Along the way, he’s explored every facet of the built environment, dabbling in building design at UB as an architecture student before shifting into the Department of Urban and Regional Planning’s BA in Environmental Design program for a bigger picture look at the plans and policies that shape physical space.

With an uncle who owned a concrete company and an interest in working with his hands, the Syracuse native says he’s always had a passion for construction and building. Thanks to encouragement from his mother, he decided to give college a try and toured several SUNY campuses, including UB, to explore options in architecture and design. “UB blew me out of the water. It was the only campus I toured where architecture had its own program and dedicated buildings. Seeing a university operating at this scale made it clear this was where I wanted to study.”

“Starting in the architecture program was impactful. Everything was planned out and interconnected, which made a real difference coming in as a freshman,” Kennedy says, adding that the program’s hands-on, maker culture and collaborative studio dynamic cultivated both essential design skills and connections that have endured throughout his five years at UB. Yet he found himself asking questions about the socioeconomic effects of design beyond the building. “While I appreciated the detailed work of building design, I wanted to look past site specifics to the larger scale.”

By the Spring of his sophomore year, he was enrolled in the BAED program, a pre-professional pathway focused on planning and designing sustainable, equitable, and healthy built environments from the neighborhood to regional scales. The 54-credit major introduces students to some of the most complex problems facing cities and regions today, from climate resilience and community health to public safety and housing affordability. Its curriculum develops skills in planning policy analysis, geographic information systems, urban design, and environmental law.

Kennedy says he enjoyed the BAED’s three required community development practicums, which place students in the surrounding region to develop real-world plans.  

Among the most influential was a 2024 studio with Mary DeBree, adjunct instructor in the Department of Urban and Regional Planning, that invited students to create a neighborhood development plan for the Bailey Avenue corridor in the City of Buffalo. The plan was presented to the city and Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority, which is implementing a $102 million U.S. Department of Transportation grant to create the Bailey Avenue Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project. The BRT system will increase the efficiency and safety of one of the city’s busiest bus lines by upgrading bus stations, building mobility hubs, and making streetscape improvements along the 13-station, 7.5-mile Bailey Avenue corridor running from University Station on UB’s South Campus to Buffalo’s South Park neighborhood.

The studio homed in on a two-mile stretch just south of UB, meeting with residents and business owners to assess community needs and make recommendations for neighborhood development. “Understanding what’s happening in residents’ daily lives is a critical part of the planning process. We wanted to give community members a voice and apply that directly into our plan, which considered how the BRT could lead to housing improvements and other socioeconomic benefits.”

In his final year of the program, Kennedy had fulfilled his studio requirements but was encouraged by a classmate to take a studio with Emmanuel Frimpong Boamah, associate professor and chair of the Department of Urban and Regional Planning, which focused on planning for housing, transportation infrastructure, and green space development around the 16-acre Central Terminal site in Buffalo’s Broadway-Fillmore district. Kennedy joined the studio’s group focused on housing, devising a plan for infill affordable housing that factored in funding sources, strategic partners, and linkages to City of Buffalo’s four-year strategic plan.

“The studio showed me the connections between real estate development and urban planning and allowed me to experiment with the full scope of the development process. Looking back, I didn’t need to take the studio, but it ended up being one of my most impactful semesters,” Kennedy says, adding that Frimpong Boamah remains one of his most important mentors.

Kennedy’s pivot into real estate development was also inspired by Matthew Roland, clinical assistant professor of urban planning and director of the School’s real estate development programs, which include an undergraduate minor and, at the graduate level, the MSRED and affordable housing certificate. “I took Matt’s introduction to real estate development course as part of my BAED studies, which exposed me to the MSRED pathway,” he says. “Since joining the MSRED, I’ve taken a class with him every semester and meet with him regularly about coursework and career development questions. Having a professor to point you in the right direction has been pivotal.”

He says jumping right into the MSRED after graduating with his BAED (and an architecture minor) in 2025 was a clear next step for him. The three-semester, 48-credit program combines learning and doing with courses covering all aspects of the field, from financing, market analysis, and structuring deals and transactions, to construction management, design for development, and building technology.

The signature, culminating experience is the capstone practicum, in which interdisciplinary teams of graduate students in architecture, urban planning, and real estate development collaborate on a complex project involving an actual physical site, real-world project constrains, and a live client team. Students integrate knowledge in urban design, construction management, development law, and market analysis to perform a comprehensive financial analysis and pro forma, propose site designs, and conceptually structure deals for the site. At the end of the semester, teams present their proposals to a formal jury of industry professionals and community stakeholders.

This semester, Kennedy and his classmates will focus on the redevelopment of the former Boulevard Mall in the Town of Amherst into a mixed-use community with housing, retail, office space, community gathering areas, and walkable designs that connect the 63-acre property to the surrounding urban fabric. The course is co-taught by Roland, who directs the MSRED and Master of Urban Planning students, and Assistant Professor Conrad Kickert, who oversees the Master of Architecture students. The class has already met with the Town of Amherst, which controls portions of the site, to begin its development of a phased plan, considering such questions as connections to the planned NFTA MetroRail extension, the potential for affordable housing units, and concepts for green infrastructure.

“The architecture students will focus on design, the urban planning students will cover land use and zoning, and the real estate development students will tackle the finances. The studio will operate like a professional firm working toward a single proposal.” says Kennedy.

He says the program has prepared him well for the intensive experience. For instance, when he entered the MSRED last fall, he had little experience with the financing side of development. “Real estate happens when you put real numbers to a project. I hadn’t had much exposure to that before the MSRED. Now I can sit in a conversation and hold my ground about the financing behind a project.”

A turning point for him was his Finance I class with Jim Gottstine, chief operating officer at Ciminelli Real Estate Corp. and one of many industry professionals who bring their on-the-ground expertise to the program. “He took very complex content and boiled it down into simple concepts you can build on and apply. He opened the floor to us and encouraged us to ask questions, with many in the class having little exposure to real estate finance.”

Meanwhile, Kennedy built confidence and connections through extracurriculars like the UB Real Estate Club, which organizes hardhat tours of developments in the surrounding region and networking events with local professionals and MSRED alumni. In Fall 2025, Kennedy was part of a School of Architecture and Planning student contingent to attend the annual New York State Association for Affordable Housing Upstate conference in Rochester, where he met experts from across New York State and learned about current efforts in legislative advocacy, tax incentives, and preservation and adaptive reuse solutions.

Over the summer, through a connection made by Roland, Kennedy landed an internship with VisoneCo Site Development, a fully integrated real estate development firm based in Clarence, placing Kennedy in the middle of mixed-use and residential developments throughout Western New York. “No two development projects are the same. Based on the municipality, each project operates with its own zoning and code requirements, timelines, and boards you have to meet with for approvals. Each carries different finances, objectives, and end results. Being able to shift gears to whatever context you’re working in, that’s where you learn the most. “

The experience went so well, he was invited to stay on this Fall on a part-time basis.

As Kennedy looks ahead to graduation in December, when he’ll take home both his MSRED and the graduate certificate in affordable housing, he says he’s finally ready to make that jump into the workforce. With plans to stay in the Buffalo area, he says: “It’s a very surreal moment. I’m both happy and sad to be nearing the end of school. It’s prepared me well for the real world, and I’m ready to start my career in real estate development.”