PRE Broadens Its Horizons with Two New Joint Master Degree Programs
John Sanderson
Recognizing the multi-disciplinary nature of real estate, Cornell’s Program in Real Estate (PRE) has broadened its dual degree offerings to include dual degrees with the Department of City and Regional Planning and with the Program in Landscape Architecture. This summer, John Norwood will graduate with a Master of Professional Studies in Real Estate (MPSRE) and a Master of City and Regional Planning (CRP). In May, John Sanderson will graduate with an MPSRE and a Master of Landscape Architecture. Previously, the PRE limited its dual degree offerings to law (JD) and business (MBA).
John Norwood will be the first Cornell student to combine a master degree from the Program in Real Estate with one from the Department of City and Regional Planning. Norwood intends to use his extensive education working on public/private partnerships and creative entitlement use. “The PRE curriculum emphasizes a financial approach to real estate problems while the CRP program emphasizes the public policy issues that arise with real estate. My undergraduate education in structural engineering emphasized a technical approach to solving problems [Princeton University, ‘06]. Taken together, I’m hoping to work on new, innovative projects involving public/private partnerships and creative entitlement use. My dual degrees really work synergistically to help me find the right public/private solutions to lingering social issues.” During the past summer, Norwood worked as an acquisitions associate for Chelsea Neighborhood Developers (located outside of Boston, Massachusetts). There, he worked under the company’s Distressed Housing Initiative to acquire and redevelop properties in foreclosure, recently acquired by banks, or in targeted areas to revitalize the city. “The different approaches provided by my real estate and planning course work helped me handle the challenges of distressed real estate acquisitions while addressing the underlying public policy issues and interests in neighborhood revitalization.”
John Sanderson will become Cornell University’s first student to graduate with dual master degrees in Real Estate and Landscape Architecture. Sanderson intends to use the financial, environmental, and design knowledge gleaned from his three-year MPS/MLA curriculum and his undergraduate degrees in Environmental Studies and Geography (University of Colorado) to help develop living environments leaving minimal environmental footprints which are aesthetically pleasing and financially rewarding. “I wanted to learn as much as possible about how to implement low impact designs so that when I leave here I can help design how we as people interface with our surroundings to minimize our impact and maximize our connection with the land,” Sanderson remarked. “In recent years many are talking about being “green” and advocating “sustainability. While I find this heartening, I also see a lot of greenwashing and lack of precision about what the words mean. I hope that my life experiences and course work here at Cornell will allow me to make meaningful contributions to the built environments in which we live.”
Sanderson is currently the director of the Development-Related Outreach Program for Sustainability (DROPS), an organization he co-founded. DROPS integrates faculty from seven departments, various community members, and professionals with students from many fields of study to create hands on projects which provide students with a comprehensive education on the issues specific to the implementation of a sustainable development projects. To date more than 150 people have been a part of DROPS-related projects.