CAPLA Lecturer and Alumni Win 2025 AIA Arizona Ideas Competition
Senior Lecturer in Architecture Oscar Lopez and three CAPLA alumni won first place in the 2025 AIA Arizona Ideas Competition for their proposal “BLOCK UP.” The project reimagines the urban tower as a vertical civic framework for Phoenix, integrating public space, housing and climate-responsive design into a shared, adaptable structure. Developed through close collaboration between Lopez and alumni Sal Arellano, Trevor Watson and Cameron Noble, the proposal explores how density can expand community and access beyond the street level, highlighting CAPLA’s impact on forward-thinking, civic-minded design in Arizona.
Applied Active Transportation Class Aims to Improve Bike and Pedestrian Safety on Campus
A CAPLA studio led by Senior Lecturer Joey Iuliano is turning student interest into action by focusing on improving walking and cycling conditions on campus. In collaboration with Parking & Transportation Services and the Office of Sustainability, students analyze crash data and develop design proposals for key campus corridors to improve safety and connectivity. Inspired in part by last fall’s fatal traffic accident near campus, the course aims to produce practical ideas that could inform future campus planning.
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.
CAPLA’s Adriana Zuniga Discusses Importance of Urban Vegetation for Equity and Habitat Preservation
“Vegetation is linked to better air, lower temperatures and less stress,” says Adriana Zuniga in dual May 14, 2021 stories on Tucson’s plans to plant trees to combat climate change appearing in Environmental Health News and The Daily Climate.
Inspired Energies: Celebrating Nader Chalfoun, Professor Emeritus of Architecture and Environmental Sciences
In 2020, Nader Chalfoun retired after 36 years as a beloved, innovative University of Arizona professor. This profile celebrates his work at the College of Architecture, Planning and Landscape Architecture.
The Berkeley Prize and the Social Art of Architecture
Associate Professor of Architecture Clare Robinson has been a Berkeley Prize Committee member since 2013 and judged the esteemed competition this year. In this editorial, she speaks to the Prize’s importance in addressing social issues in architecture, as well as her own teaching and research.
Sustainable Design Expert: The Building You're Sitting in is the Elephant in the Room
Assistant Professor of Architecture, Sustainable Built Environments and Marketing Jonathan Bean says buildings are the No. 1 pathway to achieving the Biden administration's new carbon emissions goals. He's training the next generation of architects, and with the College of Engineering creating the Climate-Positive Building Lab, to make climate-positive buildings the new normal.
UArizona Architecture Students Extend Winning Streak in Solar Decathlon Design Challenge
For the fourth consecutive year, CAPLA undergraduate architecture student teams were finalists in the international Solar Decathlon Design Challenge. This year the teams placed second in the Urban Single-Family Housing and Mixed-Use Multifamily Building divisions.
UArizona Awarded IDEAS Grant from U.S. Department of State's Capacity Building Program for U.S. Study Abroad
The grant, which includes Lecturer of Architecture Sandra Bernal-Cordova, will expand the Navigating Education in Borderlands Program (NEBP), a program through which UArizona students can build cultural competencies and learn about the history, people and culture from the intersecting borderlands area.
Bloomberg CityLab and Archinect Highlight CAPLA’s Innovative Air-Conditioning Condensate Reuse
The college's innovative condensate reuse initiative at the CAPLA building and Underwood Family Sonoran Landscape Laboratory is one of several projects featured in an article published in Bloomberg CityLab and Archinect. Assistant Professor Jonathan Bean is referenced.