design studio, 8-week studio
- Choice of core design studio, 8-week studio
- Core technology 3
- Core lecture: Ecology & Design
- Core lecture: Planning & Implementation
Students pursue in-depth projects and gain specialized skills necessary for pre-professional work or graduate study through upper-division course work.
Intro to Sustainable Planning & Urban Design
ENVD Core 8-week design studio
Taken during the second semester, this is the fourth of four introductory studios in which students learn concepts and strategies related to urban planning and design. Students collaboratively develop a design solution to a small-scale problem within an urban fabric using basic skills of analysis and design iteration.
Fundamentals of Sustainable Planning & Urban Design
ENVD Core 8-week design studio
Through a small-scale urban planning and design project, students explore solutions to challenges in dynamic urban systems. Builds on knowledge and skills gained in the introductory studios to explore the human and environmental dimensions of intertwined systems within the built environment.
Foundations of Sustainable Planning & Urban Design
ENVD major 16-week design studio
Expands on introductory planning and urban design concepts and methods to address social and ecological challenges in communities. Explores skills including spatial analysis, basic community engagement techniques and policy alternatives. The resultant project addresses challenges at the intersection between social and environmental systems.
Intermediate Sustainable Planning & Urban Design
ENVD major 16-week design studio
Uses intermediate-level planning concepts and practices to create solutions to specific challenges in a collaborative process. Through a sequence of design investigations students explores issues such as equity, housing, transportation, community engagement and land use.
Capstone in Sustainable Planning & Urban Design
ENVD major 16-week design studio
Applies advanced concepts in comprehensive planning and plan-making for communities. The project engages communities to solve complex problems in social and ecological systems using qualitative and quantitative skills.
ENVD Core
3 semesters of ENVD core
Interdisciplinary
six eight-week design studios
5-credit
technology course sequence
4
sixteen-week major design studios
Be visionary.
Experiential learning is a core component of design education with students engaging in design, build and fabrication activities.
Major Objectives
B.EnvD Objectives
Critical Thinking
Students will use creative, critical, and convergent thinking to address social and environmental issues through precedents, theory, research, and problem‐defining techniques in order to analyze the need for and impact of design solutions.
ʰDz‐SDZԲ
Through iterative design students will develop conceptual or material solutions to socio‐environmental issues by synthesizing critical feedback and collaborative findings with their peers and the communities that they engage.
Communication & Representation
Students will employ graphic, verbal, written, spatial, and other communication strategies in order to organize, demonstrate and argue for design concepts and proposals.
Stewardship & Sustainability
Students will apply tenets of social and environmental justice through design stewardship and sustainability to ensure the health, safety, and welfare of all project constituents.
Technical Skills & Methodologies
Students will develop the foundational technical skills and learn to apply the methodologies necessary to enter the academic and professional disciplines of environmental design.
Meet Current Students
Samuel Rauh
ENVD has taught Samuel how to stand behind an idea confidently, while simultaneously being able to take feedback, adapt ideas, and learn from those who know more.
Ellie Muncy
Ellie wants future design students to know that designing is a learning curve and you'll be impressed with how much your work improves each year.
&Բ;Raion Deng
ENVD has taught Raion about compassion and inclusive design: why we design and who we design for.
Kyle Mcpheron
Kyle has learned that only when we work in tandem with communities' wants and needs can we fully excel at our practice.
2+
internships completed on average by
ENVD students before graduation
80%
of students were hired in design fields
within three months of graduation*
Most
environmental design
grads in the U.S.
Beyond Graduation
Careers in Sustainable Planning & Urban Design
Sustainable planning & urban design majors might have careers in:
Environmental planning firms that specialize in planning and landscape architecture
Urban design firms
City, county, and state planning offices that oversee planning, transportation, city parks, and open spaces
Real estate development firms
Federal agencies, including the US Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, and the National Parks Service
Nonprofit organizations that advocate for areas including social justice, environmental sustainability, and climate change prevention
Engineering firms with planning professionals
Planning education and research at the university level
Construction management firms
Public health organizations
Meet our Alumni
Economic Development Program Coordinator
City of Napa
Napa, California
Planner II (Development Review)
Jefferson County
Golden, Colorado