Arts & Culture

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 | October 29, 2019

‘I belong in this community.’ A new museum tells the Pacific Northwest history of Latinx identity

It’s 2 p.m. on a Thursday afternoon and the crowd at a new Mexican American cultural center in South Park is at capacity. Bailadores de Bronce, Washington’s oldest Mexican folkloric dance group, takes the stage to present two distinct traditional dances that reveal the variety within Mexican culture. “I think when I was growing up I had…

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 | March 19, 2021

8 homegrown apps to help you navigate life in Seattle

One upside of living in a tech-centered city is the opportunity to witness digital creativity at work. Last August, the Seattle-based GGLO design firm launched an augmented reality app that reveals virtual street art inspired by Black Lives Matter protests in various locations around the city. Student researchers at the University of Washington recently developed an app called AeroSpec, which…

News | April 4, 2019

A University of Washington Course Gives Design Students Real-World Experience

For ten weeks, seniors in the University of Washington’s School of Art + Art History + Design Advanced Industrial Design program: Professional Practice course mulled over things like materials, functionality, and empathy. Their challenge was to create workspace furniture—everything from stools and accessories to informal meeting tables with integrated power—that would follow a complete design…

News | November 9, 2020

A UW student’s 3D video game depicts life during COVID-19 pandemic for people of color

During the pandemic, many people have leaned into art and hobbies to ease the stress of everyday life. For Chanhee Choi, a multidisciplinary interactive artist and Ph.D. candidate in the University of Washington Digital Arts and Experimental Media department, art became a way to reflect on her experience with discrimination and racism as a Korean in America during the…

News | July 7, 2020

A/B Streets game lets you create the Seattle street grid of your dreams

It seems like a lifetime ago when we could just leave the house and go places, whether on foot or bike or (if we must) car. And as much as one might long for a return to normal-times, let’s not forget that normalcy also involved such headaches as congestion, traffic sewers, long waits for buses,…

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…

Research Beyond UW | Harvard University

Aga Khan Program

The Aga Khan Program at the Harvard Graduate School of Design is part of the Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture at Harvard and MIT, dedicated to the study of Islamic art and architecture, urbanism, landscape design and conservation. The GSD program is invested in the application of that knowledge to contemporary design issues. Established…

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

Alex Anderson

Scholar

Alexandra Harmon

Scholar

Alma Khasawnih

Funding

Amazon Catalyst Grant

Amazon Catalyst’s goal is to help people develop solutions to key problems faced in the world today. Problems can be diverse, from computer security, to immigration, to climate change. Because issues like these are complex, solutions will come from many different fields and many different perspectives. Therefore, the grants are open to all disciplines, including…

Scholar

Ann Huppert

Scholar

Ann Marie Borys

Scholar

Anne Taufen

Degree Program

Anthropology (BA, BS)

Anthropology is one of those rare fields that touches on all others. It is not a "conveyor belt" to a specific job, but, rather, an avenue to reach many possible career paths. Anthropologists today don't just work in exotic locals, but are making significant contributions right here at home. They can be found working in…

Degree Program

Anthropology of Globalization

Anthropology of Globalization is a new and exciting option in the Anthropology Major that explores several aspects of today’s interconnected world, including, economic exchanges, new media, human migration, and circulating knowledge. Unique to our program is a focus not only on contemporary multicultural and global exchanges, but also the deep history of such processes over…

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…

Research Beyond UW | University of Virginia

Arctic Design Group

“The Arctic extends over an area of about 5.5 million square miles and includes 8 nations. For centuries it has been understood as vast, and almost mythical frozen realm. But increasingly, the dual forces of climate change and globalization are combining to rapidly transform the region. With increasing temperature, retreating sea ice, the opening up…

Map | New York

Banksy Tour of New York Map

Banksy’s public show in New York “Better In Than Out,” is part scavenger hunt and part performance piece. Daily Intelligencer plotted all of the pieces — along with some before and after GIFs of the impermanence and graffiti-on-graffiti crime — so you can visit them while they last, or just see them all in one…

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…

Map | Berlin

Berlin Places I live Map

This map calculates a Life Quality Index for every location in Berlin. What is that? Life Quality Index (LQI) identifies wide scope of threads and opportunities in the social and physical environment of any given urban area. It was created to provide an overall information about neighborhoods in different cities and help their citizens to…

Scholar

Brian McLaren

Funding

Bridge Funding Program

The University of Washington Provost’s Office provides bridge funding to support faculty to span the gap in critical research programs. Applications from faculty should be submitted to the applicant’s department chair, who should prioritize requests before forwarding them to the dean of the college/school. In non-departmentalized colleges/schools, applications should be submitted to the dean or…

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…

Research Beyond UW | University of Virginia

Center for Cultural Landscapes

The Center for Cultural Landscapes produces research and creates new models of innovative cultural landscape stewardship in the region, the nation and around the globe. We are an interdisciplinary group of anthropologists, historians, landscape architects, architects, and planners who are connected to, and collaborating with, a larger group of associated professionals and organizations to achieve…

Center & Lab

Center for Global Studies

The Center for Global Studies (CGS) is dedicated to fostering language excellence, international studies expertise, and global literacy in the Pacific Northwest and throughout the nation with the overall objective of enhancing the nation’s capacity to address contemporary global challenges. The Center is especially focused on increasing the diversity of students engaged in international studies…

Center & Lab

Center for Journalism Media & Democracy

The Center for Journalism, Media and Democracy (formerly The Center for Communication and Civic Engagement) is dedicated to understanding communication processes and media technologies that facilitate democracy. CJMD is located in the Department of Communication at the University of Washington. Students and faculty at the center work together on original research, educational programs, and public…

Research Beyond UW | Technical University of Berlin

Center for Metropolitan Studies

The city is our research field. Since 2004 the Center for Metropolitan Studies (CMS) at the Technische Universität Berlin has brought together both young and experienced researchers to study the historical developments and current problems of the metropolis in its international graduate research program, the masters program in historical urban studies, and adjunct research projects.…

Center & Lab

Center for Southeast Asia and Its Diasporas (CSEAD)

The University of Washington Center for Southeast Asia & its Diasporas (CSEAD) is a National Resource Center for Southeast Asian Studies funded by the U.S. Department of Education pursuant to Title VI of the Higher Education Act (HEA). Established in 1986, the Center and the Southeast Asia Studies Program are a source of information on…

Center & Lab

Center for Studies in Demography and Ecology (CSDE)

The Center for Studies in Demography and Ecology (CSDE) supports population research and training at the University of Washington. It also functions as a regional center that gives population scientists at affiliated institutions in the Pacific Northwest access to cutting-edge demographic infrastructure and services. The core of CSDE consists of a large group of productive…

Center & Lab

Center for the Study of the Pacific Northwest

The Center for the Study of the Pacific Northwest is dedicated to advancing scholarship on the Pacific Northwest, and the North American West more generally, with an emphasis on historical research. Located in the Department of History at the University of Washington, we support research, teaching, and public programs that promote and disseminate knowledge on…

Center & Lab

Center for West European Studies | EU Center

The Center for West European Studies (CWES) was founded in 1994. Our mission is to enhance the quality of teaching and research on West European politics, society, and culture through outreach to universities, community colleges, business, the general public, and the K-12 community. The Center’s programs are uniquely interdisciplinary, fostering collaboration between Europeanists from twenty…

News | 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,…

Research Beyond UW | University of London

Centre for Urban and Community Research (CUCR)

CUCR is a well established interdisciplinary research centre within Goldsmiths' Department of Sociology with a distinguished history of collaboration with local communities and activists. It combines theoretical investigation with critical ‘local’ project implementation from Deptford to Jakarta. From its inception in 1994 as the academic partner in Deptford City Challenge regeneration initiatives, CUCR maintains a…

Research Beyond UW | University of Nairobi

Centre for Urban Research and Innovations

Centre for Urban Research and Innovations (CURI), formerly Urban Innovations Program (UIP), is a think tank based at the University of Nairobi's Department of Urban and Regional Planning. The Centre seeks to create a forum for exploring innovative methodologies for enabling planners and professionals in the built environment to be more responsive and effective in…

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

Christian Anderson

Scholar

Christopher Dunagan

Research Beyond UW | York University

City Institute at York University (CITY)

The City Institute at York University (CITY) brings together over 60 of the university’s urban scholars and scores of graduate students from fields as diverse as planning, geography, environmental studies, anthropology, sociology, political science, education, law, transportation and the humanities. This interdisciplinary institute facilitates critical and collaborative research, providing new knowledge and innovative approaches to…

News | November 12, 2020

City launches real estate company to save and create Seattle art spaces

Even before COVID-19 took a sledgehammer to Seattle’s arts and entertainment sector, things were rough for cultural organizations trying to hold on to venues in the city’s booming real estate market. Every panel conversation about galleries, nearly any article about the closure of yet another music venue came back to the same core issue: There’s…

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 | December 23, 2020

Community care research during dual pandemics: An update from Urban@UW Affiliates

This fall, with a grant from Population Health Initiative: COVID Rapid Response, the Center for Communication, Difference, and Equity’s research team began a project on community care and mental health of Black/African American communities in Seattle. Led by Urban@UW Affiliates Ralina Joseph, Professor, Department of Communication and Director of CCDE; and N. Gina Aaftab, Assistant…

Research Beyond UW | University of Virginia

Community Design Research Center

The Community Design Research Center (CDRC), led by director Suzanne Moomaw, initiates, generates, and works collaboratively with partners to connect faculty, students, and community members to research and design application projects aimed at addressing systemic local, regional, national, and global challenges. Called the “wicked” problems of society, these include human settlements, sustainable ecosystems, poverty, food…

Scholar

Cynthia Pearson

Scholar

Daniel Winterbottom

Scholar

Danny Hoffman

Scholar

Devon Pena

News | September 10, 2021

Doorway Project: 2020-2021 Year End Report

The Doorway Project is an initiative co-led by the University of Washington and YouthCare, an agency offering individualized services to young people experiencing homelessness in Seattle/King County. The Doorway Project works to address youth and young adult homelessness in the University District through centering youth wellbeing and agency in the development of emancipatory and creative…

News | 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…

Center & Lab

EarthLab

As a Carnegie-classified Community Engagement University, the University of Washington (UW) aspires to be the #1 university in the world as measured by impact. EarthLab is a visionary institute at the UW that pushes boundaries to address our most pressing environmental challenges, with urgency and action on climate and its intersection with social justice. We…

Scholar

Edwina Uehara

Scholar

Elizabeth Golden

Map

Eviction Lab

We're unpacking America's eviction crisis. The Eviction Lab at Princeton University has built the first nationwide database of evictions. Find out how many evictions happen in your community. Create custom maps, charts, and reports. Share facts with your neighbors and elected officials.

Scholar

Faisal Hossain

Scholar

Fern Tiger

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…

Funding

Ford Foundation

We believe in the inherent dignity of all people. Yet around the world, billions of people are excluded from full participation in the political, economic, and cultural systems that shape their lives. We view this fundamental inequality as the defining challenge of our time, one that limits the potential of all people, everywhere. Addressing inequality…

News | June 12, 2018

Four Lessons From the Tacoma Whole Child Initiative

Five years ago, Tacoma launched the Whole Child Initiative, with the goal of supporting the comprehensive development and success of each student. We have seen firsthand that supporting the whole child comes with a new set of challenges. But, with the right partners and a focused plan, this approach can make all the difference for…

Scholar

Frances McCue

News | November 7, 2017

Frances McCue meditates on changing city in new poem collection ‘Timber Curtain’

“This is Seattle. A place to love whatever’s left,” writes UW faculty member Frances McCue in her new book of poetry, “Timber Curtain.” “(W)here new things are coming, shinier than the last / I’m the bust standing in the boom / the poet in the technology world / spread along the timber bottom” — from…

Scholar

Galen Minah

News | 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…

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…

Funding

Graham Foundation

Founded in 1956, the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts makes project-based grants to individuals and organizations and produces public programs to foster the development and exchange of diverse and challenging ideas about architecture and its role in the arts, culture, and society. Architecture and related spatial practices engage a wide range…

News | October 26, 2017

Homeless artists showcase work at UW

One way to humanize the homeless is through art. “Telling our stories: art and home(lessness)” is a show Oct. 11-Dec. 15 featuring the work of six artists living in a low-barrier supportive housing project. They are part of an artists’ collective developed out of collaboration with University of Washington researchers, the Downtown Emergency Service Center…

News | September 25, 2019

How a VR project documenting Seattle’s music history revealed the risk of a new digital divide

Yolanda Barton loves Seattle’s music history — the history that starts decades before Pearl Jam, Nirvana and Soundgarden came screaming onto the scene and Macklemore took fans thrift store shopping. We’re talking about the “honey at dusk” vocals of jazz legend Ernestine Anderson; about booty-celebrating rap superstar Sir Mix-a-Lot; about Quincy Jones, the jazz and pop music virtuoso and winner…

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 | 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 | May 19, 2020

How will the COVID-19 pandemic reshape Seattle? Podcasting professor weighs in

What happens when seemingly unstoppable economic growth meets an irrepressible global pandemic? Seattle is finding out. The hard way. To get a uniquely informed perspective on the situation as it stands—and as it may look in the future—we turn to Jeff Shulman, the Marion B. Ingersoll Professor of Marketing at the Foster School of Business. For…

Funding

IBM Center for the Business of Government – Connecting Research to Practice

The aim of the IBM Center for The Business of Government is to tap into the best minds in academe and the nonprofit sector who can use rigorous public management research and analytic techniques to help public sector executives and managers improve the effectiveness of government. We are looking for very practical findings and actionable…

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 | 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…

Funding

International Dissertation Research Fellowship

The Mellon International Dissertation Research Fellowship (IDRF) offers six to twelve months of support to graduate students in the humanities and humanistic social sciences who are enrolled in PhD programs in the United States and conducting dissertation research on Native American or non-US topics. The IDRF program especially welcomes applications from underrepresented institutions. Sixty fellowships…

Scholar

James Tweedie

Scholar

Jasmine Mahmoud

Scholar

Jeff Hou

Scholar

Jeff Shulman

Scholar

Jeffrey Karl Ochsner

Scholar

Jennifer Dee

Scholar

Jessi Quizar

Scholar

Jim Nicholls

Scholar

Joaquín Herranz Jr.

Scholar

John Vallier

Scholar

Jonathan Warren

Scholar

Justin Hamacher

Scholar

Justin Jesty

Scholar

Karina Walters

Scholar

Katharyne Mitchell

Scholar

Kemi Adeyemi

Scholar

Ken Tadashi Oshima

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…

Research Beyond UW | Columbia University

Latin America and Caribbean Laboratory

The Latin American and Caribbean Laboratory (Latin Lab) serves as an intellectual platform for research, educational, and service initiatives related to architecture and urban planning in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). The Lab aims to become a leading laboratory for the study of the built environment and community development in LAC and its diasporas…

News | October 2, 2018

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 | December 13, 2016

Livable City Year releases RFP, invites cities to partner for 2017-8 academic year

The University of Washington’s Livable City Year initiative is now accepting proposals from cities, counties, special districts and regional partnerships to partner with during the 2017-2018 academic year. UW Livable City Year (UW LCY) connects University of Washington faculty and students with a municipal partner for a full academic year to work on projects fostering…

Scholar

Lizabeth (Betsy) Wilson

Scholar

Louisa Iarocci

Funding

MacArthur Foundation

The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation supports creative people and effective institutions committed to building a more just, verdant, and peaceful world. In addition to selecting the MacArthur Fellows, the Foundation works to defend human rights, advance global conservation and security, make cities better places, and understand how technology is affecting children and…

News | October 18, 2022

Making cities more equitable: Meet Davon Woodard

It’s fair to say Davon Woodard is downright passionate about urban spaces—particularly making them more equitable and livable for the diverse communities that inhabit them. “Everyone has a right to a home (city) which is reflective of and respectful of their lived experiences,” he wrote. “My work is guided by that principle.” Davon is an…

Map | Seattle

Mapping Seattle’s Noise Complaints

Trulia used CartoDB and its spatial-temporal visualization tool to map police data on noise complaints from Seattle going back to 2010. Not surprisingly the U-District, Downtown and Capital Hill are the noise complaint winners…or losers depending on how you look at it.

Scholar

Mary D. Fan

News | October 1, 2020

Meet the artists making comics in Seattle’s historic drawbridges

Seattle is home to more than a hundred bridges, four of which are historic bascule bridges spanning the Lake Washington Ship Canal — the massive earthmoving project that took from 1911 to 1917. Also known as drawbridges, the Montlake, University, Fremont and Ballard crossings are operated by bridgetenders who work in the towers and lift the double leaves…

Map | Melbourne

Melbourne Immigrant Birth Places

This map reveals the top three birthplaces for immigrants in Melbourne and other cities and suburbs across Australia. You can also access a map revealing birthplaces excluding English and New Zealand immigrants.

Scholar

Meredith Clausen

Scholar

Michael Brown

Scholar

Michael Lewis

Scholar

Miranda Belarde-Lewis

Scholar

Nancy Rivenburgh

News | February 12, 2016

New! Urban Map Gallery

We’ve created a new urban map gallery to explore how other people and organizations are studying and visualizing data. The gallery features seven cities facing different social, economic, and geographic issues. This curation is not meant to be an exhaustive list, but rather provide insight and inspiration. Maps included track everything from sound to subway…

Scholar

Nicole Huber

News | January 25, 2022

Non-profit sponsors study on how the pandemic impacted arts and culture in Puget Sound

On Jan. 19, the non-profit organization ArtsFund released a COVID Cultural Impact Study, an expansive effort to analyze the pandemic’s impact on Washington’s cultural institutions and their role in the state’s communities which ArtsFund believes is “essential.” Arts and cultural venues were among the first to close when COVID hit in March 2020 and often…

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 | 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…

Scholar

Peter Cohan

News | January 4, 2021

Poetry vs. programming: Wandering the city, a writer finds the intersection of literature and code

Originally written by Frances McCue, a poet, writer, co-founder of nonprofit community writing center Hugo House, and teaching professor at the University of Washington Department of English, as a special installment of the GeekWire Podcast. I needed to take a break from work and get outside. Also, I’d been reading a lot of Baudelaire so…

News | October 17, 2019

Pop-up galleries and data: Visualizing the lives of homeless people and their animals

Sparked by a grant from the UW Population Health Initiative, the UW’s Center for One Health Research created a series of pop-up galleries featuring autobiographical photographs made by people experiencing homelessness with their animal companions. The first gallery was Oct. 4 in UW’s Red Square. Other pop-up gallery events took place in Occidental Square in Seattle’s Pioneer Square district; in Cal…

Center & Lab

Population Health Initiative

The University of Washington aspires to be the world’s leading university in population health. On May 3, 2016, President Ana Mari Cauce launched a groundbreaking Population Health Initiative by inviting the University community and partners to join in developing a 25-year vision to advance the health of people around the world by leveraging capabilities and…

News | January 5, 2023

Public art in Seattle’s light rail stations has a deeper backstory than you’d think

The stainless-steel blob in an airport. The oversized, poured-concrete nothing in a plaza. The whimsically rendered, locally iconic animals — salmon for Seattle, pelicans for Pensacola — garnishing a park. It’s no secret: Most public art is depressingly perfunctory. Which is to say: If you care about getting it right, public art has to be…

News | July 9, 2020

Racial justice is an urban issue: A curated list of resources from UW BIPOC scholars

Racial injustice is not a new issue. Segregation and discrimination on the basis of race has long been tied to the built environments across the country, from redlining and restrictive covenants in the mid-1900s, to white flight and suburbanization after World War II, to the current trends of gentrification and displacement in cities throughout the…

Scholar

Ralina L. Joseph

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 | 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…

News | March 9, 2016

Report By UW Labor Studies Student Details Music Industry’s $1.8 Billion Boon to Seattle’s Economy

A new study commissioned by Seattle musicians’ union and authored by Geography PhD student Megan Brown found that 16,607 people are directly employed in the city’s music industry, creating $1.8 billion annually in direct economic impact. Including jobs dependent on music, the industry creates $4.3 billion in economic output, supporting 30,660 jobs. Yet despite a…

News | September 23, 2021

Returning to the U District: Recovering from the pandemic with more changes ahead

The last 18 months have been hard for Mark Pinkaow and his wife Picha, owners of the University District restaurant Mark Thai Food Box. When COVID-19 largely shut down Seattle in March 2020, they changed the eatery’s format to takeout-only and barely scraped by. They opened, then closed again repeatedly over the next year due…

Scholar

Reuben Deleon

Scholar

Ricardo Gomez

Funding

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Pioneering Ideas and a Culture of Health

The goal of the Pioneering Ideas Brief Proposal funding opportunity is to explore; to look into the future and put health first as we design for changes in how we live, learn, work and play; to wade into uncharted territory in order to better understand what new trends, opportunities and breakthrough ideas can enable everyone…

Scholar

Ron Krabill

Funding

Royalty Research Fund

The purpose of the Royalty Research Fund (RRF) is to advance new directions in research, particularly in disciplines for which external funding opportunities are minimal, and/or; for faculty who are junior in rank, and/or; in cases where funding may provide unique opportunities to increase applicants’ competitiveness for subsequent funding. Proposals must demonstrate a high probability…

Scholar

Rubén Casas

News | July 14, 2020

Saving Seattle’s pandemic and protest murals

In Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood, a three-eyed alien is currently offering free hugs in an alcove of Broadway Market. Less than two miles away, a giant pink sloth tells Pioneer Square passersby to “hang in there.” It’s not just creatures populating the plywood covering so many Seattle businesses. Starry skies, cotton candy clouds, many gardens’ worth of flowers…

News |

Searching for Seattle’s hidden Latino history

Just about every week in the Seattle area, it seems, there’s news of yet another iconic local theater or ornate apartment building threatened with demolition. It’s part of the deal for a booming region where people want to live and work, and where developers and investors are eager to capitalize on real estate transactions and…

Map

seARTtle

Created by Geography student Kuang Sheng at the University of Washington, SeARTtle maps public art throughout the city of Seattle. SeARTtle reflects both the location and relative height of each piece.

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…

Funding

Seattle Foundation

Few regions in the world can match Seattle’s current growth and prosperity. But accompanying our good fortune are great challenges, including the widening disparities between rich and poor. Such inequities weaken the vibrancy of our community. Philanthropy can—and must—step in. Using our philanthropic expertise, deep roots in the community and network of partners, Seattle Foundation…

News | June 14, 2019

Seattle Growth Podcast 6.1: Finding community in a dynamic city

How do you find community in a city as dynamic as Seattle? Newcomers look for ways to connect to people and organizations. Longtime residents try to adjust to a city that looks and feels different than it did even five years ago. Season six of the Seattle Growth Podcast will bring diverse perspectives on how to build…

News | October 3, 2019

Seattle Growth Podcast 6.11: Building community among filmmakers and film lovers

Seattle is a city of cinephiles. And film lovers and film makers, like other affinity groups, tend to seek each other out. Season six of the Seattle Growth Podcast continues its exploration of the myriad communities that have formed as the city grows and changes. Episode 11 introduces communities built around the movies. Vivian Hua, a local writer, filmmaker…

News | August 7, 2019

Seattle Growth Podcast 6.8: Empowering youth and underserved communities

“Community” is essential to people of all ages. As season six of the Seattle Growth Podcast by UW Foster School of Business professor of Marketing Jeff Shulman continues to explore how Seattleites are building or finding a sense of community in a city that is growing and changing so rapidly, episode 6.8 introduces two people who are committed to…

News | November 4, 2020

Seattle Growth Podcast 7.1: the pandemic’s effect on real estate and restaurants

Jeff Shulman created the Seattle Growth Podcast in 2016, a time when Seattle was in a state of profound transition while experiencing unprecedented economic and population growth. Shulman, the Marion B. Ingersoll Professor of Marketing at the University of Washington Foster School of Business, wanted to bring diverse voices together for a constructive dialogue about where Seattle has…

News | April 4, 2023

Seattle Has a Dearth of Monuments to Women

Among hundreds of pieces of public art in Seattle, you’ll find few depicting real-life women from any point in history. The City of Seattle’s civic art collection, which includes more than 400 permanent installations, contains only one outdoor monument honoring a female historical figure. That sculpture is of Sadako Sasaki, who survived the Hiroshima bombing…

News | June 30, 2020

Seattle’s activist-occupied zone is just the latest in a long history of movements and protests

The six blocks of occupied Seattle streets now known as the Capitol Hill Organized Protest, or “CHOP”, have become a focal point of the nationwide anti-racist protests, eliciting both encouragement and concern. But for this Pacific Northwest city, it is far from the first time in the radical spotlight. Seattle has a long and storied history of…

News | June 27, 2022

Seattle’s history of Black language: African American English, code-switching and why it matters today

“Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me ’Round” is a crowd favorite for the Northwest African American Museum’s African American Choir Ensemble. Based on the spiritual “Don’t You Let Nobody Turn You ’Round,” the song is a civil rights anthem with lyrics that reflect a piece of the Black experience: “Ain’t gonna let nobody turn me…

News | August 14, 2019

See how a Seattle artist is telling the painful story of redlining in his city

Warren Pope is hellbent on walloping the corneas of any Seattleite who believes this city is absolved from a racist past. With “Warren Pope: Blood Lines, Time Lines, Red Lines,” an exhibition running through Sept. 8 at the Northwest African American Museum (NAAM), the 72-year-old West Seattle artist says he yearns to expose how the…

Scholar

Sharon E. Sutton

Map

Sidewalk Cafe Map

The Department of Consumer Affairs has put together an interactive map of New York City’s sidewalk cafes. This could be the beginning of a map on NYC public life.

News | December 15, 2017

Skid Road: The intersection of health and homelessness

After years of caring for the homeless in the streets and dilapidated motels of Richmond, Virginia, nurse Josephine Ensign became homeless herself. Many of her patients were prostitutes—some as young as 15—and her conscience no longer allowed her to adhere to her clinic’s policies. Though she was Christian, she was fired for referring many of…

Map | Mumbai

Sounds of Mumbai Map

​Beautiful interactive map takes you on and tour through fifteen Mumbai soundscapes.

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 | October 25, 2022

Sparking Climate Connections – UW Lightning Talks on Climate Change

Addressing our climate crisis can’t be done alone; this all-hands-on-deck moment requires as many voices, disciplines and perspectives as possible to forge connections that will inspire collective action. Urban@UW and the EarthLab Advisory Board of Deans invite you to participate in an exciting two-part event bringing together the rich variety of climate change related research…

Scholar

Stevan Harrell

Scholar

Steve Badanes

News | April 17, 2018

Students research historic South, East Tacoma for Livable City project

The City of Tacoma’s Historic Preservation Office is partnering with the University of Washington on a Livable City Year project to identify historic resources in South and East Tacoma. For this project, graduate and undergraduate students are researching the histories of two neighborhoods: McKinley Hill in East Tacoma, and the Edison Neighborhood along South Tacoma…

News | July 27, 2021

Tacoma has been singing about itself from the start. Here’s why Grit City music matters

With some 20,000 people in the newly opened stands of Tacoma’s Stadium Bowl, the city’s elementary students broke into song — and a number specifically written for the occasion. The chorus was prideful and catchy — at least by 1910 standards — describing the City of Destiny as “Tacoma, The Rose of the West,” which…

Scholar

Tad Hirsch

Scholar

Thaisa Way

News | July 5, 2017

The biggest cliché in tech is hurting cities

If you don’t live in Silicon Valley, chances are you live in its close relative: “the next Silicon Valley.” The label has been slapped with abandon on towns, cities, regions, or sometimes entire countries. All it takes is an uptick in job growth, an influx of startups, or a new coding bootcamp for the cliche…

Research Beyond UW | Queen Mary University of London

The City Centre

In 2006, the School of Geography at Queen Mary University of London, launched a new centre for collaborative research and related activities that are focused on the city. The City Centre is designed to provide a space in which academic research can be developed and communicated with those within and beyond the academy. Particular interests…

News | August 27, 2020

The historian of Seattle hip-hop

In 1979, when Daudi Abe was 9, his father took him to Dirt Cheap Records and set him loose to explore. After a few minutes in the Central District store, Abe came up to the cashier carrying a 12-inch vinyl single with the words “Sugar Hill” across the top. “I just liked the sky-blue cover,”…

News | September 14, 2016

The library, the new happening place to be

Everywhere, people are deserting the public space. They’re not standing in line at the bank: They’re banking online. They’re not shopping for clothes at the mall: They’re getting clothes mailed to them at home. The internet is enabling people to meet their needs without going out. Librarians have seen this coming for years, and many…

Research Beyond UW | University of Calgary

The Urban Lab

THE URBAN LAB, Faculty of Environmental Design, University of Calgary is a research group dealing with urban design, community planning, and urban development issues. Established in 2000, the Urban Lab is an ongoing experiment in education, research and outreach, and is an example of university - community collaboration involving faculty, students and the public. We…

News | January 19, 2023

The UW and the Seattle waterfront renewal

Seattle’s waterfront renewal is one of the region’s most ambitious and innovative undertakings since the Seattle World’s Fair transformed the city in 1962. Finally reconnecting Seattle’s waterfront to its downtown, this $750 million renovation and restoration will create a network of public parks, cultural celebration spaces and an expanded aquarium — while building a sophisticated,…

Map

The Waterlines Project

We examine the history of Seattle through a focus on its shorelines: the natural and human forces that have shaped them, the ways they have been used and thought about by the people who have lived here, and how this historic understanding might influence urban-development decisions being made today.

Scholar

Thomas Diehm

Research Beyond UW | University College London

UCL Urban Laboratory

The UCL Urban Laboratory, established in 2005, is a university wide initiative that brings together the best urban teaching and research at UCL. Our activities build on the full spectrum of work across the arts and sciences, ranging from civil engineering to film studies, from urban history to the latest developments in architectural design. At…

Funding

Urban Communication Foundation Grants

Since our launch in 2005, the Urban Communication Foundation has provided awards and grants to dozens of distinguished scholars, researchers, and journalists to recognize and support provocative work that contributes in significant ways to the discourse around urban communication issues. While most of our recipients hail from academia and journalism, we also encourage submissions from…

Map | São Paulo

Urban data visualization lab

We design interactive experiences, data analysis, visualization, maps, and cartography, focusing on Brazil and the Amazon.

Research Beyond UW | University of Tokyo

Urban Design Lab

The objective of the Urban Design Lab is to strike a balance between scientific research, teaching, and practical urban design work in the field. We encourage students to develop practical skills as well as a sound theoretical knowledge in order to enable them practicing in all areas of urban design; in the contexts of spatial…

News | May 24, 2021

Urban@UW Announces Another Round of Funding Through Research Spark Grants

Urban@UW is excited to be able to provide another cycle of funding for small-scale, new or emergent projects in urban systems. Our Urban@UW Research Spark Grants RFP is intended to catalyze new ideas, connections, and next steps for UW faculty and research staff undertaking cross-disciplinary and community-engaged urban scholarship. The application window opens June 14,…

News | February 19, 2020

Urban@UW announces Research Spark Grants

UPDATE: In light of the COVID-19 pandemic and its impacts on academic and research activities, Urban@UW has made the difficult decision to postpone our Spark Grants program. In addition to recognizing the varied strains and hardship our community is experiencing, we want to ensure that new collaborations launch in a context that promotes meeting and…

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 | 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 | 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 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 | October 27, 2015

UW initiative aims to tackle city, region’s most pressing urban issues

When Thaisa Way put a call out last spring to see if University of Washington faculty members working on urban issues wanted to join forces, she wasn’t sure what the response would be. “There were a lot of people who said, ‘You’re not going to get anyone to show up,‘” said Way, a UW associate…

News | June 21, 2022

UW professors help lead Black Arts Legacies project

When Kemi Adeyemi, Assistant Professor of Gender, Women and Sexuality Studies, signed on to help lead Crosscut’s Black Arts Legacies project, she brought a history of deep thinking on the role that the arts play in Black culture, and what the work of these artists can reveal. “Black artists tell us stories about what it…

Scholar

Vikram Prakash

News | 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…

Map | Berlin

Walking Tour of Berlin’s Architecture

Berlin walk highlighting a selection of the city’s architecture, from the jagged angles of the Jewish Museum to the inner ‘vineyards’ of the Philharmonie

News | January 27, 2021

Washington tribes join lawsuit to stop sale of National Archives in Seattle

Concerned it would threaten their cultural preservation, history and treaty rights, 40 tribes in Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Alaska joined a Jan. 4 lawsuit with Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson to stop the federal government from selling the National Archives facility in Seattle and shipping its millions of boxes of records to California and Missouri….

News | April 9, 2020

Watch videos of UW students’ ideas for public toilets, road safety and job matches in India

A UW study abroad program empowers students from all disciplines to apply their skills to real-life problems — such as food insecurity, water scarcity, and a lack of adequate housing and education. At the end of the program the students create videos to share their projects. Participants in the Grand Challenges Impact Lab, directed by UW…

Funding

Wellcome Trust

We provide more than £700 million a year to support bright minds in science, the humanities and the social sciences, as well as education, public engagement and the application of research to medicine. We offer a wide variety of funding schemes to support individual researchers, teams, resources, seed ideas and places. We also fund major…

Research Beyond UW | Massachusetts Institute of Technology

West Philadelphia Landscape Project

The West Philadelphia Landscape Project has worked in the Mill Creek Watershed since 1987, with a focus on the Mill Creek neighborhood. Throughout our more than 25-year history, we have worked with the people of Mill Creek to address the opportunities and challenges posed by the urban landscape. For more than twenty-five years, the West…

News | June 22, 2017

What the bond between homeless people and their pets demonstrates about compassion

A video camera captures an interview with a man named Spirit, who relaxes in an outdoor plaza on a sunny afternoon. Of his nearby service dogs, Kyya and Miniaga, he says, “They mean everything to me, and I mean everything to them.”In another video, three sweater-clad dogs scamper around a Los Angeles park, while their…

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…

Funding

William and Flora Hewlett Foundation

The Hewlett Foundation makes grants in five core program areas: education, environment, global development and population, performing arts, and philanthropy. In addition, the Foundation makes grants to support disadvantaged communities in the Bay Area. The Foundation’s grants are awarded solely for charitable purposes.

News | November 25, 2019

With mic and spade, this researcher-turned-podcaster is helping restore Seattle’s Indigenous landscape

When Jessica Hernandez arrived in Seattle five years ago to begin her master’s degree program at the University of Washington, everything suddenly felt out of place. She was born to Indigenous parents who had immigrated from Central American and Oaxaca, Mexico, and grew up in Los Angeles, going to schools that taught classes in Spanish…

Scholar

Yomi Braester