ARCHITECTURE

3.3 Schools
developments in the field
Pollyanna Rhee
Real estate, according to Stephen Malpezzi of the
University of Wisconsin School of Business, constitutes
“roughly 70 percent of the world’s tangible capital
stock, and one of the largest elements of consumption.”
But within academic institutions, he argues,
real estate programs have historically found themselves
occupying a tenuous position between different
departments and schools. Though strongly tied to
the profession, no official body accredits degrees in
real estate or mandates the real estate curriculum in
the United States, nor is there a uniform regulatory
body for licensing. 2 The question arises: Is real estate
development a practice? A discipline? A field? 3
The timeline below, based in large part on an
interview with Jesse Keenan, Research Director of
The Center for Urban Real Estate at Columbia University
in February 2015, presents a series of excerpts
from publications by academics and professionals
regarding the state and status of the evolving field
of real estate development in the United States, contextualized
with significant events, such as founding
dates of real estate degree programs and relevant legislative
acts. These impressions cover almost a century
and highlight debates over not only the nature of
the field, but the legitimacy of its existence within research
institutions at all. While academics consider
their relationship to other disciplines, they also keep
in mind their ties to the real estate profession, which
encompasses a workforce that ranges from individual
brokers, to large-scale developers, to economists.
The selections aim to highlight the connections
between research institutions and trade groups,
beginning with a focus on land economics early in
the twentieth century. From there we can trace a
trajectory: from land grant universities, to financial
analysis of real estate in business schools especially
after World War II, to real estate development in
architecture schools as part of urban design and planning
programs. Taken as a whole, these various perspectives
reveal conceptions of real estate as both
plots of land open for development and intangible
assets of exchange.
1881
1892
1903
1908
1920
1920s
1927
Wharton School founded at University of Pennsylvania,
offers first real estate course in 1905. 4
Richard Ely teaches “Landed Property and the Rent
of the Land” at the University of Wisconsin, considered
to be the first college-level real estate course. 5
Richard M. Hurd publishes what some consider the
first important book in the modern age of real estate,
Principals of City Land Values. 6
Establishment of National Association of Real Estate
Exchanges, which becomes the largest trade organization
for real estate brokers with 120 founding
members, in Chicago. 7 In 1910 the NAREE founds the
National Estate Journal. In 1916 they adopt the term
“realtor” to identify professionals who are members
of the association.
Richard Ely founds the Institute for Research in
Land Economics at the University of Wisconsin before
moving it to Northwestern University in 1925. 8
Ely’s “Land Economics Series” includes: Ernest M.
Fisher, Principles of Real Estate; Fly and Edward W.
Morehouse, Elements of Land Economics; Fredrick A.
Babcock, The Appraisal of Real Estate. Series continues
into 1930s.
real estate education
Arthur Mertzke, director of education and research
for the National Association of Real Estate Boards:
“Real estate today is no longer one of the occupations
in which one can be successful without a fair degree of
special training. Even a long and costly experience does
not teach a man all that he must know to conduct his
business soundly and successfully . . . 52 universities
and colleges now offer courses. 9 . . . Even though we
discount some of the work now being done as superficial,
the building of the permanent structure of professional
real estate education, erected on the solid foundations
of the new science of Land Economics, can no
longer be questioned.” 10
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