The rapid urbanization process in China has promoted the active state of urban design practice. In the process of solving complex problems, the practical scope of urban design has gradually expanded. This paper took a design institution in Nanjing as a case study and sorted the trends in design project types and themes over the past 20 years, which presented a partial and diverse state of evolution in urban design practice. Concept, technology and management were extracted as the three main dimensions of cognitive urban design practice development. The relative positions and relationships of different types of urban design work were interpreted through mapping analysis of these three dimensions. This study provided a foundation for the practical orientation of urban design in China and a platform for communication among managers, urban design practitioners, scholars of related disciplines, and the public.