Kevin Kudo-King explored strategies for immersive design at the intersections of site, craft, and collaboration.

London, an undisputed global city, is well known for having some of the world’s most expensive housing but also boasts a substantial amount of low-cost social and affordable housing. This talk sketches the historic roots of affordable housing in London, explains how it is currently built and operated, and explores current political and practical challenges—some of which are shared by Arizona cities despite their very different contexts.

Professor P. Bryan Heidorn is the Associate Dean for Research for the College of Information Science. This talk is a bird’s-eye view of the AI and machine learning landscape and its implications for academia.

Led by faculty member Brian Bidolli, the CAPLA Study Abroad program “Cities of the Future: Japan” combined classroom learning with site visits in Tokyo, Osaka, and Kyoto. Students explored smart cities and sustainable urban development through lectures, professional meetings, cultural excursions, and visits to cutting-edge institutions. The program offered an immersive experience that connected theory with practice while deepening students’ global perspective on planning and design.

The College of Architecture, Planning and Landscape Architecture has awarded the 2025 Grassroots Seed Grants to three faculty-led projects that advance innovative teaching, research, and creative activity.

CAPLA Master of Landscape Architecture students Ashley Danforth and Xavier Fernandez are leading a $45,000 grant-funded project to advance sustainable stormwater solutions on campus. Through research, collaboration, and community outreach, their work will create a campus-wide database of green stormwater infrastructure to help address challenges like drought and extreme heat.

CAPLA Associate Professor Philip Stoker is advancing research on heat resilience with a new study highlighting how residents of mobile and manufactured housing in Arizona’s urban areas face heightened vulnerability to extreme heat due to limited access to vegetation and land ownership.

CAPLA researchers are leading efforts to ensure community sustainability and equitable growth in Santa Cruz County as part of a university-led, cross-disciplinary study funded by South32.

Soleil Lemons, Class of 2026, is studying Sustainable Built Environments after transferring into CAPLA her sophomore year. Drawn to planning and design, she’s passionate about creating spaces that are functional, thoughtful, and community-oriented. This summer, Soleil is interning at Yellowstone Landscape, gaining hands-on experience in project coordination and design operations, an experience that has inspired her to pursue a Master’s in Urban Planning and a career as a project manager.

A team led by CAPLA’s Sandra Bernal Cordova, Altaf Engineer, and Ladd Keith aim to develop community-centered solutions to the growing threat of extreme heat.

Ollie Freshour is graduating with a BS in Sustainable Built Environments with an emphasis in Sustainable Buildings. As an online student, Ollie made the most of their experience traveling from Indiana to Tucson to connect with the CAPLA community and explore the ENR2 Building. From designing a sustainable park in Elkhart to planning a future as a certified arborist, Ollie is ready to make a lasting impact on urban environments.

Housing affordability continues to be a critical issue in the United States. Meagan Ehlenz's research explores the potential for scaling shared equity homeownership (SEH) as a strategy to address Arizona’s growing housing affordability crisis.