Who We Are Urban Design and Preservation Division
If you embrace the past and future of our built environment, we invite you to join the American Planning Association Urban Design and Preservation Division.
We are a nationwide community of urban design and historic preservation emerging professionals and experienced practitioners in the public, non-profit, educational, and private sectors. Our Division promotes the importance of design excellence, an equitable public realm, and stewardship of our historic places throughout the planning profession and beyond.
Our Division has been honored with the 2023 American Planning Association Division Achievement Award for Overall Division Performance for the scope and quality of our programs. We also received the 2023 Contribution to the Planning Profession Award for our Design-Preservation Rapid Assistance Program (D-PRAT).
MEET OUR STUDENT SCHOLARS 24-25 Division Scholars
We are pleased to welcome our 2024-2025 Division Student Scholars! Emily Stood, a Master of Historic Preservation candidate at Tulane University, is this year's Historic Preservation Scholar. Nour ElZein, a Master of Urban Planning candidate at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design, is our Design-Preservation Rapid Assistance Team scholar.
2025-26 Division Officers
The results are in, and we are pleased to announce the new members of the 2025-2026 APA Urban Design and Preservation Division Board.
Marianne Stuck is our new Chair-Elect! Marianne, a Senior Associate and Urban Designer/Planner at Design Workshop, has made many contributions to the Division to date, and has played a leadership role in our award-winning D-PRAT program for the last three years.
Hadley Peterson, AICP, is our new Secretary-Treasurer! A Community Planner at Kimley-Horn, Hadley has been active in many aspects of the Division for the last eight years and served two years as Communications Chair.
Congratulations to Marianne and Hadley! On January 1, 2025, they will assume their new roles, along with incoming Division Chair Kris Krider and Immediate Past-Chair Marcel Acosta.
2025 Virtual Mentorship Event - Fri, Feb 14
On Friday, February 14, from 1:00 to 2:15 PM Eastern, the APA Urban Design and Preservation Division and Student Representatives Council will hold a virtual "speed mentoring" event for our Division student members and 2025 APA Student Planning and Design Competition participants. Space is limited, and registration is accepted on a first-come, first-served basis.
We're pairing experienced urban design and planning practitioners with small student groups for three rounds of 20-minute conversations about informal topics like professional success, personal anecdotes, industry trends, best practices, and lessons learned. This mutually rewarding event, which lasts one and a half hours, helps the next generation of urban planners and designers learn from recognized leaders without the commitment of traditional mentorship programs.
2025 Student Planning & Design Competition
Now in its eighth year, the APA Student Planning and Design Competition invites multidisciplinary teams of students pursuing graduate degrees in planning, public policy, urban design, architecture, and real estate development to participate. We are excited to announce the 2025 competition site: the Colfax & Federal Clover Leaf, a 46-acre parcel in Denver, CO, the 2025 National Planning Conference host city. This site is adjacent to Empower Field at Mile High to the east and multi-family neighborhoods to the west. Student team registration is now closed.
The APA Urban Design and Preservation Division, Student Representative Council, and Divisions Council proudly sponsor this annual competition. Three finalist teams will present before a jury at an NPC25 Denver session on March 31.
2024 D-PRAT Community: Enfield, Connecticut
The Urban Design and Preservation Division’s Design-Preservation Rapid Assistance Teams (D-PRAT) is a pro bono program to support under-resourced communities and organizations by collaboratively planning for the future, focusing on urban design and historic preservation issues. This year, the Town of Enfield, Connecticut, has been selected as our 2024 D-PRAT community—many thanks to our members who volunteered on October 21-22 as ground or virtual team members. You can download their final community presentation using the link below.
Did you miss our recent D-PRAT and Serving the Underserved: Lessons on Creative Partnerships webinar? You can watch it here!
Career Paths What is Urban Design?
Interested in a career in urban design? Three experienced urban designers--Jason Beske, Senior Urban Designer at Stantec Urban Places, Jeff Shumaker, former Chief Urban Designer of New York City, and Ifeoma Ebo, Urban Designer/Planning Strategist--offer helpful advice to students and emerging professionals interested in becoming urban designers, and planning practitioners desiring more familiarity with urban design issues. The video was produced by Katelyn Huang, the Division's 2022-23 Scholar.
