Pratt Institute

Pratt Institute is a private university with its main campus in Brooklyn, New York. It has an additional campus in Manhattan and an extension campus in Utica, New York at the Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute. The institute was founded in 1887 with programs primarily in engineering, architecture, and fine arts. Comprising six schools, the institute is primarily known for its programs in architecture, graphic design, interior design, industrial design, and fine arts.
Pratt Institute was founded in 1887 by American industrialist Charles Pratt, who was a successful businessman and oil tycoon and was one of the wealthiest men in the history of Brooklyn. Pratt was an early pioneer of the oil industry in the United States and was the founder of Astral Oil Works based in the Greenpoint section of Brooklyn which was a leader in replacing whale oil with petroleum or natural oil. In 1867, Pratt established Charles Pratt and Company. In 1874, Pratt's companies amalgamated with John D. Rockefeller's companies. They became part of the Standard Oil trust where Pratt continued his active involvement on the board and the running of it.
Pratt, an advocate of education, wanted to provide working men and women the opportunity to better their lives through education. Even though Pratt never had the chance to go to college himself, he wanted to create an affordable college accessible to the working class. Beginning with the 1884 purchases of large plots of land near his home in Clinton Hill to open a school. The school would end up being built only two blocks from Charles Pratt's residence on Clinton Avenue.
From his fortunes with Astral Oil and Charles Pratt and Company, in 1886 he endowed and founded Pratt Institute. In May 1887, the New York State Legislature granted Charles Pratt a charter to open the school; on October 17, 1887, the institute opened to 12 students in the Main Hall. Tuition was $4 per class per term (approximately equivalent to $140 in 2024). The college was one of the first in the country open to all people, regardless of class, color, and gender. In the early years, the institute's mission was to offer education to those who never had it offered to them before. Pratt believed that teaching technical skills-drawing, building, designing-promoted intellectual thought and creativity. And in a reciprocal manner, exposure to the ideals and aesthetics of fine art. Specifically, many programs were tailored to the growing need to train industrial workers in the changing economy with training in design and engineering. Early programs sought to teach students a variety of subjects such as architectural engineering, mechanics, dressmaking, and furniture making. Graduates of the school were taught to become engineers, mechanics, and technicians. Drawing, whether freehand, mechanical, or architectural, thought of as being a universal language, united such diverse programs and thus all programs in the school had a strong foundation in drawing. In addition, the curriculum at the institute was to be complemented by a large Liberal Arts curriculum. Students studied subjects such as history, mathematics, physics, and literature to better understand the world in which they would be working, which is still used in Pratt's curriculum.
Enrollment grew steadily from its inception. Six months after opening, the school had an enrollment of nearly 600 students. By the first anniversary of the school, there were 1,000 students in attendance. In five years the school had nearly 4,000 students. In 1888, Scientific American said of the school that "it is undoubtedly the most important enterprise of its kind in this country, if not in the world". Andrew Carnegie visited Pratt for inspiration and used the school as a model in developing Carnegie Technical Schools, now Carnegie Mellon University. At the first Founder's Day celebration in 1888, Charles Pratt addressed what would become the school's motto: "be true to your work and your work will be true to you"—meaning that students should educate and develop themselves diligently and go out into the world working hard, giving all of themselves.
As public interest grew in the school and demand increased, the school began adding new programs including the Pratt High School, Library School, Music Department, and Department of Commerce. Because of the overwhelming popularity of the Department of Commerce, the department broke off from the main institute and formed its own school, under the guidance of Norman P. Heffley, personal secretary to Charles Pratt. The Heffley School of Commerce, the former Pratt Department of Commerce, originally having shared facilities with Pratt, evolved into Brooklyn Law School.
In 1891, the institute's founder and first president, Charles Pratt, died and his eldest son, Charles Millard Pratt, became president of the school. In 1893, Charles Pratt's other son, Frederic B. Pratt, was elected President of Pratt Institute taking over from his elder brother. Because Charles Pratt Snr. died so soon after the college was founded, Frederic Pratt is ascribed with guiding the college through its early decades. Under the direction of Pratt's sons, the institute thrived both financially and critically with many new construction projects and courses. By 1892, the number of students enrolled was 3,900. In 1897 the most popular major was domestic arts.
In 1896, the school opened its monumental Victorian-Renaissance Revival library with interiors designed by the Tiffany Decorating and Glass Company and sprawling gardens outside the library. The library was open to students and the general public as well. The Pratt Institute Library was the first and only public library in Brooklyn for nearly 15 years. It served as a working classroom for the training of librarians and was one of the first schools of library science. The Pratt Institute Library also made available the first reading room for children in New York City.
By the turn of the century, The School of Science and Technology had become Pratt's most prestigious and well-known school and constituted most of the school's enrollment. Across from East Building on Grand Avenue, the institute constructed a new quad for the engineering school over a quarter of a century. The Chemistry, Machinery, and Engineering buildings were constructed in the same architectural style, unifying all disciplines offered by the School. Pratt also had a variety of courses dedicated specifically to women. Some of the 25 courses women could partake in included library science, nursing, home economics, and fashion.
By 1910, all of the departments of the institute were organized as individual schools including the Library School, School of Domestic Science, School of Fine and Applied Arts, and the School of Science and Technology.
As World War I faced the nation in 1914, Pratt partnered with the United States government to aid the war effort. The School of Science and Technology had its own Student Army Training Corps which taught enlistees engineering skills needed for the war. Students designed aircraft used in the war and trained pilots. In 1927, mechanical engineering alumnus Donald A. Hall designed the Spirit of Saint Louis, used by Charles Lindbergh in the first transatlantic flight.
By 1938, most programs at the school had begun offering four-year Bachelor of Science degrees and Pratt transformed itself from a technical school to a college. By granting bachelor's degrees, Pratt had to revise its curriculum from two years to four years. The changes also reflected New York State requirements for granting degrees and stricter government and professional licensing regulations for graduates. During this decade, the basic program for all Art School students was founded. In 1940 Pratt began granting graduate degrees.
During World War II, Pratt also helped in the war effort as it did during World War I with the engineering school training servicemen before they were deployed. Students helped to design camouflage for soldiers, buildings, and weapons. Following the war, the school saw a large influx of veterans enrolling as part of the GI Bill.
In the 1940s, the School of Science and Technology changed its name to the School of Engineering and in 1946 established its own honor society with mechanical engineering becoming the most popular major at Pratt. In 1953, Francis H. Horn became the first president of Pratt who was not a member of the Pratt family. Enrollment continued to climb throughout the decade and in 1948 the institute reached an all-time high in attendance with 6,000 students. By 1950, Pratt had become accredited by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools. In 1954, the architecture department split from the Engineering School to become its own school.
As part of white flight in the 1950s and 1960s which affected the majority of New York City the neighborhood of Clinton Hill began to see a transformation from an upper-class, affluent, white community to one chiefly populated by poor and working-class people of color. Pratt considered moving its campus to more affluent Long Island or Manhattan to increase its attractiveness but decided to stay at its original Brooklyn campus due to the history and Charles Pratt's mission.
As a consequence of Robert Moses' plan for urban renewal in New York City, Pratt's physical campus saw the greatest amount of change in its history. Before the 1950s, the school was located in separate buildings located on several public streets. However, after Moses' clearance of many structures located between Pratt's buildings, including homes, the land was given over to the school, and a true campus was established. Ryerson Street, Grand Avenue, Steuben Street, and Emerson Place were closed to automobile traffic, and the campus was enclosed, forming the Grand Mall to connect the institute's buildings. The elevated train running along Grand Avenue between the East Building/Student Union and the Engineering Quad was dismantled. In the new real estate, the school was able to build several new structures, Dekalb Hall, Information Science Center and North Hall, all designed by the firm of McKim, Mead & White, including the Information Science Center and Dekalb Hall as well as a new student union. Moses' construction projects around the school helped to build the School of Architecture. Research funds were granted to the school to help discover new building techniques. By 1963, the urban planning department formed the Pratt Center for Community Development in an attempt to revitalize Pratt's surrounding neighborhood and Brooklyn.
In the 1970s and continuing well into the 1980s New York City and Brooklyn still faced large amounts of crime and poverty. Enrollment fell and the school faced a budget deficit. Prospective students and faculty felt uneasy about the safety of the campus and community. In 1974, the men's basketball team came to the attention of national media outlets when Cyndi Meserve joined the team becoming the first woman to play men's NCAA basketball. More students earned architecture degrees than mechanical engineering degrees in 1975. Architecture degrees became the most popular degree at Pratt, and remain so. In anticipation of the institute's centennial in 1987, several capital improvements were made to the campus, in an attempt to restore many dilapidated buildings. The Grand Mall was re-landscaped with new plantings, brick pathways, and lighting and the Newman Amphitheater was built in 1988 in celebration of the hundredth anniversary. President Richardson Pratt Jr retired in 1990 after nearly twenty years as president. He was the last president descended from founder Charles Pratt.
By 1993, Thomas F. Schutte was appointed as president and became the longest-serving president not from the Pratt family. In the same year, Pratt controversially closed its School of Engineering, an integral part of founder Charles Pratt's long-term vision. Historically, the school was Pratt's most successful, and many associated the school with its engineering program. In response to the institute-wide decrease in enrollment and school-wide budget issues, closing the School of Engineering was thought of as being the only feasible option to keep the school's other programs afloat and to address the budget. Students in the Engineering program were transferred to Polytechnic Institute of New York University while tenured professors were relocated to the School of Architecture and the science and math departments in the School of Liberal Arts and Sciences.
By closing the costly School of Engineering, the school was able to clear its debt and get on the track to financial success. Funds were allocated for campus-wide beautification projects and restoration and modernization of historic buildings, starting with Memorial Hall. Part of the beautification projects included adding the Pratt Institute Sculpture Park in 1999 where contemporary art sculptures are placed throughout the campus lawns and gardens, making it the largest contemporary sculpture park in New York City. Pratt began a partnership with Pratt Munson College of Art and Design and Delaware College of Art and Design for art students to study for two years at either campus and finish their degrees at Pratt's School of Art and Design in Brooklyn. During the 1990s the school was able to increase enrollment by twenty-five percent, from approximately 3,000 students in 1990 to 4,000 students in 2000.
Vincent A. Stabile, a 1940 graduate of the School of Engineering, donated about $13 million to Pratt, the largest donation made by any alumnus in the college's history, with the request to President Schutte that the donation be used to reopen the School of Engineering. President Schutte rejected Stabile's request and allocated his funds to construct a new residence hall named in his honor. From the mid-1980s to the 2000s Pratt experienced the transition from being mainly a commuter school to becoming a residential school through the construction of new residence halls Cannoneer Court, Pantas Hall, and Stabile Hall.
In its 2025 rankings, U.S. News & World Report ranked several Pratt Institute's graduate programs highly: #15 in Best Fine Arts Programs, #11 in Painting/Drawing, #35 in Best Library and Information Studies Program, #12 in Archives and Preservation. The Bachelor of Architecture program has been ranked as being in the top fifteen programs in the United States consistently since 2000 according to Architectural Record.
While Kiplinger's Personal Finance previously named Pratt as one of the country's best values in private colleges and universities, it was no longer listed in their rankings as of 2019. It was previously included as one of the top values for academic quality and affordability out of more than 600 private institutions.
In 2023 and 2024, Pratt Institute was ranked sixth globally according to the QS World University Rankings by the subject Art and Design.
Pratt Institute is divided into 6 schools and more than 28 departments and divisions offering over 22 undergraduate majors and 25 graduate majors. The schools include:
Former schools include:
Pratt Institute offers the following joint degree programs:
Pratt Institute is accredited by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education and is authorized to award academic degrees by the State of New York, following guidelines established by the New York State Department of Education.
The Bachelor of Architecture degree and the Master of Architecture degree at the School of Architecture are accredited by the National Architectural Accrediting Board. The undergraduate interior design program is accredited by the Council for Interior Design Accreditation.
Graduate programs in library and information science, art therapy, and art education are all accredited by the Committee on Accreditation of the American Library Association, Education Approval Board of the American Art Therapy Association, and RATE respectively. The School of Art and Design is part of the Association of Independent Colleges of Art and Design.
Pratt Institute students, numbering 3,435 undergraduates and 1,381 graduate students in Fall 2019, come from 86 countries and 48 states. Women represent 71% of undergraduates and 74% of graduate students.
Pratt Institute's main campus is located on a historic, esteemed, enclosed 25-acre (100,000 m) campus located in the Clinton Hill neighborhood in Brooklyn, 2 miles from Downtown Brooklyn and 3 miles from Lower Manhattan. Midtown Manhattan is just 5 miles from the campus.
The campus is accessible by two public entrances, both of which close in the evening hours and are guarded by security 24 hours a day. The main gate located at Willoughby Avenue on the north side of campus is accessible for pedestrians and vehicles while the secondary pedestrian-only gate located at the corner of Hall Street and DeKalb Avenue at the southwest part of campus is convenient for commuters and for students to get to Higgins Hall. In addition, there are three other swipe card access gates available only for student use. The campus is very park-like and fully landscaped and provides a stark contrast to the urban neighborhood that surrounds the school.
The four main areas of the campus include the Library Rose Garden, Cannon Court, Newman Mall and Amphitheater, and the Engineering Quad:
The entire campus is open to the public as park space during the daytime. Throughout the campus, many contemporary sculptures fill the gardens and landscape, making the campus home to the largest sculpture park in New York City. The Pratt Sculpture Park, founded in 1999, is the largest contemporary sculpture park in New York City and includes more than 40 pieces at any given time installed across the 25-acre campus in Brooklyn. Some of the artists who have loaned their work to the park include Shin Sang Ho, Mark di Suvero, Donald Lipski, Tom Otterness, Richard Serra, Takashi Soga, Gunnar Theel, and Allan Wexler.
Sources:
Pratt is home to a diverse collection of buildings composed of several architectural styles. Most of the buildings at the school were built before World War II in the style of Romanesque Revival, Victorian, and Neoclassical styles and were designed by prominent nineteenth and twentieth-century architects. After the war, Pratt began building more contemporary styled buildings.
In 2011, Architectural Digest named Pratt as being one of the top ten most architecturally significant college campuses in the country, for its seamless collection of buildings ranging from since the 1800s.
The Main Building, East Hall Building, and Student Union are all located adjacent to one another and make up a complex of the original buildings, all built specifically for the Institute in 1887:
And, replaced these boilers with two Cleaver Brooks fire tube boilers.https://www.jrmcm.com/project/pratt-institute/
Other structures include:
Several Pratt Institute's buildings and landscapes are historically significant. The Pratt Institute Historic District is a national historic district that comprises 10 contributing buildings built between 1885 and 1936. Several buildings are recognized as being New York City Designated Landmarks. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2005 and was awarded the Getty Foundation Campus Heritage Grant. Two buildings outside the historic district, Higgins Hall and the Caroline Ladd Pratt House are also listed on the historic register as being a part of the Clinton Hill Historic District. The buildings and structures listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places for their architectural or historical significance are:
Pratt, a residential campus, offers seven different residence options for its students. All residence hall students are provided with a bed (twin extra-long), a desk, a chair, and a dresser. Students residing in a dorm without in-unit kitchens are required to be on a mandatory meal plan (Stabile, Emerson, ELJ, and Pantas), while those with in-unit kitchens can sign up for an optional meal plan (Willoughby and Grand Avenue). Emerson Place, Leo J. Pantas Hall, and Vincent A. Stabile Hall are the primary freshman dorms. In total, 51 percent of undergraduate students reside on campus while 92 percent of incoming freshmen students reside on campus. Pratt offers the following residence halls for students to choose from:
Pratt does not provide any official sponsored transportation options for its students, but there are several public transportation options located directly off Pratt's main campus.
The school is served by MTA New York City Bus routes with the B38 bus route servicing the campus to the south with stations along DeKalb and Lafayette Avenues and the B54 bus route serving the area north of the campus along Myrtle Avenue. In addition, the New York City Subway's G train has one station located at the intersection of Washington and Lafayette Avenues and another located at the intersection of Classon and Lafayette Avenues. The Clinton–Washington Avenues station (IND Crosstown Line) is located directly across the street from Higgins Hall. The Classon Avenue station (IND Crosstown Line) is located one block south of the southeast corner of campus. In addition, the C train has an entrance to Clinton–Washington Avenues station (IND Fulton Street Line) four blocks south of the Hall Gate entrance and three blocks south of Higgins Hall.
New York City's public bike-share program, Citi Bike, has stations nearby at Lafayette Avenue and Saint James Place; at Hall Street and Willoughby Avenue; and Emerson Place and Myrtle Avenue.
The Long Island Rail Road at Atlantic Terminal, is located a short walk from the campus. Pratt participates in New Jersey Transit's University Partnership Program where students can receive a twenty-five percent discount on monthly passes based out of Penn Station in Manhattan.
The Pratt Manhattan center, located at 144 West 14th Street, between 6th and 7th Avenue, is home to Pratt's associate degrees programs in graphic design, illustration, and digital design, and interactive media, an undergraduate program in construction management, several of Pratt's graduate programs including the master's degrees in the School of Information, Facilities management, Design Management, Arts and Cultural Management, and the School of Continuing and Professional Studies which offers an array of non-credit courses and Certificate Programs, including certificates in Digital Design, Advanced Perfumery, Creative Interiors, Floral Art and Design, among many others. This seven-story historic building was acquired by Pratt in 2000. The Institute restored the building's exterior to its original facade highlighting its decorative architectural and design elements and renovated the interior to feature its high ceilings and wood beams. A lovely staircase from the building's lobby leads to the Pratt Manhattan Gallery.
This new building houses the School for Information, the Graduate Programs in Design Management, Arts and Cultural Management, the two-year associate degree Programs in Digital Design, Graphic Design, and Illustration, and the Manhattan office of the School of Continuing and Professional Studies. The modern building has many resources like a library, computer lab, and meeting spaces.
In 1974, the New York Phoenix School of Design, formerly the New York School of Applied Design for Women and the Phoenix Art Institute, merged with the Pratt Institute to form the Pratt-New York Phoenix School of Design, which offered three-year certificate programs in art and design at least into the late 1970s. It is located in the landmark New York School of Applied Design Building at 160 Lexington Avenue, at the northwest corner of Lexington and 30th Street. At this time, Manhattan had long been the epicenter of publishing design during the latter-twentieth century. This new commercial-art-dedicated satellite was modeled to apply intensely concentrated vocational training in graphic design, illustration, package design, and textile design. Its faculty was largely composed of Manhattan's working professionals, who themselves had achieved the level of skill necessary to meet the city's global-defining standards. Magazines, books, music albums, movie posters, print and television advertisements, and packaging for all forms of retail products were the intended goals for its graduates, as well as Manhattan's omnipresent fashion industry. In addition, the below-ground space in the school was converted into a state-of-the-art printmaking facility, teaching artist-created lithography, silk screening, and engraving.
As of October 2022, Pratt is home to 122 clubs with a wide range of focuses. Some of these clubs include the Pratt Photo League, the Latinx Student Alliance, the Pratt Institute Botanical Society, Aura Dance Crew, and the Students for Socialist Revolution. Clubs at Pratt don't just hold meetings, but also host on-campus events and arrange exhibitions of club members' work.
Pratt has several student media groups including a Film Club.
The Inter-Greek Council is responsible for all Greek life organizations at Pratt Institute. In total, Pratt offers one fraternity for male students and two sororities for female students:
Pratt was awarded full Division III membership in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) on September 1, 2022.
The Cannoneers joined the Atlantic East Conference (AEC) in the 2024-25 academic year and are the only New York institution in the seven-member league.
Pratt sponsors 14 NCAA intercollegiate programs and is a member of the Coast to Coast Conference (C2C), with men's volleyball being a member of the Colonial States Athletic Conference (CSAC). Pratt began its transition to NCAA Division III with an exploratory season in 2018-19, which was rewarded with provisional membership the following year.
Designed by Ezra Ehrenkranz and Daniel Tully and constructed in 1974, the Activity Resource Center, or simply known as "The ARC", is the main hub for Pratt Athletics and Recreation. The ARC boasts several courts for recreational and competitive activities, a fitness and performance room, a multi-use studio room, a 200-meter indoor track, a boxing and functional fitness area, and over 41,000 square feet of open event space for special occurrences.
It also previously hosted the annual Colgate Games, the nation's largest amateur track series for girls from elementary school through college.
The school's mascot, the Cannoneer, derives from the 19th-century cannon that stands prominently near the main gate to the campus. Cast in bronze in Seville, Spain, the cannon bears the insignia of Philip V and was brought to Pratt from the walls of Morro Castle in Havana, Cuba, in 1899.
The men's basketball team has a storied tradition, including the fourth-longest collegiate basketball rivalry in the nation between Pratt and Polytechnic University (Brooklyn, NY), with Pratt holding the overall record 78–59. The Cannoneers also took home a national collegiate championship title in 1901 and made four NAIA ('59, '60, '61, and '62) and two ECAC ('77,'79) post-season appearances.
Former players included Ed Mazria ('62), who was drafted by the New York Knicks, and Anthony Heyward ('94), who toured with the And1 streetball team as "Half Man Half Amazing". Bernard Chang was formerly captain of the men's varsity basketball team.
The men's soccer team won the inaugural NAIA tournament in 1959, edging Elizabethtown College 4–3 in double overtime.
The women's cross-country team recently captured the 2006 HMWAC championship title and coach Dalton Evans won "Coach of the Year" honors. The men's cross-country team also has a championship title. The women's tennis team has won three HVWAC titles, including an appearance in the ECAC tournament.
In addition, there are intramural activities scheduled throughout the year, ranging from individual (tennis and track & field) to team sports (soccer, basketball, volleyball, and touch football). Two premier student intramural events include the fall classic Halloween Pratt Ratt Outdoor Obstacle Relay Race and the annual Mr. & Ms. Pratt All Thatt Fitness & Artistic Expression Pageant finale.
The Cannoneers previously competed in the Coast to Coast Athletic Conference (C2C) from 2020-21 to 2023-24 and in the American Collegiate Athletic Association (ACAA) during their NCAA Division III exploratory status from 2018–19 to 2019–20.
They also competed as a founding member of the Hudson Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (HVIAC) of the United States Collegiate Athletic Association (USCAA) from 2004–05 to 2017–18.