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).
See you in Denver, March 29 - April 1 Join UDP at NPC 25
We'll see you at the 2025 National Planning Conference in Denver. Join us at our March 31st joint reception with the National Trust for Historic Preservation and CU-Denver School of Architecture and Planning, the APA Student Planning and Design Competition finalist presentations, and our annual Division business meeting!
Not attending the Denver conference? You can participate virtually in our Sunday, March 30, 4 PM MT Annual Business Meeting!
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. This year's competition site: the Colfax & Federal Clover Leaf, a 46-acre parcel in Denver, CO, the 2025 National Planning Conference host city.
The APA Urban Design and Preservation Division, Student Representative Council, and Divisions Council proudly sponsor this annual competition. Three finalist teams from the University of Texas-Austin, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and Harvard University will present before a jury at an NPC25 Denver session on March 31.
Apply for D-PRAT by May 2nd
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. The selected community will receive support from a national team of experts during an intensive 3-day planning workshop.
Are you interested in bringing D-PRAT to your community? Apply by Friday, May 2nd!
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.
