Alumni Projects

Senior Lecturer in Architecture Oscar Lopez and three CAPLA alumni won first place in the 2025 AIA Arizona Ideas Competition for their proposal “BLOCK UP.” The project reimagines the urban tower as a vertical civic framework for Phoenix, integrating public space, housing and climate-responsive design into a shared, adaptable structure. Developed through close collaboration between Lopez and alumni Sal Arellano, Trevor Watson and Cameron Noble, the proposal explores how density can expand community and access beyond the street level, highlighting CAPLA’s impact on forward-thinking, civic-minded design in Arizona.

A report led by Associate Professor Philip Stoker and alumna Alyssa Fink delivers the most comprehensive climate assessment of Tucson Unified School District’s 2024 operations to date. The study establishes a greenhouse gas baseline and outlines strategies to reduce emissions, energy use and costs, supporting the district’s sustainability goals. Sponsored by Jobs With Justice, the project also highlights the impact of student-led, community-based research.

CAPLA students, alumni and faculty are redesigning the Cooper Center’s aging cabins to create more sustainable, student-friendly spaces.

The University of Arizona’s Andrew Weil Center for Integrative Medicine has been recognized internationally for its innovative design, earning an honorable mention in the 2025 International Architecture Awards. The distinction highlights the university’s commitment to creating spaces that advance health, wellness, and architectural excellence.

The new U.S. embassy and consulate built in 1983 in Lisbon, Portugal was a high-security office building for the ambassador, political, military and economic departments, as well as other, more secretive functions. The site was a pastoral 12-acre location of a historic 17th-century former monastery and estate on the outskirts of the city.

The four-story Ablitt Tower, completed in 2006 by Jeff Shelton Architect, has a 19’ x 19’ footprint with a ground floor garage, a fifth-floor roof deck and a bedroom, kitchen and lounge on the floors between.

Congress Center is a 45,000-square-meter cultural anchor within the Expo 2017 development and master plan of Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan. The guiding silhouette profiles are abstractions of the golden eagle in flight.

GreenWorks’s work in Oak Harbor, Washington began with the renovation of the Oak Harbor Clean Water Facility and included the Windjammer Park Integration Plan, a long-term plan that integrates existing and new program elements into this 28.5-acre waterfront park.

In this custom residence by Bernbaum/Magadini Architects, spacious glass walls open wide to welcome essential elements, artfully flowing through a seamless space that captures the tranquility of life through an innovative melding of brilliant blue skies, natural light, flowing water and lush greenery.

AMP&RSAND Modern Workspace Campus is a re-imaging of the iconic San Diego Union-Tribune newspaper offices and printing press into a 330,000 square-foot creative office complex.

The designs by Fuse Architects + Builders for Verve Coffee Roasters in Santa Cruz, California are raw and bold, showcasing how important details are. This matches how Verve feels about their coffee.

Ann Kovara '81 B.Arch details the move of the Sam Maloof historic residence, woodworking studio, guesthouse and 20 major trees to a new site three miles away, as well as the new property’s reconstruction to the National Register of Historic Places standards.