Gather Light: ARC 201
Students in CAPLA’s ARC 201 studio, guided by faculty including Christopher Domin and others, completed the "Gather Light" project focused on understanding and designing in harmony with the Sonoran Desert environment. Through observation, drawing, and modeling, students explored how light, nature, and architecture interact. Key activities involved studying desert plants, translating their forms into design systems, and developing canopies that filter light and enhance outdoor spaces. The project emphasized hands-on learning, teamwork, and iterative design using 2D and 3D representations to create thoughtful architectural interventions that respect and respond to the desert landscape.
Lecturer Christopher Tucker wins AIA Design Pedagogy Award for innovative Abiotic Studio
Christopher Tucker, a lecturer in architecture at CAPLA, received the American Institute of Architects’ Design Pedagogy Award for his Abiotic Studio, a fourth-year course that challenges students to engage with ecological realities and reimagine post-industrial landscapes through more-than-human perspectives.
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.
Beth Weinstein and Laura Jensen Win 2021 Darryl D. Dobras Awards for Excellence
Associate Professor of Architecture Beth Weinstein and School of Landscape Architecture and Planning Program Coordinator Laura Jensen have been awarded CAPLA’s highest annual honor for employees: the Darryl D. Dobras Award for Excellence, awarded by Dean Nancy Pollock-Ellwand.
Heritage Conservation Project Director Helen Erickson Discusses Buffalo Soldiers on the Arizona-Mexico Border for ASLA Blog
Helen Erickson published the essay “Buffalo Soldiers on the Southwest Border” in The Field, the blog of the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) Professional Practice Network. The essay explores the historic Black landscape of Camp Naco.
Keeping Homes and Cities Cool in Extreme Heat
Planning and Sustainable Built Environments Assistant Professor Ladd Keith, an expert on urban planning and climate change, offers tips to keep your home cool during a heat wave, and discusses how and why cities across the country are doing more to become heat resilient.
UArizona Launches Reinvigorated, Accessible Heritage Conservation Certificate Program
CAPLA's 15-unit, five-course Graduate Certificate in Heritage Conservation relaunched this summer, and students both on campus and off may complete the certificate, which prepares students from a variety of backgrounds for practice in fields such as heritage conservation, cultural resource management and historic preservation.
Tucson CBS Affiliate Turns to Sustainable Built Environments Professor for Insight on the Dangers of Hiking in Southern Arizona Heat
In a series covering "Monsoon 2021" broadcast June 14, Tucson CBS affiliate TV station KOLD News 13 interviewed Ladd Keith, assistant professor of planning and sustainable built environments, on how "hiking in heat can have deadly repercussions in Southern Arizona."
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.
Assistant Professor Jonathan Bean Named 2021 CUES Distinguished Fellow for ‘Climate Heroes’ Curriculum
Architecture and Sustainable Built Environments Assistant Professor Jonathan Bean has been named one of four 2021 CUES Distinguished Fellows by UArizona’s Center for University Education Scholarship. His project, Climate Heroes: Transforming the Built Environment, addresses the fundamental challenge of our time: climate change.
Planning and Sustainable Built Environments Professor Ladd Keith Discusses Heat’s Inequitable Impact on Low-Income and Communities of Color in The Washington Post
“Heat is the number-one weather-related killer,” says Ladd Keith in The Washington Post article, “Heat and Smog Hit Low-Income Communities and People of Color Hardest, Scientists Say,” published on May 25, 2021.