When Arthur C. Nelson retired from the University of Arizona in May 2022, he considered his legacy—not just at the University of Arizona, but across his distinguished, 38-year career in higher education following 12 years in the planning profession.

As heat waves blaze across the United States, CAPLA's Ladd Keith, assistant professor of planning and sustainable built environments, says city planners should take the lead in managing and mitigating extreme heat. Read this Q&A to learn more.

Senior Lecturer in Architecture Damon Leverett and Senior Data and Financial Analyst Jeff Guba have been awarded CAPLA’s highest annual honor for employees: the Darryl D. Dobras Award for Excellence, awarded by Dean Nancy Pollock-Ellwand.

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.

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.

In the Biden administration’s new infrastructure law, funding is available to states and communities that UArizona Assistant Professor of Architecture and Sustainable Built Environments Jonathan Bean says can be used to help fight climate change. Learn how and listen to the full interview.

Thanks to a partnership with the American Planning Association, CAPLA's Ladd Keith and ASU's Sara Meerow have published a comprehensive guide for planners and their communities to equitably prepare for urban heat resilience and mitigation: Planning for Urban Heat Resilience.

Plan the Plan aims to apply crowd-source technology to foster greater inclusion and social justice in the City of Tucson’s neighborhood planning process. CALPLA faculty and students applied this platform to seven neighborhoods in the Grant-Alvernon area of Tucson, Arizona.

The Camp Naco story map tells the story of the still-standing adobe Buffalo Soldier cavalry camp and its meaning both to the descendants of these soldiers and to African American members of the military and their families.

Architecture lecturer Bill Mackey investigates the development regulations, costs and trends within the metropolitan Tucson region associated with “innovative” housing types on individual lots for a Drachman Institute project funded by AARP.

Faculty members Courtney Crosson and Ladd Keith, along with community partners, develop a Climate Action and Adaptation Plan (CAAP) to help the City of Tucson establish a path to reduce carbon emissions and adapt to the impacts of climate change. 

Ryan Smith, a 2002 UArizona B.Arch alumnus who has served as professor and director of the School of Design and Construction at Washington State University since 2018, has been named the director of the School of Architecture at CAPLA. He will join us in Tucson on July 1, 2022.