Urban Field Experience

Catalog description

This experiential urban field course foregrounds Chicago’s longstanding role as an innovative laboratory for resolving complex urban planning, design, and development challenges. During two weekend-long field trips to the city, students investigate contemporary urban issues through faculty-led walking tours and site visits with community leaders. These place-based learning opportunities are a springboard for students to develop and execute an independent, thesis-driven research project based on direct observation and field data collection. The course culminates with formal panel presentations organized around crosscutting themes, such as transportation and mobility, social equity and uneven development, climate action initiatives, historic preservation efforts, housing affordability, and community health and well-being. SC. EL.