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The interior of Harvard University's Gund Hall, home to the Graduate School of Design. Photo courtesy of Harvard University
MIT’s Central for Real Estate is getting competition up the road in Cambridge as Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design is launching its own master’s program in real estate.
The 12-month program is being funded by $13 million in gifts from GSD alumni and others. Applications open this fall for 25 spots. The first class will start their coursework next fall.
“As our cities, their communities, and the environment face mounting crises, the world needs a new kind of developer, and with this degree the GSD aims to educate leaders in real estate who are prepared to face such complex and urgent ethical challenges,” GSD Dean Sarah M. Whiting said in a statement.
Students will learn how to balance the many different demands on real estate developers today, from routine financing needs to government demands to provide affordable housing, meeting investors’ sustainability requirements and addressing the changing post-COVID economy, Harvard said in its announcement. The cross-disciplinary program will culminate in a two-month practicum based at a private or public real estate organization working on a socially and environmentally oriented project. Jerold S. Kayden, the Frank Backus Williams professor of urban planning and design, will direct the program.
“In establishing the Master in Real Estate program as part of the Department of Urban Planning and Design, the GSD recognizes real estate as a critical domain in the production of the built environment spanning many concerns,” Rahul Mehrotra, chair of the Department of Urban Planning and Design, said in a statement. “The program will educate new generations of real estate entrepreneurs who will imagine new possibilities for healthy synergies between property development, government regulation, and social imperatives, all while safeguarding the health of our planet.”
