Alumna Kaya Orona named 2026 Phoenix Business Journal 40 Under 40 Honoree
CAPLA alumna Kaya Orona, B.Arch ’23, has been named one of the Phoenix Business Journal’s 2026 40 Under 40 honorees, recognizing her accomplishments in the construction industry. Now a preconstruction manager at The PENTA Building Group, Orona has built on her architectural education to lead projects at the intersection of design, construction and development.
CAPLA lecturer Nataliya Apanovich honored with Gerald J. Swanson Prize for Teaching Excellence
Nataliya Apanovich, a CAPLA lecturer, won the Gerald J. Swanson Prize for Teaching Excellence. She’s known for innovative, student-centered, community-focused sustainability education.
Community Found and Community Created: Julia Smith ’26 B.Arch
Julia Smith isn’t your typical design student, and for Puente—the Hispanic student organization of CAPLA that she recently led—that’s a good thing. Though Smith is a second-year Bachelor of Architecture student, she’s six years older than most of her classmates. She’s also married to a member of the U.S. military.
Ghana Digitized Its Address System: Its Failure Offers Lessons to Other African Countries Creating Smart Cities
Research by Seth Asare Okyere, CAPLA visiting assistant professor of urban planning, and Louis Kusi Frimpong, Matthew Abunyewah and Stephen Kofi Diko, show that digitalization initiatives in Ghana need to take local factors and engagement into account if they’re going to succeed.
Ventana House Designed by CAPLA’s Michael Kothke (with HK Associates) Selected as a Top Reader’s Choice on Architizer
Ventana House, by CAPLA Professor of Practice in Architecture Michael Kothke and Kathy Hancox of HK Associates, was the top reader’s choice for architecture projects in October 2022 in Architizer.
Lecture Recap and Video: Manuel Cervantes Céspedes on 'The Tectonics of Place'
Manuel Cervantes Céspedes, Manuel Cervantes Estudio lectures on "The Tectonics of Place" on November 18, 2022, at Museum of Contemporary Art Tucson.
Undergraduate Landscape Architecture Students Create Exterior Concepts for New South Tucson Coffee Shop
Under the guidance of landscape architecture lecturers Alexandra Stoicof and Nolan Bade, 19 students in a fall 2022 BLA design studio created concepts for a new coffee shop coming soon to South Tucson: Luna y Sol Cafe.
Interdisciplinary Insight: Kelly Eitzen Smith, Assessment Coordinator and Research Specialist
Kelly Eitzen Smith supports CAPLA and UArizona in a variety of important roles, from assessment coordinator to research specialist. Learn more about Smith, who worked in the Drachman Institute from 2010 to 2017 and joined the School of Landscape Architecture and Planning in 2017.
UArizona Architecture Faculty Honored for Community Design, Design Pedagogy and Distinguished Architecture by AIA Arizona
School of Architecture faculty members have been honored once again by the Arizona chapter of the American Institute of Architecture: Laura Carr with the Community Design Award, Eric Weber and Trevor Watson with the Design Pedagogy Award and Jesús Edmundo Robles Jr (DUST Architects) and Michael Kothke (HK Associates) with Distinguished Architecture Citations.
A Design Career Well Administered: Robert Miller, Professor of Architecture and Former Director, School of Architecture
Robert Miller AIA joined CAPLA in the spring of 2010 as director of the School of Architecture. In his 12 years at CAPLA, Miller has brought not only stability to the school after a long series of interim directors, but also a new era of student success, faculty creative scholarship and research, and industry partnership. He retires on January 1, 2023.
Lecture Recap and Video: Sharon Collinge on 'Working with Communities to Build Environmental and Societal Resilience'
Sharon Collinge shares her experiences working at the interface of land use and climate change in the context of building resilient ecosystems and communities in this CAPLA Lecture Series lecture.