
Ladd Keith appointed to Governor Hobbs' Workplace Heat Safety Task Force
Ladd Keith, director of the University of Arizona’s Heat Resilience Initiative and a leading national expert on heat planning, has been appointed to Governor Katie Hobbs’ new Workplace Heat Safety Task Force. In this role, he will help develop science-based, equitable guidelines to protect Arizona’s workers from the growing risks of extreme heat.

Drachman Institute holds Net Zero Urban Water Workshop in Los Angeles
CAPLA’s Drachman Institute brought together experts from across the Southwest for a two-day workshop focused on advancing Net Zero Urban Water—an approach where cities meet water needs through sustainable, local sources without harming long-term supplies or ecosystems.

Designing Place, Designing Policy: Jesus Nava ’23 B.Arch
Jesus Nava was born in Sinaloa, Mexico, and grew up in San Diego, California. He was drawn to UArizona and the Bachelor of Architecture because of the beauty of the Sonoran Desert and its many outdoor recreation opportunities—as well as UArizona’s “great basketball program.”

UArizona Undergraduate Architecture Students Focus on Universal Design for Prize Funded by AGM and Ascension Wheelchair Lifts
For the third year in a row, UArizona architecture students participated in a universal design competition that put their creative and analytical skills to the test on a significantly sloped site. Thanks to AGM Container Controls and Ascension Wheelchair Lifts, the winning students received a total of $7,400 in prizes.

Wales on My Mind: Landscape, History, Dwelling
“It’s the call of a place which combines powerful myths, tumbled landscapes, hardscrabble lives, and proud resistance to normative culture,” writes CAPLA Associate Professor of Architecture Laura Hollengreen following her summer visit to Wales, for a guest editorial published recently in Terrain.org.

Community Found and Community Created: Julia Smith ’26 B.Arch
Julia Smith isn’t your typical design student, and for Puente—the Hispanic student organization of CAPLA that she recently led—that’s a good thing. Though Smith is a second-year Bachelor of Architecture student, she’s six years older than most of her classmates. She’s also married to a member of the U.S. military.

Ghana Digitized Its Address System: Its Failure Offers Lessons to Other African Countries Creating Smart Cities
Research by Seth Asare Okyere, CAPLA visiting assistant professor of urban planning, and Louis Kusi Frimpong, Matthew Abunyewah and Stephen Kofi Diko, show that digitalization initiatives in Ghana need to take local factors and engagement into account if they’re going to succeed.

Ventana House Designed by CAPLA’s Michael Kothke (with HK Associates) Selected as a Top Reader’s Choice on Architizer
Ventana House, by CAPLA Professor of Practice in Architecture Michael Kothke and Kathy Hancox of HK Associates, was the top reader’s choice for architecture projects in October 2022 in Architizer.

Lecture Recap and Video: Manuel Cervantes Céspedes on 'The Tectonics of Place'
Manuel Cervantes Céspedes, Manuel Cervantes Estudio lectures on "The Tectonics of Place" on November 18, 2022, at Museum of Contemporary Art Tucson.

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.

Interdisciplinary Insight: Kelly Eitzen Smith, Assessment Coordinator and Research Specialist
Kelly Eitzen Smith supports CAPLA and UArizona in a variety of important roles, from assessment coordinator to research specialist. Learn more about Smith, who worked in the Drachman Institute from 2010 to 2017 and joined the School of Landscape Architecture and Planning in 2017.