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Richard Peiser
Professor Emeritus
Harvard University Graduate School of Design
Richard Peiser served as the Michael D. Spear Professor of Real Estate Development at the Graduate School of Design from 1998 to his retirement from full-time teaching in 2026. He also served as the Director of the university-wide Real Estate Academic Initiative created in 2003. He was previously on the faculty at the University of Southern California (1986-1998) 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 that he founded in 1986. His courses: Real Estate Finance and Development, Field Studies in Real Estate, Planning and Urban Design, and Advanced Real Estate Development and Finance offer basic and advanced-level study of real estate at the GSD. He also taught the studios: Alternative Urban Pattern Prototypes: Looking at Pomona/Los Angeles, Newry, Northern Ireland—Revealing History in Urban Reconstruction, and Alternative Futures for the West Lake, Hangzhou, People’s Republic of China, as well as field studies in Texas, California, New Hampshire, Idaho, and Shanghai. He directed the school’s activities in advanced education for senior real estate executives, notably the six-week Advanced Management Development Program in Real Estate, which he served as Faculty Co-Chair from 2000 to 2026.
Peiser’s primary research has focused on developing an understanding of the response of real estate developers to the market place and to the institutional environment in which they operate, particularly in the areas of urban redevelopment, affordable housing, and suburban sprawl. Current research projects focus on non-performing loans, suburban redevelopment, and new towns. 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 development. He has been active in the Urban Land Institute, where he is now a Trustee, and of 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 post-professional training programs in this area at the GSD. Peiser received a BA from Yale University, an MBA from Harvard Business School, and a PhD from the University of Cambridge.