CED’s three departments—Architecture, City & Regional Planning, and Landscape Architecture & Environmental Planning—provide intellectual and creative leadership to research and practice at all scales of the built environment—building, site, neighborhood, community, and region.

At present, CED is uniquely positioned to be a national leader in demonstrating the value of design knowledge and education in addressing the problems of the built environment, due to our proven excellence in, and continued emphasis on:

• Collaborative, Participatory Design: The most critical challenges facing society and the built environment do not divide neatly into disciplines. Increasingly, professional practice requires a multidisciplinary approach. CED was the first college of its kind in the country to bring together architecture, landscape architecture and environmental planning, and city and regional planning to work collaboratively on the challenges of the built environment. The lessons learned here make our graduates extremely innovative and creative team members.
   
  
• Design Activism: CED is well-known for its focus on social and cultural issues in the planning and design of the physical environment. Often the most critical problems are faced by communities without the resources to address them. Design activism seeks out these challenges and provides the design vision and process for the communities to overcome their challenges and thrive.
   
  
• Emphasis on Process: Hand in glove with CED’s tradition for social concern is a concern for process. While our faculty and students are fascinated with the art of building, especially given advances in computer-aided design, visualization, and fabrication, as importantly, they consider design challenges to include the economic structures, institutional support, and human capacity to care for and maintain design ideas. CED emphasizes a holistic design process which pays as much attention to the human support system as to the object.
   
  
• Sustainability: Concern for the environment has been central to CED’s identity—we were the first college to use “environment” in our name. Climate, nature, renewable energy, energy conservation, “green” buildings, and more sustainable communities have continually informed our work. The indicators of global warming, ecological decline, and environmental health make the integration of these issues into the design process a prerequisite for the assumption of leadership in restoring the ecological balance of the planet.
   
  

CED has been a leader in all of the above by consistently attracting the leading academics, practitioners, and students for whom these imperatives are a priority.

The Campaign for Berkeley is at the heart of CED’s vision to be a national leader in demonstrating the value of design education in addressing the problems of the built environment. Gifts to the Campaign for Berkeley will allow CED to continue to train leaders who will push for sustainable, just, and inclusive communities of quality design and social interaction. Your support will:

• provide competitive financial packages to recruit the best graduate students,
   
  
• provide research opportunities and support to recruit the best faculty (this is especially critical as we are presently recruiting 10 new faculty members in response to a major generational change), and
   
  
• continue to renovate and enhance facilities to conduct new research and provide all students and faculty with the most up-to-date digital technologies and opportunities for interaction and collaboration.