Skip to content
Menu Open Search

University of Southern California

MUP Curriculum

MUP Concentrations

Arts & Culture
Design of the Build Environment
Economic Development
Planning for Climate Change & Sustainability
Housing & Real Estate Development
Mobility & Transportation Planning

Art & Culture

Arts and culture play an increasingly important role in how our cities thrive – economically, socially, and environmentally. In Arts and Culture Planning students will prepare for positions in cultural affairs offices, nonprofit advocacy and program providers, economic development organizations, and political offices. Students will consider such concepts as cultural economy, creative placekeeping and placemaking, and cultural heritage as they learn to assess and spatially analyze community dynamics and work with disparate types of art interventions with those skills related to community engagement and improvement.

Suggested Courses for students selecting this concentration:

  • Community Development and Site Planning (PPD 623)
  • Public Space: Theory, Policy, and Design (PPDE 631)
  • Communicating City Design: Positions and Representations (PPDE 633)
  • Race, Arts, and Placemaking (PPDE 638)
  • Fundamentals of Heritage Conservation (ARCH 549)
  • Global Perspective in Heritage Conservation (ARCH 555)
  • Visual Storytelling and Entrepreneurship in Media (ARCH 585)
  • Arts and the Community: Current Practice and New Visions (ARTL 504)

Gateway Course:

  • Art and the City (PPDE 641)

Concentration Methodology Course:

  • Urban Spatial Ethnography and Critical Cartography (PPDE 636)

Design of the Built Environment

Design of the Built Environment addresses the architecture of the city, viewed not as a series of individual buildings, but as a set of visual and functional connections between buildings on a street front or in a district. In contemporary settings, planning and construction do not begin with a blank slate. Rather, new structures are inserted into an existing built environment, which must be respected for its historical heritage and its contributions to the new. Students in this concentration are encouraged to draw from courses related to landscape architecture and historic preservation in the School of Architecture.

Suggested courses for students selecting this concentration include:

  • Community Development and Site Planning (PPD 623)
  • Geographic Information Systems for Policy, Planning, and Development (PPD 631)
  • Public Space: Theory, Policy and Design (PPDE 631)
  • Housing and Land Use in Rapidly Urbanizing Regions (PPDE 635)
  • Land Use and Transportation (PPDE 644)
  • Historical Analysis of Urban Form and Planning Practice (PPD 530)
  • Comparative Urbanization, Development, and Inequality (PPD 615)
  • Housing Facilities and Community Development (PPD 618)
  • Smart Growth and Urban Sprawl: Policy Debates and Planning Solutions (PPD 619)
  • Fundamentals of Heritage Conservation (ARCH 549)
  • Heritage Conservation Policy and Planning (ARCH 550)

Gateway Course:

  • Shaping the Built Environment (PPD 644)

Concentration Methodology Course:

  • Design Skills for Urban Planners (PPD 627)

Economic Development

Cities are the hubs of innovation for the global economy. Students in the Economic Development concentration will learn the fundamentals of urban economies, the causes and consequences of economic decline, and methods to lead vibrant and inclusive urban economies. This concentration will help students understand the role of creative and artistic sectors in urban economies, and will present strategies for planning for economic growth.

Suggested courses for students selecting this concentration include:

  • Seminar in Urban Development (PPD 622)
  • Local Economic Development: Theory and Finance (PPD 624)
  • Public/Private and Mixed Enterprises Planning (PPD 626)
  • Housing and Land Use in Rapidly Urbanizing Regions (PPDE 635)
  • Introduction to Community and Economic Development (PPD 639)
  • Real Estate Practice and Principles (RED 510)
  • Foundations of Real Estate Analysis (RED 511)
  • Real Estate Project Analysis (RED 512)
    (Note: RED 510, RED 511 and RED 512 are requirements for the USC Certificate in Real Estate Development.)

Gateway Course:

  • Introduction to Community and Economic Development (PPD 639)

Concentration Methodology Course:

  • Planning and Economic Development Finance (PPD 625)

Planning for Climate Change & Sustainability

Metropolitan areas are the source of most of our environmental quality problems, and most of the solutions to those problems. Planning and design of our cities and communities play a critical role in both pollution and exposure to its damages. The planners of the 21st Century must be skilled at analyzing environmental justice, sustainable urban design, public health, and climate change – all topics of focus within this concentration. Students will learn methods for analyzing environmental impacts, relationships between exposure and health, urban vulnerabilities to climate change effects, and the role of urban planning and public policies in achieving more sustainable and livable urban environments.

Suggested courses for students selecting this concentration include:

  • Environmental Impacts (PPD 621)
  • General Plans (PPD 620)
  • Comparative Urbanization, Development, and Inequality (PPD 615)
  • Housing Facilities and Community Development (PPD 618)
  • Design Skills for Urban Planners (PPD 627)
  • Geographic Information Systems for Policy, Planning, and Development (PPD 631)
  • Housing and Land Use in Rapidly Urbanizing Regions (PPDE 635)
  • Transportation and the Environment (PPD 692)
  • Coastal Policy and Planning (PPD 694)
  • Urban Mass Transit (PPDE 637)

Gateway Course:

  • Climate, Sustainability and Environmental Planning (PPDE 640)

Concentration Methodology Course:

  • Methodology, Methods and Tools for Urban Sustainability (PPDE 634)

Housing & Real Estate Development

Cities and towns worldwide are experiencing housing crises that range from severe affordability problems, insecure and informal land tenure, homelessness, social inequities, and low housing quality. Segregation and patterns of exclusion have consigned many persons to sub-standard or insecure housing. Students in this concentration will learn to analyze these problems through a lens of social justice while becoming skilled in market fundamentals. This concentration will train leaders who can span from the private to the public sector, and who will lead by using an understanding of the role of markets, market failures, and historic patterns of power and inequity to develop housing solutions. Students in this concentration will be trained to take positions with private developers, policy positions at all levels of government, and positions with affordable housing providers, and advocacy groups.

Suggested courses for students selecting this concentration include:

  • The Social Context of Planning (PPD 527)
  • Participatory Methods in Planning and Policy (PPD 616)
  • Urban Demography and Growth (PPD 617)
  • Seminar in Urban Development (PPD 622)
  • Local Economic Development: Theory and Finance (PPD 624)
  • Public/Private and Mixed Enterprises Planning (PPD 626)
  • Housing and Land Use in Rapidly Urbanizing Regions (PPDE 635)
  • Introduction to Community and Economic Development (PPD 639)
  • Real Estate Practice and Principles (RED 510)
  • Foundations of Real Estate Analysis (RED 511)
  • Real Estate Project Analysis (RED 512)

Gateway Course:

  • Housing Dynamics for Policy and Planning (PPDE 639)

Concentration Methodology Course:

  • Planning and Economic Development Finance (PPD 625)

Mobility & Transportation Planning

Urban mobility is being disrupted by technology in ways that have not occurred in a century. New travel modes, and new transportation companies, are arising almost overnight. Transportation is essential to urban life. Against that backdrop, many of the fundamentals of urban mobility remain the same. Transportation shapes, and is shaped by, neighborhoods. Transportation occurs at the intersection of planning, Big Data, and politics, and the resulting policies affect patterns of equity and access throughout the city. Students in this concentration will learn skills in data analysis and technology, market structure, policy and public finance related to transportation. This concentration focuses on multi-modal transportation, including emerging topics such the role of alternatives to the car, trends in freight transportation, and best practices in public response to new technologies.

Suggested courses for students selecting this concentration include:

  • Modeling and Operations Research (PPD 557)
  • Introduction to Transportation Planning Law (PPD 588) (Enroll in CE 579)
  • Port Engineering: Planning and Operations (PPD 589) (Enroll in CE 589)
  • Marine Transportation and Policy (PPD 599)
  • Environmental Impacts (PPD 621)
  • Urban Economic Analysis (PPD 630)
  • Geographic Information Systems for Policy, Planning, and Development (PPD 631)
  • Principles of Transportation Systems Analysis (PPD 635)
  • Transportation and the Environment (PPD 692)
  • Urban Mass Transit (PPDE 637)
  • Land Use and Transportation Planning (PPDE 644)

Gateway Course:

  • Institutional and Policy Issues in Transportation (PPD 634)

Concentration Methodology Course:

  • Methods and Modeling Tools for Transportation Planning (PPD 633)

In this section: