Established at the UNIVERSITY AT ALBANY in 1988 to carry out urban research both comparative and historical in scope, the Center honors the tradition of interdisciplinary scholarship established by Lewis Mumford (1895-1990).

Mumford was a native New Yorker internationally recognized as one of the most distinguished urbanists of the 20th Century. By promoting broad-based collaboration among urban scholars from a variety of fields and geographic settings, the Center's mission is to further Mumford's ideal of local involvement with global vision. To this end, Center projects and activities range from international urban conferences (July 1999 in Shanghai), to local planning initiatives, to national endeavors examining urban change over time.