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Welcome to the City & Metropolitan Planning Department at the University of Utah!

The City & Metropolitan Planning (CMP) Department is part of the College of Architecture + Planning whose vision is summed up in four words: Responsibility, Resilience, Respect, and Response (the 4 Rs). We are a tight-knit academic community of top-tier faculty, dedicated staff, and remarkable students.

CMP aims to inspire students to be empathetically rooted. We train students to think ecologically and to act in ways that further equity and justice.  All of our faculty and students engage with local communities through applied research, hands-on coursework or community service. We conduct leading research through the Metropolitan Research Center and the Center for Ecological Planning + Design. Our workshops, studios, and internships offer students opportunities to grapple with many challenges facing cities, suburbs and rural places. Each year the West Side Studio selects a project and emphasizes the involvement of a wide range of stakeholders from governmental agencies to neighborhood groups and individuals. Additionally, we are fortunate to have a team of part-time instructors, who after putting in a full day at the office, teach many of our most popular elective courses.

We strive to create a diverse and inclusive educational community within the CMP Department. We are exceptionally fortunate to have faculty, staff, and students from diverse places in the US and abroad, representing different cultures, ethnicities, and religions. To further globalize the learning experience, we have expanded our Urban Ecology Program to the University of Utah Asia Campus in Incheon, South Korea, where students from the main campus can study abroad for a semester, and students at the Songdo campus finish their degree in Salt Lake City.

CMP offers three degrees: a Bachelor’s Degree in Urban Ecology, a Master’s Degree in City and Metropolitan Planning, and a Doctoral Degree in Metropolitan Planning, Policy + Design, plus 4 dual degrees and 3 certificates. Our growing Urban Ecology program is invested in people and place. Urban ecology students received the STaR James A. Segedy Award for Outstanding Student Project by the American Planning Association for their community-based project, Listening to Bluff. The Master of City and Metropolitan Planning students specialize in critical areas such as ecological planning, economic + real estate development, housing + community development, historic preservation, smart growth: land use, transportation + accessibility, small town + resort planning, or urban design. The culminating experience is a professional project, often for a client, that applies planning and analytical skills to a planning issue. Our MCMP students are leaders in local and regional planning organizations throughout the Intermountain West. Our Doctoral Program has produced up-and-coming researchers and educators in positions at universities around the country. Our doctoral students are highly productive; they focus on research that makes a difference.

Finally, Salt Lake City is an extraordinary place to live and study urban ecology and planning. The city is consistently ranked among the nation’s most livable cities for its exciting downtown, distinctive neighborhoods, efficient transit system, and magnificent landscapes.

Stacy Harwood, Chair