News | April 6, 2018
‘Building Blocks’ exhibit charts 15-year grassroots evolution
Building Blocks: Storefront Studio on Mainstreet charts the grassroots evolution of a community outreach studio offered by the University of Washington College Built Environments. Since 2003, Director Jim Nicholls and senior lecturer in the College of Built Environments has been leading groups of architecture, landscape, and planning students to partner with local small towns to study their main…
News | June 28, 2022
‘Something has to change:’ These architecture students are challenging Seattle’s housing norms
The City of Seattle expects to have 1 million residents by the year 2044. That’s about one-third more people than Seattle has right now. We’re having trouble housing the people here now. So where are we going to put all the new people? Some University of Washington architecture students are looking at new ways to…
News | August 26, 2019
‘The lack of affordable housing is actually costing us’: Cantwell promotes affordable housing bill in Spokane
Had U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell stood at 1 S. Madelia St. just a few years ago, she would have been in a used car lot. But on Tuesday, she was in the the lobby of an affordable housing complex now home to more than 100 residents. Cantwell was joined by Spokane leaders on Tuesday as…
News | March 10, 2023
“Hacking Inequity” Event Discusses Barriers for Women and BIPOC Developers
Last month, housing finance professionals, community members, and University of Washington faculty, staff, and students met in Founders Hall for “Hacking Inequity in Access to Real Estate Capital: Best Practices and New Options.” This event, hosted by Foster School of Business, Runstad Department of Real Estate, Urban@UW, and ULI Northwest, sought to present strategies of…
News | April 12, 2016
10 Parks that Changed America Premieres Tonight on PBS (KCTS9)
Tune into KCTS9 at 8:00pm to see the premier of 10 Parks that Changed America. Two of Seattle’s great parks made the list for this interesting look at the influence parks and public spaces have had on America. A packed house at Architecture Hall saw a preview a few weeks ago and it’s great! Our…
News | April 19, 2022
2022 PhD Symposium explores the digital dimensions of urban dynamics
Pathways toward the future: Assessing the digital dimensions of urban dynamics Who is building the cities of the future? For whom are they being built? Can big data, smart cities, and other emerging technologies contribute to a sustainable and equitable world? As we move deeper into the information age, technology has gained renewed relevance as…
News | September 14, 2022
2022 Urban@UW Spark Grants Awardees Announced
Urban@UW is excited to announce awardees for the third round of funding through our Spark Grants program. The three projects selected address critical urban challenges, with a focus on transdisciplinary scholarship and engagement with vulnerable populations. Analysis of a Food Bank Home Delivery Program Food security, defined as access at all times to nutritious food,…
News | May 2, 2023
2023 PhD Symposium: Place, Space, and Belonging
The College of Built Environments has announced that the 2023 PhD Symposium will be held on May 19. Titled “Place, Space, and Belonging,” the symposium will feature research from scholars around the world on topics such as phenomenology, environment, transportation, housing, and trauma-informed design. Attendees are invited to attend in person in Gould Court, or…
News | February 7, 2023
582,462 and Counting
Last year, the Biden administration laid out a goal to reduce homelessness by 25 percent by 2025. The problem increasingly animates local politics, with ambitious programs to build affordable housing getting opposition from homeowners who say they want encampments gone but for the solution to be far from their communities. Across the country, homelessness is…
News | June 26, 2024
A Biochar Solution for Urban Runoff
Written by Julia Davis for the University of Washington In cities around the globe, stormwater runoff remains largely untreated, collecting everything from heavy metals to pesticides before flowing into our waterways. This environmental challenge requires innovative solutions, and biochar may just be the key. CEE Assistant Professor Jessica Ray and graduate student Amy Quintanilla are…
News | March 10, 2021
A conversation with Julia Nagele, the architect behind Seattle’s newest luxury residential tower The Emerald
Females in architecture aren’t that common, unfortunately. The New York Times reported in 2018 that, while half of architecture school graduates are women, women only make up 20 percent of licensed architects and 17 percent of partners or principals in architecture firms. Female architects, including Zaha Hadid, Jeanne Gang and Denise Scott Brown, to name a few,…
News | March 19, 2024
A New ‘Holy Grail’ in the Housing Crisis: Statewide Rent Caps
Reported in The New York Times by David W. Chen As housing costs soar, Washington State wants to limit annual rent increases to 7 percent. Oregon and California have passed similar measures. With her husband struggling at times to find work, Ms. Horn has maxed out her credit cards to keep pace with the…
News | October 10, 2019
A space-strapped city gets an unusual opportunity: A brand-new neighborhood
As apartment high-rises and office skyscrapers have filled and reshaped Seattle, there’s one long, thin strip of relatively untouched land that stands in sharp contrast to all the development around it. The 25-acre plot of land next to the Queen Anne neighborhood and near the shore of Elliott Bay—surrounded by a golf course, rail yard,…
News | May 5, 2020
A timber-based building method draws praise, and skeptics
Last September, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee stepped to a lectern in a sprawling 270,000-square-foot factory outside Spokane and declared it the “best day so far” in his six years in office. Earlier that day, he had marched downtown as part of the youth-driven climate strike that united 4 million people worldwide. Now he was in nearby…
News | July 22, 2024
A week of nonstop breaking political news stumps AI chatbots
Reported by Heather Kelly For The Washington Post In the hour after President Biden announced he would withdraw from the 2024 campaign on Sunday, most popular AI chatbots seemed oblivious to the news. Asked directly whether he had dropped out, almost all said no or declined to give an answer. Asked who was running for…
Scholar
Aaron Luoma
Visit scholar websiteNews | June 26, 2015
Achieving Inclusivity in Visions of a Better Urban Future by Lynne Manzo
Presented at June 1st Urban@UW Launch Meeting
News | May 29, 2021
Acknowledging AAPI Heritage Month
Originally written by Adela Mu, Masters of Urban Planning Candidate ’22. Note: This was written with a UDP and Seattle audience in mind. It represents only the partial perspective of the author, not that of any other person in UDP or UDP as a whole. There is far too much to say on this topic…
Course | R E 466/565
Advanced Housing Studies
Advanced survey of housing. Students select a housing-related topic that serves as the basis of a quarter-long project. Also, students read key texts and articles on a range of housing-related topics and participate in seminar discussions on these readings.Course | R E 464/564
Affordable Housing
Introduction to the field of affordable housing. Addresses policy issues inherent in planning, finance, design, construction, and management of affordable housing in the United States. Role of federal, state, local, non-profit, and private sector agencies and participants.News | July 1, 2021
Ahead of Pride, UW’s Manish Chalana describes the changing neighborhood of Capitol Hill
As an urban historian, Manish Chalana studies how cities, and neighborhoods within cities, retain their character in the face of change. How, he says, “neighborhoods remember themselves.” Manish Chalana Kiyomi Taguchi / UW News An associate professor of urban design and planning at the University of Washington, Chalana has researched cities around the world, how development can alter…
Scholar
Ahmed Abdel-Aziz
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Al Levine
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Alan Borning
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Alex Anderson
Visit scholar websiteCourse | HSTAA 508, URBDP 565
American Urban History
Intensive lecture/seminar designed to provide students the opportunity for immersion in historical scholarship that addresses social, economic, political, technological, and cultural forces that have shaped the development of American cities.Course | URBDP 565
American Urban History
Intensive lecture/seminar designed to provide students the opportunity for immersion in historical scholarship that addresses social, economic, political, technological, and cultural forces that have shaped the development of American cities.Scholar
Amit D. Ranade
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Amos Darko
Visit scholar websiteNews | March 15, 2022
An Online World That Doesn’t Destroy the Real One
Inviting as visions of the metaverse can be—a 3D stroll through Barcelona, avatars kissing, selling your side-hustle NFTs for mad Bitcoin—the real-world price of virtuality is alarmingly high and climbing. Nothing “internet” happens without megatons of hardware, those hot racks of servers in highly secured data centers (DCs) that sprawl in the most unimaginative way…
News | March 30, 2022
Andrew Himes of Carbon Leadership Forum presents TEDTalk Change Our Buildings, Save Our Planet
Andrew Himes’ 2021 TEDxSeattle talk is an impassioned plea for buildings that help solve climate change instead of contributing to it. With a sense of hope, Andrew asserts that working together to solve the climate crisis gives us the opportunity to “regain a sense of our shared humanity.” As Andrew explains, the materials used in…
Scholar
Andy Dannenberg
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Ann Huppert
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Ann Marie Borys
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Anne Vernez-Moudon
Visit scholar websiteCourse | IPM 504
Applied Geo Spatial Analysis
Provides the theoretical and practical skills needed to use a Geographic Information System (GIS) for analyzing spatial phenomena on the urban and regional scale. Focuses on principles and methods of spatial analysis and their application to strategic planning, risk management, and hazard mitigation.Course | ARCH 502
Architectural Integration Studio I
The studio is structured as a first integrated design studio experience. It builds upon the first two quarters through integrating structural systems, building assemblies and environmental responses with broader design concerns. Through exploring a project in an urban context, the studio focuses on themes of community and society. The studio work is closely coordinated with parallel Design Technology and Materials and Assemblies classes. Prerequisite: ARCH 501 Credit/no-credit only.Course | ARCH 503
Architectural Integration Studio II
The first of a two-quarter sequence structured for the development of integrative design skills. Studio problems explore the relationship between building, the public realm and place-making in an urban context and develop a building design as part of larger urban systems related to energy, ecology and mobility. The fall studio work is closely coordinated with parallel Design Technology, Urban Issues and Contemporary Theory classes. Prerequisite: ARCH 502 Credit/no-credit only.Course | ARCH 504
Architectural Integration Studio III
The second of a two-quarter sequence structured for the development of integrative design skills. Studio problems explore the relationship between building, the public realm and place-making in an urban context and develop a building design as part of larger urban systems related to energy, ecology and mobility. The winter studio work is closely coordinated with parallel Design Technology, Site Ecology and Materials and Assemblies classes. Prerequisite: ARCH 503 Credit/no-credit only.Course | ARCH 413
Architectural Photography Projects
Students develop in-depth photo essays relating to architecture, the urban movement, or landscape design. Lectures, seminar, and discussion.Course | ARCH 494
Architectural Studies Abroad – Culture
Studies of language, art, food, music, and other activities that influence architectural and urban form in contexts outside the United States.Course | ARCH 496
Architectural Studies Abroad – Urban Fieldwork
Analysis and interpretation of urban form and architectural contexts through direct observation in locations outside the United States.Degree Program
Architecture / Architectural Design (BA, CM dual degree, MArch, dual MArch-MLA, MS, Minor)
The Department of Architecture advances the discipline and practice of architecture by: Educating architects who are responsive and responsible to society, culture and the environment. Advancing architectural knowledge through research, scholarship, and critical practice. Using this knowledge to benefit local, regional, national and global communities. We value excellence in research and teaching, the traditions of…
Visit program websiteCourse | ART H 493 / ARCH 459
Architecture Since 1945
Theories and forms in architecture from the end of World War II to present. Includes new wave Japanese architects, recent Native American developments, and non-Western as well as Western trends.News | March 29, 2021
Architecture students envision a greater Gould Hall
Back in the days of disco, Architecture Professor Daniel Streissguth, ’48, was asked to lead the design for a new home for the then College of Architecture and Urban Planning. His brief was to lead the team to create “useful, well-balanced architecture” with offices, classrooms, studios, a library and space for the design disciplines to…
News | August 9, 2024
Are we on the brink of a tax revolt in Washington state?
Reported by Joshua McNichols for KUOW/NPR News Cities all over the region have big property tax levies on the ballot this year. There’s a transportation levy in Seattle, a levy to modernize the fire department in Tacoma, and a levy to pay for public safety and libraries in Everett. Increasingly, elected officials rely on these…
Scholar
Arthur Acolin
Visit scholar websiteNews | February 23, 2023
As Downtown recovers, Seattle reimagines what it could be
Office-to-residential conversion has its share of skeptics in the real estate world. It is expensive, in part because office interiors are so much deeper than apartment interiors, meaning it’s hard to get natural light. It’s also expensive to retrofit HVAC systems and other residential necessities that offices don’t need. Not all office buildings are created…
Scholar
Athan Tramountanas
Visit scholar websiteNews | September 2, 2016
August Sees New Grants, Project Launches, and Original Research and Writing
August was a busy month at the University of Washington and the Seattle region when it comes to urban research, writing, and project launches. Take a look at what’s been happening. Urban@UW will be running a half-day workshop as part of the Eighth International Conference on Social Informatics (SocInfo 2016.) Our workshop seeks to bring…
News | April 20, 2017
Bellevue, Renton Among Top 100 U.S Cities for Livability
Watch as King 5 News brings in Branden Born to shed light on the weighting mechanisms employed by a survey recently published on livability.com which ranked Renton and Bellevue among their top 100 cities for livability. Watch the whole clip on iQmediacorp.com
News | April 30, 2019
Bellingham considers expanding city limits eastward
Students from the University of Washington are helping conduct an annexation study in Bellingham. The City of Bellingham is partnering with a team of student researchers from UW’s Master of Urban Planning program to assess the interest of residents in Bellingham’s eastern Urban Growth Areas regarding possible annexation to the City. The plan is to provide community…
News | September 13, 2022
Benjamin F. McAdoo’s Lasting Legacy as an Architect and Activist
Enid McAdoo was only 6 when her family of five moved from the apartment above her dad’s Capitol Hill office to a brand-new custom home in Bothell. It was an impressionable age, an influential era and an exceptional place, and so her kaleidoscope of early memories reflects the still-vivid images of childhood. Enid is the…
Course | R E 518
Best Practices in Sustainable Real Estate
Analyzes, at a macro level, the importance of sustainability in urban areas introducing best practices for various environmentally friendly and financially feasible interventions in the US and abroad. At a micro level focuses on adoption of environment5ally friendly improvements at building level with various pay-back periods but long-lasting economic benefits.Scholar
Bill Bender
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Bill Estes
Visit scholar websiteNews | June 11, 2024
Bird Flu Tests Are Hard To Get. So How Will We Know When To Sound The Pandemic Alarm?
Reported by Kaiser Health News for Patch PALO ALTO, CA — Stanford University infectious disease doctor Abraar Karan has seen a lot of patients with runny noses, fevers, and irritated eyes lately. Such symptoms could signal allergies, covid, or a cold. This year, there’s another suspect, bird flu — but there’s no way for most…
News | July 25, 2017
Birds versus buildings: Rural structures pose greater relative threat than urban ones
About one billion birds are killed every year when they unwittingly fly into human-made objects such as buildings with reflective windows. Such collisions are the largest unintended human cause of bird deaths worldwide — and they are a serious concern for conservationists. A new paper published in June in the journal Biological Conservation finds that,…
News | August 3, 2020
Black pastors and activists want Central District land as reparations
In the midst of ongoing protests against police brutality and the death of George Floyd, Black communities in the Seattle area have begun a push for bigger, more long-term actions toward overcoming the poverty created by decades of racist policies. “We need reparations for our Black and brown communities,” said Pastor Angela Ying of Bethany…
Scholar
Bob Freitag
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Boris Srdar
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Branden Born
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Brian E. Saelens
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Brian Gerich
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Brian McLaren
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Bring back corner stores to create a connected, equitable city
Originally written by Sam Kraft, principal of D3 Architects and instructor of architecture at the University of Washington. I used to live in Ravenna in a fourplex that looked like a large single-family house. I could walk to what was then Boulevard Grocery and buy lunch. In this small one-story gabled market, originally a garage…
News | March 30, 2020
Bringing the Lens of Hip Hop to Urban Planning
Urban planning is in itself an interdisciplinary field, but UW Community, Environment, and Planning (CEP) senior Aury Banos is pushing its interdisciplinary lens even further. For her senior project Aury is connecting hip hop lyrics and artists to urban planning and the built environment. “I was inspired by Michael Ford’s lecture on hip hop and…
News | January 23, 2024
Building community resilience: A $2 million NSF grant will transform disaster response
Amy Sprague January 16, 2024 “Our advantage of being an interdisciplinary project at the University of Washington is that we are drawing from an excellent corps of researchers with complementary expertise at a University whose mission includes working for the greater good across the state of Washington and has excellent ties into our communities.” Professor…
News | January 13, 2021
Building knowledge: The architect and the builder with Professor Ann Huppert
Throughout history, we’ve seen shifts in how people communicate regarding design. The question of how communication happens between architect and builder is as fundamental today as it was hundreds of years ago. While the dynamics of these communication processes are nuanced, our understanding of them has been colored by a narrative of the past. One…
Degree Program
Built Environment (PhD)
Three fundamental areas of specialization in built environment knowledge and practice are offered within the BE Built Environment Doctoral Program: 1) sustainable systems and prototypes; 2) technology and project design/delivery; 3) history, theory, and representation studies. Each student will select one of these areas, within which she or he will take their advanced and specialized…
Visit program websiteCenter & Lab
Bullitt Center Discovery Commons
The UW-Center for Integrated Design (CID), a self-sustaining entity of the University of Washington, is located on the second floor of the Bullitt Center, serving as the home for the Integrated Design Lab and the Discovery Commons. The Integrated Design Lab (IDL) carries out research and technical assistance aimed at advancing knowledge and implementation of…
Visit lab websiteNews | April 21, 2023
Bullitt Center Generated Net Positive Energy over First Decade
In its first ten years, the Bullitt Center has generated nearly 30% more energy from solar panels on its roof than it has used, which is enough excess to power 41 homes in Seattle for a year. Since opening on Earth Day 2013, it has shown indisputably that net-positive energy buildings are possible anywhere. In…
Scholar
Burke Shethar
Visit scholar websiteNews | August 7, 2019
Can tiny houses help solve affordability crisis? A student who’s building one thinks so
Olivia Tyrnauer adjusts the ladder and carefully begins to climb, balancing on the steps as she carries a large window up to an empty frame. Positioned precariously on one of the top steps, she loops a screw gun out of her belt and pulls a screw from one of the pockets of her tan cargo…
News | February 13, 2021
Carbon Leadership Forum among finalists selected for $10 million 2030 Climate Challenge
On February 9th, Lever for Change announced that the College of Built Environment’s Carbon Leadership Forum (CLF) and four other finalist teams will advance to the next stage of the 2030 Climate Challenge, a $10 million award launched last year to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. by 2030. The Challenge, sponsored by an anonymous donor, will…
Scholar
Carla Saulter
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Carrie Sturts Dossick
Visit scholar websiteNews | October 18, 2016
Cars vs health: UW’s Moudon, Dannenberg contribute to Lancet series on urban planning, public health
Automobiles — and the planning and infrastructure to support them — are making our cities sick, says an international group of researchers now publishing a three-part series in the British medical journal The Lancet. University of Washington professors Anne Vernez Moudon and Andrew Dannenberg are co-authors of the first of this series that explores these…
Scholar
Catherine De Almeida
Visit scholar websiteNews | August 31, 2022
CBE Research Team Measures Health and Happiness at Dune Peninsula
On a little peninsula in Tacoma, Washington, a native prairie grows on a remediated toxic waste site. Paths loop around the 11-acre property, known these days as Dune Peninsula at Point Defiance Park, giving visitors up-close and personal experiences with a variety of wildlife species, from eagles, hawks and heron to deer, sea lions and orcas….
Scholar
Celina Balderas Guzmán
Visit scholar websiteNews | May 1, 2019
Central District, other Seattle legacy communities are at risk — and we all need to help save them
In a new documentary about gentrification in the Central District, “On the Brink,” an advocate of Seattle’s historically African American neighborhood talks about recent construction projects in the area digging the soul out of that community. … The CD became a nearly 80% black neighborhood in the late 1960s and early ’70s because African Americans,…
News | September 23, 2022
Central WA Home Prices Spike Amid Influx of Seattle-Area Transplants
When the pandemic limited travel and forced many professional workers to work remotely, many city-dwellers sought retreat in the mountains, trails and waterways of Central Washington. Chelan and Kittitas counties were a short car ride away. In the same places Seattleites found recreation and retreat, demand for second homes — and even permanent single residences…
News | April 11, 2017
Challenging the whiteness of American architecture, in the 1960s and today
“This book tells the story of how I got a free Ivy League education.” That’s the arresting opening sentence of Sharon Egretta Sutton‘s “When Ivory Towers Were Black,” an unusual hybrid of memoir, institutional history and broadside against the entrenched whiteness of the architecture profession in this country. The institution in question is Columbia University…
Scholar
Charles Wolfe
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Christine Bae
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Christopher Campbell
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Christopher Meek
Visit scholar websiteNews | May 5, 2020
Cities and the SARS CoV2 coronavirus in the Global South: Breaking points in an interconnected system
Since COVID-19 first erupted in China in December and began spreading across the world, the pandemic’s early outbreaks have “burned hottest in the richer, globalized quarters of the world linked by busy commercial air routes—Europe and the United States.” (National Geographic, 2020a [website]) Now, four months into the pandemic, compounding factors of urban density and…
News | October 15, 2020
Cities dropping out of King County sales tax could strip more than $18M from homeless housing plan
A $400 million proposal to house 2,000 people who have been chronically homeless in King County through a new sales tax is losing millions of potential dollars as suburban cities adopt their own version of the tax instead. So far, Issaquah, Renton, Kent, Snoqualmie and Covington have voted to adopt their own .01% sales tax, a mechanism authorized…
Course | B E 220
Cities, Health, and Well-being
This course analyzes the ways urban built environments bear on physical and mental health and well-being (material-economic resources, security, social relations, open choices). It focuses on how the practices and knowledge of built environment professions and disciplines interact with public health, engineering, and the sciences to understand and change cities.News | March 23, 2018
City of Bellevue selected as 2018-2019 UW Livable City Year partner
The University of Washington Livable City Year program has selected the City of Bellevue to be the community partner for the 2018-2019 academic year. The year-long partnership connects city staff with students and faculty who will collaborate on projects to advance the Bellevue City Council Vision Priorities, specifically around livability and sustainability. In the upcoming…
Scholar
Clare Ryan
Visit scholar websiteNews | March 16, 2020
Climate Debate Over Washington State Decarbonization
On March 11, KUOW’s That’s Debatable highlighted a goal, based on the state’s own policies and recommendations — “Washington State Can Decarbonize in a Decade” — and featured Schwartz, Simonen, and local youth activists Julia Barnett and Sarah Starman. The event was broadcasted live from the KUOW studios at 7 p.m. The event was originally…
News | May 13, 2024
Cloud Brightening Study in California Is Halted by Local Officials
Researchers had been testing a sprayer that could one day be used to push a salty mist skyward, cooling the Earth. Officials stopped the work, citing health questions. Written by Christopher Flavelle for The New York Times. Officials in Alameda, Calif., have told scientists to stop testing a device that might one day be used…
News | August 4, 2022
College of Built Environments students help historically Black churches survive gentrification
Rev. George Davenport Jr. had a vision of using real estate to sustain his church community in its historically Black Central District neighborhood. But while the streets around the church gentrified, he struggled through the complex landscape of zoning laws, building codes and speculative funding options. Then he stumbled upon the Nehemiah Initiative and the…
News | May 18, 2022
College of Built Environments students help historically Black churches survive gentrification.
Rev. George Davenport Jr. had a vision of using real estate to sustain his church community in its historically Black Central District neighborhood. But while the streets around the church gentrified, he struggled through the complex landscape of zoning laws, building codes and speculative funding options. Then he stumbled upon the Nehemiah Initiative and the…
News | September 8, 2017
College of Built Environments’ David de la Cruz partners with communities for environmental justice
David de la Cruz has a question about power. “When we think about toxic sites and where they’re placed in relation to where people live, who’s left out of making those decisions?” “Often,” he answers, “it’s the people who live there. It’s low-income communities, working-class communities and communities of color who don’t have a say….
News | June 8, 2022
College of Built Environments’ unique Inspire Fund aims to foster research momentum in underfunded pursuits college-wide. And it’s working.
“For a small college, CBE has a broad range of research paradigms, from history and arts, to social science and engineering.” — Carrie Sturts Dossick, Associate Dean of Research Upon taking on the role of Associate Dean of Research, Carrie Sturts Dossick, professor in the Department of Construction Management, undertook listening sessions to learn about…
News | June 5, 2024
Community broadband provides a local solution for a global problem
Written by Esther Jang, Postdoctoral Fellow, Computer Science, University of Washington; Katherine Gillieson, Associate Dean, Master of Design, Emily Carr University; and Michael Lithgow, Associate Professor, Media and Communication Studies, Athabasca University Published in The Conversation. According to a 2023 study by the International Telecommunications Union, approximately 2.6 billion people are unconnected to the internet….
Course | URBDP 596
Community Resilience
Introduction to resilience thinking. Students apply resilience concepts to real world communities and infrastructures impacted by real events, and gain practice in supporting policies, programs, and projects that enhance overall resilience.Degree Program
Community, Environment & Planning (BA)
Community, Environment, and Planning is a self-directed, diverse undergraduate major comprised of students, faculty, and staff engaged in holistic growth and a collaborative process of experiential and interdisciplinary learning. In our major, we develop skills, techniques, and knowledge necessary to be active leaders and conscientious planners in our communities and environments. Our values are presented…
Visit program websiteCourse | URBDP 501
Comprehensive Planning and Implementation
Reviews the comprehensive planning process as a part of managing metropolitan growth. Examines federal/state statutes affecting local government comprehensive plans. Includes local government land use regulations and reviews development process. Concentrates on tools to shape land use and development patterns and their effectiveness in creating outcomes specified in comprehensive plans.News | January 23, 2020
Considering wood as a sustainable building material
Architects, builders, and sustainability advocates are all abuzz over a new building material they say could substantially reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the building sector, slash the waste, pollution, and costs associated with construction, and create a more physically, psychologically, and aesthetically healthy built environment. The material is known as, uh, wood. Recently, UW…
News | April 28, 2020
Construction causes major pollution. Here’s how we can build better.
Buildings of the future will be grown on-site, says Wil Srubar, an assistant professor of architectural engineering at the University of Colorado Boulder who also runs the Living Materials Laboratory. They’ll be made from hemp, or algae or specially engineered wood — or bacteria that can photosynthesize, like the cyanobacteria mortar he and his research…
Degree Program
Construction Management (BS, Arch dual degree, Minor, MS, Cert, PCE)
The department’s mission is: To prepare individuals for careers in the construction and related industries by providing high quality education, to conduct research that will benefit the construction industry, and to provide service to the community. This includes educating students in developing a sustainable built environment and applying innovative construction techniques based on cutting edge…
Visit program websiteNews | April 3, 2020
Coronavirus: Homeless families lose key support as schools close
In a typical year, homeless shelters experience the biggest surge in demand not during the cold winter months, but rather during the summer. In the summer, schools close and parents lose the usual daily eight hours of childcare and meals. With the additional burden of sleeping on the streets, parents seek out shelter more often, research…
News | May 19, 2021
Could Seattle-area homebuyers be getting some relief? New report shows rise in new listings
Seattle-area homebuyers could be getting a bit of a reprieve. During April, the area saw a significant increase in new listings compared to the same time last year, according to the most recent report from Northwest Multiple Listing Service. There were also “reports of moderating prices” as more homes were added to the market, the report said….
News | October 28, 2020
COVID-19 accelerating trend of out-of-area buyers in Spokane, housing experts say
The coronavirus pandemic is accelerating a growing trend of out-of-area buyers and remote workers moving to Spokane in search of a better quality of life and affordable housing, real estate experts said at the Association of Washington Business Housing Forum Virtual Series earlier this week. Part of the housing demand is coming from retirees, who…
News | November 26, 2024
Creating multi-sector teams to build cities where everyone thrives.
Research-to-Action Teams 2024-25 In April of 2024 two teams were selected for participation in the second cohort of the Research to Action Collaboratory. For 18 months Urban@UW will work with these teams to provide seed funds, dedicated time to building team cohesion and collaboration skills, and opportunities for peer support, shared resources, and learning. These…
News | November 8, 2024
Crows hold grudges against individual humans for up to 17 years
Reported by Eric Falls for Earth.com Crows are more than just black-feathered figures cawing from treetops; they are masters of memory and grudges, with cognitive abilities that defy our expectations. While we often admire birds for their bright plumage and lilting songs, there is a deeper layer to their behavior that remains unseen. Birds are…
Course | URBDP 532
Current Topics in Transportation Planning and Policy
Provides an opportunity to advance the student's knowledge by examining selected topics in depth and gaining critical insights about the interconnectivity of various planning and policy approaches. Gives a broad exposure to urban transportation problems and introduces different ideas and practices aimed at addressing these problems, along with important concepts and analytical frameworksScholar
Dan Abramson
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Dan Whitaker
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Daniel Winterbottom
Visit scholar websiteNews | July 7, 2016
Data Science for Social Good 2016
This summer we are thrilled to be supporting the eScience Institute’s Data Science for Social Good (DSSG) program. Modeled after similar programs at the University of Chicago and Georgia Tech, with elements from eScience’s own Data Science Incubator, sixteen DSSG Student Fellows have been working with academic researchers, data scientists, and public stakeholder groups on…
Scholar
David Blum
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David Miller
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David Strauss
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Dean Cheng at AIA ’22
The Soul Children of Chicago, an acclaimed youth choir, delivered an energetic start to Day 2 of A’22. The group performed four songs to warm up the crowd for the impending keynote panel conversation. Moderated by Lee Bey, a Chicago-based photographer, author, lecturer, and architecture critic, the conversation featured renowned architects Vishaan Chakrabarti, FAIA, Renée…
Scholar
Dean Heerwagen
Visit scholar websiteCourse | URBDP 567
Democracy, Citizenship, and Participation in the City
Graduate seminar on democracy in cities. Focuses on contemporary ideas, debates, and initiatives.Course | SOC 513 / CSDE 513
Demography and Ecology
Theories and research on human fertility, mortality, mobility, migration, and urbanization in social/economic context. Comparative and historical materials on Europe, the United States, and the Third World.Course | L ARCH 362
Design of Cities
Introduction to the discourses and debates in the contemporary design of cities. Provides an overview of design theories and examples of historic and contemporary work. Includes discussion of the contesting urban processes: visions and paradigms of city; discourses of nature and the city; contemporary urban changes; public and community process; and everyday place making.News | May 31, 2019
Designing for resilience
Seattle is one of the fastest growing cities in the country– a hub of innovation with a thriving economy. Yet this rapid growth challenges the capacity of the city to adapt without damaging its current communities. Students from The University of Washington’s College of Built Environments responded to these and other challenges through the Winter…
News | June 26, 2015
Designing Healthy Cities by Andrew Dannenberg
Presented at the June 1st Urban@UW Launch
Course | L ARCH 482
Designing High Performance Landscapes
Looks at ways to design ' high performance landscapes' that integrate ecological realities and urban infrastructural needs while expressing an aesthetic of performance. From site analysis to final design, provides hands-on experience in creating green infrastructure assets in the urban environment.Course | ARCH 536
Designing with Living Systems
Investigates an integrated approach to urban agriculture and building systems; looks at cyclical ecosystems intrinsically interconnected with buildings, urban infrastructure, and the constructed environment; establishes a thorough understanding of these productive, living systems, which are indispensable for architects and landscape architects in their pursuit of more sustainable design practices.Course | CEP 473 / URBDP 573
Digital Design Practicum
Uses digital technologies for mapping, drafting, modeling, and communication. Includes real-world case study projects that focus on urban design and planning issues.News | May 4, 2023
Don’t Take Concrete for Granite
Concrete: it’s all around us. It makes up sidewalks, buildings, pavements, bridges, and dams, and can be shaped (within reason) to a builder’s whims. The ubiquitous material probably escapes everyday notice simply because it is everywhere. So, is concrete really a big deal? “I have a presentation that starts out asking that question,” says Fred…
Scholar
Donald H. Miller
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Donald King
Visit scholar websiteNews | February 24, 2023
Downtown Dreams: Leaders Share 10 Ideas to Make Seattle’s Core More Vibrant
In his “State of the City” address on Tuesday, Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell said the word “downtown” more than 30 times and dedicated a quarter of his annual speech to revitalizing the city’s core. There are some examples of success. New York City transformed lower Manhattan into a 24-7 community with more residents and a…
News | April 17, 2024
E-bike fires are sparking trouble in Seattle. Here’s how to use them safely.
Written by Gustavo Sagrero Álvarez for KUOW. Seattle’s streets have become home to hundreds of electronic bikes and scooters in recent years, with a growing number of commuters and hobbyists relying on them to get around. As usage of these lithium-ion battery powered devices grows, so has the number of fires in connection with them….
News | May 20, 2020
EarthLab announces Innovation Grant recipients for 2020
Research projects funded for 2020 by EarthLab’s Innovation Grants Program will study how vegetation might reduce pollution, help an Alaskan village achieve safety and resilience amid climate change, organize a California river’s restoration with tribal involvement, compare practices in self-managed indigenous immigrant communities and more. EarthLab is a University of Washington-wide institute connecting scholars with community…
News | April 8, 2024
Earthquake showed Taiwan was well prepared for a big one — more so than parts of U.S.
Originally reported by Evan Bush for NBC News. The powerful earthquake in Taiwan on Wednesday shook an island that was well prepared for a seismic catastrophe — likely more so than some regions of the U.S., several experts said. Nine people have been reported dead, though Taiwanese officials said the death toll could rise in…
Course | L ARCH 363
Ecological Design and Planning
Introduction to landscape ecological theory applied to urban environments. Comparison of different vocabularies used to describe landscape structure and function, from the fields of landscape design, urban design, and biology. Discussion of design theories that have sought to re-center landscape planning and design around the goal of achieving ecological sustainability.Course | L ARCH 563
Ecological Design and Planning
Explores the contemporary theory supporting the practice of ecological design and planning. Examines the potential relationships between ecological theory and design applications, particularly in urban environments. Topics are supported by a diverse collection of examples and case studies.Scholar
Elizabeth Golden
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Elizabeth Umbanhowar
Visit scholar websiteNews | February 4, 2022
Entombed in the Landscape: Waste with Assistant Professor Catherine De Almeida
Assistant Professor of Landscape Architecture Catherine De Almeida remembers picking up trash on the playground, seeing people throw trash out their car window, and noticing trash flying around while she played outside as a child. The presence of litter in landscapes upset her so much that she would spend her elementary school recesses picking up…
News | June 26, 2015
Environmental Change – Local Impacts and Response by Himanshu Grover
Presented at the June 1st Urban@UW Launch
Scholar
Eric Higbee
Visit scholar websiteCourse | URBDP 525
Evaluation in Urban Planning
Methods and techniques for a priori assessment of physical improvement plans, program designs, public policies. Includes cost effectiveness and matrix or goal achievement, as well as more conventional cost-benefit and cost-revenue forms of analysis. Emphasis on understanding the reasoning and issues in evaluation, and gaining a working competence in at least one of the methods treated.News | November 18, 2021
Event: Insights of a once reluctant academic working on urban climate change in Southern Africa
On Monday, December 6th, 2021, Gina Ziervogel Associate Professor in the Department of Environmental and Geographical Science at the University of Cape Town, South Africa, joins Urban@UW and CBE to discuss the route she has taken over the last 20 years as a geographer working on climate change vulnerability and adaptation, urban governance, and social…
News | February 11, 2020
Everyday Commuting in Seattle
There are many different ways for Liz MacGahan to get to work. Most mornings, she walks.“I feel like a farmer walking the fields, looking for what has changed … and what is different,” she said. The walk energizes here for work and takes around 40 minuets. On another morning, the weather was bad, so she…
News | August 18, 2016
Exploring Artistically Significant Landscapes
Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture Thaisa Way has been appointed chair of the Dumbarton Oaks Fellows in Garden and Landscape Studies. Way, who has been a Senior Fellow with Dumbarton Oaks since 2011 will serve a one year term.As one of six Senior Fellows, the group serves as advisors to the Director of Dumbarton Oaks…
News | June 4, 2021
Fast food, supermarkets, other aspects of built environments don’t play expected role in weight gain
People don’t gain or lose weight because they live near a fast-food restaurant or supermarket, according to a new study led by the University of Washington. And, living in a more “walkable”, dense neighborhood likely only has a small impact on weight. These “built-environment” amenities have been seen in past research as essential contributors to losing weight or tending…
News | February 24, 2022
Fight over homeless hotel shelters arrives in Kirkland
Homeless hotel shelters continue to be difficult sells for those living in cities outside of Seattle, with Kirkland residents now expressing concerns over the potential purchase of a vacant La Quinta Inn. Snohomish County Councilmember pushes back against hotels for homeless residents King County is reportedly considering the La Quinta Inn — located near SR 520 on…
News | December 4, 2020
Final Report: Impact of Hotels as Non-Congregate Emergency Shelters
A King County initiative that moved people out of homeless shelters and into hotel rooms earlier this year helped slow the transmission of the coronavirus SARS-CoV2, according to the final report from a study of the intervention. The study is co-authored by Gregg Colburn and Rachel Fyall, faculty co-leads of Urban@UW’s Homelessness Research Initiative, and the…
News | October 5, 2016
First Livable City Year projects underway; kickoff event Oct. 6
Not even a week has passed since the start of the quarter, and already a group of University of Washington public health students is deep into discovering the cultural flavor and identity of each neighborhood in a nearby city. The project is a sizeable challenge: Students will pour over census and public health data, interview…
News | March 16, 2017
First UW Livable City Year project reports delivered to the City of Auburn
Teams of University of Washington students have been working throughout this academic year on livability and sustainability projects in the City of Auburn. The yearlong Livable City Year partnership has given students a chance to work on real-world challenges identified by Auburn, while providing Auburn with tens of thousands of hours of study and student…
News | May 21, 2021
Five months and $100,000 later, Seattle City Council asks: Where are the street sinks?
Last November, the Seattle City Council earmarked $100,000 intended to quickly set up dozens of new hand-washing facilities around the city — a resource to meet the desperate needs of more than 3,700 unsheltered people in Seattle after the pandemic closed access to running water at businesses and other public spaces. Five months later, as shelters…
Course | URBDP 526
Floodplain Management and Planning for Coastal and River Communities
Focuses on ways to live with and cope with flooding.Examines coastal and riverine floodplain services, values and assets within the context of ecosystem services; determine risks and opportunities associated with flooding and floodplains; advance identified strategies and explore benefits and adverse impacts resulting from these strategies; and gain a better appreciation for coastal and riverine floodplains.News | March 15, 2021
From crisis to community: Homeownership access with Assistant Professor Arthur Acolin
Arthur Acolin, an Urban@UW Affiliate sat down with CBE to talk about his work. College is a time of exploration and discovery for all students. It is a time that often shapes how we view the world. Going through this transition during a moment of turbulence in the world can shape that experience significantly, which…
News | July 6, 2023
From Vacant Storefronts to Vibrant Hubs: Revisiting ‘Third Places’ for Urban Resilience
In Seattle, city government and the Downtown Seattle Association continue to build on the “Amazon Great Return” through a variety of strategies to reactivate downtown. While attempts to maintain safety and deter drug trafficking remain forefront in the news, increased foot traffic, intriguing office-to-residence retrofit proposals and trends toward park and retail reopening suggest a spirit…
Scholar
Galen Minah
Visit scholar websiteCourse | ARCH 466, GWSS 466
Gender and Architecture
Examines gender in the experience, practice, and theory of architecture and urban space with a focus on modern typologies: skyscraper, home, convent, bachelor pad, street, and closet. Draws from architectural and art history, social studies, design practice and theory, comparative literature, film studies, and queer theory.Course | URBDP 507
General Urban Planning Laboratory
Studio/field project in applied professional planning of a comprehensive nature, utilizing a local study area to examine the realities of problem solving in situations of functional and normative conflict. Integration of analysis, programming, implementation, and presentation phases of the planning process.Degree Program
Geographic Information Systems (Cert)
Explore how geographic information systems have enhanced the efficiency and analytical power of traditional cartography. Examine the range of information sources that can be combined to build a GIS database – including raw data, scanned maps, GPS positions and aerial photography. Learn how to use the system to support research and decision making in a…
Visit program websiteNews | March 29, 2016
Geology and Art Connect at UW Light Rail Station
Tens of thousands of people will pass through the new University of Washington light rail station that opened this week. While most riders will focus on their destination, they may also learn something as they pass through the station. “Subterranium,” by UW alumnus Leo Saul Berk, lines the walls with 6,000 unique backlit panels inspired…
Scholar
Gerald Beltran
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Giovanni Migliaccio
Visit scholar websiteNews | March 20, 2018
Giving Voice, Being Seen: Community Agency and Design Action in a Time of Climate Change, April 26
Climate change affects everyone, but it does not impact all communities equally. These differences may be most evident in the built environment and the shared spaces such as parks, streets, schools, homes, which we experience and move through daily. In seeking to inspire more collaborative, inclusive and creative responses to climate change in the built…
News | May 20, 2024
Global life expectancy is projected to increase by 5 years by 2050
Reported by Rodielon Putol for Earth A recent study from the prestigious Global Burden of Disease Study (GBD) 2021 reveals an encouraging trend: global life expectancy is expected to rise by nearly five years by 2050, despite various global challenges. According to the findings published in The Lancet, life expectancy for males is projected to…
News | February 14, 2023
Google’s exit from big Seattle-area project shows fleeting relationship between tech and communities
The City of Kirkland was counting on Google to be the “catalyst project” in its proposed Station Area Plan, a reimagining of the area around a planned rapid transit bus station into a higher density community of housing and businesses. But suddenly and without warning, the plans evaporated last month. The City of Kirkland issued…
Degree Program
Graduate Certificate in Historic Preservation
The College of Built Environments (CBE) offers two complementary certificates in historic preservation which emphasize the field of historic preservation and related developments in allied fields that address the multiplicity of issues in the identification, evaluation, and protection of cultural resources. The certificates are intended to enhance the education of students beyond their regular course…
Visit program websiteDegree Program
Graduate Certificate in Housing Studies
Quality, affordable, and well-connected housing is an essential component of strong and healthy communities. Housing markets are constantly evolving and there is an increasing collaboration among public, private and nonprofit actors in addressing various housing issues. The Graduate Certificate in Housing Studies (GCHS) offers graduate students an opportunity to learn the fundamental concepts and tools…
Visit program websiteNews | September 27, 2022
Green Buildings Get a Boost in WA, but Policy and Demand Still Lag
Two decades ago, Washington became a foothold for a global movement to decarbonize buildings. But since then momentum has sputtered. Embodied carbon is still an emerging field. Since the U.S. Department of Ecology began collecting and cataloguing data on building energy use, carbon emissions have slowly but surely become a bigger part of the equation….
News | March 19, 2021
Green construction can play an active role as climate action accelerates
The following op ed was penned by Anthony Hickling, Managing Director of University of Washington‘s Carbon Leadership Forum. When President Joe Biden re-signed the Paris Accord and introduced the largest clean-energy and climate-justice plan the country has ever seen, he launched a significant opportunity to fight climate change. Buildings can be part of the…
Scholar
Gregg Colburn
Visit scholar websiteNews | April 26, 2021
Gridlock is coming back. Noise doesn’t have to.
What does a city sound like? Asked that question, do you think of the dull roar of traffic, the staccato yelp of a horn, the wobbling screech of an alarm? In other words, do you think of cars? Automobiles are such a fixture of the urban landscape that it’s easy to overlook just how much…
Scholar
Gundula Proksch
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H. Pike Oliver
Visit scholar websiteNews | March 17, 2016
HALA Studio Publishes Research and Proposals About Housing in Wallingford
Seattle’s recent transformations have meant big changes throughout the city. In Autumn Quarter of 2015, The HALA Studio explored how to productively engage with Seattle’s single family zoning and neighborhood development in the Wallingford neighborhood. Led by University of Washington instructor, Rick Mohler, students explored “an expansion of housing types, ownership models, and community engagement.”…
News | April 22, 2024
Has the US finally figured out how to do high-speed rail?
Written by Jeremy Hsu for NewScientist. Construction began today on the first true high-speed rail line in the US, which will connect Los Angeles suburbanites to the bright lights of Las Vegas, Nevada. Not only should the project enable people in the US to finally experience European and Asian standards of speedy passenger trains, it…
Course | URBDP 549
Hazard Mitigation Planning
A survey of the field of planning for managing risks of natural hazards-earthquakes, floods, coastal/meteorological hazards, and human-caused technological hazards/terrorism. Covers pre-event mitigation through building and land-use controls; disaster preparedness; post-even response, recovery, and mitigation of future hazards. Emphasizes hazard mitigation as a long-term strategy for achieving sustainability of communities.Course | ENV H 536, URBDP 536
Health Impact Assessment
Examines the use of Health Impact Assessment as a public health tool for informing decision-makers about the potential health impacts of proposed projects and policies. Students learn the steps for conducting HIAs, review case studies, and conduct an HIA of a current local proposed project.Scholar
Heather Burpee
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Helen Pineo
Visit scholar websiteNews | June 17, 2024
Here’s what homeowners can do to prevent one of the leading causes of death for birds
Originally reported by for King 5 by Erica Zucco. SEATTLE — U.S. Fish and Wildlife and other agencies say one of the leading causes of death in birds is colliding with buildings. Birds fly at a high rate of speed and don’t recognize glass as a barrier, often ending in mortality. University of Washington researcher…
News | June 11, 2024
Here’s why an Arizona medical examiner is working to track heat-related deaths
Written by Alejandra Borunda for NPR News Greg Hess deals with death day in, day out. Hess is the medical examiner for Pima County, Ariz., a region along the United States-Mexico border. His office handles some 3,000 deaths each year — quiet deaths, overdoses, gruesome deaths, tragic ones. From April through October every year, Hess…
Scholar
Himanshu Grover
Visit scholar websiteCourse | ARCH 452
History of Architecture in Seattle and Environs
Historical development of architectural in Seattle and surrounding areas from the nineteenth century to the present, also touching on issues of urban design and historic preservation.Course | L ARCH 450
History of Environmental Design in the Pacific Northwest
Development of landscape architecture, architecture, and urban planning in the Pacific Northwest from nineteenth century to the present, with major emphasis on twentieth century.Course | L ARCH 451
History of Environmental Design on the West Coast
Development of the environmental arts of landscape architecture, architecture, and urban planning from the eighteenth century to the present, with major emphasis on the twentieth century.Course | L ARCH 353
History of Modern Landscape Architecture
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.Course | L ARCH 454
History of Urban Landscapes and Environments
Explores the history and historiography of urban landscapes and the design of cities with an emphasis on North America in the context of the broader study of cities in China, Japan, and in the Western world from the pre-classical through twentieth centuries in Europe.News | February 1, 2024
History uncovered: UW research finds thousands of past racial restrictions in Kitsap
Reported in The Kitsap Sun By Peiyu Lin It’s not a secret that Kitsap County possesses a history of segregation, where some areas of the peninsula were only allowed to sell or rent to white people in the early and mid-20th century. But a specific geographic distribution of the over 2,300 properties that carry racial…
News | May 29, 2019
Home construction continues to rise in north Snohomish County
The sounds of hammering, sawing and heavy equipment are echoing across the area these days. It’s in stark contrast to five years ago when few new homes were being built. “Back in 2014, we were one-at-a-timing it to eke our way through,” said Anthony Holbeck of Holbeck Construction & Design on Camano. “Now, it’s a…
News | December 7, 2022
Homelessness Research Initiative convenes homelessness scholars from across the UW
Last Tuesday, faculty, staff, and students from across the University of Washington met in the Hans Rosling Center for Population Health for a convening of the Homelessness Research Initiative. Led by faculty co-chairs Rachel Fyall, associate professor in the Evans School of Public Policy & Governance, and Gregg Colburn, assistant professor in the College of…
News | March 8, 2017
Honoring Women Collaborators at Urban@UW
In honor of International Women’s Day, we are highlighting just some of UW’s brilliant female professors, scholars, and and change-makers with whom Urban@UW is proud to collaborate. Click on their names to explore their work. Leadership: Thaisa Way, Executive Director, Urban@UW; Department of Landscape Architecture Executive Committee: Margaret O’Mara, Department of History Susan P….
Course | URBDP 451
Housing
Survey of housing and redevelopment problems, theories, standards, and practice. Development of public policies, finance, technological considerations, social factors, and priorities.Course | URBDP 457
Housing in Developing Countries
Emphasis on role of the design and planning professional in housing delivery in developing countries. Exploration of issues of culture, political environment, social context, economic circumstances, and other factors which define and limit the manner in which the professional planner and designer can and should function.Course | R E 401/563
Housing Markets and Policy
Aims to provide students with the tools to assess housing problems. Studies housing markets in a dynamic context, with emphasis placed on demand and supply drivers. Examines the justifications for and the basis of public sector involvement in the housing market and describe and evaluate the main policy mechanisms used such as regulation of private renting or the provision of affordable housing.News | February 6, 2020
How a Strong Regional Economy is Effecting the Snohomish Housing Market
Economic growth doesn’t come without some burden. “We are suffering from our own successes,” said economist and UW lecturer Matthew Gardner. “We have a robust economy, and that means growing pains.” The solid economy equates to more jobs — and more people — moving to the region, putting continued pressure on infrastructure and housing markets, he said….
News | January 7, 2022
How Crowds Run When Bulls Charge
People walking alone walk relatively quickly. A crowd walks slowly. But how does a crowd move when there is, say, a massive bull charging at them? To answer this, scientists analyzed the movement of a crowd of runners during the running of the bulls in Pamplona, Spain, in 2019. The San Fermín festival in Pamplona,…
News | March 25, 2024
How e-bikes are helping ease package delivery clogs
Originally reported by Kristin Schwab for Marketplace. It’s a rainy evening in New York City, as in flash flood warning kind of rain. But it’s nothing Michael Singh hasn’t seen. “Yes, rain, snow, high winds, all of it,” said Singh, who’s been a bike messenger for seven years and started with Amazon a few months ago….
News | January 6, 2023
How land design is answering the cultural needs of Native Americans in Seattle
Daybreak Star Indian Cultural Center has been a feature in Tim Lehman’s life since he was 9 years old, when his family moved to the Seattle area. “I’m Northern Arapaho. My tribe, my people, my reservation is in Wyoming, yet I reside in Seattle. So where do I go for that cultural connection?” He found…
News | January 16, 2021
How much will homelessness rise? Grim study shows possible ‘impact of doing nothing,’ researchers say
A recession following the coronavirus pandemic could cause twice as much homelessness nationwide as the Great Recession did more than a decade ago, says a grim study released Tuesday by Economic Roundtable, an L.A. research group. Using detailed data on unemployment and homelessness from L.A. County social services, authors of the study project that people at the…
News | April 28, 2022
How one architect’s radical ideas about nature changed American cities forever
For those of us who did the majority of our growing up in upper Manhattan, it’s not hyperbolic to say that New York’s Central Park was our backyard. We spent snow days careening down Cedar Hill on our sleds. I attended a bar mitzvah reception at Loeb Boathouse, spending a good portion of it perched…
News | May 23, 2018
How Seattle’s appetite for construction is creating a growing waste problem
The sun has barely burned the fog off Lake Washington as Noel Stout, standing near the water’s edge, peers at a heavy wooden trellis suspended 20 feet above a concrete backyard patio. He’s rigged a system of ropes and pulleys to the cedar latticework, which just yesterday supported a deck with a sweeping view across…
News | July 29, 2024
How Tiny Homes Could Help Solve America’s Homelessness Crisis
Reported by Giulia Carbonaro for Newsweek Shelter villages of tiny homes have popped up across the U.S. in recent years, as the small structures have started to be seen by many advocates as a promising solution to solve homelessness. Perhaps unsurprisingly at a time when mortgage rates are still hovering around the 7-percent mark and…
News | October 18, 2024
How to avoid sharing election misinformation
Reported by Audrey Nguyen for NPR The 2024 election season is upon us. While Election Day is November 5, early voting started in September in some states. As we wait for the final results to be declared, chances are, you’re going to come across false or misleading information. To avoid spreading misinformation this election season,…
News | July 6, 2020
How urban design can make or break protests
If protesters could plan a perfect stage to voice their grievances, it might look a lot like Athens, Greece. Its broad, yet not overly long, central boulevards are almost tailor-made for parading. Its large parliament-facing square, Syntagma, forms a natural focal point for marchers. With a warren of narrow streets surrounding the center, including the…
News | April 12, 2024
How Washington’s local governments have moved to allow for denser housing
Originally reported by Laurel Demkovich in the Washington State Standard. Washington lawmakers in recent years have passed laws to require local governments to allow for more housing density with duplexes, triplexes or attached dwelling units. But before lawmakers required these changes, they looked at ways to incentivize local governments to do this on their own….
News | September 29, 2022
How Will Downtowns across America Change in the Next Decade?
There is nothing quite like the hustle and bustle of a city. No matter where you are, you know when you’ve made it downtown. Since downtowns have changed so much in the past, what will they look like in the next decade? Well, in order to predict the future, we must go back to the…
Scholar
Hyun Woo “Chris” Lee
Visit scholar websiteNews | June 19, 2018
If you want to get to know Seattle, walk through it
Walking is ordinary. It is so ordinary, most of us do it without thinking: You put one foot in front of the other to get to the bus, to walk from your car to the office, to pick up something from the store. It requires only shoes — and, because we live in Seattle, some…
News | May 2, 2024
Immunocompromised and at-risk Americans feel left behind as COVID restrictions disappear
Written by Clayton Sandell for Scripps News Four years after the COVID pandemic swept across the U.S., mask mandates are no more. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention no longer recommends a five-day isolation after a positive test, and travel restrictions have been lifted. But for millions of Americans like Jessica Spangler’s 9-year-old daughter,…
Course | URBDP 586
Implementation in Preservation Planning
Practical experience in identifying, documenting, evaluating and developing strategies for protection of historic resources, building on introductory theories, methods, and practices. Develops skills critical to preservation planning via research, fieldwork, and writing. Prerequisite: introductory course in preservation.News | May 8, 2018
In a concrete jungle, one architect pushes for plywood for giants
Timber is coming back in the Northwest. I don’t mean old growth forests. Those have been holding steady for a couple of decades.I mean architecture. Cross-laminated timber, or CLT, is a material a true modernist can love — and not just for furniture and finishes. It’s very strong, and too beautiful to hide inside walls….
News | March 31, 2020
In the coronavirus crisis, who gets to be outside?
As the first weekend of spring began, nearly 100 million Americans had just been ordered to stay home to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus. Even the most stringent stay-at-home orders in the U.S. currently allow people to go outside, which is providing multitudinous benefits in this time of great uncertainty. Taking a short walk, roll,…
News | September 9, 2024
In Washington’s closest elections, volunteers go door-to-door to ‘rehab’ faulty ballots
Reported by Scott Greenstone for KUOW/NPR On a mid-August afternoon in Seattle, Lisa McCrummen walked around Phinney Ridge knocking on doors — but her neighbors were not home. “‘Your neighbor stopped by to make sure your primary election ballot is being counted,’” McCrummen wrote on a note. McCrummen left notes like this all afternoon at…
News | January 27, 2022
Incorporating Ride-Sourcing Service into ADA Paratransit
In early December 2021, PacTrans PI and Professor of Urban Design and Planning at the University of Washington, Qing Shen, and a Graduate Research Assistant in the Interdisciplinary PhD Program in Urban Design and Planning at the Uni246 versity of Washington, Lamis Ashour, delivered a webinar titled, Incorporating Ride-Sourcing Service into ADA Paratransit: Opportunities and Challenges…
Course | PUBPOL 560, URBDP 560
Inequality, Governance, and Policy in the Metropolitan Region
Explores national/local urban policy concerning the major problems confronting cities and metropolitan regions today. Economic globalization, income inequality, and metropolitan decentralization shape the urban agenda, the context for urban policy, and the analytic focus of the course. A project allows the exploration of strategies for intervention.News | July 11, 2019
Informal housing, poverty, and legacies of apartheid in South Africa
“Ten percent of all South Africans — the majority white — owns more than 90 percent of national wealth… Some 80 percent of the population — overwhelmingly black — owns nothing at all.” — New York Times On April 27, 1994, Nelson Mandela and the African National Congress (ANC) won the first multiracial democratic election…
Course | URBDP 466
Infrastructure and Community Facilities
Issues and methods associated with planning for parks, schools, drainage, sewerage, utilities, libraries, solid waste, and transportation. Covers their relationship to comprehensive plans, project permitting, and impact assessment. Financing, regulating, and relationships to social, environmental, and economic goals are discussed.Course | URBDP 566
Infrastructure and Community Facilities
Issues and methods associated with planning for parks, schools, drainage, sewerage, utilities, libraries, solid waste, and transportation. Covers their relationship to comprehensive plans, project permitting, and impact assessment. Financing, regulating, and relationships to social, environmental, and economic goals are discussed.Course | IPM 503
Infrastructure Finance
Covers how to pay for infrastructure, including planning, budgeting, and public/private partnerships. Examines the relationships between infrastructure finance, urban form, and sustainability; local government finance, budget accountability, and equity issues; and infrastructure investments in changing economic climates, forms of finance available for infrastructure, collective decision-making, and alternative forms of project delivery.Degree Program
Infrastructure Planning & Management
Well-planned infrastructure strengthens the sustainability and livability of our cities and communities. University of Washington's online Master of Infrastructure Planning & Management degree prepares you to lead the development of the next generation of critical infrastructure systems — resilient, secure and accessible.
Visit program websiteNews | July 19, 2021
Integrating solutions to adapt cities for climate change
A new article explores how record climate extremes are reducing urban livability, compounding inequality, and threatening infrastructure. Co-authored by Marina Alberti, Professor of Urban Design and Planning at the University of Washington; Brenda B Lin, Alessandro Ossola, Erik Andersson, Xuemei Bai, Cynnamon Dobbs, Thomas Elmqvist, Karl L Evans, Niki Frantzeskaki, Richard A Fuller, Kevin J Gaston,…
News | September 21, 2021
Interdisciplinary course helps empower the local community
Professors in the University of Washington’s College of Built Environments have created an interdisciplinary, graduate-level course, the McKinley Futures Nehemiah Studio, that combines architecture, landscape architecture, urban planning and design, and real estate principles into a groundbreaking opportunity for the local African American community as well as the students who participate in it. The studio…
Degree Program
Interdisciplinary Urban Design & Planning (PhD)
This program brings together faculty from disciplines ranging from Architecture to Sociology to focus on the interdisciplinary study of urban problems and interventions. Covering scales from neighborhoods to metropolitan areas, the program addresses interrelationships between the physical environment, the built environment, and the social, economic, and political institutions and processes that shape urban areas. The…
Visit program websiteCourse | CEP 200
Introduction to Community, Environment & Planning
Introduction to central themes of major. Opportunities to engage in community action and planning process, while developing ecological literacy. Lectures, discussions, and critical writing exercises combine to increase knowledge and interest in these fields. Emphasis on developing community of learners in and out of classroom setting.Course | URBDP 404 / URBDP 504
Introduction to Geographic Information Systems
Provides students with introductory practical knowledge of Geographical Information Systems and Science for current and future coursework in urban planning.Course | URBDP 585
Introduction to Historic Preservation Planning
Theories, methods, and practices associated with historic preservation planning. Overview of preservation planning programs at federal, state, and local levels. Introduction to tools and methods needed to identify, document, evaluate, and plan for protection of historic properties. Provides opportunity to learn fundamentals of preservation planning through practical experience.Course | URBDP 539
Introduction to Indigenous Planning
Introduces key concepts within Indigenous Planning, and the logistical challenges in conducting planning activities by both tribal and non-tribal governments in the U.S. Examines case studies to understand how planning projects and policies impact housing, tribal economics, and the environment.Course | URBDP 450
Introduction to Land Use, Growth Management, and Environmental Planning
Provides an understanding of contemporary land use issues (including sprawl, smart growth, new urbanism, transit-oriented development, and Washington's Growth Management Act) and examines their environmental impact and social welfare implications. Analyzes best-practice techniques of growth management.Course | URBDP 562
Introduction to Neighborhood Planning and Community Development
Provides introduction to basic practices in neighborhood planning and community development, including theoretical/historical bases; developing neighborhood plans/projects; indicators and evaluation of neighborhood quality; community participation; institutional framework, ethical dilemmas, and professional roles. Addresses current issues, including Seattle's experience, NIMBYism, security, neighborhood character, housing segregation, etc.Course | URBDP 552 / R E 510
Introduction to Real Estate
Provides a basic overview of the participants, processes, workings of different components of the real estate industry (including a variety of uses spanning from residential, office, retail and industrial to specialized) as well as the quantitative components of the real estate decision-making. Additionally, students are introduced to an overview of construction management, sustainability, corporate services, property law and ethics.Course | R E 416/516
Introduction to Real Estate Economics/Market Analysis
Introduces students to the urban land market in which sites and properties are embedded Covers five areas: basic economic concepts critical in the understanding of real estate markets; urban economy; land rent theory; locational analysis and decision making; and market analysis.Course | URBDP 423 / URBDP 523
Introduction to Urban Design
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. Offered: Sp.Course | URBDP 300
Introduction to Urban Planning
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.Course | URBDP 200
Introduction to Urbanization: Planning and Designing Alternative Urban Futures
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.News | May 13, 2024
Is Seattle a walkable city? Pedestrian death rates show otherwise
Written by Jadenne Radoc Cabahug for Crosscut. Washington was the first state to commit to zero traffic fatalities. But 24 years later, deaths are at an all-time high and officials are reevaluating. Twenty-four years after Washington became the first state to commit to decreasing pedestrian traffic deaths to zero, the numbers continue to move in…
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James Young
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Jan Whittington
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Jeff Hou
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Jeffrey Karl Ochsner
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Jennifer Dee
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Jerry V. Finrow
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Jill Sterrett
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Jim Nicholls
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John Schaufelberger
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Join Urban@UW in creating innovative solutions for city dwellers, today and into the future.
Support Urban@UW Urban@UW extends the understanding of cities—from people, buildings, infrastructure, and energy to economics, policy, culture, art, and nature—beyond individual topics to dynamically interdependent systems, so that we can holistically design and steward vibrant and welcoming cities in which future generations will thrive. Urban@UW works with scholars, policymakers, and community stakeholders to develop cross-disciplinary…
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Julia Nagele
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Julie Angeley
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Julie Howe
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Julie Kriegh
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Julie M. Johnson
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Julie Parrett
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Just Sustainabilities in a Post-Pandemic World: Virtual Symposium on May 27th
The COVID-19 pandemic has tested our cities’ adaptability and resilience and dug deeper holes in cities’ social, environmental and physical fabric. As we come out of the pandemic, we need to re-think how the city fabric functions. Planning for the post-pandemic city requires a careful understanding of the implications of the COVID19 pandemic on pre-existing…
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Karen TH Chen
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Kate Simonen
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Kathryn Rogers Merlino
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Keith Harris
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Ken Smith: Going Beyond the Metrics
In case you missed it. Ken Smith’s lecture, a part of the UW Landscape Architecture Lecture Series on May 14th 2015. The lecture focuses on ideas and craft in creating contemporary landscapes particularly at a larger scale. A number of new or recent projects are discussed as case studies. It addresses issues of scale, infrastructure…
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Ken Tadashi Oshima
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Ken Yocom
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Ken-Yu Lin
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Kimo Griggs
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King County wants to buy motels for emergency, affordable housing
On a chilly Monday afternoon, case manager Richard Gibson walked through the courtyard at Martin Court in the southwest corner of Seattle’s Georgetown neighborhood. The weather in the days before had taken a cold turn, and the colorful children’s playground he strode past sat vacant. Lining either side of the courtyard and parking lot were…
News | May 31, 2019
King County’s condo prices continue to fall as market gets new inventory
Though home prices in the region are not climbing as dramatically as they once were, that doesn’t mean that they’re falling. According to the latest Northwest Multiple Listing Service report, home prices for completed sales in April (the last month for which they have data) rose 2.4% across the 23-county system. Eight counties reported double-digit gains, as the hot market…
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Kurt E. Kruckeberg
Visit scholar websiteNews | June 19, 2017
Lake Union building earns awards for energy savings
Henbart LLC announced recently that a year-long study led by the University of Washington’s Integrated Design Lab confirmed that upgrading to View® Dynamic Glass technology in the Lake Union Building significantly saved energy and improved the tenant experience. The report verified annual energy savings of 17.7 percent or 351,604 kWh – roughly $28,000 a year…
Course | URBDP 550
Land Use, Growth Management and Environmental Planning
Provides an understanding of contemporary land use issues (including sprawl, smart growth, new urbanism, transit-oriented development, and Washington's Growth Management Act) and examines their environmental and social welfare implications. Analyzes best practice techniques of growth management.Degree Program
Landscape Architecture (BLA, MLA, dual MArch-MLA, dual MLA-MUP)
At the University of Washington, we strive to create a program that meets the complex social, environmental, political, and aesthetic challenges of our time. Our program emphasis on urban ecological design addresses the multiple dimensions of today’s environmental challenges – infrastructure, culture, ecological literacy, and human and environmental health. With our focus on the intersection…
Visit program websiteCourse | L ARCH 310
Landscape Architecture Field Sketching
Introductory level sketching of landscape subjects: natural and urban sites, plants, animals, architectural elements. Emphasis on perspective. Various media, including pencil, charcoal, markers, ink wash, water color.Course | L ARCH 505
Landscape Planning Studio
Examines the theory and techniques of landscape planning across a wide range of spatial scales and contexts in the design process. Explores the application of planning techniques and technologies by a specific design or planning project.Course | L ARCH 412
Landscape Representation II
Development of advanced skills of visual representation to communicate students' visions for urban ecological design including techniques used during the design process and for presentation.Course | L ARCH 523
Landscape Technology
Studio on rehabilitation of stressed urban landscapes. Focus varies but often deals with an analysis of the potentials in urban watershed and the study of alternative site designs for enhancing a range of landscape functions related to water quality. Taught by an interdisciplinary team.Scholar
Laure Heland
Visit scholar websiteCourse | R E 512
Leadership in the Built Environment
Focuses on leadership principles applicable to the real estate and the built environment and helps students conduct self-assessments to understand their strengths and ways they can apply them. Addresses both organizational leadership and leadership of construction processes.Course | URBDP 580
Legal and Administrative Framework for Planning
Political, legal, and administrative institutions closely related to the planning process. Issues of devolution of authority and public representation and participation. Legal basis for planning and associated regulation.News | August 16, 2021
Lincoln Institute of Land Policy honors UW College of Built Environments faculty, Nehemiah Studio for curriculum on mitigating gentrification
The Nehemiah Studio, a UW class on mitigating gentrification in Seattle’s Central District designed by Rachel Berney, Donald King and Al Levine with support from College of Built Environments Dean Renée Cheng, has been honored by the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy. The course supports joint efforts by the college and the Nehemiah Initiative Seattle to train graduate students to help mitigate displacement in…
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Lingzi Wu
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Livable City Year and Tacoma finalize partnership
Throughout the 2017-2018 academic year, 349 University of Washington students and 26 UW faculty members worked with staff and community members from the City of Tacoma on projects to advance livability and sustainability in the city. The year-long partnership between Tacoma and UW Livable City Year (LCY) provided the city with university resources to tackle…
News | June 13, 2019
Livable City Year celebrates partnership with City of Bellevue
This year’s Livable City Year partnership with the City of Bellevue mobilized 285 students from a variety of schools and colleges, representing all three UW campuses, to work on 30 projects in the city. The students’ research, findings and recommendations were on display at a celebration at Bellevue City Hall on Monday, June 3. The Bellevue City…
News | August 25, 2020
Livable City Year research leads to publication on university–community partnerships
Anne Taufen, associate professor of Urban Studies at UW Tacoma, and Anneka Olson, graduate of UW Tacoma’s Community Planning MA program, recently published an article examining the Livable City Year program, a university-community partnership at the University of Washington. This work was partially supported through Urban@UW. “Especially in this time of polarization, with problems like…
News | November 14, 2019
Livable City Year: Jennifer Otten & Branden Born
Food brings people together. In the case of the academic collaboration between Jennifer Otten and Branden Born, so did food policy. Otten, an associate professor in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences and core faculty in the Nutritional Sciences Program within the School of Public Health, met Born, an associate professor in Urban Design and Planning…
News | August 30, 2024
Living in tree-filled neighborhoods may reduce risk of heart disease, study shows
Written by Kaitlin Sullivan and Anne Thompson for NBC News Living in a tree-filled neighborhood may be as beneficial to the heart as regular exercise, new research shows. Researchers at the University of Louisville designed a clinical trial that followed hundreds of people living in six low- to middle-income neighborhoods in South Louisville, Kentucky. They…
News | August 17, 2021
Living Landscapes Incubator Request for Proposals
The Living Landscapes Incubator is a new grant program, developed as a collaboration among the College of Built Environments, the College of the Environment, Urban@UW, and the School of Public Health. Planning and designing for landscapes, environments, and infrastructure that support sustainable, livable, and equitable communities is a key challenge of our time. With generous funding from…
Course | B E 230
Living with Disasters: Design for Resilience
Studies types of environmental hazards (e.g., earthquakes, flooding, climate change) and the ways people can build more resilient communities. Pre-major introduction to BE disciplines: architecture, landscape architecture, urban planning, construction management. Students apply concepts in a Seattle-based scenario project.News | October 1, 2024
Loneliness in Washington tops national average
Reported by Christine Clarridge and Alex Fitzpatrick for Axios. More than 43% of Washingtonians reported feeling lonely at least sometimes, according to the latest data from the U.S. Census Bureau. Why it matters: Loneliness isn’t just a feeling; it’s associated with serious mental and physical health impacts, including elevated likelihood of developing diabetes, cardiac risk,…
News | January 19, 2024
Longevity without vitality: Americans live longer but endure declining health
From KEPR TV By Janae Bowens WASHINGTON (TND) – Americans are living longer, but are also sick for more of their lives. Analysis from the Wall Street Journal‘s Alex Janin shows the estimated average of life spent in good health declined to 83.6% in 2021, which is down from 85.8% in 1990. This is all…
News | March 13, 2024
Looking inward for pollution In his latest research, Dr. Dan Jaffe looks to the kitchen as a source for indoor pollution in the home.
Excerpted from the University of Washington- Bothell website. For more than 30 years, Dr. Dan Jaffe has spent his career researching outdoor air pollution and its many sources — from wildfires to fossil fuels. In recent years, however, his curiosity has shifted inward as he looks to answer the question: “How clean is our indoor…
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Louisa Iarocci
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Lynne Manzo
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Making Transit More Transparent: Catching Up with Kona Farry
Kona Farry is an undergraduate student at UW studying Community, Environment, and Planning. Last year Farry created a website (https://www.pantographapp.com) showing the real-time locations of buses, ferries, and trains in the greater Seattle area that received a lot of interest. (Also, since the coronavirus outbreak he has created an app to help remind people to…
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Manish Chalana
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Margaret O’Mara
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Marina Alberti
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Mark Purcell
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Marty Curry
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Mary Roderick
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Mehlika Inanici
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Melissa Best
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Meredith Clausen
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Metropolitan Planning and Development in Developing Countries
Examination of the nature and causes of urban planning and management problems in developing countries and exploration of alternative approaches to solve some of these problems.Scholar
Michael Lewis
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Minor in Urban Ecological Design
The Department of Landscape Architecture’s focus on Urban Ecological Design. This design practice integrates site, landscape, and people in a way that is functional, artful, and engaging. Urban Ecological Design is an interdisciplinary approach that addresses emerging local, regional, and global issues in five key areas: (1) design as activism, (2) design for ecological infrastructure,…
Visit program websiteNews | January 31, 2016
Monthly Wrap up January 2016
It’s been a great start to 2016. UW Alumni association and History Department put together a woderful history lecture series: Excavating Seattle’s histories: Peoples, politics, and place check out details and videos here> The CBE also hosted a number of great speakers and events including SUSTAINING JAPAN: 3.11 FIVE YEARS ON lecture and panel discussion…
News | July 19, 2024
More Than 1 Trillion Microbes Live Inside the Average Tree Trunk
Reported by Erik Stokstad for Science The wood inside the average tree might seem barren, but it’s home to an incredibly diverse array of life. More than 1 trillion fungi, bacteria, and other microbes live inside the average trunk, according to the most comprehensive survey yet conducted, comprising unique communities specialized to various tree species….
Degree Program
MS Architecture in Design Technology
The Master of Science in Architecture / Design Technology program provides the opportunity for architects, engineers, and other qualified individuals to pursue advance research on topics that include design computing, building performance simulation, sustainable systems and design, high-performance buildings, materials and fabrication, structural analysis, life cycle analysis, food-water-energy nexus, and other related topics.
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MS Architecture in History and Theory
The MS in Architecture stream in History and Theory provides the opportunity for architects, recent architecture graduates and other qualified individuals to pursue advanced research on the history and theory of architecture applying a variety of historical and critical lenses. Although general faculty interests are in nineteenth and twentieth century architecture, the program is broadly…
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Nancy Rottle
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Nathan Luce
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Need anti-withdrawal meds? In King County, call this 24/7 hotline
Reported by Eilis O’Neil for KUOW and NPR News People addicted to opioids in King County can call a new hotline and get a prescription right away for a drug that can help. Buprenorphine reduces symptoms of withdrawal and can help people stay off fentanyl and other opioids. Buprenorphine “does cut overdose risk by 50%,…
Course | R E 514
Negotiations and Conflict Resolution in the Built Environment
Overview of negotiation theories, approaches and tactics. Application of deal making procedures for various aspects of real estate decision making processes and audiences (e.g. government, community groups, real estate organizations and partners). Analysis of conflict resolution techniques, mediation, arbitration, etc.News | August 25, 2016
NEH Awards $179,000 for Urban-Nature Summer Institute at UW
The National Endowment for the Humanities has awarded nearly $180,000 for a new summer institute on the urban environment at the Simpson Center for the Humanities at the University of Washington. The institute, City/Nature: Urban Environmental Humanities, examines how Western cultures have historically viewed city and nature as separate—and how a more integrative understanding can…
News | March 15, 2024
Neighborhood Poverty May Impact Women’s Ovarian Reserves
Reported by Lori Solomon at Health Day News FRIDAY, March 15, 2024 — Living in a neighborhood with greater poverty in adulthood is tied to lower ovarian reserve, according to a study published online March 5 in Menopause. Anwesha Pan, from the University of Washington in Seattle, and colleagues aimed to examine the association between…
News | November 21, 2019
New apps help builders reduce carbon footprint
Two new widgets out of the Pacific Northwest aim to address what their developers say is a pressing need to begin using less carbon-intensive building materials. They work like meal-tracking apps, only for new construction. Input: Materials used in the building. Output: The amount of carbon dioxide used to produce the materials, called embodied carbon….
News | March 10, 2020
New Bill that May Pave the Way for Seattle Seismic Upgrades
Public officials for decades have promised to deal with the old brick buildings in Seattle that could crumble with deadly consequences when a major earthquake hits — and have produced nothing but paper plans. Now some advocates hope a new attempt could at last lead to action. A state bill that could help building owners finance…
News | August 15, 2016
New book ‘Cities that Think Like Planets’ imagines urban regions resilient to change
Marina Alberti is a professor in the Department of Urban Design and Planning, which is part of the University of Washington College of Built Environments. Alberti directs the college’s Urban Ecology Research Laboratory and the Graduate School’s interdisciplinary doctoral program in urban design and planning. She answered some questions about her new book, “Cities that…
News | January 11, 2018
New book ‘City Unsilenced’ explores protest and public space
Jeff Hou is a professor of landscape architecture and adjunct professor of urban design and planning in the University of Washington’s College of Built Environments. His research, teaching and practice focus on community design, design activism, cross-cultural learning and engaging marginalized communities in planning and design. Hou has written extensively on the agency of citizens…
News | June 5, 2019
New documentary examines the impact of gentrification in Seattle
If you’ve been in our area for any length of time, you can probably recognize the changes occurring not only in downtown Seattle but across Western Washington. Many feel that gentrification of neighborhoods is stifling cultural communities and their history. On the Brink, a new documentary produced by University of Washington’s Foster School of Business…
News | February 1, 2024
New nonpartisan AI nonprofit TrueMedia, led by Oren Etzioni, is making a political deepfake detector
Published in GeekWire By Todd Bishop A new nonprofit, nonpartisan technology organization called TrueMedia is developing an AI-powered tool to detect deepfake videos, photos, and audio, aiming to combat political disinformation in the leadup to the 2024 elections. Founded and led by Oren Etzioni, University of Washington professor and former CEO of the Allen Institute…
News | May 12, 2016
New Project to Shine Light on Dark Places Around UW campus
Where do you walk on campus after dark, and which areas could benefit from better lighting? An interdisciplinary team of students, faculty and staff together with lighting design experts is asking the UW community those questions as part of a new plan to improve the efficiency and sustainability of outdoor lighting around the Seattle campus….
News | November 20, 2020
New report by UDP PhD Candidate Katie Idziorek: Toward Universal Access
Urban Design & Planning PhD candidate Katie Idziorek is a co-author on a significant new report published this month: Toward Universal Access: A Case Study in the Los Angeles and Puget Sound Regions. Read an excerpt below: Approximately 61 million U.S. adults—one quarter of the adult population—live with some form of disability. The Americans with Disabilities…
News | May 7, 2019
New study finds Seattle is even less prepared for mega quakes than previously thought
Scientists have found that the shaking likely to be generated by a massive earthquake on the Cascadia subduction zone is worse than previously thought—and Seattle’s current building codes aren’t equipped to handle it. The study, which was presented at the 2019 Seismological Society of America Annual Meeting last month, is based on the work of…
News | August 11, 2021
New UW collaboratory to support equitable and just climate action
An interdisciplinary group of University of Washington researchers has teamed with Front and Centered to create an innovative Collaboratory to promote just and equitable climate action. The Collaboratory aims to respond to climate change impacts with attention to equitable mitigation and adaptation solutions. It will feature three linked platforms to achieve this goal through a…
News | May 2, 2024
New York cities plagued by blackouts due to climate change, study finds
Written by Saul Elbein for The Hill. Climate change is pushing some New York City neighborhoods into dozens of nearly daylong blackouts per year, a new study has found. Large swaths of the state’s principal towns and cities faced repeated, protracted and dangerous weather-driven power outages between 2017 and 2020, according to findings published Wednesday in…
News | September 6, 2023
New York Is Full. And It’s the Housing Market’s Fault
Since last spring, roughly 100,000 asylum seekers have arrived in New York City. This is a city of immigrants, welcoming to immigrants, built by immigrants. People who were born abroad make up a third of New York’s population and own more than half of its businesses. Yet the city has struggled to accommodate this wave…
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Nicole DeNamur
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Nicole Huber
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Nikita Anderson
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Northwest innovators chase the dream of greener concrete
From The Seattle Times By Mike Lindblom PULLMAN — From a onetime speakeasy in North Seattle to a modern lab in the Palouse, inventors are testing recipes that make concrete less lethal to Earth’s climate. Most people understand that the world’s 1.4 billion fossil-fueled cars and trucks spew carbon dioxide, trapping heat in the atmosphere….
News | October 28, 2016
October Recap: Urban Transporation, Health, and Justice
October has seen a lot of research and engagement surrounding urban design, health, and transportation from University of Washington’s urban scholars and practitioners. Here at Urban@UW we’ve kicked off our Livable City Year program, reflected on our first full year of work and collaborations, and are planning for our symposium on Urban Environmental Justice in…
News | May 18, 2016
Office Hours with Britton Shephard
Britton Shepard is a Masters student in Landscape Architecture at the University of Washington, and will be graduating this June. He is currently wrapping up his thesis project, Site 1121: Field Notes, a public site exhibition of an abandoned lot that explored the history and identity of a landscape in an urban setting. The week-long…
News | March 29, 2024
Office-to-residential conversion is a trendy idea for downtown resurgence — but has big challenges
Originally published in Geekwire Written by Chuck Wolfe, longtime affiliate associate professor in College of Built Environments at the University of Washington. Office-to-residential conversions are frequent fodder in discussions of the post-pandemic city, downtown regeneration, and hopes to contain rising housing costs. Remote work is here to stay, especially in hybrid form in the tech-centric…
News | July 1, 2022
Once enslaved, this man helped build Tacoma; his great-granddaughter wants you to know him
He soldiered in the Civil War, helped build Tacoma, became a force in Washington politics and chased the Alaska Gold Rush. John N. Conna, a Black man who was enslaved for the first part of his life, did all of that once he gained his freedom — and more. But his story has mostly vanished…
News | July 16, 2020
Opportunities to engage UW faculty and students to address COVID-19
In recognition of the intense needs of local governments around COVID-19 response and recovery, the LCY program has compiled a list of existing UW courses whose faculty and students are seeking to assist local communities in COVID-related projects. Most projects can start in Autumn 2020 — some as early as Summer 2020. The list of…
News | August 2, 2021
Paratransit services for people with disabilities in the Seattle region during the COVID-19 pandemic: Lessons for recovery planning
A new journal article titled, “Paratransit services for people with disabilities in the Seattle region during the COVID-19 pandemic: Lessons for recovery planning” co-written by Urban Design & Planning PhD students Lamis Abu Ashour, Xun Fang, and Yiyuan Wang; as well as Andrew Dannenberg, Affiliate Professor of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences and Urban Design…
Course | ARCH 458, ART H 494, JSIS A 433
Paris: Architecture and Urbanism
Spans the architectural history of Paris, from its Gallic, pre-Roman origins in the second century BCE through the work of twenty-first century architects. Focuses on changing patterns of the physical fabric of the city and its buildings, as seen within the context of the broader political, social, economic, and cultural history.News | September 16, 2016
PARK(ing) Day+ and Little Collective’s “Bees and Salmon”
Today you may notice some new public spaces in your neighborhood; but look fast, because they will be gone by Sunday. Now a global phenomenon, PARK(ing) day is a few hours per year when cities endeavor to convert city spaces into public places called parklets. The parklet’s origins are tied to ReBar, a San Francisco…
News | November 27, 2018
Parks help cities – but only if people use them
Written by Thaisa Way, faculty director of Urban@UW and Professor in the Department of Landscape Architecture in the College of Built Environments. In cities, access to parks is strongly linked with better health for both people and neighborhoods. Children suffer higher rates of obesity when they grow up in urban areas without a park in easy reach. Because low-income neighborhoods have fewer green spaces, poorer…
Degree Program
PCE Certificate in Commercial Real Estate
Commercial real estate is the raw material of a region’s economy. The Seattle market is experiencing huge growth, which means both increased opportunity and heightened competition. Staying current and getting an insider’s perspective on the industry can give you the edge you need to succeed. In this three-course program, we’ll explore commercial real estate as…
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PCE Certificate in Facility Management
Facility managers today play an important role in many organizations, where they contribute to overall goals such as reducing costs, improving productivity and pursuing sustainability. This three-course certificate program imparts comprehensive knowledge of operations, maintenance, budgeting and business-planning issues related to facility management. You’ll also learn about important safety, security and environmental factors in the…
Visit program websiteCourse | URBDP 576 / CET 586
Pedestrian Travel, Land Use, and Urban Form
Seminar concentrating on walking as a mode of transportation in cities and city-regions, including social, cognitive, and perceptual dimensions of pedestrian movement and behavior theory.News | August 20, 2024
Permeable pavement could help cities be more resilient to flooding
Reported by Stéphane Blais for La Presse Canadienne and the Toronto Sun. Pilot projects are being developed across Quebec to make parking lots, bike paths or portions of streets more resilient to climate change. To make cities more resilient to flooding caused by climate change, researchers are developing more permeable pavements to allow water to…
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Pete Stone
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Peter Cohan
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Phil Hurvitz
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Planning as a Profession
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 highlight key issues, skills used, and tips to entering the field. Focuses on professional practice rather than analytical methods or theory.Course | URBDP 564
Planning History, Theory, and Ethics
Examines major historical landmarks since the Civil War (urban, suburban, and rural, physical and social-economic); theoretical alternatives (rationalism, pluralism-advocacy, critical theory, bio-regionalism, dissipative models); and ethical issues (such as distributive justice and principles of professional conduct).Course | L ARCH 481
Planning Urban Green Infrastructure Networks for Healthy Cities
Explores the planning of green infrastructures to maximize ecosystems services and support more compact and livable communities. Credit/no-credit only.News | July 28, 2023
Plans Develop for High-Speed Rail in the PNW
With a growing population in the Pacific Northwest, the call for better public transportation heightens. This March, Washington’s State Legislature signed off on a transportation milestone, allocating $150 million to a high-speed connection between Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia. Though this funding could reduce congestion, cut carbon emissions, and better connect these coastal cities, a…
Course | L ARCH 423
Plant Identification & Management
Plants and the soil in which they grow are the living materials that form the foundational palette from which landscape architects work to design and manage landscapes. Learn to identify plants, their ecology and understand their maintenance requirements. Provides students with the opportunity to gain insight into the field of botany, biological complexity of plants and their structural contributions to urban ecology.News | October 11, 2024
Pollinator Village Built by Future Designers
Reported by the College of Built Environments at the University of Washington. Photo by Alex Blair. This past summer, the College of Built Environments (CBE) partnered with Sawhorse Revolution, a Seattle-based nonprofit dedicated to fostering confident, community-driven youth through the power of carpentry and craft, to host a transformative three-week intensive program on campus. Fifteen…
News | May 5, 2020
Population Health Initiative announces award of 21 COVID-19 rapid response grants
The University of Washington Population Health Initiative announced the award of approximately $350,000 in COVID-19 rapid response grants to 21 different faculty-led teams. These teams are composed of individuals representing 10 different schools and colleges. Funding was partially matched by additional school, college and departmental funds, bringing the total value of these awards to roughly $820,000. “A…
Course | URBDP 446
Practical Experience
Off-campus internship under academic supervision in situations useful to the education of planners, such as public/private planning and design offices, projects related to the environment, cross-cultural matters, and decision making. Assistance in identifying appropriate projects.Course | URBDP 587
Preservation and the Vernacular Environment
Exploration of theoretical, methodological, and practical issues related to the preservation of vernacular architecture and cultural landscapes in the United States.Course | R E 542
Private – Public Project Finance
Explores creative ways of project financing through public and private partnerships in the form of incentives (e.g. TIF, LIHTC, Brownfield development incentives, etc.) currently offered by different government levels throughout the USA. Prepares to identify the incentives for a project and structure a deal package based on a project's parameters.News | May 31, 2022
Professor & Founding Director of Urban@UW, Thaïsa Way retires from the University of Washington
In June 2022, Professor Thaïsa Way will be retiring and redirecting from the Department of Landscape Architecture at the University of Washington as she pursues her work at Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collections, a research institute of Harvard University. Since joining the faculty in 2007, Thaïsa has served as educator, mentor, and friend to…
News | September 17, 2020
Project Highlight: Seattle Street Sink
For many living unsheltered, access to a place to wash up is hard to come by. During the pandemic, it is more important than ever to have accessible hygiene stations. The Real Change Advocacy Department partnered with University of Washington College of Built Environments faculty to design and install environmentally friendly “street sinks”. On May…
Course | ENV H 538, URBDP 538
Public Health and the Built Environment
Examines how the design of communities and land use and transportation decision have positive and adverse effects on health. Considers built environment impacts on physical activity, obesity, air quality, injuries, mental health, social capital, and environmental justice; and explores interventions to promote healthy community design.Course | URBDP 538 / ENV H 538
Public Health and the Built Environment
Examines how the design of communities and land use and transportation decision have positive and adverse effects on health. Considers built environment impacts on physical activity, obesity, air quality, injuries, mental health, social capital, and environmental justice; and explores interventions to promote healthy community design.News | September 21, 2022
Q&A: Exploring How the Design of the Built Environment Affects Our Health and Well-Being
How does the design of the built environment – such as houses, schools, workplaces, streets, parks, transportation systems, and urban form – affect our health and well-being? To explore these issues, editors Nisha D. Botchwey, Andrew Dannenberg, and Howard Frumkin, recently published the second edition of “Making Healthy Places: Designing and Building for Well-being, Equity,…
Scholar
Qing Shen
Visit scholar websiteCourse | URBDP 520
Quantitative Methods in Urban Design and Planning
Methods of statistical and mathematical analysis in design and planning. Emphasizes the use of computer packages for analyzing urban data. Regression, matrix methods, cohort-survival populations models with examples solved on microcomputers. Prerequisite: college mathematics and basic course in probability and statistics.News | May 4, 2016
Quick Recap: A Busy April!
April saw a lot of wonderful developments here at the University of Washington, here’s a quick recap: Our first Office Hours interview with John Vidale (more coming of these soon!) UW researchers continued to explore the effects of a $15/hr minimum wage. PBS premiered their 10 Parks that Changed America program featuring our own Thaisa…
News | May 29, 2016
Quick Recap: Here’s What Happened in May!
May saw a lot of wonderful events, visitors, and research coming out of the University of Washington community. Here’s a quick recap: The CBE PhD Program looked at the future of cities Patricia Romero Lankao visited to talk about the human dimension of climate change Seattle’s “diverse neighborhoods” are actually surprisingly segregated New lighting research…
News | April 17, 2024
Quiet! Our Loud World Is Making Us Sick
Written by Joanne Silberner for Scientific America. Ten years ago Jamie Banks started working from her home in the town of Lincoln, Mass. After a couple of months, the continuing racket from landscaping machines began to feel unendurable, even when she was inside her home. “This horrible noise was going on for hours every day, every…
News | November 27, 2023
RAC projects learning together, building momentum
Co-creation sessions with Duwamish Valley community members and stakeholders that focused on identifying priorities, values, and aspirations for community open space in their neighborhoods. (Credit: Maron Bernardino) After their launch in spring of this year, the two inaugural projects of the Research to Action Collaboratory have been making progress in key ways. Supported by Urban@UW,…
Course | URBDP 514
Race and Social Justice Seminar
This course will explore concepts of race, racism, class, social justice, and make explicit their connections between design and planning. It does so to build student understanding about how, and the degree to which, these disciplines have historically addressed these topics, and where they stand currently. This exploration will include progress made, challenges, and overt actions that have and may continue to work in racist and unjust ways.Scholar
Rachel Berney
Visit scholar websiteNews | February 6, 2021
Racial equity within built environment design practice
Originally written by Jake Minden, MLA Candidate 2021. In my final year of the MLA program, I’ve been given the opportunity to participate in the Applied Research Consortium (ARC), a new program within the college that links graduate students, faculty members, and firms to research a topic that aligns student interest, faculty expertise, and firm…
News | January 5, 2016
Re-Imaging Urban Scholarship: Differencing the Data
Winter Quarter 2016 | HUM 597E | 1 credit, C/NC Instructor:Thaisa Way (Landscape Architecture) Meeting Dates: Friday, January 15, 12-1:20 pm (Startup Hall) Friday, January 29, 12-1:20 pm (Henry Art Gallery) Tuesday, February 2, and Wednesday, February 3 (Participation encouraged as feasible, Center for Urban Horticulture) Thursday, February 4, 9-10:20 am (eScience Institute, Physics/Astronomy Tower)…
News | April 6, 2016
Reading List for Edgar Pieterse Visit 4/12
In anticipation of Edgar Pieterse’s visit we thought you might enjoy a video lecture and in-depth examination to get a feel for Pieterse’s research and thinking. How can we transcend slum urbanism in Africa? – Edgar Pieterse, University of Cape Town – This short video delivered by Edgar Pieterse and UN-Habitat offers a very accessible…
News | May 7, 2016
Reading List for Patricia Romero Lankao Visit 5/11
In anticipation of Patricia Romero Lankao’s visit we thought you might enjoy these pieces to get a feel for her research and thinking. Water in Mexico City: What Will Climate Change Bring to Its History of Water-Related Hazards and Vulnerabilities?—This research paper delves into the history and evolution of water related risks and crises in…
Course | URBDP 370
Reading the City
Comprehending cities as reflection of individual reader and social/cultural context. Skills for analyzing everyday, visible evidence of the city. Topics include self-identity with place, city, image and perception, visual design analysis; and place as representation of culture. Extensive writing, multiple texts, collaborative work in groups and fieldwork.Degree Program
Real Estate (BS, MS, Minor, Cert, PCE)
Our mission is: To be one the world’s leading academic centers in real estate, through the promotion of excellence in research and educational programs in an intellectually stimulating, creative and innovative environment and that engages with and empowers real estate leaders and the community to transform our built environment To achieve this we aim to:…
Visit program websiteCourse | URBDP 551 / R E 517
Real Estate Asset Management
Focuses on the fundamentals and structure of asset management from a value improvement perspective. Students are educated on the proactive manner asset managers need to respond to changing tenant needs and competitive market condition, while focusing on the asset appreciation throughout the ownership cycle (acquisition, leasing and disposition).Course | R E 550 / URBDP 578
Real Estate Development
Introduction and survey of processes and people involved in developing real estate, including issues of site control, public/private approvals, feasibility analysis, project financing, design/construction, marketing, and asset management.Course | R E 363
Real Estate Development Process
Real estate development sits at the heart of the built environment, interacting with urban planners, landscape architects, architects, financiers, construction managers and end users. An understanding of the key decision making that underpins development is a vital part in understanding what is developed, where and when.Course | URBDP 513 / R E 551
Real Estate Development Studio
The Real Estate Development studio is a required for the MSRE option in RE Development. The focus of the course has been traditionally on competitions. The course will continue to focus in commercial real estate competitions (NAIOP) and projects in the autumn quarter, however a focus on affordable housing will be the emphasis while pursuing the Bank of America's affordable Housing Challenge in the winter and spring quarter.Course | URBDP 554 / R E 513
Real Estate Finance and Investment
Introduces students to basic real estate finance and institutional analysis allowing them to quantify the financial implications of real estate decisions. Topics include: basic time value of money, financial leverage, discounted cash flow analysis (properties and institutional portfolios), assessment of various real estate investment classes and distribution of proceeds to investorsCourse | URBDP 557 / R E 515
Real Estate Law
Provides overview of legal frameworks applicable to the real estate industry with specific focus on three principal types of real estate transactions: (1) buying and selling real estate; (2) commercial leases; and (3) financing secured by real estate. Includes discussion of governmental regulation of real estate (land use controls, environmental concerns, and housing regulation).Course | R E 360
Real Estate Market Analysis
The course is designed to introduce students to basic elements of real estate markets studies for different uses. It begins with an overview of the basic steps regardless of real estate use followed by the analysis of data sources, public policy issues affecting cities and their economy and software available to analyze different market patterns.Scholar
Rebecca Barnes
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Rebecca J. Walter
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Reflections on Urban Environmental Justice in a Time of Climate Change
On November 7th and 8th Urban@UW, in collaboration with the University of Washington’s Climate Impacts Group (CIG), hosted a symposium to begin transdisciplinary conversation on the multifaceted dynamics and consequences of Urban Environmental Justice in a Time of Climate Change (UEJ). Below are some reflections from this event, and a sample of the resources we’ll…
News | June 5, 2021
Regional survey reveals work, leisure habits during the pandemic
No commute, fewer interruptions from co-workers, and the ability to work longer hours — all were factors that boosted feelings of productivity among people who worked from home during the first several months of the pandemic. At the same time, according to new data from the University of Washington, those who felt less productive while…
News | September 16, 2024
Register Today for Urban@UW’s presentation at Climate Week NYC
Urban@UW is heading to the big apple for Climate Week NYC, the largest international conference of business leaders, political change makers, scientists, and civil society representatives working for climate action. Rachel Berney, Faculty Director, and Kate Landis, Program Manager, will present “Call Me, Maybe? University-Community Partnerships for a Greener Tomorrow” on Monday, 9/23, from 5-7PM….
News | December 23, 2020
Reimagining how we house the homeless beyond the shelter model
Originally written by Daniel Malone for The Seattle Times. Forty-one years ago, the Downtown Emergency Service Center (DESC) opened a large disaster-style homeless shelter in the former ballrooms of the Morrison Hotel in downtown Seattle. Every single night since, the Morrison shelter provided refuge to approximately 250 of Seattle’s most vulnerable people. That is…
News | June 17, 2024
Rekindling Our Relationship with Wildfire
Written for the Climate One podcast, hosted by Greg Dalton and Ariana Brocious. Summer is just around the corner, and in addition to travel and vacation, that also means peak wildfire season. Recently we’ve seen some of the most destructive wildfires in recorded history. The images on the news of orange skies and opaque haze…
Scholar
Renée Cheng
Visit scholar websiteNews | October 1, 2020
Renée Cheng: Change Agency, Value Change
Collisions are violent. The greater the mass or velocity of objects, the greater the energy released. The crises of the pandemic, economic crash, and social justice outcries are massive and still accelerating. In the wake of their collision, they will reveal new questions for our profession—and newfound energy to address them. Previously, architects pondering whether…
News | December 23, 2021
Renovated Mills Offer a Perk in the Age of Social Distancing: Space
On a typical evening at the Wool Factory, a renovated textile mill in Charlottesville, Va., guests savor local wine and hors d’oeuvres in a spacious courtyard decorated with festive string lights. Between bites and sips, their eyes might gaze at the factory, a 100-year-old red brick building where as many as 200 workers once made military…
Course | URBDP 512
Research Seminar
Planning, designing, and undertaking applied research in an urban setting. Framing, critically assessing, managing, and presenting research used in urban planning and design. Conceptual modeling of causal relationships, choice among experimental and quasi-experimental designs, and ethical and political implications of research undertakings. Exercises leading to a complete research design.Course | URBDP 509
Resources for Urban Planning
Provides an opportunity for students to explore and discuss issues of professional practice with practicing planners in an informal context. Questions posed by the participants usually emphasize practical aspects of working as planners.News | May 7, 2020
Rethinking the needs of a post-pandemic city
What will the future city look like after the pandemic? As political leaders around the country debate when to safely reopen the economy, city planners and designers have been pondering the implications of the pandemic for the future design of cities. Some suggest reducing urban density, while others predict a second wave of “white flight”…
Scholar
Rick Mohler
Visit scholar websiteNews | August 20, 2020
Rick Mohler receives Architect magazine 2020 R+D award for housing access prototype ‘ADUniverse’
Rick Mohler, UW associate professor of architecture, has won a 2020 R+D Award from Architect magazine for a project designed with Seattle city planner Nick Welch to give local homeowners the information they need to plan and build accessory dwelling units on their property. The two led a team at the UW Data Science for Social Good Program in creating a prototype…
Scholar
Rob Corser
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Rob Hutchison
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Rob Peña
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Rob Warnaca
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Ronald J. Kasprisin
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Sanaz Saeidi
Visit scholar websiteNews | July 29, 2021
Seattle Black faith leaders urge Mayor Durkan not to sign amended density bonus bill
Update: Council Bill 120081 was signed into law on by Mayor Durkan on July 9, 2021. Critics are still hoping that the amended law can be repealed. Critics are demanding a return to the 80% AMI threshold for affordable housing developed on land owned by religious institutions. It was a long-awaited day, one that was supposed to mark…
News | April 8, 2024
Seattle Civic Poet Shin Yu Pai launches new public poetry project on April 1
Originally reported in Northwest Asian Weekly by Kai Curry. National Poetry Month takes place every year in April. Its purpose is to increase awareness and appreciation of poetry nationwide. This year, Seattle residents will have the privilege and pleasure of discovering, installed throughout various parts of the city, poems by local poets on topics of…
News | November 19, 2020
Seattle could become the next 15-minute city
A growing number of politicians, urban planners and climate experts believes that 15 minutes is roughly the maximum amount of time city dwellers should spend getting to basic needs — without having to resort to a car. In the so-called “15-minute city,” nutritious food, libraries, health care, parks, cafés and other amenities should be within a short walk, bike ride or roll…
News | January 9, 2024
Seattle now has highest minimum wage of any major city in the United States
As of Jan. 1, Seattle hiked its minimum wage to $19.97 an hour for workers at larger companies like Starbucks. That’s the highest minimum wage of any major city in the U.S. Former labor leader David Rolf, who drove the original push for a higher minimum wage law in Seattle and SeaTac around a decade…
News | July 10, 2024
Seattle Nurses Take Heart Care to the Streets
Written by Christine Clarridge for Axios. Two Harborview nurses are leaving the hospital to make “house calls” at tents, bus stops and cars to bring life-saving heart care to people where they are. Why it matters: The Community Heart Failure Program not only stabilizes patients’ cardiac health but also reduces hospital admissions, lengths of stay…
News | February 13, 2021
Seattle startup’s bright idea: High-tech crosswalk could signal a way to improve pedestrian safety
On a rainy, foggy night in Seattle, an incident in a crosswalk changed the path that Janie Bube was on. A University of Washington student at the time, Bube was walking near the Burke-Gilman Trail when she was hit by a bicyclist in December 2018. Nobody was hurt, but Bube was rattled enough to immediately…
News | May 7, 2024
Seattle-area housing market picks up, but buyers feel the squeeze
Written by Heidi Grover for The Seattle Times The Seattle area’s spring housing market continued to heat up in April, with more activity and higher home prices across the region, particularly in King County. The number of new listings and home sales climbed throughout the Puget Sound region in April, a typical seasonal uptick. But…
News | November 29, 2022
Seattle’s cooling real estate market widens budget shortfall
City officials had to rework the budget this month after new forecasts showed Seattle will likely bring in tens of millions of dollars less than previously expected over the next two years, including a significant drop in real estate-related tax revenue. As inflation persists, interest rates remain high and many people find themselves locked out…
News | October 24, 2019
Seattle’s treasured P-Patch community gardens face uncertain future
Have you stumbled on a P-Patch community garden in your neighborhood? These beehives of gardening and community populate every corner of Seattle. Both the gardens and the people are as diverse as the neighborhoods they serve. From sprawling production farms to tiny lots, each provides a green respite, an open and interactive space. To those…
News | April 26, 2024
Seattle’s troubled past and present suggest a new approach to mental health
Written by Will James, Sydney Brownstone, and Esme Jimenez as part of the series “Lost Patients” for KUOW, an NPR Station. Edward Moore, a 32-year-old sailor, was discovered, near freezing and living in a tattered tent on the shore near current day Seattle in 1854. At the time, Washington was still a territory and Seattle…
Course | ARCH 560
Seminar on Architectural Theories
Recent developments in architectural theory, urban design theory, criticism, and the methodology of criticism.News | September 29, 2016
September Recap – News, Big Data, and Monthly Hightlights
September is nearly gone, but this was not a very sleepy month. The University of Washington has started the new school year and the past month has seen some tremendous developments for urban thinking and the City of Seattle. KQED published a piece about urban heat islands and how changes in landcover from hard-scapes and…
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Shannon Affholter
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Sharon E. Sutton
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Shawn Stankewich
Visit scholar websiteNews | September 13, 2024
Shhh! The orcas can’t hear their dinner
Reported by John Ryan for KUOW/NPR When an orca hunts salmon, it clicks and buzzes. It sends a beam of sounds from its nasal passages into the murky depths in hopes that the sound waves will bounce back and reveal the location of its next nutritious meal. Those hopes are often dashed when noise from…
News | February 1, 2024
Should social media pay for addicting kids? Seattle schools lawsuit gains steam
Reported by KUOW Written by Sami West A year into Seattle Public Schools’ lawsuit against social media companies, the case is gaining traction. More than 50 school districts in Washington state — and dozens more across the country — have joined Seattle’s lawsuit. Seattle became the first district to sue social media platforms last January,…
Course | L ARCH 341
Site Design and Planning
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.Course | URBDP 424
Site Planning: Issues and Techniques
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.News | April 22, 2024
Skip the Traffic: Commuters Turn to Ferries to Get Around
Written by Linda Baker for The New York Times. As remote work reshapes the way people live and travel around cities, Americans are taking to the waterways not only as part of their commute but also as part of their daily lives. Some coastal cities are seeing ferry ridership bounce back after a decline during…
Scholar
Sofia Dermisi
Visit scholar websiteNews | January 4, 2022
Solar energy faces supply chain issues, policy woes
More companies and families are looking to solar power for electricity. But, like with many industries, supply chain issues are prominent. The U.S. Solar Market Insight report released this month by the Solar Energy Industries Association and Wood MacKenzie claims policy uncertainty and supply chain issues are driving solar price increases. This resulted in a…
News | July 19, 2018
Sound Transit rail stations could help solve our housing crisis
All of Sound Transit’s LINK light-rail stations offer opportunities to create vibrant, walkable mixed-use communities with significant amounts of new housing and reduced dependence on automobiles. We need a bold, regional approach to housing affordability, says Rick Mohler, Associate Professor at the Department of Architecture, and Al Levine, Associate Faculty at the Department of Urban Design…
Course | ARCH 445
South Asian Architecture I
Advanced introduction to precolonial architecture and urbanism of South Asia. Using methodologies of culture studies, examines select Hindu, Buddhist, and Islamic case studies on a comparative genealogy.Course | ARCH 446
South Asian Architecture II
Advanced introduction to colonial and postcolonial architecture and urbanism of South Asia. Using methodologies of culture studies, covers 1800 to present, emphasizing the years since India's independence in 1947.News | March 16, 2016
Southern Urbanisms: Edgar Pieterse and Jean-Marie Teno (1 cr. seminar)
This microseminar addresses the emergence of global urbanisms and especially southern urbanisms, focusing on the dramatic urbanization of Africa and the resurgence of African urban studies. The course is coordinated with the visits of the influential scholar of African urbanisms Edgar Pieterse (University of Cape Town) and renowned African filmmaker Jean-Marie Teno. Their visit provides…
News | July 16, 2024
SPARK Grant Recipients Win Big with a Social Justice Jacket
Reported by Kate Landis for Urban@UW What if a denim jacket could tell the stories of people impacted by housing inequality across the country? Resistive Threads, a project that was awarded a Urban@UW SPARK grant in 2023, was recently awarded a Honorable Mention at the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Designing Interactive Systems (DIS) conference,…
News | November 7, 2023
Spark Grants Complete Collaborative Research on Artificial Turf, Food Bank Home Delivery, and Urban Streetwear
An electronic denim jacket, an artistic collaboration to depict Black residents’ urban experiences. (credit: Bret Halperin) Over the past year, three teams of researchers from the University of Washington tackled a host of urban challenges in our region with the support of Urban@UW’s Spark Grants. In September 2022, Urban@UW awarded $20,000 to each team in…
News | November 16, 2021
Spark Grants foster research on community-centered environmental infrastructure, supporting collaborations amidst pandemic
Over the past year, two teams of researchers from the University of Washington tackled a host of urban challenges in our region with the support of Urban@UW’s Research Spark Grants. In August 2020 grants of up to $20,000 were awarded to amplify collaborative research-to-practice with a focus on today’s urban issues. Two UW teams of…
Course | R E 597
Spatial Analysis of Real Estate and Housing Markets
Spatial analysis of real estate and housing market data. Methods in quantitative analysis of spatial data. Methods are applied to a variety of housing and real estate data sets to inform business decisions and policy making. Exploratory data analysis, spatial interpolation, and spatial regression.Course | URBDP 508
Specialized Planning Laboratory
Studio/field project on a specialized planning problem. Several options are offered each year, such as regional-environmental planning, housing, metropolitan planning, and urban design.Scholar
Steve Badanes
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Steven Bourassa
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Storefront Studio creates vision for downtown block
Three graduate students and their professor from the University of Washington College of Built Environments spent much of this summer visiting Gig Harbor and creating a plan that could change and enhance an area in the downtown waterfront business district. The Storefront Studio Project, as the endeavor is called, began in June when the students…
News | February 16, 2024
Student Housing Has a New Mantra: Bigger Is Better
Written by Kevin Williams for The New York Times Off-campus complexes are getting larger, with some being home to more than 1,500 students, and being built on prime parcels of land as close to campus as possible. When the Standard, an off-campus student housing complex, opened in the fall in Bloomington, Ind., welcoming its first…
News | September 12, 2018
Summer Design/Build Studio 2018
Food and the ability to prepare it are fundamental components of life. Places of food preparation–whether a home kitchen or a fire pit–serve not only their most explicit functions but also act as cultural gathering spaces for families and communities. Food preparation poses particularly unique challenges in Seattle’s homeless communities for individuals, families and larger…
Course | URBDP 500
Survey of Urban Planning
Concepts and logic of planning as a professional activity. Evolution of guiding ideas in relation to changing social, economic, and environmental conditions within the American political framework. Major procedures used by planners. Critical appraisal.Course | CM 340
Sustainable Building Design and Construction Practices
Examines sustainable standards for design and construction of commercial and institutional buildings focusing on environmental, economic, and social benefits of sustainable buildings.Course | CM 335
Sustainable Construction
Studies issues associated with planning and constructing sustainable projects including development of LEED documentation and evaluation of financial, social, and environmental impacts of construction operations.Course | URBDP 533
Sustainable Transportation and the Environment
Investigates impacts of transportation on the natural and the built environment. Topics may include analysis of bicyclists' and pedestrians' exposure to air/noise pollution and mitigation options, policy incentives to accelerate vehicle electrification to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and successful model cases.Degree Program
Sustainable Transportation: Planning and Livable Communities (Cert)
Examine the important issues involved in sustainable transportation planning. Review policies and programs that encourage mixed use development and higher density levels in order to promote modes of transportation other than the single occupancy vehicle. Study the impact different transportation options have on the environment and sustainability. Explore the movement of goods as well as…
Visit program websiteCourse | L ARCH 564
Sustainable Urban Landscapes
Introduces contemporary literature on urban sustainability and provides a forum for discussion about theories, applications, and practices towards the planning and design of sustainable and ecological urban environments.News | August 17, 2020
Systemic racism has consequences for all life in cities
Social inequalities, specifically racism and classism, are impacting the biodiversity, evolutionary shifts, and ecological health of plants and animals in our cities. That’s the main finding of a review paper led by the University of Washington, with co-authors at the University of California, Berkeley, and University of Michigan, which examined more than 170 published studies and analyzed…
News | May 29, 2019
Team of UW seniors wins ‘Re-imagining Red Square’ design competition
A team of UW Architecture and Landscape Architecture seniors has won this year’s Re-Imagining Red Square competition. The designers of the “The Loop” originally were looking at how to preserve Red Square and do some intervention underneath in the garage. Then, one of the architects helping critique the designs in the contest gave the team advice…
News | August 14, 2019
Tech companies step up to fund affordable housing, but experts say it’s not enough to curb shortages
Microsoft pledged $500 million for affordable housing in January. Five months later, Google said it would invest $1 billion to help the Bay Area housing crisis. Amazon and Salesforce also announced contributions of their own this year. Major tech companies are stepping up to help mitigate affordable housing shortages, caused in part by the influx of high-income labor they have imported to the…
Scholar
Thaisa Way
Visit scholar websiteNews | October 21, 2020
That sink in the alley is supposed to be there
A sink is nestled in the University District alley between 15th Avenue Northeast and The Ave. It’s bolted to a trough of plants. It appeared in May. Another sink just like it is up The Ave on 47th Avenue Northeast. One was also placed at the University Heights community center along 50th Avenue Northeast. The…
News | December 16, 2019
The Central District has lost over a dozen of its Black churches. The rest may still be saved
There’s little doubt that The Nehemiah Initiative faces an immense challenge combating the displacement of African Americans from central Seattle. When you drive through the Central District today, you see gentrification in its stark reality. New market-rate buildings line the intersections of 23rd Avenue and East Union Street, as well as 23rd and South Jackson…
News | February 22, 2021
The downsides of being a tech hub: Housing disruption and inequality
With the technology sector’s astronomical growth over the past two decades, there has been no shortage of cities vying to be the next Silicon Valley. But while there are many benefits to being a tech hub – from increased wealth to inflows of talent – there are downsides, too, including polarised inequality and increased pressure on…
News | January 20, 2021
The environmental psychology of COVID-19 with Professor Lynne Manzo
We are living through a new reality, adjusting to life during a global pandemic. We are all changing our routines, our travel plans, our holiday traditions. For those of us who have been able to keep our jobs through this economic crash, we have had to adapt to a new working environment, working from our…
News | June 11, 2021
The holy grail for sustainability
Each year on Earth Day, the American Institute of Architects (AIA) Committee on the Environment presents the COTE Top Ten Awards, the industry’s best-known award program for sustainable design excellence. Now in its 25th year, this distinction is granted to projects across the nation — ranging from learning centers and university buildings to houses of…
Course | L ARCH 361
The Human Experience of Place
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.News | December 20, 2022
The Obvious Answer to Homelessness
In their book, Homelessness Is a Housing Problem, the University of Washington professor Gregg Colburn and the data scientist Clayton Page Aldern demonstrate that “the homelessness crisis in coastal cities cannot be explained by disproportionate levels of drug use, mental illness, or poverty.” Rather, the most relevant factors in the homelessness crisis are rent prices…
News | November 18, 2020
The pandemic changed our daily routines. Here’s how that’s impacting mental health, productivity and the environment
Few people think about the impact their daily routine has on themselves, or even the planet. But the small actions — from what you eat for breakfast to how you commute to work — are having an effect. Urban Design and Planning doctoral student Xiao Shi has long been interested in the small and large impacts of people’s…
News | September 15, 2020
The pandemic is transforming how Americans use public libraries, parks, and streets — and it’s depriving vulnerable people of space when they need it most
On a Friday in early March, Jennifer Pearson looked around her library in Lewisburg, Tennessee. “The library was full of older people,” Pearson, the library’s director, said. “I thought, if I don’t close this space, they will never stop coming to it, so I have to close it, for their good and for my staff.”…
News | August 30, 2024
The pros and cons of spraying pesticides to keep disease-carrying mosquito populations down
Written by Julia Jacobo for ABC News Researchers are trying to find ways to quell growing mosquito populations that spread disease without putting recovering populations of important pollinators like bees and butterflies at risk. Pesticides are an important management tool for mosquito control as well as for other pests that impact agriculture, Laura Melissa Guzman, assistant…
News | July 15, 2024
The Quinault Nation and the Rising Pacific
Written by Hallie Golden for the Associated Press TAHOLAH, Wash. (AP) — Standing water lies beneath the home Sonny Curley shares with his parents and three children on the Quinault reservation a few steps from the Pacific Ocean in Washington’s Olympic Peninsula. The back deck is rotting, and black mold speckles the walls inside, leaving…
Course | URBDP 405 / URBDP 505
The Urban Form
Elements, patterns, and evolution of urban form. The forces that shaped cities in history. Contemporary trends. Methods of urban morphological analysis as related to urban design and planning practices. Required for MUP graduate students.News | June 5, 2024
The West’s wetlands are struggling. Some have been overlooked altogether.
Written by Natalia Mesa for High Country News On a warm day in August, Anthony Stewart hiked through a forest on Washington’s Olympic Peninsula, making his way through a tangle of ferns and grasses. Wispy, lichen-coated branches hung overhead, providing shade as he set down his backpack and shovel, and he and his team prepared…
Course | URBDP 510
Theories and Methodologies of Planning I
Survey of the philosophy, methods, and analytical techniques used in planning public actions and policies, with emphasis on the logic and assumptions upon which these are based. Various planning surveys and methods. Open to graduate students in urban design and planning and to graduate students seeking the urban design certificate.News | October 29, 2024
This Atlanta neighborhood hired a case manager to address rising homelessness − and it’s improving health and safety for everyone
Reported by Ishita Chordia, Ph.D. Candidate in Information Science, University of Washington Homelessness has surged across the United States in recent years, rising 19% from 2016 though 2023. The main cause is a severe shortage of affordable housing. Rising homelessness has renewed debates about use of public space and how encampments affect public safety. The…
News | January 9, 2020
This is what Seattle’s new neighborhood could look like
Architecture and planning students love to wrestle with big ideas. And while their end-of-the-quarter presentations sometimes include out-of-the-box ideas, they usually don’t have the attention of public officials. But this time was different. Students with the University of Washington Built Environments Studio, taught by Rick Mohler (Architecture) and David Blum (Urban Design and Planning) in…
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Tim Lehman
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Tim Overland
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To report or not report ‘suspicious people’ near campus
Originally reported in The Daily by Shira Sur It took three encounters with a person threatening bypassers near the West Campus dorms for first-year student Hannah Whitemarsh to call 911. Whitemarsh’s call to UWPD, which was made in mid-October of 2023, was transferred to the Seattle Police Department (SPD). After she was asked whether the…
Scholar
Tomás Méndez Echenagucia
Visit scholar websiteCourse | CEP 470 / URBDP 502
Tools for Sustainable Cities
Examines specific tools used for planning sustainable cities, including hands-on learning, speakers, case studies, and site tours to enrich students' knowledge and experience.Course | URBDP 502
Tools for Sustainable Cities
Examines specific tools used for planning sustainable cities, including hands-on learning, speakers, case studies, and site tours to enrich students' knowledge and experience.Course | L ARCH 324
Topics in Planting Design II
Explores planting design topics that relate specifically to site, program, and design issues addressed in concurrent studio projects. Utilizes trees, shrubs, and herbaceous plants as space forms in urban contexts. Utilizes plant characteristics of color, texture, and form in studio project design. Considers design principles of unity/diversity, complexity/simplicity, and pattern in studio project design.News | April 24, 2017
Toward greener construction: UW professor collab sets markers for carbon across life of buildings
A University of Washington-led research group has taken an important step toward measuring — and ultimately reducing — the global carbon footprint of building construction and long-term maintenance. The Carbon Leadership Forum is a collaborative effort among academics and industry professionals based in the UW’s College of Built Environments that studies reducing carbon emissions over…
News | March 31, 2016
Towards a Speculative Politics for African Cities with Edgar Pieterse – 4/12
Join us April 12 at Kane Hall (Room 120) for Visiting Scholar Edgar Pieterse, Please Register for this Public Event Towards a Speculative Politics for African Cities The available frames to understand and reimagine contemporary urban politics in the African context come down two divergent pathways: 1) build the institutional infrastructure to enact the deliberative…
News | February 16, 2024
Transit workers fight drugs on buses and trains
Written by Joseph Gallivan for Axios Oregon Transit companies are pushing to make it a Class A misdemeanor to use drugs on buses and trains in Oregon. TriMet, the Oregon Transit Association, and Amalgamated Transit Union Local 757 testified yesterday to support amending Senate Bill 1553. The amendment would add the use of illicit drugs…
News | March 1, 2018
Tri-campus survey aims to identify student struggles with housing, food costs
In a region as expensive as the Puget Sound, making ends meet affects college students, too. Rent, utilities and food can run into the hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars a month – and for students without the means, it’s a daunting and sometimes compromising challenge. Urban@UW is trying to learn more about the situations…
News | October 7, 2020
Turning hotels into emergency shelter as part of COVID-19 response limited spread of coronavirus, improved health and stability
A King County initiative that moved people out of homeless shelters and into hotel rooms earlier this year helped slow the transmission of coronavirus, according to early findings from a study of the intervention. The study, part of Urban@UW’s Homelessness Research Initiative, is co-authored by Rachel Fyall and Gregg Colburn, HRI faculty co-leads. Their research is…
Course | ART H 491 / ARCH 457
Twentieth-Century Architecture
Architecture in the twentieth century, mainly in Europe and the United States. Traces roots of Modernism in Europe in the 1920s, its demise (largely in the United States) in the 1960s, and recent trends such as Post-Modernism and Deconstructivism.Scholar
Tyler Sprague
Visit scholar websiteNews | June 30, 2022
Understanding the role of historical residential segregation on pediatric injury and violence
Approximately 265 pediatric deaths occurred as a result of injury or violence in Washington state in 2020. A team of researchers from the University of Washington and hospitals around the state are collaborating on a new Population Health Initiative-funded pilot project, “Residential Segregation and Pediatric Injury and Violence in Seattle, Spokane and Tacoma,” to better…
News | January 9, 2024
Univ. of Washington set to break ground on 69-acre redevelopment to create Seattle innovation hub
The University of Washington this year expects to break ground on a new building that will anchor an ambitious, innovation-focused redevelopment called Portage Bay Crossing. The project will cover 69 acres of the southwest portion of the Seattle campus, revitalizing and unifying an area of buildings that officials called old and underutilized. UW leaders recently…
News | August 30, 2016
University of Washington and City of Auburn launch first Livable City Year partnership
The University of Washington has begun a yearlong partnership with the City of Auburn, under the new Livable City Year program. UW students and professors will work with the City of Auburn to advance the city’s goals for livability and sustainability throughout the upcoming academic year. In this inaugural year, UW faculty will lead classes…
News | April 15, 2019
University of Washington researchers want to help Uber and Lyft protect data and share it with cities
Cities where Uber and Lyft operate have a data problem. The University of Washington wants to provide the solution. Companies such as Uber and Lyft are sitting on mounds of valuable data about where and when riders move around cities. Transportation officials are eager to get their hands on that information but the companies have…
News | March 13, 2024
University of Washington study finds cities must prioritize youth mental health
Excerpted from KOIN/Channel Six in Portland Written by Michaela Bourgeois Researchers at the University of Washington conducted an international survey that found cities need to focus on youth mental health as younger generations flock to urban areas. Starting in April 2020, researchers worked with the nonprofit citiesRISE to survey over 500 people in 53 countries…
News | July 17, 2016
Urban Alleys: Seattle and Beyond
Alleys have long been seen as places of both delight and terror. These urban spaces have a cultural history built around them much the way train and subway stations, markets, or parks do. But alleys have an encompassing spectrum of associations: home to magical night markets as well as our most sinister fears. However, the…
Course | ARCH 590
Urban and Preservation Issues in Design
Introduction to recent theory and practice in the fields of urban design and historic preservation primarily in North American urban contexts, including examples of recent projects presented by practicing professionals.Course | URBDP 422
Urban and Regional Geospatial Analysis
Principles of GIS applied to problems in urban design and planning, landscape architecture, and environmental and resource studies. Practical problem-solving approaches using contemporary desktop mapping packages and vector and raster GIS systems. Siting, environmental evaluation and inventories, and modeling. Prerequisite: either GEOG 317, GEOG 360, GEOG 461, GEOG 462, GEOG 465, FISH 452, or OCEAN 452.News | April 22, 2019
Urban coyote evolution favors the bold
Coyotes become fearless around people in just a few generations—which isn’t good for their longterm co-existence with humans in cities. Coyotes are now common residents of many large urban areas. And while it doesn’t happen all that often, coyotes are increasingly coming into conflict with people and pets. “They’re these mid-sized carnivores, [though] most people…
Degree Program
Urban Design and Planning (Minor, Cert, MUP, dual MLA-MUP, PhD)
Our core mission is to develop a community of inquiry, learning, and practice that helps urban regions to become more livable, just, economically effective, and environmentally sound through a democratic process of urban design and planning.
Visit program websiteCourse | ARCH 561
Urban Design Theory
Study of development of nineteenth- and twentieth-century urban design theories and parallel developments in architecture and urban planning. Theoretical premises are related to current practices of urban design in various sociopolitical contexts, European as well as American. Evolutionary nature of theory emphasizedCourse | URBDP 561 / PUBPOL 561
Urban Economics and Public Policy
Examines the rationale for and consequences of public intervention in urban land, housing, and transportation markets through land use regulations such as zoning and growth management, infrastructure investments, and fiscal policies to manage urban development and traffic. Prerequisite: successful completion of an introductory microeconomics course or permission of the instructor.Course | URBDP 527
Urban History, Ethics, Form, and Theory I
Introduces how urban form is shaped by economic, political, social, and technological forces. Focuses on different historical periods, starting with the native city/pre-colonial city. Students learn about formation and transformation of urban environments, and theoretical underpinnings and ethics related to those transformations. Includes experiences of non-elite groups.Course | URBDP 528
Urban History, Ethics, Form, and Theory II
Introduces how cities are shaped by economic, political, social and technological forces. Focuses on historical periods, including the colonial, industrial, and post-industrial and global cities. Students learn about formation and transformation of urban environments, and theoretical underpinnings and ethics related to those transformations. Includes experiences of non-elite groups.Course | R E 553, URBDP 553
Urban Land Economics
Introduces urban economics, land markets, and locational decision making; and examines urban spatial structure and the economic, political, social, technological, and historical forces that shape land values and uses. Uses applied spatial analytical tools including geographic information systems and geodemographic software.Course | URBDP 553 / R E 553
Urban Land Economics
Introduces urban economics, land markets, and locational decision making; and examines urban spatial structure and the economic, political, social, technological, and historical forces that shape land values and uses. Uses applied spatial analytical tools including geographic information systems and geodemographic software.News | May 5, 2016
Urban Planning and PhD Program Addresses ‘The Future City’ (5/5)
What kinds of cities shall we live in, and how can urban planners help make them a reality? What possible future scenarios lie ahead, and how will big data and new technologies affect science and decision-making in urban design? The University of Washington Graduate School’s Interdisciplinary PhD Program in Urban Design and Planning’s annual symposium…
Course | URBDP 467
Urban Planning Uses of Remote Sensing
Using aerial photographs and satellite image data in urban planning. Urban change analysis, land-use and land cover classification, and environmental planning applications. Scale and resolution considerations. Development of proficiency through laboratory exercises and use of image-processing software.Course | L ARCH 463
Urban Recreational Design
Special recreational studies in metropolitan, urban, and neighborhood areas; the design, policies, and behavioral studies of existing parks, playgrounds, public places, and commercial areas. Design projects dealing with the play environment for all ages. Open to nonmajors.News | May 10, 2017
Urban Scholar Highlight: Christopher Meek
Christopher Meek is a faculty member in University of Washington’s Department of Architecture and a director in the Integrated Design Lab in the Center for Integrated Design, located in the Bullitt Center. He teaches during the school year and the rest of his time is focused on research on high-performance buildings. We sat down with…
News | November 21, 2017
Urban Scholar Highlight: Heather Burpee
Heather Burpee is a Research Associate Professor in University of Washington’s Department of Architecture and Director of Education and Outreach at the Integrated Design Lab in the Center for Integrated Design, located in the Bullitt Center. We sat down with her to discuss her work and research on high-performance buildings. What are your current research…
News | April 28, 2021
Urban Scholar Highlight: Jan Whittington
Jan Whittington is an Associate Professor of the Department of Urban Design and Planning, Director of the Urban Infrastructure Lab, Associate Director of the Center for Information Assurance and Cybersecurity, and Affiliate Faculty at the Tech Policy Lab. Her research applies transaction cost economic theory to networked infrastructures, such as transportation, water, and communication systems,…
News | October 1, 2019
Urban Scholar Highlight: Rachel Berney
Rachel Berney is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Urban Design and Planning, Adjunct Assistant Professor in Landscape Architecture, an Urban@UW Fellow, and author of Learning from Bogotá: Pedagogical Urbanism and the Reshaping of Public Space. Her primary interests include community sustainable design, public space, and international development in the Americas, as well as…
Course | L ARCH 402
Urban Sites Studio
Explores application of design ideas and principles to urban sites. Applies theory and research informing the design of human environments and lessons from urban and ecological design precedents to the design of urban places. Includes design across scales to detailed site design studies, including planting design. Majors only.Course | L ARCH 434
Urban Soils and Hydrology
Develops basic understanding and skills related to soil properties and their specification for use in horticulture and hydrological performance, and knowledge and skills needed by landscape architects to implement design solutions that manipulate urban hydrological conditions.News | April 3, 2024
Urban@UW announces second cycle of Research to Action Collaboratory projects
Urban@UW is excited to announce the project teams selected for the second Research to Action Collaboratory (RAC) cohort. Throughout the next 18 months, Urban@UW will work with these teams to provide seed funds, dedicate time to building team cohesion and collaboration skills, and foster opportunities for peer support, shared resources, and learning. These two project…
News | April 17, 2023
Urban@UW Announces the 2023 Research to Action Collaboratory Inaugural Cohort
Urban@UW is excited to announce the project teams selected for the inaugural cohort of the Research to Action Collaboratory (RAC). Throughout the next 18 months, Urban@UW will work with these teams and provide seed funds, dedicated time to build team cohesion and collaboration skills, and foster opportunities for peer support and shared resources and learning….
News | March 1, 2022
Urban@UW anti-displacement workshop generates connections, ideas, and opportunities for further partnership.
On January 25th and 26th, Urban@UW hosted a virtual workshop that brought together researchers, policymakers, practitioners, and community partners to elevate key perspectives and facilitate cross-boundary discussions and action around the capacity for people to stay in place and stay in the community in the face of displacement. The workshop built on discussions initiated by…
News | September 30, 2019
Urban@UW at 4 years: looking back, looking ahead
The Launch of a Leading-Edge Collaborative Research Center: Urban@UW Urban@UW launched in 2015 as an initiative of the Office of Research and CoMotion, funded through the Provost. We convened our first meeting of faculty to discuss urban challenges that same spring on June 1, a conversation that surfaced key themes that Urban@UW would go on…
News | October 20, 2017
Urban@UW compiles Faculty Highlights Report for research, teaching and engagement on homelessness
As part of its recently launched Homelessess Research Initiative, Urban@UW has collaborated with faculty and staff across all three UW campuses to compile a broad-ranging selection of powerful and robust projects addressing homelessness from a research lens. Check out the Faculty Highlights Report to learn more about these efforts and the people behind them.
News | November 26, 2024
Urban@UW is working toward a future where cities are hubs of innovation, inclusivity, & sustainability.
Research-to-Action Teams 2023-2024 In April of 2023 the teams selected for the inaugural cohort of the Research to Action Collaboratory (RAC) were announced. These groups combine the research capabilities of University of Washington scholars with frontline leaders embedded in their communities and government officials who can codify change. The Research-to-Action Collaboratory provides the teams with…
News | April 19, 2021
Urban@UW Leads Report on the Lessons and Levers for University Collaborations with Governmental and Community Partners
In the current era of multi-layered public health, environmental, and civic crises, creating and leveraging cross-sector partnerships to co-create solutions has never been more important. The Bullitt Foundation request for proposals (RFP) provided an unparalleled opportunity to implement and strengthen partnerships, and, equally important, to reflect on the relationships as a key pathway toward sustainability,…
News | September 5, 2024
Urban@UW Presenting at New York Climate Week
Urban@UW Director Rachel Berney and Program Manager Kate Landis will present on the Research-to Action Collaboratory later this month at New York Climate Week, as part of the New York Climate Exchange. “We are thrilled to be one of the very few university centers invited to participate in New York Climate Week. This well- publicized…
News | October 2, 2024
Urban@UW Presents at Climate Week NYC
Last week Urban@UW’s Director Rachel Berney and Program Manager Kate Landis presented on the Research to Action Collaboratory at Climate Week NYC, as a guest of the New York Climate Exchange. Leaders from all sectors met on Governors Island, just south of Manhattan, to discuss climate adaptations, potential partnerships, and new technology in carbon reduction….
News | August 18, 2020
Urban@UW Research Spark Grants awardees announced
Urban@UW is excited to announce the awardees for our Research Spark Grants program. The two proposals selected address urgent urban challenges in our region, with a strong focus on community engagement and vulnerable populations. Co-creating an Adaptive Community-Science Network: Supporting Tribal and Grassroots Action through the Puget Creek Watershed Assessment Urban communities in the…
News | November 26, 2024
Urban@UW unites research, community insight, and policy to drive innovation for resilient and equitable cities.
Inclusive Data-Driven Innovation for the Future of Cities Urban@UW extends the understanding of cities—from people, buildings, infrastructure, and energy to economics, policy, culture, art, and nature—beyond individual topics to dynamically interdependent systems, so that we can holistically design and steward vibrant and welcoming cities in which future generations will thrive. In partnership with the College…
News | May 18, 2021
Urban@UW Will Welcome New Faculty Director
Following a competitive, university-wide search process, Urban@UW is very pleased to announce that Rachel Berney, Ph.D., Associate Professor in the Department of Urban Design and Planning at the Seattle campus, will serve as the initiative’s next Faculty Director. Professor Berney is well positioned to collaboratively lead Urban@UW as a cross-disciplinary research initiative and learning community…
News | November 1, 2024
Urban@UW’s Research to Action Teams Gather for a Fall Workshop
What do Microforests, the historic University of Tacoma campus, refugee resettlement, greenwater recycling, everything bagels and tasty Thai food have in common? They all played a part in October’s Research to Action teams retreat, led by Urban@UW. Urban@UW brings together multidisciplinary academics and embedded community leaders to solve complex urban challenges through the Research to…
News | November 26, 2024
Urban@UW’s Research to Action Collaboratory provides funding, facilitation, & tools to empower cross-disciplinary teams to solve urban problems
About the RAC The Research to Action Collaboratory serves as a catalyst for research teams, building their transformational collaborative capacity to address today’s most pressing urban challenges. The RAC combines financial support, thought partnership, and skill-building to increase the capacity of scholars, community stakeholders, and the UW for impactful, collaborative research. Today’s most pressing problems—from…
News | March 18, 2022
Urbanization is driving evolution of plants globally, study finds
Humans re-shape the environments where they live, with cities being among the most profoundly transformed environments on Earth. New research now shows that these urban environments are altering the way life evolves. A study led by evolutionary biologists at the University of Toronto Mississauga and including the University of Washington Urban Ecology Research Lab examines whether parallel…
News | March 16, 2020
UW Architectural Historian Publishes Work about Kingdome Designer Jack Christiansen
Tyler Sprague is an assistant professor of architecture who studies and teaches structural design and architectural history. A former structural engineer himself, Sprague is the author of “Sculpture on a Grand Scale: Jack Christiansen’s Thin Shell Modernism.” The book, published in 2019 by University of Washington press, is a study of the life and work of…
News | December 6, 2022
UW Livable City Year program and Pacific County EDC launch new partnership
Every year, students at the University of Washington work with one or more local governments to help create solutions to challenging problems. This year, they’ll study Pacific County. Launching an exciting new partnership, the Livable City Year program and the Pacific County Economic Development Council (PCEDC) will connect UW courses with projects identified by PCEDC…
News | June 3, 2022
UW Ph.D. students hold symposium on the role of technology in urban environments into the future
Originally written by Mingming Cai, Ana Costa, Kristin Potterton & Salman Rashdi. On May 20th, students in University of Washington’s Interdisciplinary Ph.D. Program in Urban Design and Planning and Ph.D. Program in the Built Environment hosted the virtual 2022 annual research symposium. Based on the theme, Pathways toward the future: Assessing the digital dimensions of…
News | March 29, 2022
UW professor’s new book presents opportunity to ‘rethink housing’
Not all U.S. major cities are grappling with homelessness at the scale of say, Seattle or San Francisco. And it’s not because some cities have more people in poverty, or more people in crisis. Gregg Colburn, assistant professor of real estate at the University of Washington, believes housing market conditions — specifically, high housing and…
News | November 2, 2021
UW receives $2M from National Science Foundation to design an ‘adaptable society’
A team led by the University of Washington has received a nearly $2 million grant from the National Science Foundation to further research into how urban societal systems can be organized to be both efficient and resilient. The Leading Engineering for America’s Prosperity, Health and Infrastructure (LEAP-HI) project, based in the UW College of Engineering, supports fundamental research to…
News | June 12, 2023
UW Research Identifies Success Factors for High-speed Rail Projects
A new research report out of the University of Washington examines data on high-speed rail systems around the world to mine key insights on how a similar undertaking could work in the Cascadia region, a source of considerable investment and opportunity for agencies and private sector partners. The report comes as Washington’s state legislature has…
News | May 26, 2020
UW research team seeks campus input with survey on coronavirus mobility impacts
Three professors are teaming up for a study of the mobility impacts of the coronavirus — and they are inviting UW faculty, staff and students to complete a short online survey to assist the research. The research is being conducted by Anne Vernez Moudon, professor emerita of urban design and planning in the College of Built Environments, with Jeff…
News | September 1, 2020
UW researchers explore how urbanization changes Earth’s ecosystems in new paper
UW researchers Marina Alberti, Urban Design & Planning; Simone Des Roches, Aquatic and Fisheries Sciences; and Christopher Schell, Interdisciplinary Arts & Sciences at UW Tacoma have published a new report titled “The Complexity of Urban Eco-evolutionary Dynamics”, examining how urbanization affects ecological and evolutionary processes over time, and how these changes affect nature’s contribution to people….
News | May 13, 2019
UW students face food, housing insecurity, survey shows
Preliminary data from a survey of food and housing insecurity at the University of Washington’s three campuses shows that an estimated 190 students may lack a stable place to live, and about one-quarter of students have worried recently about having enough to eat. Results of the online survey, conducted by UW faculty in 2018, are…
News | March 15, 2024
UW’s College of Built Environments Professor Faces an Electrifying Challenge
Reported by Jen Moss for the University of Washington’ College of Built Environments King County Metro (Metro), which serves a daily average of over 250,000 riders across more than 203 square miles of the county, has an emissions challenge. Their zero-carbon emissions target, set by the King County Council, must be met by 2035. This…
News | November 29, 2018
UW’s Marina Alberti to lead new NSF-funded research network to study impact of cities on Earth’s evolutionary dynamics
Here in what is called the Anthropocene era, humans and our urban environments appear to be driving accelerated evolutionary change in plants, animals, fungi, viruses and more — changes that could affect key ecosystem functions and thus human well-being. These interactions between evolution and ecology are called “eco-evolutionary feedback.” The National Science Foundation has awarded a five-year,…
News | November 1, 2018
Valuing older buildings: Architecture professor’s book argues for reuse rather than wrecking ball
In her new book, Kathryn Rogers Merlino, University of Washington associate professor in the department of Architecture in the College of Built Environments, argues for the environmental benefit of reusing buildings rather than tearing them down and building anew. “I was trained as both an architect and architectural historian,” Merlino says, “and have always been drawn…
News | September 6, 2022
Vancouver Considers 2 New ‘Safe Stay’ Sites for Homeless People After Initial Successes
Less than a year after its launch, Vancouver officials are expressing optimism about the city’s newest approach to helping unhoused people, and hope to see more of it in the future. A report card released Monday shows Vancouver’s first “Safe Stay Community,” which provides shed-like housing units and around-the-clock case managers, housed 14 of its…
Scholar
Vikram Prakash
Visit scholar websiteNews | May 10, 2018
Vikram Prakash’s ‘ArchitectureTalk’ podcast explores topics ‘at the edge of the known’
Vikram Prakash says his weekly “ArchitectureTalk” podcast got its start, as many things do, from a student’s idea. Prakash is a professor of architecture in the University of Washington College of Built Environments. An architect himself, he is also an author, a theorist and an architectural historian. He said he has always felt “energized” by discussions in…
News | October 7, 2024
WA Gen Z voters excited, but turnout still a toss-up
Reported by Paris Jackson for Cascade/PBS There’s a surge in interest among young voters, those considered Generation Z, this election cycle. They’re outspoken, savvy and civically engaged. Gen Z’ers are those born between 1997 and 2012, according to Pew Research. They’re touted as the generation that grew up with the internet as an integral part…
News | March 28, 2023
WA’s Homeless Population Is Increasing, New HUD Report Shows
Washington’s homeless population is on the rise, according to a recent report by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and it’s largely driven by Seattle and King County. The number of Washingtonians who are unsheltered, in vehicles or in temporary shelter grew by 10% from 2020 to 2022, increasing by 2,288 people. Slightly…
News | October 25, 2022
Washed away, not today— Westport schools participate in tsunami drill
Crossing the bridge on Highway 105 over the oyster beds, Westport’s low spit of land is barely even a suggestion in the mist and fog. The smell of salt is heavy in the air, reminding us that the sea is always close, and on this Thursday morning, students in Westport practice what to do if…
News | October 15, 2020
Washington Center for Real Estate Research develops new Housing Market Data Toolkit
During the 2019 legislative session, affordable housing and housing supply issues became a primary issue of concern. Inward population migration, economic growth and shortage of new housing supply had led to rapidly rising house prices and rents for the past few years. In that context, local governments were required to develop Housing Action Plans to…
News | January 20, 2023
Washington legislature debates whether to cap rent increases
In an attempt to curb what they describe as runaway housing prices statewide, Democrats in Washington’s legislature are debating whether to limit annual rent increases to no more than 7% for most residential buildings. Two proposals introduced Tuesday at the state Capitol both aim to cap rent increases so that landlords in Washington couldn’t raise…
News | April 20, 2022
Washington maker of shed-sized homeless shelters has thrived since the pandemic
Ty Charnicky gripped a broom and smiled as he swept the floor. It wasn’t dirty. He swept it often. “When I was in the car, I did this to the car too. I cleaned it out at least once a week. I did my laundry once a week,” Charnicky said, before straightening some of his…
News | May 20, 2024
Washington overdose deaths continued to rise in 2023 while national trends declined, but there’s hope
Reported by Kate Walters for KUOW/NPR Overdose deaths in Washington state continued to rise throughout 2023, bucking the national trend. According to preliminary data released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention this week, reported overdose deaths across the U.S. fell by roughly 5% in 2023, compared to 2022. In contrast, Washington state saw…
News | August 7, 2017
What city ants can teach us about species evolution and climate change
Acorn ants are tiny. They’re not the ants you’d notice marching across your kitchen or swarming around sidewalk cracks, but the species is common across eastern North America. In particular, acorn ants live anywhere you find oak or hickory trees: both in forests and in the hearts of cities. That’s why they’re so interesting to…
News | January 23, 2024
What Happened to Seattle’s Relationship with Boeing?
The aftermath of the Alaska blowout reveals that the connection is slowly unraveling. From Seattle Met Written by Benjamin Cassidy IN THE IMMEDIATE AFTERMATH of the fuselage blowout on an Alaska Airlines flight earlier this month, Margaret O’Mara noticed something that would’ve once been unthinkable in Seattle. The University of Washington history professor observed that locals…
News | September 20, 2022
What Would It Take to Bring Seattle Home Prices Down to Earth?
However you slice it, Seattle homebuying is wildly expensive. The median sale price for all homes is $840,000, according to Redfin. If you look only at stand-alone single-family homes, the median is $975,000. The median condo is selling for over $500,000. Supply and demand isn’t the only factor in Seattle’s housing costs — 50-year-old bungalows…
News | July 12, 2023
Where Do County’s Homeless Come From?
After five years of Project Homeless, the Seattle Times asked readers to share their pressing, unanswered questions about homelessness. Although there are historical examples of a homeless migration narrative–think of families moving in mass during the Dust Bowl or of men “riding the rails” during the Great Depression–today, there’s a lot of data that shows…
News | August 19, 2017
Why Architects should care about public health
Andrew Dannenberg, an Affiliate Professor at the School of Public Health and the College of Built Environments, writes about the importance of architects recognizing human health: while architects have long recognized the importance of human health —including physical, mental, and social well-being — as part of their mission, implementation sometimes reflects a spirit of compliance…
News | May 3, 2022
Why are condos in Seattle so rare and expensive?
The average home in Seattle costs over a million dollars. And now, rising interest rates have made mortgages more expensive. Homebuyers just can’t seem to get a break. Condominiums used to be a gateway to homeownership. Even if you didn’t have a big nest egg, you could get your foot in the door and own…
News | November 22, 2021
Why are the B.C. floods so bad? Blame the wildfires, at least in part
A few short months after the end of a devastating wildfire season, many B.C. communities are cleaning up after disastrous floods that have swept away highways, submerged homes, triggered deadly landslides, stranded hundreds of people and forced thousands more to evacuate. While climate change and (bad) luck each had some role to play, previous wildfires are known to boost the…
News | July 7, 2020
Why host platforms? Extracts from an interview with Professor Thaisa Way
In early March 2020, Andrea Kahn (Synthesis Lab Director for SLU Urban Futures and former SLU Landscape Facilitator) met Thaisa Way, Facilitator for Urban@UW, to discuss the origins, actors, actions and impacts of the platform. Like SLU Landscape, Urban@UW is a network of researchers and practitioners engaging in different collaborative projects and initiatives across multiple…
News | June 25, 2024
Why social media rarely leads to constructive political action
Written by Stefan Milne for UW News. While social media platforms are rife with problems — from harassment to misinformation — many argue that the platforms also nurture political movements, such as the Arab Spring and #MeToo. But in her new book “Log Off: Why Posting and Politics (Almost) Never Mix,” Katherine Cross, a University…
News | June 21, 2024
Why the First Heat Wave of the Summer Can Be the Most Dangerous
Written by Scott Dance for the Washington Post. In an average June, just a few days reach 90 degrees in Detroit. But by the time the year’s first blast of summer breaks in the Motor City this weekend, nearly a week of intense heat will have passed. And some of the most dangerous heat waves…
News | August 2, 2024
Wildfire Smoke Exposure Linked With Higher Dementia Risk
Reported by Dennis Thompson for HealthDay THURSDAY, Aug. 1, 2024 (HealthDay News) — The wildfires thats are increasing with climate change could harm the future brain health of humanity, a new study suggests. Wildfire smoke appears to increase people’s risk of a dementia diagnosis even more than other types of air pollution, researchers reported this…
News | June 4, 2020
Will the Spokane housing market weather the storm? Homebuying during the pandemic remains competitive and continues to favor the seller
Beth and Larry Belcher found the perfect home in Spokane, but it wasn’t easy. The couple was aware of Spokane’s housing market dynamics: low inventory, rising prices and high demand. But they didn’t expect to overcome an additional hurdle of searching for a home during a pandemic. “Looking for homes during COVID-19 was a little…
News | July 26, 2024
With $50M infusion, UW to launch security center to fight research theft
Reported by Emerson Drewes for the Seattle Times The University of Washington will receive a $50 million investment over five years from the United States National Science Foundation to establish a national center for research security. Universities, including those in Washington, have been victims of cyberattacks and hacks in attempts to access, download, alter or…
News | February 1, 2017
Working with community to tackle homelessness
Seattle’s rapid rise in homelessness, coinciding with increasing costs in housing and living, have brought significant challenges to economically vulnerable populations in the Puget Sound. In spite of a sense of urgency regionally and in many areas of the country, sufficient resources, effective systemic fixes and broad support still have not come together to end…
News | September 16, 2021
World Trade Center architect Minoru Yamasaki faced discrimination, criticism and controversy, but his work elevated design — and the Seattle skyline
Minoru Yamasaki appeared on the cover of Time magazine on Jan. 18, 1963, and in the days before they were given reality TV shows, that was about as famous as architects could get. The illustration behind Yamasaki’s face featured a gleaming vision of Seattle’s Pacific Science Center, which he had recently designed, to mostly ecstatic…
Scholar
Yong-Woo Kim
Visit scholar websiteNews | March 27, 2019
You can now see all transit in Seattle on one map, at the same time
Ever wanted to see every bus, ferry, street car and light rail line operating in Seattle and throughout the greater Puget Sound region on one map at the same time? Kona Farry, a junior at the University of Washington originally from Marysville, did — so he did something about it. “It occurred to me that with all of…
News | April 14, 2020
Zillow and Redfin’s guesswork has changed how we see prices
In 2016, Spencer Rascoff sold one of his homes, a Madison Park three-story, for $1.05 million. Days later, Seattle-based Zillow estimated the value of that house at $1.75 million. Here’s the real estate rub: Rascoff was Zillow’s CEO. If an extreme example of an errant “zestimate,” the PR debacle points to a curiosity. Zillow and Redfin…