Community Initiatives

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.

Award-Winning Heritage Conservation Efforts by CAPLA Faculty and Students Lead to $4.6M in State Restoration Funding for Buffalo Soldier Camp
CAPLA Heritage Conservation Program Project Director Helen Erickson and graduate students Sarah McDowell and Teresa DeKoker have been instrumental in efforts to preserve Camp Naco, a borderlands Buffalo Soldier camp located near Bisbee, Arizona, resulting in awards for their story map and new funding to preserve the site.

Crossing City Limits (and International Time Zones): CAPLA's Eduardo Guerrero on His Popular Urban Podcast
Though the pandemic was a challenge for many, for CAPLA Senior Lecturer in Architecture and Urban Design Eduardo Guerrero it presented a new opportunity—connecting ideas from urbanism experts around the world through conversations, resulting in his urban podcast, Crossing City Limits. Learn more in this fascinating interview.

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.

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.

The Washington Post Interviews CAPLA Professor on Creating ‘Cool Corridors’ to Counter Extreme Heat
Assistant Professor of Planning and Sustainable Built Environments Ladd Keith was interviewed by The Washington Post about the City of Tucson's Cool Pavement Program as well as the inequitable impacts of extreme heat on communities, the concepts behind "cool corridors" and more.

Student and Faculty Research Leads to ‘Most Endangered Historic Places’ Designation for Buffalo Soldier Camp
Thanks to research by CAPLA's Heritage Conservation Project Director Helen Erickson and graduate students Sarah McDowell and Teresa DeKoker, the Buffalo Soldier military establishment Camp Naco in Southeastern Arizona has been listed by the U.S. National Trust for Historic Preservation's as one of America's 11 Most Endangered Historic Places for 2022.

Tucson NBC Affiliate Highlights Affordable Rowhouses Designed and Built by CAPLA Architecture Students
Rowhouses created as part of CAPLA design-build studios led by architecture professors Mary Hardin and Eric D. Weber, and designed and built by architecture students, were featured on KVOA News 4, an NBC affiliate in Tucson, on April 29, 2022.

Drachman Institute Relaunches with Showcase Event and Appointment of Director Courtney Crosson
Assistant Professor of Architecture Courtney Crosson has been appointed director of the University of Arizona’s Drachman Institute by CAPLA Dean Nancy Pollock-Ellwand. Crosson's introduction was combined with a project showcase on April 13 in a "relaunch" of this important, community-focused institute.

Inaugural Institute for the Study of International Expositions Symposium Looks to the Past to See the Future
On March 24 and 25, 2022, the Institute for the Study of International Expositions (ISIE) will host its first annual symposium: International Expositions: Looking to the Past, Seeing the Future. Registration for the online event co-sponsored by CAPLA is now open.

Urban Food Systems: GLHN-Sponsored Architecture Studio Crafts Paradigm for a Sustainable Future
Assistant Architecture Professor Courtney Crosson is working with CAPLA students to design solutions for a more sustainable Tucson by 2050, thanks to sponsorship and advising by GLHN Architects & Engineers. In the Fall of 2021, students partnered with five community organizations to design sustainable urban food systems.

‘Performative Environments’ Spark Insight and Activism at International Conference Hosted by UArizona School of Architecture
Though the ARCC 2021 international conference hosted by CAPLA was held during the pandemic—and therefore online instead of on campus as originally planned—the gathering of many of the world’s most provocative built environment researchers was a resounding success.
