Peiser Appointed as Professor at Graduate School of Design

Richard Peiser has been appointed the first Michael D. Spear Professor of Real Estate Development at the Graduate School of Design (GSD), effective July 1.

Peter G. Rowe, Dean of the GSD, said, "We are indeed fortunate to have a person of Rick Peiser's level of interest and involvement in real estate development issues on the tenured faculty of the GSD."

Peiser comes to the GSD from the University of Southern California (USC), where he has been on the faculty since 1986, currently as associate professor of urban planning and development, director of the Lusk Center for Real Estate Development, and academic director of the Master of Real Estate Development Program, a program he founded in 1986. At USC he taught courses in real estate finance, the development process, and complex deal structuring.

Peiser's primary research has focused on developing an understanding of the response of real estate developers to the marketplace and to the institutional environment in which they operate, particularly in the areas of urban redevelopment, affordable housing, and suburban sprawl. A planner and entrepreneur-developer as well as an expert in real estate finance, he has also demonstrated an interest in spatial and design issues as well as in the economics of land and development. Peiser has been active in the Urban Land Institute, where he is now a trustee and for which he has authored numerous publications on his policy-oriented research. In addition to teaching basic courses in development finance, he will also be initiating advanced and postprofessional training programs in this area at the GSD.

Peiser received a B.A. from Yale University, an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School, and a Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge.