CP6834 - Urban Design Policy: Analysis and Implementation

Course Description

 

The course will explore urban design policy, with emphasis on its current status and recent past, and will test implementation strategies.  The course will focus on Atlanta, but it will relate to other historical, geographic and political contexts as well.  Through readings, research, class discussion, field activity and case studies, we will explore what urban design is, how it is done, and whether and how it might be done better, both here and elsewhere.  Urban design at its core is a connective discipline.  It seeks to understand, organize and synthesize in visual and other tactile ways sustained improvements in our urban living environment.  As such, its essence is to link people with people, people to places, and places to places.  Through dynamic and holistically conceived planning, design and development activities, urban design seeks to respond to citizens' aspirations for an improving daily life.  

 

Students can expect that the course will provide them conversancy with the theory and practice or urban design, related to the range of planning disciplines as well as to architecture, civil engineering, landscape architecture, development practice and public policy.  

 

Readings

 

Anticipating the weekly discussion topics, you will be expected to select readings on the topic of the week and then prepare an abstract not to exceed on page covering the material you have read.  Beyond encouraging self directed exploration of the literature, these readings will prepare us to share a range of information and viewpoints on the topics discussed in class.  In addition, readings are assigned as noted in the text assigned for the course, The Urban Design Handbook, by Urban Design Associates, published by Norton in 2003, as well as readings from The Practice of Local Government Planning, Third Edition, compiled and published by the International City Managers Association in 2000.

 

Case Studies

 

We will carry out case studies whose work product will take us through iterations of purpose, analysis, and proposals and will likely feed into city and community planning activities for particular areas of the city.  Accordingly, the case studies will immerse students in work projects generally identified through ongoing community and city planning and development processes.  They may require attendance at meetings where citizens, property owners and city or consultant staff are considering the case study subject matter.  We will document the case study work by graphic and written work products and class presentations.