December 2021
Hannah Lebovits, Assistant Professor of Public Affairs, said a recent Dallas City Council effort to end panhandling needs to focus on the low quality of the city’s services, not on whether homeless and panhandlers are “service resistant,” The Dallas Observer reported. Lebovits stated that the city casts its homeless population as “service resistant” rather than reviewing the low quality of its services that discourages people from engaging. Instead, Lebovits said that “the services are people resistant; the people aren’t service resistant” after citing severe overcrowding and unsanitary conditions at local homeless shelters as an example.
Hanna Lebovits panel on homelessness was chosen for the “Civic Engagement” track for the SXSW conference.
This time of year good news typically comes in the form of "the semester is almost over!" We wanted to add some additional items to our list that we could celebrate. Join us in congratulating or being thankful for the support of the following items:
- Hyesun Jeong is the recipient of the 2021 AIA Upjohn Research Initiative for her proposal “The Future of Green Infrastructure: Measuring and Designing the Built Environment for Pedestrian and Bicycle Activities in Dallas-Fort Worth”. This is a national award provided to a select number of applicants.
- Dennis Chiessa is the recipient of the Stewardson Keefe LeBrun Travel Grant sponsored by AIANY for his proposal: "The Maya and Garifuna Coast of Mexico and Central America." This is a highly competitive award given to 1-4 people per year.
We are pleased to report that the following endowments and gifts were either created, made, or expanded in the past month:
- Parekh Kalia Architecture Scholarship Endowment was funded at $25,000. Funds awarded will go towards scholarships to international undergraduate or graduate students pursuing a degree in Architecture who have financial needs.
- JHP/Robert H. James Excellence Endowment will be seeded with an additional $25,000 to support scholarships starting in the fall of 2022. The firm has also renewed its commitment this year to support the CAPPA JEDI award with a $2000 commitment.
- School of Architecture Alumni Association/ Topping Out made a donation of $25,000 to support scholarships, research, and the advancement of the Design-Build+Community Engagement initiative.
November 2021
Dr. Hyesun Jeong, assistant professor in architecture, for having her research proposal "The Future of Green Infrastructure: Measuring and Designing the Built Environment for Pedestrian and Bicycle Activities in Dallas" accepted for the American Institute of Architects Upjohn Research fund and having received a $15,000 grant award.
October 2021
Dr. Austin Allen and co-contributor are listed as one of the winners of the 2021 ASLA Professional Award. Dr. Allen wrote a chapter in Black Landscapes Matter by Walter Hood and Grace Mitchell Tada, which was giving the "Award of Excellence." This book “brings together landscape architecture and planning professionals to probe how race, memory, and meaning intersect in the American landscape.” Exploring diverse places across the United States and asserts that these landscapes are critical to shaping individual and communal identities.
The city of Dallas’ Park Board will honor Kevin Sloan, UTA professor of architecture, by renaming the 12th Street Connector Park as the Kevin W. Sloan Park, D Magazine reported. Throughout his career, Sloan has contributed to numerous city projects, including the idea of “re-wilding” the Trinity River Corridor by encouraging the re-establishment of its original flora and fauna.
September 2021
Hannah Lebovits PhD, Assistant Professor recently published a paper on networking as a graduate student in the social sciences. The paper, co-authored with Sarah Shugars PhD and Seo-Young Silvia Kim PhD, providing students with concrete recommendations on how to create and sustain networking communities. Published in the peer-reviewed political science journal, PS: Political Science and Politics.
Congratulations to Dennis Chiessa, Assistant Professor of Architecture, who received the statewide award for Associate of the Year from the Texas Society of Architects. He was selected out of nominations from all AIA chapters from across Texas, recognizing him as an exceptional member and outstanding achievements in support of the profession of architecture, the built environment, and quality of life in Texas.
*** The Texas Society of Architects Associate Member of the Year award is presented to a single Associate AIA member who best exemplifies the highest leadership qualities and has demonstrated an unparalleled commitment to their local component or Texas' membership through service to the profession and/or service or in the community. ***
August 2021
Dr. David Coursey, Chair of PAPL who is a co-PI with Dr. Jessica Eisma [PI] on a 2-year $299,466 highly competitive federal grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration [NOAA], Adaptation Sciences Program, titled "Identification of cost-effective, climate-informed green infrastructure adaptations to reduce flood risk in Houston’s vulnerable communities.”
This proposal engages with the community organization Northeast Houston Redevelopment Council; representatives from the City of Houston; and representatives from the County to identify and quantify green infrastructure (GI)-based opportunities to reduce flood risk in Houston’s vulnerable neighborhoods. The project seeks to provide stakeholders with a feasible GI-based flood reduction plan with three major elements: (1) use of an integrated hydrologic and hydraulic model of Houston to investigate how different GI built on underutilized land in low-income communities reduces current and future climate change-induced flood risk; (2) appraisal of the benefits of pursuing a GI-based solution to reducing flood damages in vulnerable communities, examining impacts to both residential areas and local businesses; and (3) engagement with community and local government leaders to identify and analyze obstacles hindering the incorporation of proven adaptation strategies and to suggest opportunities for overcoming these obstacles. The project will produce recommendations for cost-effective GI suitable for urbanized coastal neighborhoods, a climate-informed framework for assessing the costs and benefits of such installations in a vulnerable community, and recommendations for partnering with vulnerable communities to advance GI projects.
Hannah Lebovits, assistant professor of public affairs and planning, spoke to The Dallas Morning News about the mutual aid group Say It With Your Chest's efforts to serve the homeless population of Dallas. Lebovits said interpersonal contact between social service providers and their clients ensures that a social connection has been made. Doing laundry is a gesture of solidarity for Say It With Your Chest's organizers and volunteers, making sure they have clean clothes, reaching out, and reacting to people in need. It has also evolved into a means to care for other community members.
Congratulations to Brad McCorkle for having his Artwork accepted by the Texas Artists Coalition (TAC) for the 2021 Arts Center Juried Exhibition. The 2021 Arts Center Juried Exhibition will showcase McCorkle and other artists’ work between August 13 -September 18. The TAC program is supported by the Arts Council of Fort Worth and the Texas Commission on the Arts.
Congratulations to Joowon Im and Dennis Chiessa for their exhibit at the Bernice Coulter Templeton Art Studio in the Polytechnic Heights neighborhood of Fort Worth. The project brought landscape architecture and architecture together and could not have happened without the help of local FWISD schools and Community Design Fort Worth. Dennis Chiessa also has a house exhibit currently showing at the Fort Worth Community Arts Center. The House of Asterion - an exhibition featuring seven single-family houses. (open until Saturday, August 7).
CAPPA is the newest institutional member of the Nonprofit Academic Centers Council (NACC). As such, we join a global group of academic centers and programs at accredited colleges and universities that focus on the study of nonprofits, non-governmental organizations, voluntary action, and philanthropy. Our membership in NACC helps faculty promote these fields of research and network alongside our students. CAPPA’s first NACC conference panel on July 28, 2021, was organized by Dr. Karabi C. Bezboruah and Dr. Emily I. Nwakpuda in the Department of Public Affairs and Planning.
Dr. Hyesun Jeong published an article, “Does café culture drive artistic enclaves?” in the Journal of Urbanism.
Dr. Douglas Klahr published an article in German History by Oxford University Press, the journal of record in his field. The title is “Palace versus City: Wilhelm II’s Terrace Project, 1892-1901”
July 2021
Hannah Lebovits, assistant professor of urban affairs and public policy discussed what makes up anti-Semitism and discrimination in today’s world, Jewish Public Media reported on its program Talking in Shul.
Mark Lamster, associate professor in practice at the UT Arlington College of Architecture, was honored by the Dorothea and Leo Rabkin Foundation as one of eight recipients of a $50,000 prize, The Dallas Morning News reported. The foundation has awarded a collective $2.275 million to individual art writers across the country over the past five years. Lamster is the first recipient of the national award who writes principally about architecture.
June 2021
Dr. Qisheng Pan, Professor of Planning and Director of C-TEDD, recently presented “The Impact of Air Pollution on Housing Prices and The Effect Analysis of Environmental Policies: A Case Study of Houstan, USA” at the 15th IACP conference from Jun 20-21, 2021, in Nanjing, China. Dr. Qisheng Pan’s research adopted the Hedonic price model and used housing prices in Houston areas to quantify the impact of ozone pollution on local community populations, which studied the response of housing prices to governmental environment policies.
Dr. Anjomani, Professor of Planning, recently published new research articles in planning and urban-related journals. Dr. Anjomani and Dr. AlQuhtani, have published a paper “Do Rail Transit Stations Affect the Population Density Changes Around Them? The Case of Dallas-Fort Worth Metropolitan Area” in the Sustainability 2021, 13(6). The research demonstrated an increase in residential density surrounding transit stations if there were developments or policies to increase racial mix and employment opportunities with mixed-use Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) commercial activities.Dr. Anjomani published an additional article titled, “An integrated land-use/transportation forecasting and planning model: A metropolitan planning support system,” in the Journal of Transportation and Land Use (JTLU). His article proposes a planning and support system (PSS) to help numerous issues in urban areas, such as the effects of future developments on environmental sustainability, economic development, and stakeholder input. Ultimately, the PSS helps institutions prepare metropolitan or subregional plans and demographic analysis for various planning and policy making purposes.
Dr. Hannah Lebovits, an Assistant Professor of Public Affairs and Planning, makes a statement about issues associated with affordable housing in North Texas on KRLD-AM radio. The interview briefly discusses the growth of people living in poverty as North Texas has approximately “138,000 fewer jobs than before the pandemic” despite the recovering economy. Dr. Hannah Lebovits stated that people are experiencing issues with finding affordable housing from population growth that has led to higher rent. Additionally, Dr. Lebovits mentioned that decades of research have demonstrated that landlords discriminate against LGBTQ and black women with children as poverty grows within suburban areas. Jobs may be available to people, but those jobs may not provide enough funds to support a family.
Dr. Hannah Lebovits, an Assistant Professor of Public Affairs and Planning, makes a statement about social justice associated withFeed the PeopleDallas in The Dallas Morning News. Feed the People distributes care packages, groceries, and meals with the help of community members or volunteers in the Dallas area as the organization grows. However, university faculty members have commented that the mutual aid is a form of solidarity rather charity. Mutual aid originated from the Free African Society in 18th century Philadelphia to “financially support newly free black people.” Mutual aid is a continuing practice that coalesces around marginalized communities and urgent crises, which helps efforts more directly as stated by an SMU nonprofit studies lecturer. Social media and other platforms, such as GoFundMe, has aided the growth of mutual aid during the pandemic. Dr. Hannah Lebovits stated that “the pandemic has shown us that a lot of our institutions aren’t able to get to those people who are hardest hit, so hardest hit folks are taking care of themselves. They’re doing it through mutual aid, as opposed to further interacting with established institutions.”
May 2021
Dr. Qisheng Pan received a sub-award from Texas Southern University (TSU) to work on ongoing research projects of Cooperative Mobility for Competitive Megaregions (CM2), USDOT Tier 1 University Transportation Center. Including “Develop a GIS-based Megaregion Transportation Planning Model” (with Dr. Bumseok Chun, Co-PI at TSU), “The Applications of GIS-based Megaregion Transportation.Planning Model: A Case Study on the Impacts of Autonomous Vehicle (AV)” (with Dr. Bumseok Chun, Co-PI at TSU), and “Utilize Crowd-Sourced Data and Machine Learning Technology toEnhance Planning for Transportation Resilience to Flooding” (With Dr. Ming Zhang, PI at UT Austin). Dr. Pan originally served as Principle Investigator (PI) of TSU for the CM2 consortium. After he joined UTA. The sub-award has been developed for UTA with TSU to transfer a portion of Dr. Pan’s CM2 grant to UTA.
David Hopman, associate professor of Landscape Architecture Capstone student project, 'Living Waters Park' which started in fall 2011, is now a full-fledged community service project empowering an underserved Fort Worth community, AB Digital reported. The project mission is to "provide an economic stimulus to East Fort Worth by providing water and land stewardship that targets arts, recreation, and science while preserving the beauty of Lake Arlington and celebrating our diverse community."
April 2021
Dr. Hannah Lebovits, assistant professor of Public Affairs and Planning, writes an article for the Dallas Magazine. The report is on redefining how we discuss homelessness. "Changing the Narrative Around Homelessness In Dallas." Dr. Lebovits emphasizes the current homelessness situation in Dallas. And when she moved to the city, she saw firsthand how housing availability has declined because most do not have a path to liveable wages and several other reasons. "The number of people in this region who are experiencing homelessness and do not have any form of shelter has increased significantly in the last several years.
Diane Allen, FASLA, director and professor of landscape architecture, was featured in the Landscape Architecture Magazine for her candid discussion in “Hear their Voices: Inspiring Stories from Women Leaders in Design Education” ASLA's Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Webinar convened women of color leaders in architecture and landscape architecture education to discuss networks of mentorship, camaraderie, and solidarity.
Dr. Im Joowoon (Associate Professor of Public Affairs) , Alan Klein (Director of the IUS) and Ph.D student Amruta Amol Sakalker recieved grant funding from the National Institute for Transportation and Communities Education Grant (NITC) . They recieved $25,287 for their project which focuses on developing GIS training and lectures to address issues concerning transportation, and environmental justice for high school students who set their career goals within STEAM education, and also concerning urban planning, architecture, and landscape architecture.
March 2021
Hannah Lebovits, assistant public affairs and planning professor at UT Arlington, spoke to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram about the city of Arlington’s need for more housing. She said city leaders should prioritize housing that is both affordable to an array of residents and conducive to economic development in order to attract and maintain residents. Arlington officials and candidates are considering ways to meet the city’s housing demand while avoiding overbuilding.Ariadna Reyes-Sanchez and Charles McBride snagged two Research Enhancement Proposals (REP) for 2021-22. Ariadna Reyes-Sanchez received support for her project-- "Sustainability, Water, Energy Use in Informal Communities in Mexico City." And Charles McBride also received support for his project “Passive House Advocacy and Implementation in Hot and Humid Climates.”
Taner Özdil, associate professor of landscape architecture, is announced as the new Vice President for Research & Creative Scholarship for the Council for Education and Landscape Architecture (CELA). Özdil is looking forward to fulfilling CELA's mission to encourage, support, and further education in the field of landscape architecture specifically related to teaching, research, scholarship, and public service. The goal is to continue recruiting and retaining underrepresented students to landscape architecture programs, helping mentor graduates into professional life and leadership, and fostering an inclusive and welcoming practice environment.
Diane Jones Allen, Kathryn Holliday, Austin Allen and Julia Lindgren featured on the EurekAlert.org for their work with communities to combat environmental racism and urban sprawl.
A team from the College of Architecture, Planning and Public Affairs is one of two nationwide to win a $40,000 SOM Foundation Research Prize to create a design playbook for Black settlements in North Texas, U.S. Fed News and Targeted News Service reported.
CAPPA doctoral student Shadin Nimery and Dr. Hannah Lebovits, a CAPPA Assistant Professor of Public Affairs are featured in the American Political Science Association (APSA). Their article makes a compelling case for layering in qualitative historical data in contemporary urban politics research. The authors emphasized the need for more discussion about historical redlining efforts, particularly as localities move towards an electronically driven “Smart Cities” future.
Dr. Karabi Bezboruah, associate professor of Public Affairs, has been selected a second time as the winner of the UTA President’s Award for Transformative Online Education. Dr. Bezboruah was recognized in 2017 for this same award. In addition, in 2020, she was awarded the 2020 Teaching Excellence Award by the U.S. Distance Learning Association. Winners of UT Arlington’s 2021 teaching honors will be recognized at the upcoming Spring Meeting of the University Faculty and Associates in April, 2021
Hannah Lebovits, assistant professor of public affairs at CAPPA, won an award at the Conference of Minority Public Administrators annual conference. Hannah’s paper, titled “Encouraging Social Sustainability in Communities in-Transition - A Restorative Justice Approach,” won the second-place “Best Paper” award and a $1000 cash prize. The paper argues that cities can best engage in stabilization and revitalization efforts by tackling disinvestment head on, giving power back to those who have been marginalized by regional growth and sprawl. Hannah presented her paper to a live, online audience at the February 2020 conference, as well, where she received positive feedback from the audience.
Dennis Chiessa received first place in the 'Real Stories' design competition for his proposal "The Library of Babel." The competition was to design a virtual environment to share stories of people experiencing homelessness. Chiessa says it was inspired by "Jorge Luis Borges the Library of Babel. The gallery is "the universe (which others call the library) is compLibrary an indefinite, perhaps the infinite number of hexagonal galleries."
"The project is a device for the fortunate to encounter the harsh realities of others in a labyrinth. The format of the competition liberates the architect from the physical world's realities; materials are meaningless, gravity is useless, the scale is ambiguous, the only thing that matters is the library's collection- the story of each individual and how we confront it."
February 2021
Congratulations to DianeJonesAllen, Program Director and Professor of Landscape Architecture, KateHolliday (Professor of Architecture and Director of the Dillon Center), and AustinAllen (Associate Professor of Practice in the School of Architecture), who just received the SOM Foundation Research Prize on behalf of UTA. This annual prize is only awarded to two institutions nationwide., and we are honored to have them represent CAPPA and the (School of Architecture). Each will receive a grant of $40,000 to conduct original research.
The Research Prize was created in 2018 to cultivate new ideas and meaningful research with the goal of addressing critical issues of our time. This year’s topic, “Examining Social Justice in Urban Contexts,” encouraged applicants to explore and identify long-term policies, immediate actions, and comprehensive plans have the potential to shape a more equitable and sustainable future. The proposal is titled “Reclaiming Black Settlements: A Design Playbook for Historic Communities in the Shadow of Sprawl” led by Diane Jones Allen.
Professors Kate Holliday, Austin Allen, Diane Jones Allen, and Julia Lindgren were recently named as 2021 grantees by the Dallas Chamber of Commerce for their research proposal:Design Justice Initiative in Joppa"The UTA David Dillon Center for Texas Architecture is leading a Design Justice Initiative in Joppa, working in close partnership with the South Central Civic League (SCCL), on research, planning, engagement, and implementation of art installations, design-build projects, and research studios that bring students, faculty, and community members together. Work will be led by Assistant Professor Julia Lindgren, UTA School of Architecture. The DRC funds support a UTA graduate research assistant, materials, community workshops, and subcontractor work of the pavilion, in the amount of $20,000."
The IUS recognizes Alan Klein (Director of the IUS) along side Amruta Sakalker(UPPP Ph.D. student), and Meghna Tare (Director of the Institute for Sustainability and Global Impact,UTA) for submitting their project “Upper Trinity River Water Quality Report Card” for the 2020 RCE North Texas Award. They received Honorable Mention for contributing to SDG6: Clean Water and Sanitation. This award is given annually to RCEs that have made outstanding contributions to address local, sustainable development challenges in their regions.
January 2021
HannahLebovits, Assistant Professor of Public Affairs, and Beth Piwkowski, a history archivist in Cleveland, wrote an op-ed on The Forward. An opinion piece in The Forward said that the attack on the Capitol by President Trump supporters was entirely predictable. The Forward is an American news media organization for a Jewish-American audience.
Adjunct Assistant Professor of Public Affairs and Corinth City Manager Bob Hart was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Texas City Management Association. The award is given to a city manager who has significantly contributed to local government for more than 20 years. Hart’s career in city management has spanned six Texas cities: Sundown, Sweetwater, Pampa, Georgetown, Kennedale and Corinth.