We prepare students to be critical thinkers, engaged scholars, and innovative researchers capable of addressing complex and emergent issues relating to society and the built and natural environment. Our students engage in research aimed at promoting sustainable, healthy, and socially just communities at local, regional, and global scales.

By integrating the fields of Geography, Planning, and Design, our students receive an innovative educational experience that enables cutting-edge research and professional contributions. Solving critical urban and environmental problems in the 21st century requires that we move beyond traditional academic silos and modes of knowledge production.

Gain access to all departments and fields in the university system, with more than 35 acclaimed faculty members from 11 departments able to supervise and advise dissertation research. Interdisciplinary study and cross-disciplinary inquiry occur in one of the U.S.'s most dynamic and fast-growing urban regions.

Students and faculty also have access to cutting-edge resources, including the Geospatial and Mapping Laboratory (GAMLab), the Facility for Advanced Spatial Technologies (FASTLab), the 13-acre GES Urban Farm Field Research Station (Five Fridges Farm), CityCenter, the Colorado Center for Sustainable Urbanism, and numerous environmental sciences faculty labs and centers.

The region is also home to a broad and diverse community of professional planners and designers, hundreds of public, private, and non-profit planning and design organizations and firms, and national and regional labs and headquarters, including the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), the National Parks Service (NPS), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Students also benefit from pursuing their studies only minutes from the beautiful Rocky Mountains.