The Planning Program
The Urban and Regional Planning Program at the University of Michigan Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning educates students for change-oriented leadership in the planning profession and academy; conducts research informed by a commitment to improve the fairness, prosperity, and environmental and social sustainability of neighborhoods, cities, regions, and megaregions; and serves the academic and broader communities in ways that harness the skills and commitments of its faculty, students, and staff.
Planning at Michigan seeks to shape place-based policy and design for social and racial equity; regionalist solutions to metropolitan problems; just and effective remedies for urban decline; and the creation of human settlements that offer alternatives to environmentally consumptive land-development patterns. In teaching, faculty strive for a productive balance between theory and practice, between classroom-based and hands-on learning, and between a well-founded core and in-depth specializations. We foster ongoing research, teaching, and service interchange with other units in Taubman College and the University of Michigan; with our region, and the City of Detroit in particular; and worldwide.
Urban and regional planning is the profession that strives to improve the environmental quality, economic vitality, and social equity of places: neighborhoods, towns, cities, metropolitan areas, and larger regions. Planners seek to improve alternatives to sprawling, auto-dependent areas; to revitalize downtowns and inner-city neighborhoods; to develop cities and towns in a manner that protects the environment; to create lively, interesting neighborhoods and commercial areas; and to foster sustainable development in the world's poorest countries. Planning is a systematic, creative approach to addressing social, physical, and economic problems. Planners identify problems and opportunities, devise alternative policies, analyze and implementing these options, and evaluate implemented plans. They study the interconnections between the various forces that shape places and the quality of life in them and develop policies around these interconnections: transportation and land use; economic development and housing; physical planning and environmental quality.
Urban planners are found throughout the public, private, and non-profit sectors. Michigan's Urban and Regional Planning Program graduates work in community development corporations, planning consulting firms, metropolitan planning organizations, international development organizations, advocacy groups, municipal government, educational institutions, environmental agencies, land trusts, real-estate development firms, transit agencies, non-profit think tanks, downtown development organizations, state agencies, and more. Common to work in all these settings is a concern for the quality of life in places, and a professional commitment to improving both human settlements and the public and private processes that shape their development.
Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning look for students from diverse academic backgrounds and seek out newly graduated students and those with postgraduate experience.
Richard K. Norton
Associate Professor and Chair
