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).
2025 APA Student Planning and Design Competition Competition Results & Webinar
Congratulations to the winners of the 2025 APA Student Planning and Design Competition!
First Place - University of Texas - Austin
Second Place - Harvard University
Third Place - University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee
This year, 23 submissions were received, and the top three teams presented to a panel of judges during the National Planning Conference in Denver.
Now in its eighth year, the APA Student Planning and Design Competition engages multidisciplinary teams of graduate planning students. This year's competition site is the Colfax & Federal Clover Leaf, a 46-acre parcel in Denver, CO, the 2025 National Planning Conference host city.
Join the finalist teams, jurors, and organizers for a special post-competition webinar, "Envisioning Sprawl Repair: Lessons from the 2025 Student Planning and Design Competition," on Friday, May 9, at 1:00 PM ET.
Draft Historic and Cultural Resources Policy Principles
Our Historic Preservation Committee seeks your comments on the Draft APA Historic and Cultural Resources Policy Principles!
The key updates include:
- Preservation as a tool for climate change mitigation and adaptation
- Preservation as a tool for affordable housing.
- Creative uses for preservation beyond designated buildings
- Preservation as an equitable, community-driven system.
Division members are welcome to review the draft and send us comments by April 25th.
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.
