City and Regional Planning (CPLN)

CPLN 5000 Introduction to City Planning: History, Theory and Practice

This course introduces students to the history, theories, and contemporary practice of city and regional planning. Readings, lectures, class discussion, and walking tours focus on: - The evolution of planning ideas, strategies, institutions, and powers, and of planning’s influence on cities and regions around the world; - The structure and dynamics of urban change; - The ways planners and social and environmental scientists have understood, theorized, and responded to social, economic, political, and environmental conditions and change over time; and - The development of the planning profession and its relationships with allied fields, examining various types of planning, urban development, and design.

Fall

1 Course Unit

CPLN 5010 Quantitative Planning Analysis Methods

Introduction of methods in analyzing demographic conditions, population and housing trends, employment and business changes, community and neighborhood development. Focus on using spreadsheet models, data analysis, and basic statistical analysis for local and neighborhood planning.

Fall or Spring

1 Course Unit

CPLN 5020 Urban Economics and Public Finance

This core course first covers the basic concepts of urban economics: central place theory, gravity models, agglomeration economies, bid rent curves, and regional settlement patterns. The course takes the theory and applies it to metropolitan outcomes: central business districts, edge cities, edgeless cities, the favored suburban quarter, and megaregions. And the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The second half of the course connects the community facilities section and the future land use map of the comprehensive plan with a city's capital improvements program to focus on how to pay for public infrastructure. Financing techniques include: bonds, pay-as-you-go, user fees, tax increment financing, impact fees, adequate public facilities ordinances, sales taxes, property taxes, and land value taxation. Cost-benefit analysis and other infrastructure finance practices are discussed. Applications of public finance include: (a) Financing affordable housing projects; (b) Financing economic development and redevelopment projects; (c) Financing transportation projects; (d) Structuring public-private partnership deals; (e) Financing environmental and green infrastructure projects; and (f) Issues in school finance.

Spring

Mutually Exclusive: CPLN 5090

1 Course Unit

CPLN 5030 Modeling Geographical Objects

This course offers a broad and practical introduction to the acquisition, storage, retrieval, maintenance, use, and presentation of digital cartographic data with vector-oriented (i.e. drawing-based) geographic information systems (GIS) for a variety of environmental science, planning, and management applications. Previous experience in GIS is not required.

Fall

Also Offered As: MUSA 5030

1 Course Unit

CPLN 5040 Site Planning

This course introduces students to the practice of site planning. Skills and methods examined in the course include observation of the physical environment; site analysis; development of alternative site programming and uses; site design processes and strategy; and the creation of site plans and development standards. Methods of community participation and collaboration with other disciplines will be explored. There are two sections of this class- one for urban designers and/or those with prior design backgrounds and skills, one for those who do not. Note: Non-designers should enroll in CPLN 504-002 section

Spring

1 Course Unit

CPLN 5050 Planning by Numbers

This course will use planning and policy data and applications to introduce you to a variety of useful techniques of inferential statistics and unstructured data learning techniques. Each of the techniques will be introduced and developed through the use of commonly available planning and urban policy data in order to address a planning problem or question. Applications and examples may include: (i) identifying determinants of transit ridership; (ii) identifying factors contributing to traffic crashes; (iii) identifying the characteristics that explain travel behavior and mode choice; and (iv) comparing socio-economic characteristics across neighborhoods. Class sessions will involve a mixture of lecture and in-class statistical modeling. Students will make extensive use of R, a free, open source statistical programming language. This course is especially appropriate for students whose future professional and academic work will involve the design and testing of planning and policy analysis models using quantitative data.

Spring

Mutually Exclusive: MUSA 5000

1 Course Unit

CPLN 5060 Negotiation and Conflict Resolution

This course is designed to introduce graduate students to the theory and practice of negotiation, conflict resolution and community engagement. We will start by looking at basic approaches to interpersonal negotiation and then move to considering contemporary approaches to understanding and addressing public disputes using negotiation, facilitation and public involvement. Design professionals - architects, construction managers, planners and others - face a variety of kinds of problems and challenges in their work. Some problems and challenges, whether simple or complex, are amenable to technical solutions based solely on the expertise of planners, managers, architects and others. There are, however, other problems and challenges that require adaptive work, primarily because technical expertise alone is insufficient to address the problems or challenges being faced. In this course, we'll focus on perspectives and methods for working through those later sorts of problems and challenges.

Spring

1 Course Unit

CPLN 5080 Urban Research Methods

This course is designed for graduate students completing original urban research. For students in Penn’s Master of City Planning (MCP) program, it is the first class in a two-semester sequence in which students research and write their thesis. In the fall semester, this course takes students from the point of scoping and refining research questions through producing an in-depth literature review, research design, and initial fieldwork. In the spring, students completing an MCP thesis will complete the research and writing of the thesis. This fall class involves regular readings, orientation to research design, and a variety of methods exercises that students will help lead (for the methods they are employing in their own research). Students outside of the MCP program are welcome to take this class as long as they have a substantial urban research project to pursue. * To take this course, each student must submit a research proposal – either for an MCP thesis or a similarly substantial, original research project – and receive permission from the instructors of the MCP thesis classes (fall and spring). The Department of City and Regional Planning will hold a proposal-writing workshop later this spring for students who express interest in pursuing an MCP thesis.

1 Course Unit

CPLN 5090 Law of Planning and Urban Development

Overview of the constitutional and legal principles framing planning and urban development.

Spring

Mutually Exclusive: CPLN 5020

1 Course Unit

CPLN 5110 The Business of Planning

course description coming soon

1 Course Unit

CPLN 5200 Introduction to Housing, Community and Economic Development

Introduction to the theories, institutions, and practices of housing, community and economic development with a focus on improving opportunity and building wealth in disadvantaged communities. Provides foundation for advanced courses in housing policy, downtown and neighborhood revitalization, real estate and economic development finance, and local and international community development.

Spring

1 Course Unit

CPLN 5300 Introduction to Land Use Planning

Exploration of the methods and tools for managing land use and shaping the built environment. Presents how to create a successful Comprehensive Plan, Zoning Ordinance, Subdivision Regulations, Capital Improvements Progam, and design guidelines. Also, presents functional area, regional, and state-level plans.

Fall

1 Course Unit

CPLN 5310 Sustainability and Environmental Planning

This course will identify and evaluate the application of planning tools and strategies to enhance sustainability and environmental conditions, and to promote the wise use of natural resources. Students will understand the causes and effects of air, water, and land pollution, and how to evaluate and implement responses to pollution through regulations, financial incentives, infrastructure, and design techniques. Emphasis is on planning to create sustainable communities. The course provides an overview of federal programs for protecting air quality, water quality, and endangered species along with managing climate change, solid waste, toxics, energy, transportation, and remediating brownfields in an overall sustainability framework. State-level, local government, and NGO efforts to protect the environment are also explored as are green infrastructure and green cities.

Fall

1 Course Unit

CPLN 5400 Introduction to Property Development

This course is designed to acquaint students with the fundamental skills and techniques of real estate property development. It is designed as a first course for anyone interested in how to be a developer, and as a foundation for further courses in urban development and real estate.

Fall

1 Course Unit

CPLN 5500 Introduction to Transportation Planning

This course provides an overview and introduction to urban transportation planning and policy. Although the focus is on US transportation, the course also puts an emphasis on transportation issues in the fast-growing cities of the developing world. The course is organized around: (1) histories and theories of transportation and travel behavior; (2) transportation policy and project evaluation; (3) transportation demand modeling; and (4) multimodal transportation planning and policy. Particular attention is given to interactions between transportation and land use systems.

Fall

1 Course Unit

CPLN 5510 Transport Justice

This course will explore the concept of transport justice and how this idea can inform changes to public transit infrastructure. The first half of the course will set theoretical foundations through close reading and discussion of spatial and social justice theories, emphasizing questions of transportation and mobility. The second half of the course will feature a project-based application of these theories. Students will develop analyses to inform a planning at the intersection of Broad/Germantown/Erie in North Philadelphia. Students will be encouraged to explore multiple analytic approaches including: interviews and qualitative data collection; GIS and spatial analysis; quantitative analysis and predictive modeling, and more. The course will culminate in written and oral presentations given to partners from SEPTA, OTIS, and other planning agencies in Philadelphia.

Fall

1 Course Unit

CPLN 5600 Introduction to Graphics for Urban Design

The purpose of this class is to give urban design students basic visual skills and proficiency, including the ability to: 1. Understand and critique drawings and drawing types 2. Work in: Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, and InDesign, and McNeel Rhino3D. 3. Understand workflow between software packages This is an introductory skills class that operates on three levels: software proficiency, design proficiency, and critical visual analysis. The class requires regular weekly effort and completion of assignments as skills are cumulative. Students with a design background are discouraged from taking this class.

Spring

1 Course Unit

CPLN 5710 Sensing the City

This course will teach you to design and build sensing installations that engage with real-time urban environmental stimuli. Using the Arduino microcontroller as a prototyping platform, you will write code and wire circuits, learn to select and implement available sensors, and generate raw environmental data. You will populate databases and interpret data streams, and then create responsive urban interventions. Following the model of hackerspaces around the globe, we will collaboratively pose problems and find solutions, teaching and learning from one another. No background in coding or electronics is required, but a desire to learn is absolutely necessary. Also, this course is hands-on. You are a maker! Be prepared to build, design, and create.

Fall

1 Course Unit

CPLN 5720 Modern Architectural Theory Seminar

A survey of architectural theory from the mid-eighteenth century to the present. The discussion of original writings will be emphasized. Open to undergraduate and graduate students.

Not Offered Every Year

Also Offered As: ARTH 5710

1 Course Unit

CPLN 5770 Topics in International Development

Course examines current trends and topics pertaining to international development. See MCP website for current offerings: Graduate City and Regional Planning, Weitzman School (upenn.edu)

Fall

1 Course Unit

CPLN 5771 Topics in International Development

Course examines current trends and topics pertaining to international development.

1 Course Unit

CPLN 5780 Research Seminar 21st Century Urbanism

The CPLN section of this course is open to City Planning sub-matriculants only. A seminar run in conjunction with the Institute for Urban Research at Penn, students will learn about the range of cutting-edge topics in urbanism that Penn faculty are working on and work closely with a faculty member on current research. Students will learn about new topics and methods in interdisciplinary urban research, and get first hand experience collecting urban data under the close supervision of an experienced researcher. Students and faculty jointly will present their findings for discussion. This course is a good introduction for how to frame and conduct an urban research project. For more information, visit https://penniur.upenn.edu/instruction/uurc

Spring

Mutually Exclusive: URBS 4780

1 Course Unit

CPLN 5800 The Penn Experience: Racism, Reconciliation, and Engagement

This new non-credit asynchronous course, consisting of six Modules, aims to establish common basic language and concepts for incoming graduate and professional students to facilitate subsequent difficult conversations about race, racism and difference in the classroom and beyond. Using video interviews, presentations, short readings and podcasts, the course highlights the significance of Penn and Philadelphia's history of racism and other forms of oppression, Penn's evolving relationship to West Philadelphia, and Penn's efforts toward greater engagement and inclusion. Modules also focus on implicit bias, intercultural communication gender identity and disparities in healthcare. A final module was designed primarily to address the antiracist work that must be done to dismantle white supremacy. All incoming SP2 master's students are expected to spend 20 or more hours reviewing the six modules and completing short assessments prior to starting the fall semester. Other graduate and professional schools will assign modules to be completed based on their schools requirements.

0 Course Units

CPLN 5820 Place, Taste and Neighborhood Change: Frameworks for Integrating Aesthetics, Equity and Creativity

Places provide a sense of identity and orientation to the world for its users in ways that go beyond the traditional practice areas that urbanists are trained to understand (i.e. housing, economic development, transportation). The popularization of artistic, cultural, and "creative interventions" in redevelopment has added to that complexity in hybrid ways require new tools, languages, and frameworks to meaningfully participate in the development process. By taking a humanistic and scienctific views of the longstanding arts-based community development field now known as "creative placemaking", the class will help learners formulate critical, evaluative answers pressing, emergent questions for urban practitioners. In particular, learners will explore the various state-sponsored meanings of creative placemaking, artistic excellence, and artistic merit. During the course we will interrogate, compare, and articulate the power dynamics embedded in those definitions with new, alternate, and stakeholder-centric definitions. The course aims to invite conversation, reflection, and sharing of best practices alongside community-based leaders with the promise that learners will be able to apply equity-based frameworks to these debates. Learners will emerge from this guided journey with a sharpened ability to identify, generate, and extend authentic, inclusive arts-based neighborhood change.

Spring

1 Course Unit

CPLN 5830 Coloring Climates: Race, Stories, Environments

Why is the Green New Deal not talked about as a "Black Agenda"? Why are Black people not employed in 90% of the leadership positions in environmental organizations? Do Black folks resist environmentalism as a "white" issue? Why are cannabis farmers, once arrested by cities for growing hemp, now being priced out of the regulated industry in legalized states? These questions may also be asked for people of color broadly. Since the "Manifest Destiny" days of John Muir, white spatial imaginaries have shaped how environmentalism is branded; planning has been in lock-step. These persistent myths motivate the basis of historical reflection and contemporary re-constitution of what it means to be "green" while Black in place. This seminar that proposes to "Blacklight" urban space: bare visible the oft-hidden Black Geographies in urban and environmental history on the margins. By drawing on texts in critical ecology, we will elucidate how primarily Black people imagine attachment to rural, pastoral, and urban spaces. This decentering of the colonial history of environmentalism is especially urgent in environmental and land use planning. Readings will include popular literature from Camille T. Dungy's Black Nature: Four Centuries of African American Nature Poetry, The Green Collar Economy by Van Jones, The Good Food Revolution by Will Allen; sociology from Dorceta Taylor's The Rise of the American Conservation Movement: Power, Privilege, and Environmental Protection, , Ron Finley's "Ganstga Gardening" videos, environmental planning from Mabel O. Wilson's "Black & Green" in Begin with the Past: Building the National Museum of African American History & Culture, and Richard Westmacott's African-American Gardens and Yards in the Rural South, Majora Carter's Sustainable South Bronx: A Model For Environmental Justice; memoirs by The Cooking Gene by chef Michael Twitty, Unbowed by Wangari Maathai. Articles will also include voices from BIPOC geographers, psychologists, and planners with relevant views. While being primed with these histories, students will identify a mode of environmental action and land use engagement for a "Blacklight" case study in either their hometown or current place of residence. Students will contribute to a Wikipedia page on eco-poetics or ecoliteracy to build public consciousness around Black, indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) sensibilities in these places.

1 Course Unit

CPLN 5910 Introduction to Smart Cities

This course reviews the infrastructure, databases, deployment, and development of emerging digital technologies in cities. We review existing initiatives, discuss challenges and opportunities, and critically evaluate what technology has and has not been able to offer cities. We contrast utopian visions of technology with the possible buggy and brittle realities. Finally, we ask: what makes a city smart?

Fall or Spring

1 Course Unit

CPLN 5920 Public Policy Analytics

This course teaches advanced spatial analysis and an introduction to data science/machine learning in the urban planning and public policy realm. The class focuses on real-world spatial analysis applications and, in combination with introductory machine learning, provides students a modern framework for efficiently allocate limited resources across space. Unlike its private sector counterpart, data science in the public or non-profit sector isn't strictly about optimization - it requires understanding of public goods, governance, and issues of equity. We explore use cases in transportation, housing, public health, land use, criminal justice, and other domains. We will learn novel approaches for understanding and avoiding risks of "algorithmic bias" against communities/people of color as well as communities of different income levels. The format of the class includes weekly lectures/in-class demos and labs. There are seven required assignments, including two projects. Prerequisites include either CPLN503, the summer GIS course or prior experience with GIS in a formal setting. The class is conducted entirely in R. Having experience in R and the ‘tidyverse’ is helpful but not strictly required.

Fall

Also Offered As: MUSA 5080

1 Course Unit

CPLN 5989 City Planning PhD Transfer Credit

This is a placeholder course to be used to provide transfer credit for PhD students who completed coursework in Masters degrees elsewhere. This course number is only used internally for transfer credit designations.

1 Course Unit

CPLN 6000 Studio I

Studio I builds on the background knowledge and skills learned in the fall semester to produce team-based neighborhood/corridor plans. Studio I is where you learn to make plans—a skill that is foundational to being an urban planner, which is why we are all here! This course walks through each step of the typical plan-making process, each step building on the previous. This generally includes: o Assembling and summarizing existing conditions o Analyzing and understanding community identity o Identifying issues and opportunities o Developing plan goals o Creating alternatives or strategic directions for development o Devising plan recommendations o Setting a course for plan implementation In addition to completing the steps of the plan, this course also helps students learn skills for working in groups, graphic design and presentation, verbal presentation, project and workflow management, understanding community dynamics, and overall professionalism. These are skills that every planner needs, and will rely on heavily in their professions, so Studio I is also helpful in preparing each student for work readiness, regardless of concentration.

Spring

0-2 Course Units

CPLN 6200 Techniques of Urban Economic Development

This course is an introduction to the theory and practice of economic development planning. We will explore theories of economic growth and development as well as explore pressing questions regarding income and wealth inequality and labor markets. Economic development practice in the US is the result of decades of work from local and state governments and hybrid entities (community development institutions, hospitals, redevelopment authorities, commerce departments) attempting to make their respective places more “sticky” with respect to economic activity. While economic development may seem secondary, or worse, actively harmful in addressing some of the many pressing problems facing planners today, this course is designed to highlight why economic development remains central to questions about how regions can and should grow. The economic organization of our regions is a central actor in debates concerning global warming, displacement through gentrification or decline and social inequality.

Spring

1 Course Unit

CPLN 6210 Metropolitan Food System

This course introduces students to the planning and development of metropolitan food systems. Major topics include regional planning and policy; sustainable agriculture; food access and distribution; and markets. The class includes a mix of lectures, discussion, and field trips. Ultimately, the course aims to develop students' broad knowledge of food systems planning in the global North and South, with an emphasis on community and economic development strategies for sustainable food systems and community food security.

Spring, odd numbered years only

1 Course Unit

CPLN 6220 Healthy People/Healthy Places

In Healthy People/Healthy Places we will explore the role of space and place in the social construction of health. Pulling from the urban planning, geography and public health literatures, we will explore the role of the built environment in shaping individual and community health. We will explore questions behind why, and how, some groups of people die, or are injured, at greater rates than others and the role that planning and broader spatial policy play in these outcomes.

1 Course Unit

CPLN 6230 The Carceral State

This course examines the period of mass incarceration that began in the US in the 1970s, its impact on communities and its connection to economic development. We'll look specifically at policies that fostered mass incarceration, the financialization of the criminal justice system, and abolitionist movements that challenge the carceral state. We will examine the ways in which policies and practices have had disparate impacts on people of color and women, and we will also pay attention to space and place, endeavoring to understand differences at the local, county and state levels. This is an Academically Based Community Service (ABCS) course, and we will be partnering with the Philadelphia Community Bail Fund on a project. Students will also conduct courtroom observations, tour the Eastern State Penitentiary, learn from formerly incarcerated Philadelphians, and interact with relevant experts. Students will read books and articles from a range of disciplines including sociology, law, political science, and planning. We will also read poetry and memoir, and study places that have instituted cutting edge policies and practices. This course relies on student engagement and discussion.

Spring, odd numbered years only

1 Course Unit

CPLN 6240 Race, Poverty and Place

In recent years, long-disinvested cities have become the site of renewed investment, population growth, and economic development in a phenomenon often described as gentrification. Nonetheless, socioeconomic inequality between races, ethnicities, genders, and places within the larger metropolitan area continue to persist, suggesting that a rising tide does not raise all boats. Planners must grapple with these issues of inequality and inequity, particularly the implementation of plans and policies that may in theory provide benefits to all, but in practice continue to accumulate benefits for a select few. This course examines the construction of race, the making of a place, and the persistence of poverty in racialized places in the city. This course will engage in a critical discussion of the aforementioned themes, such that the normative notions of race, capitalism, urbanism, gender, power, and space are upended to privilege more marginalized perspectives of these processes.

Spring

1 Course Unit

CPLN 6270 Social Impact in Practice

The course will be an opportunity for students across Weitzman (and other schools) to meaningfully engage with community partners and practitioners working in Philadelphia and the surrounding region, and to grapple with the complex issues necessary for understanding community perspective, thereby influencing the approach when planning and designing as professionals. The course intends to reverse common perceptions and practices of community engagement ("beyond the theater of engagement") and discuss how to productively and sensitively work with communities of all types, on projects of all scales, to work towards common goals and high aspirations. The organization of the course will be a combination of readings and discussions, guest lecturers, and tours in the immediate community. The primary assignments will be reflection pieces, case studies, a collaborative group project, and a implementation project proposal. The group project(s) would partner students with a current, ongoing, or new community project that is funded and actionable. Students will work together, with the partner, and with community members to complete a project (could be built, a printed deliverable, evaluation, or other). The final assignment would ask students to brainstorm and present a potential "Phase II" implementation project, thinking through the mechanics of funding partnerships, academic research, etc, that could carry forward the work.

Fall

1 Course Unit

CPLN 6280 Migration and Development

International migration is one of the most important phenomena driving urban, community, economic, and human development. This course focuses on the ways that migrants and community, government, and private institutions work to influence development around the world. We explore a range of large- and small-scale economic development, human and community development. After a brief introduction to histories and theories of migration and development, our major themes include: 1) the work of institutions, governments, and private sector firms in sending and receiving nations that influence migration and development; 2) diaspora-led transnational development, including remittances, hometown and country associations, and transnational advocacy and community organizing; and 3) local revitalization, labor and housing markets, workforce and enterprise development in migrant-receiving settings. Readings are drawn from a variety of social sciences, planning and development studies, including from academia and practice. Guests from local and transnational development organizations will visit the class. Assignments include short papers on the readings and a research paper or project designed by each student in consultation with the instructor. Ultimately, the course aims to help students develop: 1) a broad knowledge of migration and development in geographic and institutional settings around the world; 2) an in-depth understanding of community and economic development practices in migrant sending and receiving communities; and 3) familiarity with social science approaches to evaluating the dynamics and impacts of migration and development.

Spring, odd numbered years only

Also Offered As: SOCI 6280

1 Course Unit

CPLN 6290 Housing, Community & Economic Development Topics Class

Elective classes for the Housing, Community and Economic Development concentration.

Not Offered Every Year

1 Course Unit

CPLN 6291 Housing, Community & Economic Development Topics Class

Elective classes for the Housing, Community and Economic Development concentration.

1 Course Unit

CPLN 6292 Housing, Community & Economic Development Topics Class

Elective classes for the Housing, Community and Economic Development concentration.

1 Course Unit

CPLN 6300 Innovations in Growth Management

The US population is expected to grow by more than 85 million from now to 2050.This course evaluates the tools and techniques for managing growth in America, especially to control sprawl in metropolitan regions. The course analyzes the form and functions of the central cities, suburbs, edge cities, ex-urbs, and megaregions. Federal,state, and local programs that influence metro change are evaluated. Regional planning approaches are analyzed in case studies.

Spring

Prerequisite: CPLN 5300 OR CPLN 5310

1 Course Unit

CPLN 6310 Planning for Land Conservation

Land preservation is one of the most powerful, yet least understood planning tools for managing growth and protecting the environment. This course provides an introduction to the tools and methods for preserving private lands by government agencies and private non-profit organizations (e.g., land trusts). Topics include purchase and donation of development rights (also known as conservation easements), transfer of development rights, land acquisition, limited development, and the preservation of urban greenways, trails, and parks. Preservation examples analyzed: open space and scenic areas, farmland, forestland, battlefields, and natural areas.

Spring

1 Course Unit

CPLN 6320 Modeling Geographic Space

This course explores the nature and use of raster-oriented geographic information systems (GIS) for the analysis and synthesis of spatial patterns and processes. Students will learn about the principles of raster data, image processing, and spatial analysis using ArcGIS Pro. By the end of the course, students will have a strong understanding of how to work with raster data and will have the skills and knowledge to apply these techniques to their own research or professional projects.

Also Offered As: LARP 7410

1 Course Unit

CPLN 6330 Topics in Land Use & Environmental Planning

Various topics in Land Use & Environmental Planning will be examined

Fall

1 Course Unit

CPLN 6340 Climate Change: Plng for Mitigation and Adaptation

This course will present the science of climate change, the impacts of climate change, and the opportunities and obstacles for avoiding climate disasters. We will identify and evaluate the application of planning tools and strategies to achieve the mitigation of climate change and adaptations to climate change. Students will understand the causes and effects of climate change and how to implement and evaluate mitigation and adaptation responses through regulations, financial incentives, infrastructure investment, design techniques, and technology. Emphasis is on climate action planning to create resilient communities.

Not Offered Every Year

1 Course Unit

CPLN 6350 Water Policy

Aging infrastructure, urbanization, climate change, and limited public funds are contributing to urban water management crises in cities around the globe. This course examines the systems and policies that comprise urban water. We begin with the infrastructures that underlie drinking water, wastewater, and stormwater services. Then, we review innovative management technologies and strategies, focusing on case studies of infrastructure shifts in Philadelphia and Melbourne. Finally, we undertake a global investigation of water management challenges and opportunities.

Spring

1 Course Unit

CPLN 6410 Progressive Development

This course will examine approaches to real estate development as a policy tool, and specifically a tool to achieve traditional progressive policy objectives linked to social welfare and environmental sustainability – reducing poverty, improving health and education outcomes, lowering greenhouse gas emissions etc. The course will focus on the practice of this work, examining financial, regulatory, and land use tools that are regularly utilized to achieve policy objectives via real estate development. The course will utilize Philadelphia as a primary case study, drawing on the work of guest speakers working as practitioners in the field to illustrate how these tools are implemented. The goal will be to give students a working knowledge of the field. Prerequisite: CPLN 5400: Introduction to Property Development

Spring

Prerequisite: CPLN 5400 OR REAL 8210

1 Course Unit

CPLN 6420 Downtown Development

Will downtowns recover? Is the office building obsolete? In the last decades of the 20th century America’s cities rebounded as downtowns diversified land-use, evolving from 9-5 office districts to 24-hour, mixed-use business, hospitality, retail, institutional and residential areas with an increasing number of well-managed parks and plazas. In many cities, downtown housing demand pushed prices beyond the range of many residents. The events of the last three years challenged many core assumptions and assets around which these places were built: public transit and the benefits of density, walkability and face-to-face interaction in the workplace, at conventions, in hotels, restaurants, cafes and public spaces. City Planning 6420 will focus on downtown recovery, reviewing the impact of three inter-related events: (1) the pandemic; (2) the duration of state and local government mandated shut-downs; and (3) civil unrest which led to rethinking and reformulating of public safety strategies in many cities. Responding to the pandemic required unprecedented actions by national governments, expedited production by pharmaceutical companies, well-designed and equitable distribution strategies. However, what happens on sidewalks, in stores and restaurants, in office buildings, universities and local health care institutions, in residential neighborhoods and in parks and public spaces is the result of local action: by government, business and civic groups and transit agencies. Some cities capitalized on this crisis to make needed changes, others are still mired in unresolved local challenges. This course focuses on what can be done at the local level and will use Philadelphia’s Center City as a laboratory for exploring strategies that work.

Fall

1 Course Unit

CPLN 6430 Design and Development

This course provides an overview of the real estate development business looked at in relationship to urban design, city planning, and architectural design. It provides exposure to the many real-world considerations of private sector development as well as an introduction to the language of real estate. The class focuses on various commercial building types and product offerings with examples of how planning, architectural and other design professions fit into creation of real estate value and the development process. This will cover the practical considerations and typical trade-offs of commercial business practices and real estate investment parameters and how these influence the ways developers and designers work. Industry sectors may include housing (single, multifamily and affordable), office, retail, hospitality, and industrial, with project types ranging from greenfield, adaptive reuse, downtown development, mixed-use projects, and planned communities. Through exercises, lectures and case studies, we'll address what drives the decisions designers and non-designers make in the development process, and provide insight to help designers understand what makes developers tick. Visiting lecturers (typically architects and developers) will provide real-world examples. Weekly written exercises, case studies and presentation assignments stress critical thinking, evaluating projects by how well they do their job and analyzing how that job is defined.

Spring

Also Offered As: ARCH 7620

1 Course Unit

CPLN 6440 Housing Policy

The government intervenes in housing markets in different ways and for different reasons. This course is designed to explore why the federal and local government in the U.S. intervene in housing markets and what forms these interventions take. Specifically, students will learn about: the mechanisms that drive both the supply and demand for housing; how U.S. housing policy has changed over time; factors that affect the production, distribution, and location of housing; the social and economic impact of housing on households and neighborhoods; the equity implications of housing policies. This course will place particular emphasis on low-income rental housing. By the end of this class students will have a firm understanding of U.S. housing policy and be able to engage in a meaningful debate about future challenges and opportunities in the U.S. housing market and the implications of different policy interventions. Ultimately, this course will provide students the conceptual tools necessary to evaluate, formulate, and implement housing policy.

Fall

1 Course Unit

CPLN 6500 Transportation Planning Methods

This course introduces students to the development and uses of the 4-step urban transportation model (trip generation-trip distribution-mode choice-traffic assignment) for community and metropolitan mobility planning. Using the VISUM transportation desktop planning package, students will learn how to build and test their own models, apply them to real projects, and critique the results. Prerequisite: CPLN 5050 or other planning statistics course.

Spring

Also Offered As: ESE 5480

Prerequisite: CPLN 5050

1 Course Unit

CPLN 6520 Topics in Infrastructure

Course examines current trends and topics pertaining to the nation's infrastructure.

Fall

1 Course Unit

CPLN 6540 The Practice of Trans.Plng:Crafting Policies & Bldg. Infrastructure

As the first woman and planner to serve as Secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT), and now as General Manager and CEO of the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA), Leslie Richards has over 20 years of leadership experience working on the planning and delivery of transportation projects, including overseeing one of the largest and most innovative transportation agencies in the U.S. She is recognized for her ability to find common ground among bi-partisan boards, as well as her commitment to engage local communities before the implementation of transportation projects to incorporate quality of life issues in all decisions. Her experience gives her a unique perspective on understanding operational, financial and stakeholder issues of transportation planning. In this seminar-style course, Leslie Richards will explore the planning, development and delivery of multimodal projects and policies at the state and regional level, including national influences and an awareness of the many actors and processes involved. Topics to be discussed include: funding and implementation processes through the levels of government (municipal, county, region, state, national); challenges and opportunities working with different sectors, politics, and contexts; current issues and emerging technologies; and best practices for individuals pursuing careers in planning or public administration. Presentations and lectures will be supplemented by guest presentations from transportation leaders, policymakers, and planning consultants offering local, regional, and state perspectives. Students will have the opportunity to learn directly from leaders in the field and develop the skills and knowledge to work effectively with federal, state, and local entities.

1 Course Unit

CPLN 6550 Multimodal Transport

This course investigates several revolutionary transport modes through a series of lectures, case studies, guest lectures, and in-class discussion/debates. Our journey begins with bicycle and pedestrian planning and ends with driverless cars. Transport modes covered by the course include streetcar, bus rapid transit, high-speed rail, and ride-share. Through this course students will learn: (i) the impact of various transport modes on land use, travel behavior, traffic safety, and the built environment; (ii) the planning process and challenges facing various transport modes; and (iii) successes and failures in the adoption of new transportation services and technologies.

Spring

1 Course Unit

CPLN 6600 Fundamentals of Urban Design

CPLN6600 is a two-course unit studio. It is intended as the first comprehensive exposure to the principles and processes of urban design for MCP students, and it is a required course for students in Urban Design concentration. This studio uses an incremental approach to explore contemporary practice of urban design. The semester consists of three sections: a site survey, an individual design project, and a group design project. The projects are organized around several themes associated with different scales and different dimensions of urban design: 1) street/block; 2) open space; 3) mobility and walkability; 4) urban form and ecology. This cross-scale method draws on essential theories of urbanism to investigate the interrelation between built environment and community development, and to address the issues of environmental and social sustainability of a postindustrial metropolis.

Spring

Also Offered As: LARP 6600

2 Course Units

CPLN 6620 Topics in Urban Design & Development

Topics in Urban Design & Development will be examined

Fall, odd numbered years only

1 Course Unit

CPLN 6650 Case Studies and Urban Design Explorations

Participants in this course will become familiarized with a diversity of iconic urban references from all continents, while acquiring skills that will facilitate planning and design processes, appreciating the value of interdisciplinary, multi-scaler initiatives, and the transformative contributions of city planning and urban design/placemaking. It is a dynamic class in which each session is centered on a particular topic (see list below), combining class discussions on case studies presented by the instructor, guest lecturers, and teams of students. Interdisciplinary groups also are asked to deliver short planning/design exercises -without the pressure of the studios-, allowing to rapidly identify existing site conditions, design opportunities, delivering their proposals with compelling narratives, strategic moves, graphics, models, and verbal communication. Course topics include: From territory to site-specific; On the public realm; The rehabilitation of historic districts; Mobility/infrastructure and public space; The self-constructed city; Community and urban design; Contending forces of nature; Ecological urbanism; New town planning; Urban art. The class also organizes walking tours in Philadelphia. A final exhibit of the work delivered by the students will be held in Meyerson’s Lower Gallery.

1 Course Unit

CPLN 6710 Statistical and Data Mining Methods for Urban Data Analysis

This hands-on course will cover a wide range of methods frequently used for analyzing urban and spatial data. These methods are drawn from a variety of fields, including traditional statistics, spatial econometrics, and machine learning, and include 1) regression analysis (OLS, ridge/lasso, logistic, multinomial logit); 2) measures of spatial autocorrelation; 3) spatial regression (spatial lag, spatial error, geographically weighted regression); 4) point pattern analysis; 5) an introduction to clustering methods (k-means, hierarchical clustering, DBSCAN); and 6) big data and GIS. Students will learn the assumptions and limitations of each method, and assignments will focus on the implementation, presentation and interpretation of the analyses. Students will use R and GeoDa in this course.

Fall

Also Offered As: MUSA 5000

Mutually Exclusive: CPLN 5050

1 Course Unit

CPLN 6720 Geospatial Data Science in Python

This course will provide students with the knowledge and tools to turn data into meaningful insights, with a focus on real-world case studies in the urban planning and public policy realm. Focusing on the latest Python software tools, the course will outline the "pipeline" approach to data science. It will teach students the tools to gather, visualize, and analyze datasets, providing the skills to effectively explore large datasets and transform results into understandable and compelling narratives. The course is organized into five main sections: 1. Exploratory Data Science: Students will be introduced to the main tools needed to get started analyzing and visualizing data using Python. 2. Introduction to Geospatial Data Science: Building on the previous set of tools, this module will teach students how to work with geospatial datasets using a range of modern Python toolkits. 3. Data Ingestion & Big Data: Students will learn how to collect new data through web scraping and APIs, as well as how to work effectively with the large datasets often encountered in real-world applications. 4. Geospatial Data Science in the Wild: Armed with the necessary data science tools, students will be introduced to a range of advanced analytic and machine learning techniques using a number of innovative examples from modern researchers. 5. From Exploration to Storytelling: The final module will teach students to present their analysis results using web-based formats to transform their insights into interactive stories.

Fall

Also Offered As: MUSA 5500

1 Course Unit

CPLN 6741 Curricular Practical Training: Academic Year

This course provides international Master of City Planning students the opportunity for practical training in architecture in the United States (CPT). The course develops critical thinking about the organization, operation, and ethics of professional practice in city planning. This course will allow international MCP students to work in an internship in the United States during the academic year without shortening their limited OPT time. The course is offered for .20 course units. The employment must relate to the major and the experience must be part of the program of study. Course enrollment is by permit only.

0.2 Course Units

CPLN 6750 Land Use and Environmental Modeling

Planners are increasingly using spatial data and computational models to analyze existing patterns, identify and parameterize key trends and urban processes, visualize alternative futures, and evaluate development impacts. This class is a survey of methods, software, and concepts in modeling systems related to urban and environmental planning. In the first module of the course, students learn methods related to nature-urban interfaces. These models include site suitability analysis; landscape fragmentation analysis, hydrological modeling, pollution monitoring, among others. A second module introduces agent-based simulation of urban and environmental system. The final module of the course features land-use applications including supervised classification of remotely sensed data, and urban growth modeling. Students will learn basics of geo-spatial machine learning using the statistical software language R. No experience with R is required, however, basic familiarity with ArcGIS is required.

Spring

Mutually Exclusive: MUSA 6750

1 Course Unit

CPLN 6800 Smart Cities/MUSA Capstone Project

This course offers students an opportunity to work closely with faculty, staff, local practitioners, and each other on a capstone project that involves the development of a GIS and/or urban data management application.

Spring

Also Offered As: LARP 7450

Mutually Exclusive: MUSA 8020

1 Course Unit

CPLN 6820 How to Build a City

This course will study how to transform cities at a large, comprehensive scale and provide students with an introduction to the integrated set of tools necessary to “build a city” through the evaluation and design of large-scale urban revitalization efforts. Taught by a practitioner who led the London Olympic Legacy Corporation, was Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development in Philadelphia and was the former planning director for Washington DC, the course will take a “hands-on” approach by combining case studies of major urban initiatives, field trips in Philadelphia to observe first hand how urban revitalization efforts have succeeded and been limited, and workshops where student teams will learn to design their own large-scale “city building” urban revitalization initiative. The goal of the course is for students to understand the forces that affect how cities and neighborhoods grow and change (economic, political, social, governance) and to be introduced to the comprehensive set of skills and perspectives essential to “building a city” such as infrastructure planning and finance; the organization of city planning and regulatory programs; urban and neighborhood governance and participation/ownership models; forms of public/private partnerships and tax incentive policies, among other topics. The course will examine major urban revitalization initiatives in recent 21st century history in North America and Europe to understand their effectiveness, such as: urban renewal; urban empowerment, enterprise and opportunity zones; Hope VI and the redevelopment of public housing; the London 2012 Olympics and mega sports events; urban waterfronts, such as the Anacostia Waterfront Initiative in Washington DC and the Delaware River waterfront in Philadelphia; the Neighborhood Transformation Initiative and recent Soda Tax in Philadelphia; the “smart city” proposed by Google on the Toronto waterfront; the rise of “innovation districts” and current initiatives proposed by President Biden’s Administration, such as the Bi-Partisan Infrastructure Act.

Fall

1 Course Unit

CPLN 6830 Material Histories and Ethnographic Methods

What does it mean for students in the spatial disciplines (outside of anthropology, sociology, and history) to engage human subjects as primary sources of evidence? How can students in design, planning, and preservation both learn from the social sciences and transform classic ethnographic and historical methods to address the unique contexts of buildings, landscapes, and cities? This class focuses on how to conduct built environment research that views human subjects as repositories of knowledge and critical sources of primary evidence. We will explore research on the history of the built environment (dependent on maps, plats, documentation of sites) and human centered research as we design—collectively—best practices and spatially oriented interview and observation techniques. We will address multiple scales (sidewalks, commercial store fronts, post offices, neighborhoods) as we problematize human experience, perception, and knowledge of the built world.

Fall

Also Offered As: HSPV 6500

1 Course Unit

CPLN 6850 Environmental Readings

In this seminar, we will explore the green thread in America thought and letters and analyze its influence on how we shape our environments through design and planning. The course has three parts. Throughout, the influence of literature on design and planning theory will be explored. The first part will focus on three most important theorists in environmental planning and landscape architecture: Frederick Law Olmsted Sr., Charles Eliot, and Ian McHarg. The second part of the course will critically explore current theories in environmental planning and landscape architecture. The topics include: frameworks for cultural landscape studies, the future of the vernacular, ecological design and planning, sustainable and regenerative design, the languages of landscapes, and evolving views of landscape aesthetics and ethics. In the third part of the course, students will build on the readings to develop their own theory for ecological planning or, alternatively, landscape architecture. While literacy and inquiry are addressed throughout the course, critical thinking is especially important for this final section.

Fall

Also Offered As: ARCH 6850, LARP 6850

1 Course Unit

CPLN 6860 Applications in Urban Design & Development

This elective seminar will provide a deeper dive into issues of evidence-based, high-performance, urban development & design. The course is intended for MCP students, and anyone with an interest in the large scale urban design & development projects. Diverse problem-solvers, with any one of a variety of backgrounds, such as design, landscape architecture, and financial analysis are encouraged to enroll. This is a project-based course in which students will work in groups on a semester-long project. The topic is flexible.

1 Course Unit

CPLN 6870 Topics in Historic Preservation

This seminar concentrates on a selected topic in the social and cultural history of the built environment. Past themes have included photography and the American city and the relationship between cities and sound. For our current offering, please visit: https://www.design.upenn.edu/historic-preservation/courses

Spring

Also Offered As: HSPV 6380

1 Course Unit

CPLN 6920 Java Script Programming for Planners and Designers

Dashboards, story maps, and other interfaces that enable the display, analysis, and generation of geospatial data are often the end product of data analysis processes. In this course we'll focus on the interface and interaction aspects of creating these products. Students will learn to design and build interfaces to help users access the value promised by geospatial data, modeling, and analysis. We will cover the logic and syntax of the JavaScript programming language for use in data and map-oriented web applications. The "hands-on" uses of JavaScript in urban planning applications will be emphasized. Students will hone their skills through a series of complete application projects.

Fall

Also Offered As: MUSA 6110

1 Course Unit

CPLN 7010 Planning Studio