Projects & Other Work

CAPLA faculty, students and alumni create projects and other work that are wide-ranging and far-reaching—always with an eye towards a more sustainable built environment.

View summaries and image galleries of this dynamic work:

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Casa Caldera

Jesús Edmundo Robles Jr and DUST Architects Win 2021 Jeff Harnar Award for Contemporary Architecture in the Southwest

DUST Architects, led by Assistant Professor of Practice in Architecture Jesús Edmundo Robles Jr and founding principal Cade Hayes, has been awarded the top design prize by the University of New Mexico School of Architecture + Planning and the Thornburg Foundation for Southern Arizona's Casa Caldera.

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Hot sun over city

CAPLA-led Research Team Awarded $150K NOAA Grant to Help American Communities Better Plan for Heat Mitigation

To help bridge government disparate efforts, Ladd Keith is leading an effort called Plan Integration for Resilience Scorecard for Heat, or PIRSH, that has been awarded a $150,000 grant from the NOAA Climate Program Office, under its Extreme Heat Risk Initiative.

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Tucson skyline

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.

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Puerto Rico damaged houses on coastline

MS Urban Planning Student Envisions Resilient Energy Prioritization Tool for Post-Hurricane Puerto Rico

First-year MS Urban Planning student Chrissy Scarpitti has been awarded first place in the 2021 Planning Excellence Competition sponsored by the Friends of Planning for her project Resilient Energy: Community-Scale Solar Microgrid Siting on the Island of Puerto Rico.

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Downtown Tucson and Sentinel Peak at sunset

CAPLA Students and Faculty Partner with Local First Arizona to Help Organizations Develop Sustainability Plans

Assistant Professor of Architecture Altaf Engineer and Lecturer in Architecture Sandra Bernal-Cordova helped build the SCALE UP curriculum and train its facilitators, and are now preparing to engage CAPLA students and recent graduates in the award-winning, community-oriented program.

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Former 7-Eleven on Walnut Hill Lane in Dallas, Texas, following October 2019 tornado.

Dallas, Texas Turns to CAPLA Planning and Sustainable Built Environments Professor and ULI for Guidance Following Natural Disasters

Ladd Keith, assistant professor of planning and sustainable built environments, chaired the Urban Land Institute Advisory Services Panel that evaluated and made recommendations on rebuilding a Dallas neighborhood following a devastating tornado. Keith also provided insight into the recent Texas power grid failure.

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Multimodal path on Howard Avenue

Architecture Undergraduates Team with City of Tucson to Design Proposition-Funded ‘Bicycle Boulevards’

In a course taught by Assistant Professor of Architecture Courtney Crosson, Bachelor of Architecture students worked with the city and neighborhood associations to create six innovative designs that focus on “complete streets” and green stormwater infrastructure for roadways in midtown Tucson.