Community and Regional Planning

Downtown Austin skyline
COMMUNITY AND REGIONAL PLANNING
How to Apply

The Graduate Program in Community and Regional Planning (CRP) is housed within The University of Texas at Austin School of Architecture (UTSOA). Our program draws upon the full resources of a top-ranked, tier-1 research university, and offers a course of study that combines cutting-edge research and practice where students engage in real-world projects.

The CRP Program provides its graduates with the theoretical foundations, specific skills, and practical experience to succeed in professional planning and related policy careers. We strive to create a diverse student body and program and are deeply committed to building a professional planning community that resembles the communities in which our students and faculty work.

WHAT MAKES US UNIQUE

We are a small and friendly program of about 100 graduate students housed in a major tier-1 research university, with a student-faculty ratio under 9:1. Our program has a strong focus on sustainable development processes and practices. We seek development paths that balance growth with improved environmental performance while expanding opportunities for all segments of the community. Planning faculty and students are involved in an array of innovative research and practice activities in sustainability through our major research center, the Center for Sustainable Development, and our program also carries out exciting research and project work in our local community and around the world.

AUSTIN IS OUR LABORATORY

Our program is located in one of the most vibrant and fast-growing cities in the country, providing students with a bounty of interesting and exciting things to do. The city and surrounding region also offer a unique breadth of real-life planning challenges and serves as a laboratory for our courses and research projects. In addition to local planning decisions, Austin, as the state capital, is the central forum for state-level issues. The result is a unique setting for community and regional planning, where there are diverse opportunities for planning-related academic study and engagement, and an attractive job market for planners and for a variety of allied professions.

#9 PLANNING PROGRAM IN THE U.S.

Downtown Austin skyline seen through the trees along Lady Bird Lake

The only comprehensive ranking of graduate planning programs, Planetizen’s ranking is a testament to the program’s commitment to preparing the next generation of planners to change the world.

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Community and Regional Planning

DEGREES + PROGRAMS

The Community and Regional Planning Program at the University of Texas at Austin offers six graduate-level degree programs as well as a Ph.D. in Community and Regional Planning. 

GRADUATE PH.D.

Master of Science in Community and Regional Planning [MSCRP]

MSCRP + Master of Science in Sustainable Design

MSCRP + Master of Science in Urban Design

MSCRP + Master of Arts in Latin American Studies

MSCRP + Master of Public Affairs

MSCRP + Doctor of Jurisprudence

Ph.D, in Community and Regional Planning

CITY FORUM LECTURE SERIES

City Forum is a planning and urban issues speaker series intended to provide a space for open, critical dialogue regarding crucial planning-related issues in Austin and elsewhere. The speaker series is intended to encourage discussion of diversity, multiple publics, and social change.

COMMUNITY AND REGIONAL PLANNING WORK

Click on images below for more information on CRP projects.

  • Instagram Post
    We’re still buzzing from all the brilliant work and excitement from last week’s final reviews. <br /><br />Congratulations, students, and thank you to all of the faculty, staff, and reviewers who helped make it happen!
    @utsoa

    We’re still buzzing from all the brilliant work and excitement from last week’s final reviews.

    Congratulations, students, and thank you to all of the faculty, staff, and reviewers who helped make it happen!

  • Instagram Post
    Thankful for you, our UTSOA community 🩵 And this courtyard #HappyThanksgiving
    @utsoa

    Thankful for you, our UTSOA community 🩵 And this courtyard #HappyThanksgiving

  • Instagram Post
    Forward Thinking. Collaborative. Driven by Social Responsibility. This is The University of Texas at Austin School of Architecture.<br /> <br />Applications are open for undergraduate and graduate programs spanning all scales of the built environment. See the links in our bio.<br />
    @utsoa

    Forward Thinking. Collaborative. Driven by Social Responsibility. This is The University of Texas at Austin School of Architecture.
     
    Applications are open for undergraduate and graduate programs spanning all scales of the built environment. See the links in our bio.

  • Instagram Post
    Scenes from Masonry Day 2023 • Each fall, Associate Professor Cisco Gomes’ Construction course introduces students to commonly-used building materials and established construction practices. <br />
    @utsoa

    Scenes from Masonry Day 2023 • Each fall, Associate Professor Cisco Gomes’ Construction course introduces students to commonly-used building materials and established construction practices.

  • Instagram Post
    Tomorrow, Aleida Villasana @aleida.arqui and Simon Butler @simonsks will take over our Instagram to show us what their Advanced Design Studio got up to in Mexico earlier this semester.<br />
    @utsoa

    Tomorrow, Aleida Villasana @aleida.arqui and Simon Butler @simonsks will take over our Instagram to show us what their Advanced Design Studio got up to in Mexico earlier this semester.

  • Instagram Post
    Beautiful Battle Hall • Designed by Cass Gilbert, Battle Hall (aka the Architecture and Planning Library) was the first building on campus to be listed in the National Register of Historic Places. <br />
    @utsoa

    Beautiful Battle Hall • Designed by Cass Gilbert, Battle Hall (aka the Architecture and Planning Library) was the first building on campus to be listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

  • Instagram Post
    On Monday, November 6, Felecia Davis, Associate Professor in the Stuckeman Center for Design and Computation @stuckeman_views, closes out our Fall 2023 lecture series with her lecture “Soft Systems: Crafting an Architecture.”<br />
    @utsoa

    On Monday, November 6, Felecia Davis, Associate Professor in the Stuckeman Center for Design and Computation @stuckeman_views, closes out our Fall 2023 lecture series with her lecture “Soft Systems: Crafting an Architecture.”

  • Instagram Post
    This Halloween, we're throwing it back to two *spooooky* workshops hosted by the @materials_lab: A solar-powered workshop where students got to create a DIY solar-powered jack-o-lantern and a vacuum-formed mask workshop which introduced students to the vacuum former, using a 3D mask form and a sheet
    @utsoa

    This Halloween, we're throwing it back to two *spooooky* workshops hosted by the @materials_lab: A solar-powered workshop where students got to create a DIY solar-powered jack-o-lantern and a vacuum-formed mask workshop which introduced students to the vacuum former, using a 3D mask form and a sheet

  • Instagram Post
    Students in Senior Lecturer @robertstepnoski’s “Reality Capture for Architecture” class documented the entire Zilker Clubhouse site on Barton Springs Road this summer. <br />
    @utsoa

    Students in Senior Lecturer @robertstepnoski’s “Reality Capture for Architecture” class documented the entire Zilker Clubhouse site on Barton Springs Road this summer.