College of Design

Researcher urges adapting to ‘amphibious’ way of life on coasts

A landscape architecture professor from the City College of New York will visit UO January 11 to discuss the devastating effects of climate change on shoreline communities and why humans need to “adapt to a much more flexible and amphibious way of living at the coast.”

Seavitt Nordenson will discuss the design strategies she developed with her CCNY team to restore the urban ecology of Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge in New York and to make coastal regions more resistant to environmental threats. She will also address how landscape architects play a key role in this effort.

Sustainable Cities partners with public, private agencies on 2-year project

The UO Sustainable Cities Initiative (SCI) has launched a two-year research initiative called "Framing Livability.” The project is partnering with the City of Portland, Portland Metro, Transportation for America, and the Natural Resources Defense Council on two grants from the National Institute for Transportation and Communities.  The project seeks to answer how sustainability-focused community development efforts can best be communicated to gain public support.

Sheine quoted in Guardian on growing use of innovative wood product

Department of Architecture Head Judith Sheine is quoted in a The Guardian story about an innovative wood product poised to change how high-rises are built. A twelve-story building in Portland is being constructed with the product, cross-laminated timber, or CLT, which is “lighter, so it goes up easier and faster than concrete does … it’s also quieter in construction,” Sheine told The Guardian.

Advanced ecological design drives studio

National engine of change. Making the most with the least. A ground-breaking nexus of innovation.

Those are just a few of the descriptions attached to the new Oregon Center for a Regenerative Future, a theoretical Portland site intended to house collaborative incubator spaces for the development of sustainable products, tech shops for public use, urban farms, and maker fairs, among a diverse list of other aspirations.