ABSTRACT
At the beginning of the twenty-first century in the United States, "urban design" is the usual but contested and unsettled term for the field. Urban design as district design is incorporated as a design/planning/engineering/development discipline parallel to other professional degree-granting disciplines. Some argue that it is a frame of mind, an interdisciplinary practice, a discipline parallel to other design disciplines, or an overarching field that includes various disciplines and practices. Urban composition's central public services then could be framed as curating our built and natural heritage, composing the public realm, and elaborating poetically rich places. A college of Urban Composition would be akin to the former, a college of Design with the latter. This is not to imply that the scope of urban composition is limited to disaster prevention and repair. Central concerns continue to be the built world's influence on everyday public services such as health, safety, and welfare, as well as the inspirational, poetic power of place.
