Projects & Other Work

Plan the Plan aims to apply crowd-source technology to foster greater inclusion and social justice in the City of Tucson’s neighborhood planning process. CALPLA faculty and students applied this platform to seven neighborhoods in the Grant-Alvernon area of Tucson, Arizona.

Faculty members Courtney Crosson and Ladd Keith, along with community partners, develop a Climate Action and Adaptation Plan (CAAP) to help the City of Tucson establish a path to reduce carbon emissions and adapt to the impacts of climate change. 

Architecture lecturer Bill Mackey investigates the development regulations, costs and trends within the metropolitan Tucson region associated with “innovative” housing types on individual lots for a Drachman Institute project funded by AARP.

Students in Teresa Rosano's ARC 410/510 studio worked with students from New Mexico and Chihuahua to design concepts and visualization of the El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro Oñate Crossing historic site in El Paso and associated sites in the city of Jaurez, Mexico.

When Arizona Daily Star sought to put together a “visual trip down memory lane” of Tucson’s commercial real estate development over the last five decades, it turned to students in the Master of Real Estate Development program to lead the research.

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.

Assistant Architecture Professor Courtney Crosson is working with CAPLA students to design solutions for a more sustainable Tucson by 2050, thanks to sponsorship and advising by GLHN Architects & Engineers. In the Fall of 2021, students partnered with five community organizations to design sustainable urban food systems.

This fall, third-year Bachelor of Architecture students in studios led by Teresa Rosano, Dulce Arambula, Eduardo Guerrero, Siri Trumble and Beth Weinstein participated in a universal design awards program generated from a partnership between AGM/Ascension Wheelchair Lifts and CAPLA. Meet the winners.

Nickolas Witt's Mount Lemmon Outdoor Library, Merit Award winner of the inaugural AGM/Ascension Universal Design Prize in 2021, is comprised of two simple floors united around an existing site tree which filters natural light in all innovative spaces.

First-year MS Urban Planning student Glenn Ingram has won the Best Student Map award among all collegiate entrants in the 2021 Arizona Geographic Information Council Maps & Apps Contest. His map, "New York City 100-Year Floodplain," contrasts NYC's population density with the FEMA 100-year floodplain.

Though the ARCC 2021 international conference hosted by CAPLA was held during the pandemic—and therefore online instead of on campus as originally planned—the gathering of many of the world’s most provocative built environment researchers was a resounding success.

Nikolas Altamura's Harlem Music Academy & Studios, winner of the AIA/School of Architecture Design Excellence highest honor for 2021, builds from the neighborhood's rich musical history to serve low-income, at-risk youth by providing access to expression through a music school proposed for a site in East Harlem.