We have an open, full-time, career-track Assistant Professor position. We are looking for someone to join us who has an interest in design justice, climate, and open-ended pedagogy. We have wonderful students, faculty, and staff, with teaching greenhouse, farm, and forest nearby.

More details are found here.  Please reach out with questions: jill.desimini@uconn.edu

Senior Liz Helmin won a CTASLA Honor Award for her project for LAND 3430: Design III.

Project Description: The goal in redesigning downtown Storrs was to provide a seasonally inclusive space that emphasized the importance of placemaking opportunities for visitors, Mansfield residents, EO Smith students, and UConn students. The design included wind and solar/heat mitigation tactics such as the implementation of water in Betsy Patterson Square and shade options including vegetation throughout the downtown. The design pitch emphasized these interventions to take place over a certain period of time and in different stages, allowing there to be time for proper construction documentation and funding to take place. This experience allowed students to meet with Storrs community members and officials, provide design options including site furnishings, stormwater management, and wind mitigation methods, as well as strengthen presentation/communication skills when in dialogue with this community.

Comments from judges: "I really appreciated the process illustrated by the submission. The work clearly illustrates how analysis informed the process of design and allowed the designer to create a unique design that related to the specific site. The graphics were simplistic and powerful allowing for me to visualize the final design and understand the concepts included. I appreciated the thoughts put into not only the user experience but some of the technical aspects of design such as stormwater and materials...

We are an energetic community of researchers working at the intersection of design, climate, justice, governance, and socio-ecological systems. We are committed to imagining a better planet for human and non-human constituents and we are seeking graduate students to help us with these endeavors across our four labs. LA_Grad_Student_Openings

Dr. Sohyun Park receives CELA 2022 Faculty Service-Learning Award for her scholarship, teaching, and professional engagement devoted to the promotion of ecosystem services in cities and landscapes. Dr. Park’s research interest includes the pattern, function, and services of urban green spaces and their relevance to environmental sustainability and community resilience. With her research topics on urbanism, landscape, and ecology, she seeks to understand a unifying theme of “landscape” as a holistic socio-ecological system.

Congratulations Dr. Park!

A team of UConn students, faculty, and staff advisors has won second place in the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) 2021 Campus RainWorks Challenge. Their impressive project, called  Ecologic - L.I. Sound, presents a redesign of UConn's Avery Point Campus to address stormwater runoff and promote terrestrial and marine ecological health.

Congratulations to the team!

Please read more here