At CAPLA, thought leadership on architecture, design, landscape architecture, heritage conservation, real estate development, urban planning, sustainability and much more drives our research, design and practice—resulting in a rich, transformative educational and community experience centered on the built environment.
Read our latest thought leadership, and learn how the CAPLA community is building a changing world:

Crossing City Limits (and International Time Zones): CAPLA's Eduardo Guerrero on His Popular Urban Podcast
Though the pandemic was a challenge for many, for CAPLA Senior Lecturer in Architecture and Urban Design Eduardo Guerrero it presented a new opportunity—connecting ideas from urbanism experts around the world through conversations, resulting in his urban podcast, Crossing City Limits. Learn more in this fascinating interview.

Architecture Senior Lecturer Shares His Innovative, 'Prideful' Favorite Place for Arizona Daily Star
Damon Leverett, an architecture senior lecturer at CAPLA, takes readers along for a tour of the Health Sciences Innovation Building as part of the Arizona Daily Star's “Favorite Places” series, concluding that the HSIB exemplifies the types of public and educational buildings that should be "prideful places for our community and society."

Architecture Professor of Practice Takes Arizona Daily Star Readers on a Southern Arizona Road Trip
Jesús Edmundo Robles Jr, an architecture assistant professor of practice at CAPLA, takes readers along for a ride in his trusty pickup truck as part of the Arizona Daily Star's “Favorite Places” series, narrating the spare beauty of the 80-mile drive between the Santa Rita and Whetstone Mountains, though Sonoita, and into the Patagonia Mountains.

Ketchup, the Telephone and Cherry Coke: CAPLA Scholar Explains How World's Fairs Bring Inventions to the Public
World's fairs introduced us to Heinz ketchup, the Ferris wheel, the telephone and countless other now-ubiquitous innovations. Lisa Schrenk, a CAPLA associate professor who studies world's fairs, has helped establish a new institute to study how the events impact global society. Learn more in this interview.

Extreme heat is the deadliest climate hazard in the U.S. How are urban planners tackling it?
In a paper published in December 2021 in the Journal of the American Planning Association, ASU's Sara Meerow and UArizona's Ladd Keith analyzed the results of their extreme heat survey of planners from diverse cities across the United States to establish baseline information for a growing area of planning practice and scholarship that future research can build on.

A Thriving Tucson Area Depends on a Secure Water Future
Assistant Professor of Architecture Courtney Crosson, Watershed Management Group's Catlow Shipek and Tucson Artisan Builders' Dante Archangeli pen editorial on local water sustainability for Arizona Daily Star.

The Architectural Laboratory of Frank Lloyd Wright
Associate Professor of Architectural History Lisa Schrenk shares the preface to her new book, The Oak Park Studio of Frank Lloyd Wright, which explores the suburban Chicago studio that served as one of the most important sites in the development of modern architecture in the United States.

Planning Professor Arlie Adkins on Equitable Regionalism for Tucson’s Regional Transportation Authority
In an op-ed in the June 11, 2021 edition of the Arizona Daily Star, Arlie Adkins calls out the ongoing discussion about regional coordination in the Regional Transportation Authority (RTA), an independent taxing district within Pima County that manages multimodal transportation projects.

The Berkeley Prize and the Social Art of Architecture
Associate Professor of Architecture Clare Robinson has been a Berkeley Prize Committee member since 2013 and judged the esteemed competition this year. In this editorial, she speaks to the Prize’s importance in addressing social issues in architecture, as well as her own teaching and research.

Sustainable Design Expert: The Building You're Sitting in is the Elephant in the Room
Assistant Professor of Architecture, Sustainable Built Environments and Marketing Jonathan Bean says buildings are the No. 1 pathway to achieving the Biden administration's new carbon emissions goals. He's training the next generation of architects, and with the College of Engineering creating the Climate-Positive Building Lab, to make climate-positive buildings the new normal.

Embracing Risks and Contracts in Design and Construction
Barbara Bryson writes that two of the most challenging barriers to creating a 'culture of predictable outcomes' for the design and construction industries are misunderstanding risk and wrestling with poor contracts. Here she outlines how to move past these obstacles.

Architectural History Professor Lisa D. Schrenk Publishes Critically Acclaimed Book on the Oak Park Studio of Frank Lloyd Wright
The Oak Park Studio of Frank Lloyd Wright by Lisa D. Schrenk offers the first comprehensive look at the early independent office and career of one of the world’s most influential architects.