MS in Advanced Urban Design

Applications are now being accepted for the Cornell University College of Architecture, Art, and Planning’s post-professional Master of Science in Advanced Urban Design program (MS AUD). Prospective students are invited to attend an information session on December 4 in advance of the January 3, 2024 application deadline. 

With the city as both setting and subject, the MS AUD program prepares students to address pressing urban, environmental, and social issues using the tools of design. Based in New York City at the Gensler Family AAP NYC Center, this specialized three-semester course of study uses the tools of design to connect ecology, technology, and community in order to ask big questions, address contemporary challenges, and invigorate public spaces with radically imaginative research and design practices. The MS AUD program is directed by Architecture Associate Professor Jesse LeCavalier and promotes design approaches that operate between scales to connect grounded local conditions with the possibilities of larger urban systems, all in pursuit of more just, nourishing, and inspiring urban futures. 

“By understanding our urban world better, we are not only encouraged to be better stewards today, we are also inspired to imagine what cities and communities could be tomorrow,” says LeCavalier. “The MS AUD program immerses students in New York City and is an opportunity to get involved with the forces shaping the processes we call urbanism. The program’s emphasis on connecting a range of contemporary tools with people, systems, and design will position graduates to engage these processes in thoughtful and impactful ways. For example, this fall we have designed small infrastructures for New York’s Chinatown, mapped the wide range of unused spaces throughout the city, and are currently considering the possibilities and challenges of a dynamic industrial zone in Queens. The amazing luxury of studying urban design in New York City is that we can engage these places directly and in a sustained way.”

The new program uses the city as a laboratory to explore the processes by which urban transformation happens through three instructional tracks: synthetic design studios; technical and skill-based practicums; and critical and exploratory colloquiums. Design studios provide opportunities to work across scales on existing challenges with stakeholders and practitioners. Practicums focus on tools and methods to equip students with a range of skills related to the intersection of design, data, and technology. Colloquiums situate the technical components of the program in broader social, political, and economic contexts, as well as within the various forms of practice that comprise urban design. 

MS AUD students are encouraged to embrace complexity in order to generate speculative urban futures that support equitable and energizing forms of collective life. Throughout the program, participants will deepen their understanding of a range of conceptual topics while developing the ability to uncover, visualize, and translate data into designs of material, spatial, and experiential consequence. Graduates will be prepared to employ advanced techniques with expanded knowledge of how to apply what they learn in order to make meaningful urban change. 

The program is open to individuals holding a professional Bachelor of Architecture degree, a professional Master of Architecture degree, or a professional degree in an adjacent design field (e.g. MLA, MUD). Students with professional or terminal degrees in related creative fields (e.g. MFA) will also be considered.

For more information, join us for a virtual information session on December 4, 2023. The deadline for applications to the program is January 3, 2024. Please visit the MS AUD program page to learn more.