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Recent CAP eNewsletter Features

Design Build Certificate Student Work Featured at Denver’s 16th Street Mall (October 1, 2024)

Student work is now a prominent feature along Denver’s 16th Street Mall courtesy of the 2023-24 cohort of the ColoradoBuildingWorkshop. As part of their project, sponsored by the Downtown Denver Partnership, students designed and built four kiosks aimed at helping emerging businesses take their first steps toward brick-and-mortar success. These kiosks serve as functional prototypes and will contribute to the revitalization efforts underway on the 16th Street Mall, further energizing this iconic public space.

Master of Architecture Students Receive ACSA Steel Competition Honors (September 30)

For their final Master of Architecture studio, students in Professor Osman Attmann's class took on an exciting challenge tied to the 2024 ACSA Steel Competition. Tasked with designing a steel innovation construction center near the iconic Gateway Arch in St. Louis, MO, students presented visionary concepts addressing design issues related to the use of steel in design and construction. Sulaima Salim's “Gateway South Innovation Center” earned third prize, and Mo Zaina and Cristian Gomez's project "Overlapping Illumination" received an honorable mention, showcasing the impressive talent within the program.

Summer Travel Study Recap: CAP Students Visit Finland, Japan, and Mexico City (September 3, 2024)

Students from the College of Architecture and Planning visited Finland, Japan, and Mexico City this summer as part of the CU Denver Global Education program. These international study opportunities offer experiences beyond the classroom and immerse students in diverse cultures and perspectives, expand their worldviews, and shape their future careers

Landscape Architecture Students Win National Design and Build Competition Hosted by the Museum of Outdoor Arts (September 3, 2024)

Master of Landscape Architecture students Aidan Nowell and Stevie Pearlman won first place in the Museum of Outdoor Arts (MOA) National Design and Build Competition. This year’s competition theme was “Land Art: Celestial Architecture.” Their project, Listen to the Moon, invites visitors to the Farewell Spit in the South Island of New Zealand to reignite their connection with the Moon and its influence on life on Earth.

CAP Highlights | Fall 2024

The Community Collaborative Research Center served on the Ball Arena Community Benefits Agreement Committee (BACBAC) and on Wednesday, October 16, signed a CBW with the Kroenke team on its proposed redevelopment of the Ball Arena's parking lots. Once completed, the site will have 6,000 new residential units, including 18% affordable, new commercial, public spaces, a community arts space, an enhanced transit center, bike and pedestrian connectivity, free community events, childcare, and local art. It will also employ and support local workers and BIPOC owned businesses and provide scholarships and emergency assistance to Auraria students. Urban and Regional Planning Chair Carrie Makarewicz served as Sub-committee Chair on the Family, Art, and Culture Benefits Committee. Special thanks to MURP student Aislinn Kroski for supporting this projects research and outreach, among other items associated with this 18-month negotiation. We're also excited to share that the total amount for scholarships and emergency assistance to students who are Indigenous or native and descendants of displaced Aurarians is $1.1M. The $4M balance of the $16M Community Investment Fund (CIF) could also fund more scholarships after the first $12M in commitments are made from the CIF.

Landscape Architecture faculty Ann Komara and Louise Bordelon received a National Park Service grant to undertake a three-year research project at Amache National Historic Site in Eastern Colorado. Amache is also known as the Granada Relocation Center. In the 1940s, the site was used as an internment camp where people of Japanese-American heritage were unjustly detained based on their race.

Assistant Professors Leyuan Li and José Ibarra for participating in the Dean's Equity and Inclusion Initiative (DEII) Fellowship. The Dean’s Equity and Inclusion Initiative , a partnership of now over two dozen U.S. schools and colleges of architecture, landscape architecture, planning, preservation, and design, welcomes a second cohort of 17 early career faculty to the scholarly development program. This partnership works collectively to nurture a diverse population of emerging scholars focused on teaching and researching built and constructed environments to advance socio-ecological and spatial justice, equity, and inclusion.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded a $1.8M, five-year Dynamics of Integrated Socio-Environmental Systems (DISES) grant to CU Denver research faculty for their project proposal Building regional climate resilience and social equity through housing and land use policy to study affordable housing, green infrastructure, and transit-oriented communities, nationally and in the Denver Metropolitan area.  

In the Architizer article "Building on the Edge: Can Antarctic Architecture Guide Global Sustainable Design," the ColoradoBuildingWorkshop's Holt Watters Field Camp was spotlighted for their sustainable practice award in the publication's Annual A+Awards. "The designs are defined by resilience and functionalism," stated the article's author Martin Guttridge-Hewitt.  

CAP Enrollment News

The College of Architecture and Planning (CAP) saw a 9.6% increase from the previous year in new undergraduate transfer student enrollment in the Bachelor of Science in Architecture (BS Arch) program. 

The overall CAP undergraduate underrepresented minority population grew from 50% in 2023 to 52% in fall 2024. This follows a 24% increase from fall 2022 to 2023.  

For the Fall 2024 semester, CAP has the largest undergraduate student fall enrollment to date at 469 students. This is a 2.4% increase from the previous year. 

CAP has 44 undergraduate students who have declared a minor in Interior Design.  This is a 10% increase from the previous year. Fall 2024 starts the third year of offering this minor at CU Denver.

CAP graduate new student enrollment grew by 2.7% from the previous year.

Overall, the CAP graduate student population increased by 4.6% from previous year.

As of Fall 2024, the CAP graduate underrepresented minority student population represented 29.7% of the overall CAP graduate population. This is a change of 4.7% from last year. In Fall 2023, the underrepresented minority graduate student population was 25%.

Students identifying as female represent 50.3% of CAP graduate students.

Department of Architecture

The ColoradoBuildingWorkshop, the Design Build Certificate Program with the Department of Architecture, completed construction on a two-year design build project constructing research facilities for scientists in Antarctica. The build team in Antarctica included some of instructors and alumni. These projects were designed and fabricated by students before being deconstructed and shipped to Antarctica. A documentary is currently in the works.

The ColoradoBuildingWorkshop completed work on four kiosks that will be placed along the 16th Street Mall. This work features student-designed vendor kiosks (two are for food vendors and two are for retail vendors). The kiosks are scheduled to be in use beginning during the Fall 2024 semester.

Assistant Professors Leyuan Li and José Ibarra won a prestigious Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture and American Institute of Architecture Housing Design Education Award for the studio project they conducted around Denver’s housing shortage and the need for new housing frameworks that reflect the density and cultures of our community.

The Architecture Department’s LoDo Lab was awarded Grand Challenge funds to support their project, “Biodegradable Landscape Infrastructure Pods (BLIP)”, which explores landscape restoration after forest fires. This is an interdisciplinary effort that with the biology department, and the lab is currently designing 3D printed structures to protect saplings and support their growth. The LoDo Lab is also conducting research on the use of mycelium (mushrooms) as building material.

Architecture Professor Julee Herdt, who is also the founder and CEO of BioSIPs, Inc, a clean-tech corporation and CU’s first-ever spin-off company from the College of Architecture & Planning, is currently the Principal Investigator on a $250K US Department of Defense, Army grant entitled: “BioSIPs®: Transforming Wastepaper and Biofibers into Carbon Negative Building Materials.” The work advances bio-mass waste fiber, BioSIPs building materials and components (patented by Herdt) as carbon-disruptive disruptive materials to help the Army reach a 30% reduction in overall carbon/climate footprint to meet DoD, Climate Adaptation Plan and Army Climate Strategies. The grant establishes a CU, cross-campus collaboration between the National Renewable Energy Lab, the College of Architecture and Planning, the College of Engineering, Design, and Computing, and the US Department of Agriculture, Forest Products Laboratory. Julee is currently on sabbatical, but I’m sure we’ll be hearing more about this work later this year.

Assistant Professor Sarah Hearne is an architectural historian, educator, and curator. Broadly, her research focuses on the procedures and protocols of art and architectural production and the technologies of representation. As curator of the exhibition Print Ready Drawings, currently on view at the MAK Center for Art and Architecture in Los Angeles through February 4, 2024, Hearne explores the evolution of architectural representation as a precursor to the digital revolution. 

Assistant Professor Assia Crawford has been growing mycelium to create a fungi-based leather substitute that uses a new paste media she and her team developed in a CU Denver Wild Futures lab. Her research findings, recently  published in the Cambridge University Press journal Research Directions: Biotechnology Design show great potential because mycelium materials offer a low-cost and environmentally sustainable alternative to some petroleum-based materials. They are also a more sustainable and ethical alternative to animal-derived leather and can be grown on a wide variety of agricultural and industrial organic waste or side streams. Read more about Crawford's work and findings.

CU Denver’s Freedom by Design Student Chapter won the 2023 American Institute of Architecture Students (AIAS) Honor Award for their project Safe Outdoor Spaces. Each year, AIAS honors individuals and groups for their exemplary work in areas such as leadership, collaboration, scholarship, and service. The Safe Outdoor Spaces project began in 2020 to create housing for us on Denver’s designated Safe Outdoor Spaces sites. “This project has been the culmination of multiple generations of student cohorts, deep community engagement, and of course the school’s support,” said Sean Gatzen, Master of Architecture student and director of the CU Denver chapter of Freedom by Design. “The exciting part is we are on the cusp of mass producing these units for Colorado Village Collaborative!” 

Since we last shared about the Freedom by Design safe outdoor spaces project, the student-designed structure has been observed at sanctioned campsites around Denver, and in October, received a grant from the National Council for Architectural Registration Board (NCARB) and Benjamin-Moore to fund their continued work with the Colorado Village Collaborative and the Safe Outdoor Spaces program. 

Department of Urban and Regional Planning

The College of Architecture and Planning’s 2022 Grand Challenge winner, the Community Collaborative Research Center (CCRC), is a collaboration between the Urban and Regional Planning Department and CAP’s PhD program, co-directed by Planning Chair Carrie Makarewicz, PhD Director Jeremy Németh, Gregory Simon from Geography and Environmental Sciences, and Jean Scandlyn and Ronica Rooks from Health and Behavioral Sciences.

They collaborate with other CAP faculty, including Urban and Regional Planning and Landscape Architecture, as well as faculty from Sociology, Civil Engineering, Public Affairs, and the Colorado School of Public Health at Anschutz. In just one year since the advent of the CCRC, the center has developed relationships, began projects, and provided technical assistance to organizations including GreenLations, Cultivando, Valverde Neighborhood Association, the a community benefits agreement collaboration for the Ball Arena redevelopment , the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) Sustainable Mobility Division, groups in the Globeville-Elyria-Swansea neighborhood, the Regional Transportation District (RTD), and more to explore issues of air pollution, sustainable mobility energy and equity, and the community’s voice in redevelopment and public infrastructure.

They have submitted grant applications to NSF-DISES (with SPA’s BDC), NIH R01, the EPA EJ TCTAC, Gates Family Foundation, Boettcher Foundation, Health Effects Institute, CDPHE, NASA, NIJ, and the US Joint Office of Energy & Transportation (with NREL). They also established a relationship with Colorado School of Mines.

The CCRC and Department of Urban and Regional Planning hosted the “Federal Families” in January at the Lawrence Street Center for a conference on the new federal grants available from multiple agencies, including Treasury, Energy, Commerce, HUD, and USDA. About 100 government and nonprofit leaders from throughout out the state attended to learn from federal agency heads and staff located in Denver and Washington, D.C.

The CCRC provided a “Community Engaged Research 101” for faculty and graduate students on campus, as well as several public health professors.

Associate Professor of Urban and Regional Planning Manish Shirgaokar is part of the team that was awarded a three-year, $750,000 National Science Foundation grant supporting the e-VIBES research exploring bi-directional charging with electric vehicles as a long-term solution to protecting the power grid and energy infrastructures. 

Associate Professor Manish Shirgaokar partnered with CVEN to establish a US DOT funded National Center for Transit Oriented Communities along with University of Florida and University.

Last fall, students from Manish’s Transit, Pedestrian, and Bicycle Planning class (URPL 6560) Denver Airport as a client. On April 22, Master of Urban and Regional Planning (MURP) student Robin Adams and Mykayla Marek will present the final deliverable to DEN. This effort was funded through Manish’s faculty development funds.

The report, titled, “Exploring Policy Alternatives for Reducing Single-Occupancy Vehicle Use Among Denver International Airport Employees” represents the culmination of the semester-long engagement with the Denver Airport and asks, “How do we encourage people to use modes of transportation aside from Single Occupancy Vehicles to commute to work at the Denver Airport (DEN). Students recommended both long and short-term solutions, including non-cash incentives like paid time off, extra breaks, flexible park passes, secure bike parking, behavioral changes, carpooling, HOV and carpool lanes, among other recommendations.

Urban and Regional Planning Chair Carrie Makarewicz and her community partners from Valverde Neighborhood Association and the Director of DU’s CCESL were the Main Event presenters at the annual TRUCEN conference in Denver attended by 70 leaders from major R1 universities across the attendance, including the Vice Provosts of Engagement from UC Davis, Michigan State University, and more.

Carrie Makarewicz presented the results of her Regional Affordable Housing Crisis research to the Chamber of Commerce’s Denver Impact Forum (Fall 2023 and Spring 2024), a group of 70 emerging leaders throughout the Front Range.

Carrie Makarewicz was an invited speaker at the NREL national conference in May 2023, Sustainable Mobility Systems Workshop, where she presented her research on “Transit in Underserved Communities”. This has led to three more invitations, including a joint grant application with NREL, a panelist for a national webinar on engaged research, and an invited member to an NSF-funded workshop on Social Sciences in the Energy transition.

MURP students, led by instructor Andrew Rutz, delivered a pre-comprehensive planning plan to the City of Steamboat Springs, the result of their intensive Planning Project Studio.

Master of Urban and Regional Planning students Rachel Barham and Jessica Allen won WTS (Women’s Transportation Seminar) scholarships.

The Department of Urban and Regional Planning sponsored 2 semesters of DRCOG’s Civic Academy, which resulted in two new MURP students and new connections with local governments and nonprofits throughout the region.

Last fall, Assistant Teaching Professor Ken Schroeppel’s Planning Methods class (URPL 5010) worked with the Denver Streets Partnership (DSP) for the 10th consecutive year on a semester-long class project focusing on active transportation and mobility data collection in Denver. The annual collaboration not only provides DSP and Denver’s Department of Transportation and Infrastructure(DOTI) with valuable information, but also provides MURP students with opportunities to learn different planning methodologies and practice using various data collection and analysis techniques.

This year, the class project focused on automobile parking utilization along East Colfax. As part of the East Colfax Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project starting construction later in 2024, the city plans to remove over 300 on-street parking spaces along the corridor. The students collected both on-street and off-street parking utilization data and conducted intercept interviews with local residents to provide DSP and DOTI with insight into current parking utilization trends and issues, and offer recommendations for improving mobility and parking along the corridor.

The Parks and Public Spaces course taught by Professor Jeremy Németh created a podcast with eight episodes, covering issues from a women's use of public space to a lack of public restrooms in cities to issues of accessibility for folks with mobility challenges. Listen here.

Professor Nan Ellin was invited to share her professional and personal journey as part of the Urban Land Institute’s Leadership Connections series. This Lecture + Conversation took place at Elements in RiNo on October 25, 2023.

Department of Landscape Architecture

Master of Landscape Architecture (MLA) students Aidan Nowell and Stevie Pearlman won first place in the 2024 Museum of Outdoor Arts (MOA) National Design and Build Competition. This year’s competition theme was “Land Art: Celestial Architecture.” Their project, Listen to the Moon, invites visitors to the Farewell Spit in the South Island of New Zealand, to reignite their connection with the Moon and its tidal influence on life on Earth.

The Landscape Architecture Immersive Studio taught by Professor Lois Brink and Lecturer Jesse Kuroiwa brought students to New Orleans last fall to gain hands-on experience gathering community feedback from the Lower Nineth Ward community to incorporate in their proposed park designs. Read a review of this work. 

The immersive studio were finalists for the Children’s Nature Network “Nature Everywhere” and KABOOM’s 25 in 5 campaigns, which addresses playspace inequity in 25 places in 5 years. Lois’s research resolves around “Learning Landscapes,” which are outdoor areas that support physical activity, learning, and improved social interaction. Here is also a video produced by Emily Beeson, a current Master of Landscape Architecture student, sharing her team’s project.  

Louise Bordelon, Assistant Professor of Landscape Architecture, was selected for a 2024 Emerging Scholar Award for the Ninth International Conference on Tourism and Leisure Studies. The conference at the Liverpool John Moores University will take place in Liverpool, England this summer.

Landscape Architecture Professor Lois Brink began her research and the implementation of Learning Landscapes in 1998 when she experienced first-hand the inadequacies of her child’s elementary schoolyard. Today, Learning Landscapes has become a $50 million design and construction initiative that has transformed all 96 Denver public elementary schools.

Urban Design

The Master of Urban Design (MUD) program at the University of Colorado Denver is now a STEM-designated degree program. This designation, F-1 STEM OPT (Optional Practical Training) effective June 2024, makes it possible for international students possessing an F-1 visa to extend their time working in the U.S. after graduation from one year to three years.

The Master of Urban Design (MUD) program hosted its 2nd Annual Urban Design Spotlight event on May 7 with the focus topic “Place-Oriented Transit: Denver’s Evolving Neighborhoods.” The event featured a presentation by nationally known urban planner/designer Fred Merrill, FAICP, from Sasaki who led the planning and design effort for the successful Euclid Avenue Healthline Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) line in Cleveland.

The event featured a panel discussion including Fred, Denver DOTI Executive Director Amy Ford, and Rhys Duggan, President and CEO of Revesco Properties, the developer of the visionary River Mile project in Downtown Denver. Students in the MUD program presented work from their Fall 2023 studio that focused on BRT-oriented placemaking and design. The event is sponsored by the college’s Urban Design Advisory Council.

Historic Preservation

In Summer 2023, the CU Denver Historic Preservation program taught the Colorado Historic Places maymester course, which brought students around the state of Colorado to study important state landmarks firsthand. The program culminated with student presentations on the creative reuse of three sites—Mesa Verde’s Far View Visitor Center, the Soldner Center in Aspen, and the Fox-West Theatre in Trinidad to a group of 20 preservation professionals, program funders, and program instructors.

 In the Fall of 2022, the CU Denver Historic Preservation Program was officially named in honor of Dana Crawford, an award-winning preservationist, and pioneer for urban renewal in the United States. She paved the way for redevelopment in the City of Denver, most notably in the mid-1960s when she revitalized Larimer Square, which now serves as a prototype for redeveloping main streets and architectural landmarks nationwide.

PhD in Geography, Planning, and Design

PhD student Jade Orr, along with PhD Director Jeremy Németh, PhD Students Laura Granja and Dani Slabaugh, and PhD Alum (2016) Alessandro Rigolon, published an article entitled NIMBY Attitudes, Homelessness, and Santioned Encampments: A Longitudinal Study in Denver in the Journal of Planning Education and Research. The article discusses homelessness in Denver and uses innovative survey methods to determine what drives NIMBY responses to sanctioned encampments for people experiencing homelessness in the city.

PhD Candidate Hillary Quarles was awarded a National Science Foundation Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grant to complete her dissertation project, “What’s for dinner? Platformization of Denver’s Urban Food Systems.” Quarles project, funded by the NSF’s Directorate for Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences now through February 2026, asks, “How is platform technology is changing our relationship to food?” Read more about Hillary’s research.

Interior Design

On March 1, 2024, students in the Interior Design Workshop presented their initial space plans to three employees from the State of Colorado Department of Motor Vehicles. They received firsthand feedback from state employees and are now able to continue their designs with constructive and applicable feedback.  

University Technical Assistance Program

The University Technical Assistance Program (UTAP) at CU Denver is one of only a few remaining university-run design centers in the United States that connects rural communities to provide technical skills and funding assistance to bring community projects to life. UTAP hires students to serve on their design teams to build proposals for important projects around the state of Colorado. 

UTAP recently presented the town of San Luis with proposals for a new town square, and as of April 2024, this project is fully funded and construction will begin this summer.