Certainly the primary skillset is already there-- in the same way a residential architect doing single-family is already qualified for hospital design. But there's a lot of specialized intel and subject matter to learn.

Yes, but is it really required to pay for a master's degree in this field? As I mentioned in one of the other 50 related threads from the past 4 days, my office does urban design as a service and not a single person has UD academic credentials. I think it's a tangential service most well-rounded arch can offer and unless the OP is really chasing a gig in a specific office then it's just throwing money into the tuition black hole.

Good point, and this brings us back to where the topic usually ends up: what is meant by 'urban design'?  The term get used and abused all the time.

I'd certainly put master planning, site planning, code research, capacity studies and feasibility studies squarely in architecture's wheelhouse. But there are aspects of UD as practiced (often for public agencies either in-house or by consultants) that may involve extended community interaction, public policy formulation, coordination with multiple systems and their overseers (e.g. streets, power, water, drainage, communications, etc.), environmental protection, and/or huge scale. Can architects do this? Of course, with the right experience and knowledge. But not every A. program or practice will so specialize.

So: necessary to pay for an expensive degree?  Not necessarily.  Looking for a job in an A or UD firms doing this kind of work might produce a similar outcome via a different path.

That’s a pretty rough looking UB example. Just look at that stair going to nothing. But besides that, what you describe is see more in planning disciplines. Maybe grad studies in urban designs allows for more research and case studies, but the data extrapolations and massing studies need more than academic exp... hence my well-rounded arch comment.

Yes, that's my point... that some UD work is in the part of the Venn diagram overlapping with planning. But I completely agree that the core UD skill set is architectural. (Whenever one of my non-design undergrad students asks about a career in urban design, my first piece of advice is always: "get a master's in architecture-- ideally one with a UD focus.")

^^ PS. That screen grab above is to show how bastardized the terminology can get. That's the first hit when I googled "urban design." It's a firm that, I gather, does residential building "design" that is "urban" in location.