Master of Urban & Regional Planning (MURP)
Planning Studio
The Planning Studio (URP 6342) is a practicum course that allows students to implement the skills they have learned throughout the MURP program to develop a professional-quality planning report or work product for a real community client. Students gain exposure to working with professional planners and teams, creating planning strategies, collecting and analyzing data, developing professional planning products, and presenting work to clients and stakeholders.
This is not a traditional planning course due to its practical approach, real scope of work, and group work components, simulating a real-world planning workplace environment. This course prepares students for a professional planning career. The client and planner-in-residence will establish a scope of work, but assignments are not perfectly laid out. Instead, students can develop project management skills while allowing them flexibility to generate their own unique ideas through curiosity, research, creativity, and collaboration.
First piloted in Spring 2023, the Planning Studio course is now officially part of the MURP program's core curriculum. As the default option and exit requirement for the MURP major, all MURP students are required to take and pass this course at the end of, or during, the last year of the major coursework. The studio may be waived for students who elect, with the approval of the Program Director, to pursue the thesis or comprehensive exam option.
Five learning outcomes collectively reflect students' mastery of plan-making:
- Research and Data Analysis
- Planning Frameworks: Law and Theory
- Graphics and Data Visualization
- Written Communication
- Oral Communication
Awards
2025: Sun Coast Section of APA, Student Project Award, Progress Village Best Practices Guide, and StoryMap
2023: APA Florida, Award of Merit, Outstanding Student Project, St. Pete Innovation District Neighborhood Vision Plan
Past Projects
Spring 2025
Project: Environmentally Sensitive Areas Guide
Client: Hillsborough County City-County Planning Commission
Fall 2025
Project: Progress Village Best Practices Guide and StoryMap
Client: Hillsborough County City-County Planning Commission
Spring 2023
Project: St. Petersburg Innovation District Neighborhood Vision Plan
Client: St. Petersburg Innovation District
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