Sustainable Built Environments

CAPLA Assistant Research Scientist Adriana Zuniga and Fellow Researchers Win Best Paper Award from Water International
Adriana Zuniga has been awarded the 2018 Water International Best Paper Award. The editors of Water International choose the winners in three-year cycles, recently naming the 2018, 2019 and 2020 awardees, who will be honored in Korea in December 2021.

Architecture and Planning Faculty Quoted in Salt Lake Tribune Article on 'Water Shaming'
Courtney Crosson, assistant professor of architecture, and Ladd Keith, assistant professor of planning and sustainable built environments, were quoted in the Salt Lake Tribune's July 12, 2021 story, "Neighbor wasting water? Is 'water shaming' the answer?"

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.

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.

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."

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.

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.

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.

CAPLA Students and Faculty Partner with Local First Arizona to Help Organizations Develop Sustainability Plans
Assistant Professor of Architecture Altaf Engineer and Lecturer in Architecture Sandra Bernal-Cordova helped build the SCALE UP curriculum and train its facilitators, and are now preparing to engage CAPLA students and recent graduates in the award-winning, community-oriented program.

Sustainable Built Environments Faculty Provide Insight on New Study of Urban Heat Disparities in Tucson and Other Western Cities
New research on neighborhood-by-neighborhood heat differences across Tucson—and 19 other cities in the West—has garnered additional insight by Assistant Professor of Planning and Sustainable Built Environments Ladd Keith and Assistant Research Scientist Adriana Zuniga.
