Scenario Planning for Restorative Justice in Lakeland

Final project for URSP708: Community Planning Studio (Fall 2022). University of Maryland, College Park.This report begins with a discussion of the concept of restorative justice and the three themes that guided and organized our work — community infrastructure, housing and land use, and climate change adaptation and mitigation. Following this introduction of the three guiding themes, the report contains a summary of our analysis of existing conditions, including a review of different planning sectors, a brief history of Lakeland, and a summary of plans and policies that have influenced the course of Lakeland. The next section of the report is a summary of the findings of our various community engagement approaches, including recommendations for future best practices for the city and the Restorative Justice Commission as they continue this work. Finally, we present the three planning scenarios — Status Quo, Reform, and Revolutionary — that envision various alternative futures for Lakeland.City of College Par

Living with Water: Re-Imagining Urban Hydrologies in Washington, DC

Across the world, human development has drastically changed the nature of our landscapes and the hydrology of the places we inhabit. Hundreds of waterways were buried, canalized, or piped as part of sewer systems. While natural water systems were being contained or erased from our landscapes, a vast network of aqueducts, canals, reservoirs, and sewage tunnels was constructed. This massive system runs under our feet, where it is out of sight and out of mind, and the architecture and urban design of our cities allows us to imagine that the water we drink and the waste that flush down our pipes is completely independent of our waterways. These choices have had costs. Ecosystems were devastated, manipulation of the landscape has led to increased flooding, and communities have been deprived of the benefits of access to local waterways – reduced urban heat island effects, a place to cool off on hot days, and mental health benefits. Climate change is stressing all aspects of our hydrological systems: creating risks of supply disruptions and shortages and resulting in more frequent floods. Using as a test case Hickey Run, a partially piped and highly polluted waterway in Washington, DC, this thesis will propose a way to make visible and reconnect separated parts of water infrastructure - natural waterways, water supply, and wastewater systems - re-conceptualizing them as parts of a single, dynamic ecosystem. It will explore how tools of architecture, urban design, and landscape infrastructure can be used to develop alternative futures for the built environment, in which waterways can be woven into dense urban fabric, instead of being buried, in order to support ecological restoration and more resilient urban communities

Envisioning the Future at Prince George's Plaza, MD

Final project for ARCH 407: Graduate Architecture and Urban Design Studio IV (Spring 2021). University of Maryland, College Park.The semester was divided in 3 projects. For project 3, the studio worked with Prince George's Planning Department on creating urban design schemes for the Prince George's Plaza Transit District including analyzing relvevant case studies, site visit to Prince George's Plaza, site documentation/analysis, and design proposals rooted from historical research while responding to complex contemporary issues (social inequality, safety, climate change, urban ecology, public health, local/global economies) in order to produce urban design master plans, street sections, perspectives vignettes for near-term and long-term 2035 year plans.Prince George's County Planning Department (PGPD

Pawndering Dog Parks for Prince George's County Parks

Final report for URSP600: Qualitative Research Design & Methods for Planners (Spring 2022). University of Maryland, College Park.Over the Spring 2022 semester, students investigated this topic while learning the skills associated with qualitative planning research. The researchers used methods that included archive and document analysis, environmental/behavioral and participant observation, soundscape and video documentation, critical cartography, and interviews. This study aimed to better understand how dog parks are used and the report makes recommendations for how to best design and locate dog parks to ensure their success. Questions of community, access, and equity were central to this inquiry. Seven case study sites were selected to examine a variety of park types, including variations in design, scale, location (urban/suburban), ecology (slope/stormwater issues, etc.), and material (grass/synthetic).Prince George's Department of Parks and Recreatio

Bioclimatic Design: Research at Assateague State Park

Final project for ARCH600/611: Urban Studies and Planning Studio (Fall 2021). University of Maryland, College Park.Through their work with the National Center for Smart Growth at the University of Maryland (UMD), the Maryland Department of Natural Resources commissioned this report from the university’s Partnership for Action Learning in Sustainability (PALS). This research study, conducted in a graduate level design studio, began with a shared vision that people and nature can co-exist in a mutually beneficial relationship. Angela Baldwin, Park Manager at Assateague State Park, and her colleagues from NOAA, the Maryland Park Service, the Chesapeake Coastal Service, and other DNR offices, challenged the University of Maryland team to test this vision in the design of a new day use facility for Assateague State Park, a much-beloved, special place that is increasingly vulnerable to the effects of climate change. The climate crisis requires architects to deepen their understanding of resilient design strategies. These range from place-based climate-responsive knowledge rarely taught in schools of architecture, to more technically advanced tools such as computer energy modeling, efficient mechanical equipment and on-site renewable energy.Maryland Department of Natural Resources (MDNR