The joint Master of Architecture and Master of City and Regional Planning degree seeks to educate those who wish to engage directly in the process of city building. The program is intended to meet the needs of planning agencies, consultants, institutions, and architectural firms for graduates who can deal competently with the design complexities of urban areas. The curriculum is comprised of the core requirements for each of the two professional programs and, in addition, a set of joint requirements that focus upon urban design as a common ground linking the theory and practice of the two disciplines. The joint curriculum builds upon four major bodies of material:

Urban history and design theory as a way of understanding the formal and architectural order of the city
Economics and development methods as a basis for formulating development projects
Process and methods as a means of understanding professional practice and of designing policies and strategies that can be implemented in a private market regulated by public bodies
Design studios as a basis for exploring architectural, urban design, and development issues utilizing theory, method, and professional practice paradigms