CAPLA Faculty Awarded $250K to Start Heat Consortium
A team led by CAPLA’s Sandra Bernal Cordova, Altaf Engineer, and Ladd Keith has received a $250,000 grant over two years from the Office of Research and Partnerships through the inaugural Big Idea Challenge. Their project, the Heat and Health Resilience Innovation Consortium (HHRIC), aims to develop community-centered solutions to the growing threat of extreme heat. The team—comprising experts from across the University of Arizona—will focus on wearable biosensors, mobile cooling and care structures, health system algorithms, and AI-powered education tools. Their innovations, including the solar-powered CHILL-IT Health Oasis and telemedicine-equipped Kiosk Care, aim to improve public health and infrastructure resilience in Arizona and beyond.
Leading Women in Architecture Society: Pele Kruse ‘26 B.Arch
Pele Kruse, Class of 2026, is earning her Bachelor of Architecture as the first Samoan student in the program. Passionate about sustainable, community-focused design, she’s dedicated to uplifting underrepresented communities through architecture. As president of the Women in Architecture Society and a standout in studio projects, Pele is preparing to return home and help shape the future of architecture in American Samoa.
CAPLA Student-Faculty Team Uses GIS to Create Digital Atlas and Award-Winning Poster of Historical Buddhist Sites in Hangzhou, China
This spring, MS Urban Planning student Glenn Ingram, recent MLA graduate Mattea Wallace and Associate Professor Philip Stoker, working with UArizona East Asian Studies Professor Jiang Wu, created the “Regional Religious Systems in Hangzhou China” story map using GIS. This fall, Ingram's poster from the project won an award.
UArizona Landscape Architecture Students Partner with AIA Southern Arizona for Park(ing) Day 2022
For Park(ing) Day 2022, members of the American Society of Landscape Architecture UArizona student chapter partnered with the American Institute of Architects Southern Arizona to temporarily repurpose parking spaces on downtown Tucson’s Congress Street as a “pop-up” parklet.
Learning as Rich Experience: Sandra Bernal Cordova, Lecturer and UArizona Hispanic Serving Institution Fellow
UArizona Hispanic Serving Institution Fellow Sandra Bernal Cordova, who joined CAPLA in 2018 as a lecturer, uses her built environment research, community service and cross-campus collaborations to inform the classes she teaches and co-teaches, which include Water Efficiency in Building, Equitable Cities and the Sustainable Built Environments Capstone.
Lecture Recap and Video: Seth Okyere on 'Walking the Unwalkable City: An Exploration of Walking Conditions, Experiences and Interventions in the Global South'
Seth Okyere lectures on "Walking the Unwalkable City," a discussion which brings forward conditions and experiences of a walking city that is not walkable and, most importantly, resident improvisations to minimize walking inequities.
The Temporal Passage: Jacob Downard '22 B.Arch
The architecture of The Temporal Passage responds to the site's volcanic conditions by being conceptually rooted in scale, time and the moving materials of our living earth in an attempt to convey the magnitude of these natural forces. It further explores the spatial and conceptual juxtapositions between the human-operated straight line and the ensured chaos of nature.
Design Poetics: Michael Scott Silver, Assistant Professor of Architecture
Assistant Professor of Architecture Michael Scott Silver joined CAPLA this fall. His research and practice focus on the relationship between existing cultures of labor and the effects new automation technologies will have on the built environment.
Sustainable Scandinavian Pursuits: Zsalina Allen ’23 MS Urban Planning
This summer, graduate student Zsalina Allen participated in a sustainable transportation study abroad program in Denmark and Sweden. She documented her travels in a fascinating and entertaining blog. We followed up to learn more about her experience in Scandinavia, as well her UArizona MS Urban Planning experience.
CAPLA Graduate Students Bring Sights and Sounds of the Sonoran Desert to Austin for SXSW
“For thousands of years, the beauty of the Sonoran Desert has invoked wonder among its human inhabitants,” says Hunter Lohse when introducing the Sonoran Soundscape project that he and fellow MLA students Alizabeth Potucek and Christian Galindo created with Assistant Music Professor Yuanyuan (Kay) Le for the UArizona Wonder House at South by Southwest in March.
Timely, Essential ‘Planning for Urban Heat Resilience’ Report Wins Planning Awards
CAPLA Assistant Professor of Planning and Sustainable Built Environments Ladd Keith and ASU Associate Professor Sara Meerow have been honored with the Western Planner 2022 Sheldon D. Gerber Merit Award for Excellence in Environmental Planning and 2022 APA Arizona Open Category (Applied Research) Award for their Planning for Urban Heat Resilience.