The Department of City and Regional Planning (CRP) and the College of Architecture, Art, and Planning (AAP) celebrated the Class of 2020’s completion of both undergraduate and graduate degree programs through unconventional platforms and mediums. The annual CRP Academic Awards and Prizes were presented to graduates and their family and friends through Zoom, allowing students to still receive their well-deserved recognition for their work and contribution while at Cornell. Given the evolving situation of the pandemic and the decision to ultimately go remote, AAP dedicated student work pages for graduates that were unable to showcase their work through exhibitions, exit project public defenses, and final workshop and course presentations.
This year, CRP graduates accelerated through an array of diverse projects and experiences. Sauvanithi Yupho (M.R.P. ’20) and Joshua Rotbert (M.R.P. ’20) shared sample work from the Adaptation to Climate Change spring 2019 workshop, which later received the 2020 Student Project Award from the National American Planning Association. This, along with many workshops in the department, emphasized the essential skills in graphic representation, fiscal-scenario planning analyses, and public engagement with workshop clients in addressing climate adaptation in the Boston metropolitan area coastal region.
Graduates also were well represented in the AAP NYC and Cornell In Rome abroad programs. Prior to his unexpected return to the U.S., Joseph Reigle (B.S. URS ’20) conducted site analyses in the Prenestino Neighborhood of Rome, which he later synthesized and presented in the report for his workshop clients in Rome virtually. At AAP NYC, Jennifer Cao (M.R.P. ’20) and Onam Bisht (M.R.P. / M.L.A. ’20) developed a “live-work” urban design concept to the NYC Department of City Planning through their urban design studio led by WXY Architecture + Design last fall.
Taking advantage of the flexible curriculum, graduates also were able to expand their skill-sets through other course offerings outside the program. Sophia O’Neill (B.S. URS ’20) enrolled in Visual Imaging in the Electronic Age by Professor Donald Greenberg in the Architecture program, where her and her partner developed Project Aorta, which aimed to develop a facility planning concept comprising of different rooms with each intending to spark various behavioral emotions. Lela Robinson (B.S. URS ’20/ M.L.A. ’23) enrolled in her first landscape architecture studio, allowing her to practice design mediums in synthesizing her interest in landscape as a form comprising of biology, art and aesthetics, and policy and land use, amongst others. She is planning to continue her studies at Cornell in the Master of Landscape Architecture program.
The AAP Student Work showcase allowed for some graduates to reflect on their cumulative work throughout their time at Cornell. Maurice Bradford (B.S. URS ’20), who completed his honors thesis on the vital role art-based participatory planning has on mitigating challenges of displacement and gentrification in communities, shared samples of his work from his previous courses which demonstrate hybridization of analog and digital drawings to share different narratives of community experiences.
More student work from the 2020 CRP graduates can be viewed on the AAP website.