This course is a seminar whose goal is to provide you with the opportunity to read, engage with, and critically question important ideas, debates, and initiatives surrounding the right to the city and urban democracy. To that end, we will read, discuss, and write about those ideas, debates, and initiatives. The course is designed to give you the intellectual literacy that is essential to taking informed and wise positions about the right to the city and urban democracy.

This class focused entirely on Lefebvre’s “right to the city.” A social movement that focuses on placing the controlling powers of a city and of society into the hands of the working class, outlining concepts like “true democracy,” “the proletariat,” and various other revolutionary concepts. We exercised our ability to scrutinize, critique, and ultimately produce our own solutions to contemporary social inequality.

Provides students interested in the planning profession an opportunity to understand the different pathways and career choices within the profession. Introduces students to guest professionals in various planning careers and highlights key issues, skills used, and tips to entering the field. Focuses on professional practice rather than analytical methods or theory.

This seminar involved professional urban planners coming in and speaking about their experience in the industry and how undergraduate students like ourselves can enter the professional field. We were introduced to a variety of professional careers, from international architects to municipal planners to affordable housing developers. The course highlighted the interdisciplinary aspects of urban planning and where our major can take us. It was here that I became interested in affordable housing and historic preservation, which is what I based my senior project on later in CEP.

Definitions and examples of urban design; heritage of urban design; theories of city building; the role of urban design in the fields of architecture, landscape architecture, and urban planning.

This course focused on the aspects of a community space that lend well to supporting human health. This refers to aspects of a space that are designed for human scale, that increase pedestrian safety, that serve interconnected roles in a large community region, etc. During this class, we researched active urban redevelopments and analyzed the strengths and weaknesses of their design and impact on a neighborhood. This expanded my understanding of human-centered urban design and practiced my ability to perform data-driven field research and analysis.

Introduction to site planning; how it is regulated; why it is important to know; and how to carry out its key tasks, including residential subdivision and mixed-use development layout; basic topographical and hydrological analysis and manipulation; roadways, parking and hierarchies of circulation, and site design detail.

This course introduced me to incredibly valuable skills and techniques for site planning, research, and analysis. I redesigned topographic maps, laid out low-income housing developments, and performed extensive field research on multiple sites. This class provided valuable practical knowledge and opportunities to apply it in a real-world setting.

Principles and theories of urban structure and institutions. Concepts and logic of planning as a community process and a professional activity. Evolution of planning ideas in response to changing social, economic, and environmental conditions within the American political framework. Complementary nature of public and private responsibilities. Major procedures used by planners.

This class communicated many critical urban planning strategies, contemporary issues, and procedures that are critical to any student interested in the field. This class discussed the importance of comprehensive planning, how such plans are made, and how to read and interpret their policy. The class also provided research on critical American urban planning history, which required reflective essays and later, testing. This class taught me much of what I know today, and has heavily influenced how I look toward the urban environment.

Introduces how cities work and explores alternative ways of planning and designing urban futures. Explores the economic, cultural, political, and social aspects of cities and how we might change them for the better. Also examines numerous case studies from the Global North and South.

URBDP 200 explores the history of urbanization, the forces that drove its expansion, and how it has affected the global population. The class delved into a variety of regions of the world, with a particular focus on the global south, and has examined the influences and consequences of urbanization. This broadened my understanding of city development, driving influences, and methods to improve urban settings. Furthermore, it refined my research skills in these topics and connected me to influential thinkers in the field, such as Jane Jacobs, William Whyte, and Jan Gehl.

Interdisciplinary approaches to exploring the reciprocal relationship between people and the landscapes of everyday life. Through readings, discussion, in-class activities and mini-projects, students study place attachment, relationships to nature, environmental attitudes and perception, personal space, territoriality, urban public space, diversity, participation, and the politics of space. Open to nonmajors.

L-ARCH 361 focused on features within an urban environment that benefit human experience and mental health, as well as the effects of displacement and unethical redevelopment that can happen to a person. This was done by researching concepts like roo-shock, gentrification, and various other urban design concepts, and relating them to spaces within our own daily lives. This class taught me methods to enhance human design and protect communities from displacement and gentrification.

Development of profession and art of landscape architecture in the United States, Europe, South America, and Japan in relation to prevailing social, economic, political, and cultural factors. Relationships with other professions, especially architecture and urban planning, and other arts, such as painting and sculpture. Open to non-majors.

This class taught me how landscape architecture enhances the lived experience of places and how, when implemented properly, it can balance ecological and human needs. We reviewed various urban and rural landscapes that support ecological revitalization, as well as acting as an amenity for local residents. This culminated in a final project on the impact of highways on American cities, particularly I-5, and how it greatly damaged Seattle’s CID, Pioneer Square, and other regions of the city.

Introduces urban ecological design issues for good site-planning processes, principles, and methods. Linked with L ARCH 301. Addresses planning for people, natural systems in place-making, design for movement with carried land uses. Includes readings, discussions, presentations, campus walks, case studies, graphic and written assignments.

This landscape architecture class focused heavily on human and ecological systems and strategies to support both in a given design. We researched current examples of ecologically designed urban spaces, identifying the different systems they supported and how it was achieved. This class broadened my understanding of ecological design in human environments.

Introduction to history and environmental influences in the field while developing design and graphic skills. Site analyses and drawings to convey design concepts. Relationship between visual perception and drawing, the role of values in design, verbal communication, and behavioral analysis of the design process. Required for admission to the Bachelor of Landscape Architecture program.

This design studio focused on generating enriching community spaces. We performed dozens of site visits, explored contemporary examples of successful public space, and encouraged imaginative and unique methods of site activation. We conducted multiple site redesigns in the UW and U-District regions and presented each to review boards. The class taught me advanced drawing and modeling techniques, as well as strategies to present my creative process to a client.

Ecological/environmental instability and resulting social/cultural disruptions make the world in which spatial designers work increasingly uncertain. Lectures and guest speakers explore diverse ways in which design may create more sustainable futures. Course activities, including in-class design exercises, internet research, group discussions, take home projects, etc. encourage synthetic/integrative thinking.

Designing for the Future was a phenomenal class that included contemporary design techniques, environmental considerations, and various other important aspects of landscape architecture. Culminating in a long-form redesign of a selected community space at UW, this class was instrumental in introducing the foundational principles of community-based landscape design.

Historical survey of global architecture and built environments with reference to environmental, technological, and socio-cultural contexts, from prehistory to 1400. Intended for non-majors.

This class taught advanced information on historic architecture, city planning, and other design principles. This is reflected in modern architectural design and displays the critical features of a city that supports its inhabitants' needs. The class showed me how to think critically of historic architecture and relate it to modern architecture.

Introduction to mapping and geographic information systems. Topics include the representation of spatial objects, their attributes, and relationships in desktop and online GIS; common spatial operations and geoprocessing in GIS; principles of cartographic visualization, communication, and critique; narrative mapping and spatial humanities; ethics, society and GIS.

This class can satisfy both my Digital Skills Credit AND 5 methods credits. Being able to read, sketch, and digitally render site maps is an incredibly valuable set of skills for any architect or urban planner to have. This class will teach me skills that I can carry into my minor-specific courses. The class showed me how to display data in a concise, legible manner on digital regional maps and taught me skills I used throughout my time in CEP.

Explores concepts of sustainability and resilience as used today in the study and management of food production systems. Emphasizes a systems-thinking approach to assessing current and future challenges and resilience in the face of stresses and shocks. Covers complex dynamics between biological and geophysical aspects of food production systems in the context of nourishing a growing population, evaluation of co-benefits and tradeoffs.

This class was entirely focused on ecology and the food system. We examined various aspects of the food system, ways in which it is impacted by environmental features, how human health plays a role in the food system, and how modern technologies have changed it. It was incredibly enlightening and introduced me to many topics pertinent to environmental studies, sustainability, and global food health. This understanding was exercised in argumentative essays and class debates.