Designing the Megaregion

Current megaregion development is destabilizing the natural environment, causing gridlock on highways and congestion at airports, and making cities and suburbs separate and unequal. This course discusses how we can change these trends and invest in megaregions to improve planning and development outcomes developing and older areas.

Lewis Mumford on the City 2: The City - Cars or People?

This short documentary film is the second part of a larger series hosted by Lewis Mumford, an American historian, sociologist, philosopher, and literary critic whose studies in the 20th century included attention to cities and architecture that persists in influence into the present day.

Lewis Mumford on the City 1: The City - Heaven and Hell

This short documentary film is the first part of a larger series hosted by Lewis Mumford, an American historian, sociologist, philosopher, and literary critic, who wrote the book The City in History on which this film is based. The film originally aired in 1963. This first film in the series uses historic footage from all over the world for a kind of meditative effect, punctuated with Mumford's philosophical observations on the past, present, and future of cities.

Warning: Some graphic images appear in the last third of this film.

Parking and the City

Donald Shoup is Distinguished Research Professor from the University of California, Los Angeles, whose 2005 book, The High Cost of Free Parking, is one the most influential pieces of planning scholarship from the 21st century. In the lecture presented here, Shoup presents many of the key ideas and clever phrases from the original book and a more recent follow up, with case studies updated for a contemporary landscape that includes complications like Uber and electric scooters.

Classical Location Theory

This course traces the key theories and conceptual models that have been developed to explain why economic activities tend to locate where they do.

The Pruitt-Igoe Myth

The 2011 documentary film “The Pruitt-Igoe Myth” documents the rapid rise and fall of a housing complex in St. Louis. Pruitt-Igoe became a symbol for the failure of public housing policy in the late 20th century.

Make No Little Plans: Daniel Burnham and the American City

The life and achievements of architect and urban designer Daniel Burnham offer a chance to witness the application of the social agenda of the City Beautiful movement, of which Burnham was one of the most famous practitioners.

Urbanized

The documentary film "Urbanized" debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2011 and succeeds in popularizing a conversation about urbanism, urban planning, and cities in a way that few cultural artifacts have managed before or since.

The Future of Cities After COVID-19

This virtual panel discussion focuses on the potential for the COVID-19 pandemic to influence the development, demographic, and environmental trends of the future. Speakers: Allison Arieff, William Fulton, Scott Frazier, and Mariela Alfonzo. Moderator: James Brasuell.

The Human Scale

The Human Scale juxtaposes the urban experiences of cities across the World to raise questions about the costs of modernity and to argue in favor of city planning that reclaims the public realm for social life. This new approach to planning is measured by walking distances, social interactions, and social inclusion, rather than vehicle speeds and parking spaces.

Introduction to City Planning 5: The City of Tomorrow

Learn why city planning is crucial to the urban future and why the success of future cities will depend on the extent to which they are sustainable, equitable, and how they use technology to serve citizens. Evaluate the key challenges facing cities in the future and, importantly, potential solutions for those challenges.

Transportation Planning: Principles and Practices of Transportation Finance

This course explains principles of transportation finance and reviews the general structure for funding transportation projects. Learn about the history of U.S. funding, from strong local funding to state and federal involvement to regional funding sources.

Transportation Planning: Making Transportation Plans—Rationality and Politics

This course explains the major forms of planning applicable to transportation, including rational comprehensive planning, strategic planning, policy analysis, incremental planning, advocacy planning, and communicative planning.

Transportation Planning: Strategies for Working with Roadway Capacity

This course explains the menu of contemporary approaches to modifying or adding to transportation capacity. It provides examples of capacity responses to regional mobility for commuters and local accessibility for communities.

Transportation Planning: Travel Behavior Regulations, Pricing, and Programs

This course reviews the efficacy of regulatory strategies (such as prohibitions and mandates), pricing strategies (such as peak period pricing), and education and information strategies (such as real-time ride-hailing apps).

Transportation Planning: Travel Behavior Principles and Modelling Approaches

This course provides an overview and critique of the four-step model used in transportation planning. By the end of this course, viewers will be able to conceptualize how transportation models can address contemporary problems in transportation planning, such as transit-oriented development.

Transportation Planning: Land Use and Transportation Systems

This course includes a brief history of how land use and transportation have co-evolved over the last 150 years and reviews the roles of transportation systems and technology in influencing land value and locational decision.

Transportation Planning: Effects on the Environment, Health, and Social Justice

This course discusses the local and global impacts of transportation systems and the mitigation of those impacts. The course also identifies prospects for change, as achieved by technology, transportation management, and pricing.

Transportation Planning: The Role of Transportation Systems in Social and Economic Life

By the end of this course, you will have a strong understanding of the way in which transportation systems interact with society and the economy.

Virtual Reality for Planners 4: Refining the End User Experience

Creating a VR experience is one thing, but managing its use at public events and integrating it into the urban design workflow is an extra, separate step. This course considers the bigger picture and covers a few ways to fine-tune the user’s experience for maximum success.