Urban Planning
About the School of Urban Planning
Urban planning is the set of processes by which communities shape their environments to meet their needs and to realize their aspirations for the future. Urban planning is also the profession of those who facilitate this process. While the practice of planning is as old as the cities themselves, the profession of urban planning is only about a century old. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, architects, landscape architects, engineers, government reformers, lawyers, public health specialists, and others joined forces to tackle the serious social and environmental problems of the industrial city. They created new techniques and institutions to improve living conditions and decision-making processes, with an eye to improving cities in terms of health, safety, efficiency, equity, beauty, identity, etc. Today, people who enter the profession come from diverse backgrounds as well, including the design professions, engineering and applied sciences, environmental and social studies, and other fields. Their chief task is to reinvent tools, procedures, and processes to meet new challenges in making metropolitan areas socially, economically, and environmentally resilient and just. A key feature of planning education is learning to view issues in a multidisciplinary way, to manage processes of collaboration and of conflict, and to generate equitable and efficient solutions to complex problems of growth and development.
The School of Urban Planning offers three graduate degrees: a professionally accredited Master of Urban Planning (M.U.P.), a thesis-based Master of Science (M.Sc.) in Urban Planning, Policy, and Design, and a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Urban Planning, Policy, and Design. For more information, please see the graduate section of the Course Catalogue.
Undergraduate Courses in Urban Planning
The following courses taught by faculty in the School of Urban Planning are open to undergraduate students:
Undergraduate Courses in Urban Planning
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| URBP 201 | Planning the 21st Century City. | 3 |
Planning the 21st Century City. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. The study of how urban planners respond to the challenges posed by contemporary cities world-wide. Urban problems related to the environment, shelter, transport, human health, livelihoods and governance are addressed; innovative plans to improve cities and city life are analyzed. | ||
| URBP 501 | Principles and Practice 1. | 2 |
Principles and Practice 1. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. This six-week intensive course exposes students to issues and techniques that are applicable in diverse professional planning contexts. The subject matter, geographic area, scale of intervention and institutional location of planning varies from semester to semester. The course focuses on a specific case study and is taught by a visiting lecturer with professional experience in the selected subject matter. | ||
| URBP 503 | Public Transport: Planning and Operations. | 3 |
Public Transport: Planning and Operations. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Overview of topics in planning and operations for public transport with special emphasis on best-practice strategies of contemporary urban systems. | ||
| URBP 504 | Planning for Active Transportation. | 3 |
Planning for Active Transportation. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. The importance of transit, walking, and cycling as modes of transportation in sustainable urban environments. Planning, design, and operation of mass transit systems, bikeways, and footpaths. | ||
| URBP 505 | Geographic Information Systems. | 3 |
Geographic Information Systems. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. An introduction to fundamental geographic information system (GIS) concepts and a range of GIS applications in urban and regional planning. | ||
| URBP 506 | Environmental Policy and Planning. | 3 |
Environmental Policy and Planning. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Analytical and institutional approaches for understanding and addressing environmental issues at various scales; characteristics of environmental issues, science-policy-politics interactions relating to the environment, and implications for policy; sustainability, and the need for and challenges associated with interdisciplinary perspectives; externalities and their regulation; public goods; risk perception and implications; the political-institutional context and policy instruments; cost-benefit analysis; multiple-criteria decision-making approaches; multidimensional life-cycle analysis; policy implementation issues; conflict resolution; case studies. | ||
| URBP 514 | Community Design Workshop. | 3 |
Community Design Workshop. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Context-focused community-based architectural projects undertaken in collaboration with external partners. Exploration of challenges, needs, and opportunities in architectural and urban-design interventions on real sites through interdisciplinary and cross-sectoral collaboration. | ||
| URBP 530 | Urban Infrastructure and Services in International Context . | 3 |
Urban Infrastructure and Services in International Context . Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Issues of practical and theoretical importance in relation to urban infrastructure and services in the international context: science and technology, political economy, policy analysis, policy implementation, public finance, and institutions and governance. | ||
| URBP 536 | Current Issues in Transportation 1. | 2 |
Current Issues in Transportation 1. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Current transportation issues and topics are addressed from practitioner and academic perspectives. | ||
| URBP 537 | Current Issues in Transportation 2. | 2 |
Current Issues in Transportation 2. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Current transportation issues and topics are addressed from the perspectives of both professional practitioners and academics. | ||
| URBP 541 | Selected Topics in Planning. | 1 |
Selected Topics in Planning. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Methods and techniques pertinent to contemporary practice in urban planning. | ||
| URBP 542 | Selected Topics in Visual Analysis. | 1 |
Selected Topics in Visual Analysis. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Methods and techniques of visual analysis pertinent to contemporary practice in urban planning. | ||
| URBP 543 | Special Topics. | 3 |
Special Topics. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Special topics related to Urban Planning will be presented by staff and visiting lecturers. | ||
| URBP 551 | Urban Design and Planning. | 3 |
Urban Design and Planning. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Fundamentals of city-building in Canada relative to municipal, regional, and provincial actions used to guide urban growth and development. Contemporary urban design in major metropolitan centres as shaped by legal, political, and cultural realities. Current preoccupations in city-building: reurbanisation and adaptive reuse of infrastructure, collaborative multi-stakeholder projects, strategic initiatives, changing relationships between professional experts and grassroots actors. Introduction to specific aspects of practice: public participation and community engagement; land development and real estate; project feasibility and implementation; policy monitoring and evaluation; emergent city-building regimes. | ||
| URBP 553 | Urban Governance. | 3 |
Urban Governance. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Critical perspectives on the governance of contemporary cities and urban regions, with a focus on North America. The relationship between planners and other important local governance actors, including municipal governments, the realestate industry, and community groups. The role of planning and planners in challenging or perpetuating urban social, political, economic, and environmental inequities. | ||
| URBP 555 | Real Estate and Planning. | 3 |
Real Estate and Planning. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Basic concepts of real estate and property rights and how these are valued. The specificities of property markets and their segmentation. The paradox of realestate uniqueness. Actors and processes of realestate development and investment in practical terms (proforma analysis, investment analysis, leases and property management) and broader terms (institutional investors, financialization). Segmentation of development processes among local, supralocal and international actors, including consultants. Roles of the planner and planning regulations; how these affect property values and property development with specific reference to Québec planning legislation and powers. Market evaluation and analysis of the development potential of specific sites. | ||
| URBP 556 | Urban Economy: A Spatial Perspective. | 3 |
Urban Economy: A Spatial Perspective. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Economic functions played by cities; economic processes governing city formation, city growth, and the internal spatial organization of cities. Describing and understanding how cities can be interpreted as economic phenomena. Economic origins of cities, the industrial revolution, city systems and networks, the role of mobility and telecommunications, innovation and creativity as urban phenomena, the internal spatial logic of metropolitan areas. | ||
| URBP 557 | Rethinking Zoning. | 3 |
Rethinking Zoning. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Zoning and land use planning, and their evolution within social, legal, economic and environmental contexts. The legacy, limitations and potential of zoning. The competing interests in planning of preserving neighbourhood character and accommodating growth. Zoning as a strategic point of negotiation between real estate capital and public goods. The use of inclusionary zoning and the up-zoning of low-density residential neighbourhoods to address affordable housing crises in Canadian and American cities. The practice, politics and potential of zoning towards housing justice. | ||
Location
Macdonald-Harrington Building, Room 400
815 Sherbrooke Street West
Montreal QC H3A 0C2
Telephone: 514-398-4075
Fax: 514-398-8376
Email: admissions.planning@mcgill.ca
Website: mcgill.ca/urbanplanning