The Master of Science in Urban Planning is a two-year accredited professional degree. Our program takes a comparative, global perspective to urban planning, centering social justice and critical practice. It connects the study of the urban built environment with grounded analysis of socioeconomic and political conditions to inform planning practice and praxis toward social, racial, and climate justice. We prepare students to confront and break down structures and practices of oppression rooted in class inequality, racism, and sexism. By studying the impact of global processes (such as immigration, climate change, and public health) on cities, neighborhoods, and communities—across the Global North and Global South—the program aims to foster new, creative planning and policy approaches that will improve processes and outcomes in cities around the world.

Malika Adrien, Jose Luongo Alcalde, Natalie Aramendia, Marco Barrientos, Chanel Chin, David Marvin, Charlie Olson, Bolun Qiu, Haochen Tan, Xinyu (Kelly) Yan, June Yoon, Eddy Zhang

Studio Instructors: Anthony Borelli, Calvin Brown

Next Stop, 125th Street: Second Avenue Subway Phase 2: East Harlem

This urban planning studio examines Phase 2 of the MTA’s Second Avenue Subway, which will extend the Q line from 96th Street to 125th Street, adding stations at 106th, 116th, and 125th Streets with regional connections to the 4/5/6 and Metro-North. As the MTA advances property acquisition, including acquisitions via eminent domain, key decisions about the future use and disposition of these sites remain unresolved. In partnership with CIVITAS, the project explores how these publicly controlled sites can support equitable, community-driven development. Building on prior rezoning efforts by the New York City Department of City Planning, the studio evaluates zoning, development potential, and policy constraints to identify opportunities for affordable housing, community facilities, and local retail. Through engagement with residents, community boards, and neighborhood organizations, the work emphasizes community-based planning strategies that address displacement concerns while aligning transit investment with local needs and long-term neighborhood stability.

Bin Cheng, Fanjun Xu, Fauwaz Khan, Hancheng Chang, Inten Gumilang, John Mckiernan, Justin Zhu, Kasih (Noni) Maharani Sabandar, Stanley Reynaldi Frits Waita, Suyang Pan, Triana Hernandez Hasselkus, Yue Luo, Zachary Minter

Studio Instructors: Jose Vallejo, Ryan Devlin

Promoting Community-Centered Growth in Comuna 13, Medellín

Once known as one of Medellín’s most violent neighbourhoods, Comuna 13 is now one of its most visited. Often framed as a story of transformation, from conflict to tourism, this project begins by questioning what that transformation means, and for whom.

Through site visits, interviews, and engagements with residents and stakeholders, the research moves beyond tourism as the dominant lens to understand growth as a more complex and ongoing process. Infrastructure expansion, housing pressures, informal economies, and community networks together shape the neighbourhood’s present condition.

The project reads spatial, narrative, and network-related tensions as part of this process of change. It understands informality not as a lack of organisation, but as a set of systems that already structure everyday life, and considers how planning can engage with these systems to support futures shaped with the community.

Anne Saltel, Andres Salcedo, Miles Baratier, Gloria Lee, Lola Charles, Yifan Wan, Yixiao Wang, Siyuan Ruan, Yunhee Choe

Studio Instructors: James Rausse, Lisa Blake

MIGUI PARK: Connecting the People, Green Spaces, and the River in Mount Vernon

This studio seeks to reimagine Mount Vernon, New York’s Migui Park from an underutilized parcel of land owned by the Department of Transportation to a space for our client Khalipha, a local nonprofit practicing land stewardship in urban space. We conducted site analysis to identify current infrastructure conditions, environmental features and usages of space. Research efforts included in-depth community engagement with both residents of Mount Vernon and organizing practicing land stewardship and restoration efforts along the Hutchinson River. From our research findings, we developed a site plan for recommendations for ecological restoration, placemaking and accessibility.

Suzana Bentes Araujo, Dzormo Cofie, Nicholas Giroux-Doehring, Ioannis Kanakas, Isabel Lewis, Jiayi Liu, Laura Mungai, Raphael Ogoe, Nicole Quah, Satria Ramadhan, Ethel Rivera, Trian Smith, Peder Ulven, Winston Van, Geneva Vest, Katerina Zaharieva

Studio Instructors: Adam Lubinsky, Maxine Griffith

Kokrobitey Institute

Kokrobitey Institute is a cultural campus in coastal Ghana dedicated to advancing African design, craftsmanship, and knowledge systems. Situated within a rapidly growing national context—where urbanization is accelerating and youth unemployment remains high—this proposal explores how a single institution can respond to broader social and economic pressures.

Rooted in a Pan-African vision, the Institute positions itself as a site of reconnection and exchange, contributing to the African fashion renaissance through its creative production and global networks. Anchored by a new Cultural Center, the project expands capacity for performances, exhibitions, and workshops, strengthening Kokrobitey’s role as a cultural hub at both local and international scales.

At its core, the proposal asks how Kokrobitey can grow financially and sustainably while remaining grounded in its values—advancing cultural impact, education and workforce development, youth employment, and environmental resilience.

Erma Swartz

Advisor: Jonathan Stiles

Building Circularity: Pathways and Barriers to Carbon Emission and Waste Reduction In NYC’s Built Environment

Jui Shih

Advisor: Hiba Bou Akar

From From Balconies to Riversides, Tracing the Continuum of Housing Informality in Taipei Taiwan

Anna Carl

Advisor: Matthew Bauer

Push to Open: New York’s Open Streets, the Open City and Community Power

Steven Shi

Advisor: Jonathan Stiles

Tree Canopy and Asthma in Neighborhoods With Different Socioeconomic Statuses in New York City

Ava Elise Miller

Advisor: Hiba Bou Akar

Stigma, Social Class, and Santiago, Chile: An Analysis of Transit-Induced Gentrification

Zhiye Qian

Advisor: Jonathan Stiles

University-led Micro-regeneration in Xiaoxihu, China.

Luca Antoni Marcelli

Advisor: Hiba Bou Akar

Contested Undergrounds: Queer Nightlife and Gentrification in Bushwick

Ayomikun Oluyadi

Advisor: Hiba Bou Akar

The Water Never Forgets: Embodied Epistemologies of Navigation and Remembrance for Entropic Urban Futures in Lagos, Nigeria

Ruchitha Ravilla

Advisor: Hiba Bou Akar

Enclaves and Integration: Planning Rhetoric versus Spatial Reality in Bengaluru’s Manyata-Karle Corridor

Lucas James Seibold

Advisor: Tom Slater

Vacancy and the Spatial Production of Exclusion in St. Louis

Tianfang Li

Advisor: Tom Slater

Chinese Online Food Delivery Platforms in New York City: A New Digital Frontier For Commercial Gentrification

Pablo Useche

Advisor: Alanna Browdy

Evaluating the Efficiency, Coherence, and Equity of Colombia’s Multipurpose Cadastre and Its Implications for Territorial Planning

Yang (Alyson) Zhou

Advisor: Matthew Bauer

Public Space in Commercial Districts: An Analysis of the Flatiron-NoMad District

Elisa Castaneda

Advisor: Tom Slater

Quilted Urbanism: Informal Resistance, Cultural Memory, and Collaborative Design in Jackson, Mississippi.

Talya Soytas

Advisor: Alanna Browdy

Strategies for Equitable Canopy Growth: Evaluating Soil Cell Technologies for New York City’s Urban Forest

Yerandy Pacheco

Advisor: Matt Bauer

Parks, Stress, and the Implications of Design: Comparing Neighborhood Stress Levels in Shirley Chisholm State Park and Highland Park in East Brooklyn

Wenji Wang

Advisor: Alanna Browdy

Elizabeth Oh

Advisor: Hiba Bou Akar

To Preserve or Demolish the “Monkey House?” Contesting Memory of Kijichon Women, U.S. Military Occupation and Post-Camptown Urban Futures in Dongducheon, South Korea

Sarake Dembele

Advisor: Hiba Boa Akar

Colonial Legacies, Political Transitions, and Land Tenure: Examining the Roots of Corruption and Land Ownership Inequality in Bamako, Mali

Surayuth Hirunviriya

Advisor: Alanna Browdy

Flagship Urban Development as a Mechanism of City Branding: A Comparative Analysis of Canary Wharf and Hudson Yards

Jane Hutton

Advisor: Hiba Boa Akar

Mapping into Existence: Māori Cartographic Methodology as Spatial Practice for Tino Rangatiratanga

Hannah S Kosoff

Advisor: Dory Kornfeld

Planning for Love: Urban Form and Its Impacts on Modern Dating

Ayanna Sharma

Advisor: Dory Thrasher

Filtering the City: Digital Platforms and Placemaking Across NYC Neighborhoods

Jie Zhou

Advisor: Dory Kornfeld

Subculture as Driver and Victim: The Commercial Transformation of Otaku Space in Tokyo’s Akihabara and Ikebukuro

Tahreem Akif

Advisor: Alanna Browdy

Measuring Resilience: Gaps, Trade-Offs, and a Path Forward for NYC Waterfront Sustainability Frameworks

Samantha Hartono

Advisor: Emily Tolbert

Investigating Care Infrastructure for Adult Third-Culture-Kids in Singapore and NYC

Gabriela Karnadi

Advisor: Matthew Bauer

Publicness of Public Parks in Management and Operational Aspects: A Case Study of Jakarta.

Nirupam Kadam

Advisor: Alanna Browdy

From Edge to Life- A Toolkit for East Harlem’s Waterfront Development

Julia Qian

Advisor: Dory A Kornfeld

Smart or Spectacle? Evaluate LinkNYC’s Public Value and Spatial Equity in NYC

Zachary Rosman

Advisor: Emily Tolbert

An Economic and Statistical Analysis of the Gap between Projected and Actual Development in New York City Department of City Planning Rezonings between 2003-2015

Alessandra Colombo

Advisor: Emily Tolbert

Transforming Hudson Square: How Business Improvement Districts Shape Urban Change

Roxy Blocksdorf

Advisor: Dory Kornfeld

Architecting Connection: How Public Housing Design and Form Fosters and Hinders Resident Sociability

David Ni

Advisor: Emily Tolbert

Cheap Credit: LIHTC Price Shocks and the Fiscal Costs on New York City

Hengyu Li

Advisor: Dory Kornfeld

State-Led Center-Making or Market-Led Decentralization? Explaining Chengdu’s Southward Development

Daniel Lewis

Advisor: Dory Kornfeld

Joanna Chen

Advisor: Matt Bauer

Access vs Assumption: Parking Perceptions, Transit Mobility, and Local Commerce in Downtown Flushing

Ellie Maclennan

Advisor: Alanna Browdy

A fatal assumption: Examining the imperfect relationship between climate disaster damages and deaths

Ben Schwartz

Advisor: Emily Tolbert

Architecting Affordability: A Comparative Study of Social Housing Delivery in New York City and Vienna"

Catherine Liu

Advisor: Jonathan Stiles

Uneven Governance of Compound Coastal Flood Risk: Infrastructure Exposure, Social Vulnerability, and Planning Attention in New York City

Kania Atthaya Ulfa

Advisor: Jonathan Stiles

From Shelters to Social Infrastructure: Everyday Practices of Online Motorcycle Ride-Hailing Drivers (Ojol) in Jakarta

Christian Harvey

Advisor: Matt Bauer

“Archives of Feeling: Making Restoration Legible within the National Forest Foundation’s

Restoration System in the Santa Catalina Foothills”

Katsiaryna Rakitskaya

Advisor: Matthew Bauer

Fixing the Failure? From Pruitt-Igoe to NYCHA PACT

Isabel Melter

Advisor: Tom Slater

Environment for Profit and People for Disposal: The AI Industry’s Role in Environmental Injustice in the Era of Digital Industrialization

Kelly Eta

Advisor: Jonathan Stiles

Spatial and Operational Determinants of Subway Performance in the New York City Transit System: Land Use, Delay Causation, and Rider Experience

Sarah Da Yei Kim

Advisor: Tom Slater

Beyond Shelter: The Role of Korean Apartment Complexes in Middle-Class Identity and Social Stratification in Seoul

Huanghe Su

Advisor: Jonathan Stiles

“Planning the Low Altitude City: Governing Unmanned Aircraft Systems for Delivery in New York City”

Wayne chen

Advisor: Alanna Browdy

Where the Zone Ends: An Early Warning Framework for Industrial Displacement in the Greenpoint-Williamsburg IBZ

Andy Zhang

Advisor: Jonathan Stiles

Co-evolving Infrastructures: The Interactions Between EV Charging Networks, Commercial Activity, and Urban Surroundings in the Energy Transition”

William Harlow

Advisor: Tom Slater

The Production of Transit Inequity: Space, Power, and Justice in the SEPTA System

Jimena Adriana Niquen Castro-Pozo

Advisor: Emily Tolbert

Co-evolving Infrastructures: The Interactions Between EV Charging Networks, Commercial Activity, and Urban Surroundings in the Energy Transition