UC Berkeley’s new Master of Real Estate Development + Design program puts innovative design, sustainability, and equity at the center of real estate
UC Berkeley's College of Environmental Design (CED) has launched a unique 11-month Master’s program that revolves around a central mission: to build more sustainable, prosperous and equitable cities.
The MRED+D program has been in development for more than four years as part of UC Berkeley’s overall strategy to adopt and enhance professional degree programs focused on social and environmental sustainability.
The inaugural class of 16 students bring wide-ranging national and international experience in development, architecture and planning practice, affordable housing, policy, and economics. The cohort arrived on campus in late June for a program overview and orientation, with classes to begin in July. Required coursework spans development, finance, architecture, urbanism, entitlements, and sustainable design.
Executive Director Greg Morrow joins CED from Pepperdine University’s Graziadio School of Business where he served as Executive Director of the Sands Institute of Real Estate, Academic Director of the Master in Science of Real Estate program, and Fred Sands Executive Professor in Real Estate. His background in architecture, city planning, urban design, and real estate development speaks to the integrated nature of real estate that defines the Berkeley MRED+D program.
The program’s core convictions — 1) that successful real estate development requires excellence in urban design, planning, and sustainability and 2) that design thinking — the iterative process of problem finding, prototyping solutions, and iterative critique — is fundamental to producing the most valuable real estate projects — set Berkeley apart from other real estate programs at peer institutions. “The MRED+D is unique among graduate real estate programs—it combines rigorous training in finance and economics with innovative design and social impact, and embraces the critical role that real estate development must play in tackling our greatest social, economic, and environmental challenges, from climate change, and water/energy use to rising inequality and changing mobility technologies,” Morrow said. “Development today is more complex than ever—professionals must have a strong finance foundation, and be able to navigate the complex entitlement process, understand the value of design, placemaking and building performance, and be thoughtful about how new development integrates into existing communities.”
Graduates are expected to enter careers in real estate entrepreneurship, investment, development, law and engineering firms, architecture and environmental design practices, nonprofit housing, and economic and community development organizations.
While housed in CED, the real estate program combines faculty in the academic environmental design fields (architecture, city planning, landscape architecture and urban design) with practitioner faculty from the real estate industry (real estate economics, finance, law, and business) to create one of the most cross-disciplinary professional Master's programs at UC Berkeley, but one of the most innovative professional degrees in real estate.
For more information and program updates, visit MRED+D’s webpage.
MRED+D Inaugural Cohort Statistics:
- 16 total students
- 10 from California, 8 of whom reside in the Bay Area
- 8 women
- 4 international students: Mexico, Canada, China and India
- Average age: 29.5 years at the start of the program
For more information, contact Greg Morrow, Executive Director, Real Estate Development + Design at gmorrow@berkeley.edu
Photo: Inaugural 2018-2019 MRED+D Cohort