Dear UPD Alumni,

I hope this note finds you well and enjoying the winter. As the 2024–2025 academic year progresses, Gund Hall is once again bustling with students after the winter break. With phase one of the Gund Hall façade renewal project now complete, we are already enjoying a more energy-efficient, comfortable, and accessible learning space.

I am delighted to share recent updates and news from the Department of Urban Planning and Design (UPD). There are many updates across our programs, faculty, exhibitions, and events.

Program Updates
We welcomed the second cohort of Master in Real Estate (MRE) students to the GSD. Nearly half of this year’s 38 MRE students hail from countries outside the United States, enriching the MRE program with diverse professional and global experiences. Read more about the program.

Faculty Updates
Over the past year, UPD has hosted a terrific set of lecturers and design critics, and we have welcomed several new regular faculty to our department:

  • Rachel Weber, Professor of Urban Planning, joined the department in January 2025. As an urban planner, political economist, and economic geographer, Weber researches the relationship between finance and the built environment. She explores how cities’ deepening relationships with financial markets have changed how they budget, fund infrastructure, and manage their assets.
  • Maurice Cox LF ’05, Emma Bloomberg Professor in Residence of Urban Planning and Design, joined the department in Fall 2024. Cox is an urban designer acclaimed for his ability to merge architecture, design, and politics in pursuit of design excellence and the equitable development of cities. Prior to joining the GSD faculty, Cox was Director of Planning and Development for the City of Detroit and Commissioner of Planning and Development for the City of Chicago, where he focused on the adaptive challenges facing contemporary urban revitalization.
  • Magda Maaoui, Assistant Professor of Urban Planning, joined us in Fall 2024 after a year as visiting faculty. Maaoui explores the housing production cycle from start to finish as the consequence of regulation and policy, an act of design and construction, and a catalyst for neighborhood health and environmental outcomes.
  • Dana McKinney White MArch ’17, MUP ’17, Assistant Professor of Urban Design, was appointed in 2023. McKinney White is a licensed architect and urban planner who is an outspoken advocate for social justice and equity through design. She develops innovative design solutions to benefit even the most vulnerable populations, including system-impacted communities, persons experiencing homelessness, and aging populations.
  • Carole Voulgaris has been promoted to Associate Professor of Urban Planning. Her research investigates the factors influencing individual and household travel decisions within cities and examines how transportation planning institutions use this information to inform plans, policies, and infrastructure design.

Planning @ 100
In 2023, we celebrated a century since the Master in Landscape Architecture in City Planning degree was offered at the GSD, marking the inaugural Harvard degree with “city planning” in its title.

“While the first course in city planning at Harvard was offered in 1909, it was in 1923 when the degree Master in Landscape Architecture in City Planning was introduced in the School of Landscape Architecture. A separate Graduate School of City Planning was established in 1929, the first in the United States. In 1936, it became the Department of City and Regional Planning when the Graduate School of Design (GSD) was established.”

The Planning @ 100 exhibition in the Loeb Library highlighted Harvard’s pivotal role in shaping planning education and practice. I curated this exhibition along with Sophie Weston Chien MLA ’24, MUP ’24; Rebecca McDonald-Balfour MLA ’24, MUP ’24; and Naomi Andrea Robalino MUP ’23, with special thanks to Amna Pervaiz MUP ’23. We chronicled the program’s evolution, including key people, events, and activities, until the present day. I invite you to explore the exhibition’s webpage.

APA Denver
In the coming months, our department will share more news about the future of UPD and opportunities to connect with planners across the globe. Please join us for the APA Denver GSD Alumni Reception on March 30, 2025. I hope to see you there!

Wishing you all the best,

Ann Forsyth

Ruth and Frank Stanton Professor of Urban Planning
Chair, Department of Urban Planning and Design
Program Director, Master in Urban Planning
Department of Urban Planning and Design, Harvard GSD

PS: Follow the GSD’s alumni events page to discover events near you.

To learn more about programs, visit the GSD website and their Instagram accounts: