URBAN@PARSONS

Welcome to the online hub for urban graduate programs at Parsons School of Design—Design and Urban Ecologies and Theories of Urban Practice.

At Urban@Parsons, we reframe the study of urbanism, design, urban policy and social justice, and configure critical courses of action and research which attempt to redefine cities and urbanization in fundamental ways.

We believe this is a critical moment to examine the global situation which is affecting every aspect of urban life from food, education, and housing, to jobs, mobility, and urban infrastructure. There is an unprecedented urgency to engage, through design and research, in the conceptualization and implementation of radically new approaches that can transform the socially, economically and environmentally unsustainable forms of urbanization that have dominated policy and politics for decades.

Urban@Parsons is a very unique design-based graduate learning environment with a committed engagement with the city, which places questions of social, spatial, and environmental justice at its forefront. Therefore, we believe we are in the best position to tackle the ongoing and ever-changing challenges of cities and, most importantly, the role that citizens and residents play in making cities more resilient and sustainable through collective action.

Our students, faculty, and researchers work across New York City with local grassroots initiatives, community-based groups, not-for-profit organizations and city agencies, in areas facing rapid changes and therefore challenges: waterfront development, gentrification and displacement, migration and resettlement, food justice, housing and school overcrowding, new transit-oriented development, just to mention a few. In addition, students have opportunities to be involved in a range of projects, nationally and internationally. Through our Global Intensive Studio, students and faculty have traveled and engaged in projects with universities, civil society partners, and community organizations across the world: Hong Kong, Macau, Shenzhen, New Delhi, Rio de Janeiro, Venice, as well as in Medellin.

EVENTS

Extractivism as Aesthetics @ Oct 27th, 12:30 pm

Since colonialism’s outset as a modern political project, images have been central to extractivism, a racial practice that reduces parts of the Earth and its inhabitants to exploitable and marketable resources. How does this centrality operate in a context where visual culture itself has become an extractive industry with images as its raw material, many…

NYC2033: Radicalising Urban Futures Oct 27, 2023 @ 2:00 PM & Oct 28, 2023 @ 10:00 AM

Engaging in exercises of collective envisioning is of utmost importance to incite the conceptualization and experimentation of radical urban futures that can transform the socially, economically, and environmentally unsustainable processes dominating our current urban landscapes. With a specific focus on envisioning the future of New York City in 10 years, NYC 2033 aims to reflect…

Rabble Rousers: Frances Goldin and the Fight for Cooper Square – Documentary Screening and Panel Discussion May 4, 2023 @ 5:30 PM

Documentary Film Overview A trailblazing housing organizer and her diverse working class neighbors fight Robert Moses, the real estate industry and five mayors to create the first Community Land Trust in New York City — an oasis of permanently low-income housing in the heart of the rapidly gentrifying Lower East Side. In 1959 New York…

Urban Colloquium Guest Lecture: Grounding Urban Natures April 12, 2023 @ 4 PM

Grounding Urban Natures, lecture by Martin Avila, Professor of Design Konstfack School of Arts, Stockholm Sweden Details  Wednesday, April 12, 2023, 4:00PM (EDT) Urban Studio 2 W 13th 1108

Urban Colloquium 2 Alumni Panel: Shaping Critical Urban Practices April 19, 2023 @ 5:00 PM

As a part of the Urban Colloquium 2 speaker series, we will host alumni from Parsons Urban Graduate Programs. Urban Colloquium 2 investigates what exactly is meant by ‘design’ and ‘designing’ in the dual context of urban ecologies and urban practices. Urban Colloquium 2 is structured around alternating guest lectures and group discussions, framed by…

Urban Colloquium Guest Lecture: Re-SITE-ing Reparations April 5, 2023 @ 5 PM

Lecture by Jason Brown, Community Design Strategist, Portland Parks Foundation, Program Coordinator Details  Wednesday, September 27, 2023, 12:00PM (EDT) Urban Studio 2 W 13th 1108

Urban Colloquium Guest Lecture: Designing for Economic Justice February 22, 2023 @ 5 PM

Guest Lecture by Lyric Kelkar, Legislative Director for Council member Eunisses Hernandez in LA Details  Wednesday, February 22, 2023, 5:00PM (EDT) Urban Studio 2 W 13th 1108

Urban Colloquium Guest Lecture: The Architecture of Disability February 15, 2023 @ 5 PM

Lecture by David Gissen, Professor of Architecture, The New School   Details  Wednesday, February 15, 2023, 5:00 PM (EDT) Urban Studio 2 W 13th 1108

Urban Colloquium Guest Lecture: Spatial Justice, Gulsuyu- Gulensu Istanbul Case February 8, 2023 @ 5 PM

Lecture by Emrah Altinok, Assistant Professor of Architecture, Bilgi University Istanbul Turkey. Details Wednesday, February 8, 2023, 5:00 PM (EST) Urban Studio 2 W 13th 1108

Urban Colloquium Guest Lecture: Leah Goodridge November 2, 2022 @5 PM

Leah Goodridge was appointed to the New York City Planning Commission in 2021 by Public Advocate Jumaane Williams. Leah is the Managing Attorney for Housing Policy at Mobilization for Justice, where she oversees a team which provides legal representation to tenants in eviction proceedings. Leah also served on the New York City Rent Guidelines Board…

Chase Louden (DUE ’23) selected a 2022-23 Fellow of the Heilbroner Center for Capitalism Studies

Chase Louden (DUE ’23) has been selected a 2022-23 Fellow of the Robert L. Heilbroner Center for Capitalism Studies at The New School for Social Research. Chandler Louden earned a BA degree in Anthropology at the University of Maryland, Baltimore. Chandler has developed an interest in community planning with a focus on assisting in the…

Public Space Lab: Ana Traverso-Krejcarek, The Highline Network, October 25 @ 7PM

Public Space Lab, guest talk: Ana Traverso-Krejcarek October 25 @ 7PM Location: L1108, Parsons the New SchoolZoom: https://NewSchool.zoom.us/j/91965245814 Ana Krejcarek is the Senior Manager at The Highline Network, a consortium working to transform underutilized infrastructure into new urban landscapes. Krejcarek is a strong advocate for community development and public spaces, and designs citizen-driven initiatives in…

Loading blog posts...