Global Studio Course Offers Professional Perspectives on Urban Planning
Global Studio (URST 403/803) is a new course offered this semester taught by Garth Myers, Director of the Center for Urban and Global Studies and Paul E. Raether Distinguished Professor of Urban International Studies. The course serves as a capstone for urban studies majors as well as a core course for students in the new master’s in urban planning. Every week in Global Studio there is a guest speaker who comes to share their experience working in the field and their unique insights about their focus area within planning. The class presents an exciting opportunity for students to see what the professionals in the field are working on and what they believe are some of the most pressing issues in urban planning today.
There are two parts to the course. Over the first half of the semester, students heard from professionals working in the United States. The second half will have speakers with a global focus, enabling students to see real-world examples of planning in practice from across the globe. Myers says that bringing these speakers gives “everyone the opportunity to hear from planners and urban developers on what actually happens – what they do for a living,” which helps the students develop a nuanced view of the planning profession.
This past month the class traveled on the CT Fastrak with Jamie Brätt ‘05, a planner at Fuss & O’Neill. The students were able to learn about the project from Brätt while traveling on the bus, creating a connection from classroom learning to the implementation of a project in the Hartford region. Savannah-Nicole Villalba, a planner from the Naugatuck Valley, also visited the class. Villalba’s talk focused on regional planning and what her job looks like working with different municipalities in Connecticut. These two speakers are just a few examples of what the students have heard so far from guests from around the country this semester. Other alumni guests have included Tom Safran ’67, Cara Pavlak ’09, Carolyn Berndt ’99, and Oliver Carr ’87.
As a culmination of what students learned throughout the semester, groups will work on problems brought by the guest speakers. This semester many of these projects focus on transit-oriented development (TOD). The opportunity to engage with these planning issues will give students practical experience working through real-world challenges.
The Global Studio class allows undergraduate and graduate students to hear from professionals in the field and to work on urban planning problems that will have a genuine impact on the planning challenges of today. Global Studio’s unique learning environment allows students to connect with professionals in the field, learn more about the day-to-day life of planners, and see projects that planners are working on across the globe. The class will continue to be a core component of Trinity’s graduate program in urban planning.
