Projects & Other Work

Ladd Keith, associate professor of Planning and director, Heat Resilience Initiative, was featured in a "Sandstorm" research roundtable exploring how research in the Sonoran Desert can help communities prepare for a more resilient future.

Two teams from CAPLA earned national recognition, taking first place and runner-up in the Design & Construction category of the 2026 Hack-a-House Competition. The national competition challenges students to develop innovative solutions to solve the affordable housing crisis.

CAPLA Student Reef Townsend earned national recognition for Arid Futures Pavilion, a design that explores how contemporary architecture can respond to the Sonoran Desert through thoughtful site integration, material choices and sustainability.

CAPLA Student Ella Parsons earned national recognition for Aguán, a project that looks to the Sonoran Desert’s longstanding building traditions to inform a sustainable relationship between architecture and the natural world.

“ISAPD in Our Hands: Student Chapters Shaping the Future” explored how student chapters of the Indigenous Society of Architecture, Planning, and Design (ISAPD) can foster learning, cultural engagement, advocacy and professional growth within universities and their communities.

Last spring, CAPLA students partnered with Community Gardens of Tucson to explore new possibilities for the Mary Meredith Community Garden. Led by Architecture Lecturer Chris Tucker, students in the BA.DAP program’s Spatial Design Studio developed design proposals for the garden’s school-side grounds, considering how the space could support children’s outdoor experiences and the surrounding ecosystem.

CAPLA’s Drachman Community Engaged Scholars Program is a new initiative that connects students with faculty mentors to work on projects that serve local communities. We asked this year’s students about their experience in the program and how it has impacted their lives.

For many, the journey to becoming a Wildcat begins before they ever set foot in a classroom. It might start with a campus tour, a conversation with a student ambassador or a glimpse of Old Main. The Wildcat Welcome Center opened on Wednesday, Sept. 9, and has officially become a cornerstone of that experience. 

For decades, the Lake Tahoe Basin has worked to balance preserving the region’s renowned natural beauty and recreational opportunities with accommodating the millions of visitors and growing communities drawn to the area. A team of researchers from the University of Arizona, University of Utah and Vancouver Island University is taking on that challenge through a two-year, $350,000 project to modernize Lake Tahoe’s sustainable recreation goals.

For Javi Barcelo, B.Arch ’27, architecture is deeply connected to place, culture and community. His City Immersion Scholarship gave him the opportunity to explore those connections firsthand in Mexico City, an experience that ultimately helped shape the direction of his capstone project.

CAPLA faculty, students and researchers joined SCORCH’s Greenspaces and Health Photovoice Study, a participatory project that invited community members to document how parks, trees and other green spaces shape their health and daily lives. The collaboration highlights CAPLA’s interdisciplinary approach to research and design, connecting community voices, public health and the built environment.

Nataliya Apanovich, a CAPLA lecturer, won the Gerald J. Swanson Prize for Teaching Excellence. She’s known for innovative, student-centered, community-focused sustainability education.