Massachusetts Institute of Technology, by Frederick J. Adams, Professor of City Planning in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
For over fifteen years the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has offered professional instruction at the undergraduate and the post-graduate level for those desiring to enter the field of city and regional planning. The four-year undergraduate course, which includes one summer of surveying camp and one summer of office practice, leads to the degree of Bachelor in City Planning. The degree of Master in City Planning is awarded at the end of one to three years of advanced study, the period of residence being dependent on the previous training and experience of the individual student.
Original Undergraduate Program
Since 1922, a course in the fundamental principles of city planning has been a required subject for all candidates for a degree in Architecture at M.I.T. In that year Thomas Adams, in collaboration with Professor James Sturgis Pray of Harvard University, inaugurated a course of lectures and design problems in this subject from which later developed an undergraduate option leading to the degree of Bachelor of Architecture in City Planning. This degree, which was authorized in 1932, was first awarded in 1935 and in the same year the Institute approved the offering of a graduate program leading to the degree of Master in City Planning which, however, was not limited to students with previous training in architecture. Since that time the graduate enrolment has been consistently higher than the undergraduate, the registration in November, 1948, being 24 and 11 respectively.
The first three years of the original five-year undergraduate option followed the architectural curriculum, in which two years were devoted to general college subjects combined with fundamental courses in architectural design, construction, and history. The first introduction to city planning came in the third year in the form of a lecture course in the history and principles of city planning. In the fourth year, courses in city planning design and the theory and practice of city planning were introduced, supplemented by instruction in surveying, landscape construction, urban sociology , and public health principles.
In the fifth year the courses in theory and design were continued, in which practical application was made of city planning theory to the design of towns, cities, and regions. At the same time, the engineering, economic, and sociological phases of planning were given more detailed consideration in courses in municipal engineering and in social and economic factors in city planning. A thesis was also required, which took up about one quarter of the final year.Present Undergraduate Program
Early in 1941 an important meeting was held at M.I.T. of the Advisory Committee on the City Planning Course, made up of practitioners in the field of city and regional planning from various parts of the United States. On this occasion the question was raised as to the desirability and practicality of developing at the Institute what would be the first undergraduate professional program in city planning in which specialization in the field would begin at the sophomore level and which, while closely related to the architectural curriculum, would be completely independent of it. In other words, the proposal was made that a curriculum be developed which would provide a balanced program of training for those who, not later than the end of their freshman year, were ready to make a choice as to their desired field of specialization. The city planning staff at M.I.T. was requested to prepare such a curriculum for consideration and in November, 1941, a preliminary draft was submitted to the Advisory Committee and to selected alumni of the City Planning Course for their criticism and comment. It had been recognized for some time that in the United States to serve adequately the needs of local, state, and Federal agencies dealing with problems in the field of city and regional planning there is a growing demand for men who are qualified to deal with not only the technical aspects of these problems but also the economic and administrative. This called for a re-examination of the point of view that specialized training in architecture, landscape architecture, or civil engineering offers the only appropriate background for advanced study in the professional field of planning.
Before a decision was made as to the content of an ideal program of instruction in city and regional planning, it was necessary to give consideration to the qualifications which should be demanded of men entering the professional field. This is where the chief difficulty arises, as the field is so broad - and becoming increasingly broader- that the type of work being carried on, and for which well-trained men are needed, ranges all the way from the design of housing projects or residential subdivisions to the development of plans for states and regions.
It would seem probable, if we accept the above assumptions, that:
a) Many of those engaged in physical planning, whether in a technical or administrative capacity , will of necessity be drawn from a number of different professions, such as architecture, civil engineering, law, government, etc.
b) The need for specialists in fields related to planning demands that existing professional courses in the above disciplines give recognition to the importance of planning in so far as it relates to the type of work graduates of these courses will be called upon to do when they emerge in practice.
c) In order to train effectively men who would be capable of assuming planning positions involving major responsibility, entire dependence should not be placed on the superimposition of planning courses on existing programs of specialized training.
At the time of the Conference on Planning Education held at M.I.T. in October, 1936, Sir Raymond Unwin made the statement that, “The enormous increase in the volume or knowledge is necessarily leading, both in professional and general education, to the training of specialists, who must tend to fulfill the definition of a specialist as ‘a man who knows more and more about less and less.’ For planning purposes in whatever sphere, whether in economics, or in regard to the physical environment, this tendency is the opposite to that which is required, the planner needing to know certain defined things about more and more subjects ; those things, in fact, which affect relationships.”
Among the conclusions agreed upon at this Conference were the following:
1) The difficulty of providing a suitable training for the planner in any school which is directed to training for a profession arises from the contrast between intensive knowledge in a limited field needed to equip for the practice of a profession, and the more general knowledge of very many fields which must be possessed by the planner. The rapid increase in the volume of knowledge, calling for more and more specialization, is increasing the difficulty and rendering more urgent the forming of courses suitable for training the planner.
2) A course of study leading to a professional degree in city or regional planning should, therefore, include a training in the fundamental principles of design in its broadest sense, together with cultural and professional subjects of a comprehensive nature. A knowledge of the principles of sociology, economics, law, government and administration would be necessary to round out the training in design and construction. The choice is thus between broadening the scope of existing courses in architecture, landscape architecture, and civil engineering to provide the necessary background in non-professional subjects, or the introduction of a considerable amount of design into existing liberal arts courses.
In the past most professional courses in planning have been set up on the foundation of an existing technical course but this has one serious disadvantage, viz., that it is difficult to provide for sufficient prerequisite subjects in the earlier years to enable a man to take really advanced work in the social sciences, particularly economics and government. A similar difficulty arises in curricula where advanced work in planning is offered without adequate undergraduate preparation in the field of activity chosen for graduate study and research.
On a re-examination of the original undergraduate curriculum at M.I.T., which based one and a half years of city planning study on three and a half years of preparation in architecture, it was realized that no advanced work in the social sciences would be possible unless the earlier years of the course were materially changed to include a number of subjects which would serve as a foundation for graduate study as well as to provide for additional subjects, such as statistics, report writing, and public speaking, which were not then included in the curriculum. With this in mind an entirely new curriculum was prepared, advantage being taken of subjects already offered by various Departments at the Institute.
The proposed curriculum received an enthusiastic response from the Advisory Committee and the alumni. With minor modifications it was adopted by the Faculty at M.I.T. in March, 1942, following which action the Corporation authorized the awarding of the degree of Bachelor in City Planning.
As stated in the M.I.T. Catalogue, this Course “has been developed in response to the need for a curriculum which is oriented to the professional field early in the program, and which provides for a synthesis of the economic, sociological, administrative, and engineering aspects of city planning, impossible in courses developed from existing curricula in specialized professional fields.” After a year of general college subjects in science, mathematics, drawing, and English, the prospective city planner attends a summer camp in surveying with the civil engineers and in his second year takes courses in architectural design, physics, geology, statistics, history, public speaking and principles of city planning.
The third year of the undergraduate course consists primarily of professional subjects and includes instruction in sanitary and transportation engineering, government and public administration, urban sociology , theory and practice of city planning, city planning design, and a humanities elective. A summer of practical experience in the office of a city or regional planning commission comes next in the program, followed by the fourth and final year. This includes courses in site planning, land economics, public finance, planning legislation, city planning design, professional electives, and thesis. After completing the requirements for the degree, the budding planner is ready for a junior position on the staff of a planning agency or in the office of a private consultant.
It might be appropriate at this point to consider the more important advantages and disadvantages of an undergraduate professional course in city planning. The disadvantages appear to be few but are significant enough to be worth careful consideration. The most obvious are that students at the under-graduate level are less mature than the post-graduate; that the intensive prescribed course does not provide as much opportunity as might be desired for electives and general cultural subjects and that standards of performance cannot be as high as at the graduate level. On the other hand, the undergraduate program provides the most direct and economical way to professional practice for those students who have decided on their field of study at the time of matriculation; it supplies a student with a sound basic training of a type which inevitably calls for a balancing of the humanitarian and technical aspects of city growth and arrangement; and it qualifies the student, on completion of the course, to enter into his professional field with sufficient technical skills at his disposal to enable him to meet job situations without a long period of adjustment. That the above is not wishful thinking is evidenced by the success achieved in the planning field by recipients of the bachelor’s degree.The Graduate Program
It has already been stated that admission to the Graduate School at M.I.T. as a candidate for the degree of Master in City Planning is not contingent upon undergraduate preparation in the field of architecture. Actually, the first group to receive the new Master’s degree (in 1936) had had such training, and graduates of courses in architecture and landscape architecture remained the predominant group until 1940. In that year, of a total registration of eleven post-graduate students, three had received their undergraduate training in civil engineering and four came from the social sciences; while in the academic year 1947-48 , with twenty-five students registered in the graduate course in city planning, the percentage distribution was 32 per cent from architecture and landscape architecture, 32 per cent from civil engineering, and 36 per cent from the social sciences.
It is obvious that, with a group of graduate students representing many different professional fields (for those with social science degrees may have majored in sociology, economics, government, law, or public administration), the program of instruction must be adjusted to the individual case. Most of such students can complete the graduate program in two years, the first year being spent primarily in making up undergraduate prerequisites and the second in taking advanced courses in theory, design and research in addition to a three- months’ thesis. Graduate students without previous training in design are required to take a one-term course in architectural design and all students may take the advanced courses in city planning design, as it is not considered desirable to allow those students with undergraduate degrees in the social sciences to specialize in the economic or social aspects of planning to the exclusion of the physical aspects. Similarly, students with undergraduate preparation in architecture or engineering are required to take courses in the social, economic and legislative aspects of planning.
It will be seen from the above that the object of both the graduate and undergraduate programs is to develop general practitioners in planning rather than planning specialists, for it is felt that the greatest need in the professional field is for men and women with a broad background of training which will prepare them for the diversity of opportunities that await them on graduation .
It should be emphasized that no university or technical school program can produce a full-fledged practitioner in any professional field, both because such training must be supplemented by several years of practical experience and because leadership in any field depends more on inherent ability and personal qualities than on the particular curriculum followed by a student at the college level. The academic environment, however, can and should provide to the student the maximum amount of opportunity for research and practice in his chosen field; for the development of good habits of work and methods of study; and for developing an ability to apply objective methods of analysis to specific problems which would have general application in his future professional work. Only by such experience and opportunity can such a man prepare himself for making the maximum contribution of which he is capable in his chosen professional field.