Faculty Research & Creative Scholarship

The essential research of the CAPLA faculty goes well beyond the fields of design, development, planning and sustainability to the core of how we can live better lives in the built environment.

Faculty research solves problems, impacts decisions and shapes policy. Read our CAPLA faculty research stories:

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CAPLA faculty at Cool Pavement Project

The Washington Post Interviews CAPLA Professor on Creating ‘Cool Corridors’ to Counter Extreme Heat

Assistant Professor of Planning and Sustainable Built Environments Ladd Keith was interviewed by The Washington Post about the City of Tucson's Cool Pavement Program as well as the inequitable impacts of extreme heat on communities, the concepts behind "cool corridors" and more.

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Camp Naco

Student and Faculty Research Leads to ‘Most Endangered Historic Places’ Designation for Buffalo Soldier Camp

Thanks to research by CAPLA's Heritage Conservation Project Director Helen Erickson and graduate students Sarah McDowell and Teresa DeKoker, the Buffalo Soldier military establishment Camp Naco in Southeastern Arizona has been listed by the U.S. National Trust for Historic Preservation's as one of America's 11 Most Endangered Historic Places for 2022.

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Eiffel Tower

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.

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Hot city, blurred

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.

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Expo 2010 at night

Inaugural Institute for the Study of International Expositions Symposium Looks to the Past to See the Future

On March 24 and 25, 2022, the Institute for the Study of International Expositions (ISIE) will host its first annual symposium: International Expositions: Looking to the Past, Seeing the Future. Registration for the online event co-sponsored by CAPLA is now open.