History

This information was published in 2013 for our 100th anniversary.

100 years of Urban Planning at Illinois

Please join us as we celebrate our first 100 years of planning education at the University of Illinois at Urbana – Champaign. We mark our beginning with the hiring of Charles Mulford Robinson as the first Professor of Civic Design in the country, appointed here at Illinois in 1913 (PDF). Robinson implemented a curriculum that integrated design, economics, and the study of local government in the innovative new program. The Department of City Planning was formed in 1965, including the Bureau of Community Planning. Over the years, Karl Lohmann, Henry Wright, Harland Bartholomew, Louis Wetmore and many others were significant in developing “the Illinois School,” a notable combination of professional planning practice and scholarly study. While the Department of Urban Planning has changed dramatically in many ways since that time, the University of Illinois continues to be a leader in research and education in the planning profession.

Our anniversary mark is a stylized version of the map of the quad and the University of Illinois included in Notes for a Study in City Planning in Champaign – Urbana (PDF), the product of Robinson’s 1913 and 1914 Classes in Civic Design at the University of Illinois, an effort which Robinson said was to give ‘concreteness and practicability’ to the students’ academic work. “Dare to Plan” is from Andrew Isserman’s 1985 article for The Town Planning Review (October, 1985), entitled, “Dare to Plan: An essay on the role of the future in planning practice and education.”

Refresh your department memories through the anniversary additions to our web site, including Department Milestones and a Faculty Timeline. Included with the names and dates are links to our evolving digitized archive — photographs, biographies, UP Words, Alumni News, and more. We encourage you to help us better define our archive by sharing your stories and photographs with us at urbplan@illinois.edu. Remember someone’s name that we don’t have for a group photograph? How about those group photographs in front of the West Nevada Street houses? SPO events? Remember Fall Ball and Spring Fling?

In honor of our 100th anniversary, Professor Emeritus Lew Hopkins has created the Illinois Network, showing the people and places associated with our program and relationships among these people and places. Think of it as six degrees of separation, DURP-style.

Historical Class Pictures

Connect with Urban Planning now!

Departmental Milestones

1912	The Division of Landscape Architecture created within the Department of Horticulture and library established.
1913	Charles Mulford Robinson appointed Professor of Civic Design in the Division of Landscape Architecture in the Department of Horticulture in the College of Agriculture.
1914	Student workshop study for Champaign and Urbana under guidance of Robinson.
1915	L. Deming Tilton graduates.
1920	The Bachelor of Science in Landscape Architecture approved. The degree has a concentration in city and regional planning. Harland Bartholomew appointed to faculty and authors City Plan for East St. Louis.
1921	Karl B. Lohmann appointed to faculty.
1923	Harland Bartholomew, with Tilton as associate planner, authors The City Plan for Memphis Tennessee.
1924	Library moved to Mumford Hall.
1930	Bachelor of Science in the City Planning Option in Landscape Architecture. Robert B. Mitchell graduates in architecture and is listed as Associate in Landscape Architecture. Students take Ford Trimotor flight over Chicago for perspective on workshop class.
1931	Henry Wright teaching as non-resident lecturer. The Division of Landscape Architecture restructured into the Department of Landscape Architecture in the newly formed College of Fine and Applied Arts. Principles of City Planning, by Karl Lohmann published.
1934	The Bureau of Community Planning, an extension and research unit, established.
1935	Eldridge Lovelace graduates.
1936	Regional Planning, by Karl Lohmann published.
1945	The Master of City Planning degree approved.
1949	Calvin Hamilton graduates.
1953	The Bachelor of Fine Arts in City Planning created.
1954	The Department is renamed the Department of City Planning and Landscape Architecture, incorporating the Bureau of Community Planning. UIUC is one of sixteen university planning programs in the U.S.
1955	Louis B. Wetmore appointed Head of Department.
1957	Louis B. Wetmore President of American Institute of Planners.
1960	Department creates separate Divisions of Landscape Architecture and of City Planning.
1968	William Goodman and Eric Freund edit Principles and Practice of Urban Planning ("Green Book").
1970	Professor Lachlan Blair teaches intro planning course using Illiville simulation.
1971	Michael Brooks appointed Head of Department.
1972	Department moves from Mumford Hall to houses on West Nevada.
1978	Carl Patton appointed Head of Department.
1983	The Ph.D. in Regional Planning authorized.
1984	Lew Hopkins appointed Head of Department.
1987	East St. Louis Action Research Project. Gill Chin Lim and Lew Hopkins edit Journal of Planning Education and Research.
1995	The Department moves to Temple Hoyne Buell Hall.
1998	Christopher Silver appointed Head of Department.
2008	Edward Feser appointed Head of Department.

100th Essays

The four documents linked below were written in 2013 in honor of our 100th anniversary.

Think Centennially

In honor of our 100th anniversary, Professor Emeritus Lew Hopkins gave the 2013 Convocation address, inspiring us to “Think Centennially.”

Dare to Social Welfare Plan

Len Heumann challenges us to engage in social issues by recounting some of the ways in which this campus has done so and should do so.

"Illinois School" of Thinking about Plans

Several aspects distinguish the Illinois School of thinking about plans from the Chicago School, the Penn School, the University of North Carolina School, and the strategic choice (or IOR) school. These aspects also suggest historical interactions and links to these other schools of planning thought.