School of Architecture News & Headlines

CAPLA's School of Architecture has partnered with the School of Art and School of Information to offer a new, transdisciplinary undergraduate degree: the Bachelor of Arts in Design Arts and Practices. CAPLA coordinates two of the degree's four emphasis areas: Object Design and Spatial Design.

Professor Jonathan Bean and the Solar Decathlon Design Challenge Multifamily Building team of fourth-year B.Arch students Andrew Norris, Jonah Cummins-Mikkalson, Alex Kolodziej and Nhan Vo not only took first place in their division, but also was selected as the 2022 Design Challenge Grand Winner for Commercial Divisions—a first for CAPLA and UArizona.

Rowhouses created as part of CAPLA design-build studios led by architecture professors Mary Hardin and Eric D. Weber, and designed and built by architecture students, were featured on KVOA News 4, an NBC affiliate in Tucson, on April 29, 2022.

In the Biden administration’s new infrastructure law, funding is available to states and communities that UArizona Assistant Professor of Architecture and Sustainable Built Environments Jonathan Bean says can be used to help fight climate change. Learn how and listen to the full interview.

Assistant Professor of Architecture Courtney Crosson has been appointed director of the University of Arizona’s Drachman Institute by CAPLA Dean Nancy Pollock-Ellwand. Crosson's introduction was combined with a project showcase on April 13 in a "relaunch" of this important, community-focused institute.

A Class of 1977 Bachelor of Architecture alumnus has established the Judith Chafee Scholarship to honor the legacy of the architect and School of Architecture professor, who in her classroom and studio created "new expressions in the built environment that caused in the viewer reflection and gave a new sense of existential ‘delight’."

Sigrid Adriaenssens lectures on "Extraordinary Mechanics & Structural Innovation in Architecture."

In this presentation, Štefan Tkáč  discusses the work of work of Cambodian modernist architect Vann Molyvann. 

Ryan Smith, a 2002 UArizona B.Arch alumnus who has served as professor and director of the School of Design and Construction at Washington State University since 2018, has been named the director of the School of Architecture at CAPLA. He will join us in Tucson on July 1, 2022.

The 12th Annual CAPLA Job Interview Fair, made possible by the Chasse Building Team and 22 other sponsors, was held February 10-11, 2022. For the first time, the interactive two-day event took place both online and in person and included 42 employers, 145 students and 536 interviews.

In this talk, Lisa Schrenk, associate professor of architectural history at the University of Arizona, presents the early studio of Frank Lloyd Wright from research she conducted for her critically acclaimed book The Oak Park Studio of Frank Lloyd Wright.

“Winners of the 2nd Annual Universal Design Awards reveal how the next generation of designers are rethinking accessible architecture,” says Architizer in a March 2022 article that highlights work produced by third-year B.Arch students in a studio sponsored by Ascension Wheelchair Lifts.