In the post-pandemic reality, a vision for urbanism is necessarily situated in the critical issues of our time: climate change, social and racial justice, and emerging technologies. While their scale is global, students in the Urban Planning Program connect these issues with the local and regional contexts through grounded analysis of socioeconomic and political conditions. Our program prepares students to confront and break down structures and practices of oppression rooted in inequality, racism, and sexism. It also fosters creative and critical approaches to planning and policy that improve processes and outcomes in cities around the world. The work completed this academic year shows how Urban Planning students embrace professional challenges and responsibilities with sensitivity and courage.

The studio Revitalizing Ciutat Vella, Barcelona for a Just and Green Urban Future undertakes a thorough review of the city’s oldest district of Barcelona, Spain. The contemporary urban challenges it faces are evaluated to offer proposals promoting equity and resilience specific to the site’s context and historical significance. The team sees resilience as more than just bouncing back, but rather as addressing disparities and shortcomings in a proactive rather than reactive way.

Through secondary resource research, site visits, as well as stakeholder and community engagement, the project explores emerging urban challenges and strengths of the district of Ciutat Vella and aims to complement and bolster existing city efforts in climate risk mitigation, improving housing rehabilitation processes, and activating public spaces for a just urban future.

The project proposed a two-pronged strategy for achieving this vision, targeting both private and public realms. In the private realm, it recommends a housing rehabilitation model supported by innovative public financing mechanisms derived from value-capture in Port Vell redevelopment. In the public realm, it introduces designs for four underutilized plazas and a district-wide green connectivity initiative, integrating climate adaptation with cultural programming.

Holistically, the studio proposes innovative approaches for transforming a historic core for better building and public space quality for the residents, while seeking to balance the use of space by residents with the immense volume of visitors every year and maintain affordability through thoughtful policy recommendations.

JORDAN ZHU

Advisor: Matthew Bauer

Evaluation of Correlation Between Storefront Design and Commercial District Performance in Elmhurst, Queens

The relationship between storefront design and commercial vitality has long been assumed as directly correlated with one another. In the field of urban planning and real estate, transparency, defined as physical visibility into retail spaces, is seen as a key indicator of economic success or vitality in a certain retail area. However, in urban contexts like Elmhurst, Queens, an area that is demographically diverse and displays a wide variety of business types, this traditional outlook and approach oversimplifies the relationship between storefront design, cultural dimensions, and economic success. Through a more holistic approach, this study looks at transparency, not only as physical visibility, but also the overall customer engagement potential of spaces through its design, accessibility, and total perceived engagement. Based on the Broadway retail corridor in Elmhurst, Queens, this research introduces contextual legibility as an alternative framework for understanding how storefronts effectively communicate in multicultural settings; challenging the traditional understanding of the correlation between storefront transparency and commercial vitality.

HANYIN ZHANG

Advisor: Hugo Sarmiento

Optimizing Urban Microgrid Deployment for Critical Infrastructure: A Social Value–Driven Approach to Government Subsidy and Green Finance

This study develops a planning framework for urban microgrids that integrates resilience, equity, and participatory governance to address climate-induced disruptions and structural inequities in traditional energy systems. A Critical Load Index (CLI) model is introduced to prioritize infrastructure based on functional importance, energy demand, social vulnerability (SVI), and recovery capacity. Empirical analysis in Shenzhen identifies data centers and hospitals as resilience-critical nodes due to their high Value of Lost Load (VoLL, $20,000–50,000/MWh) and service sensitivity. Building on CLI outputs, a Social Value-Based Subsidy Optimization Model (SV-SOM) is proposed to overcome limitations of conventional CAPEX-based subsidies. By incorporating co-benefits such as carbon mitigation ($10.03 million/year), public health gains ($42.4 million/year), and job creation ($15.43 million/year), the model enables dynamic and equitable subsidy allocation. Over a 20-year horizon, it demonstrates a Social Return on Investment (SROI) of 8.97:1, supporting green bonds and carbon-linked financial tools.

The study also proposes a tiered subsidy and community co-governance mechanism. High-priority facilities receive upfront capital support and access to carbon revenue, while pilot community equity models in high-vulnerability areas allocate 30% of project revenues to a Health Protection Fund, reinforcing local investment and energy democratization. By bridging technical resilience with social equity, this research advances a data-driven, value-based framework for China’s evolving power system and offers transferable strategies for global sustainable energy transitions.

TIMOTHY JOHN YOSHIMURA SMALL

Advisor: Anthony Vanky

While there are archives that chronicle the wartime internment of Japanese Americans across the West Coast of the United States, less has been done to meso-spatially represent the magnitude of their dispossession in the cities they called home. This study first digitizes and transforms various pre- and post-war documentation detailing the Japanese American trajectory in Seattle’s Nihonmachi enclave. These data include archival Sanborn maps, census microfilm scans at the enumeration district level, and community-derived mappings. The displacive impacts of wartime incarceration on Nihonmachi’s homes and businesses are then explored through qualitative cartographic techniques, geospatial analyses, and novel counter-maps. A dasymetric re-aggregation of Nihonmachi’s residential fabric harnesses Sanborn map building footprints to paint a block-level picture of life before and after internment. Data overlays and collages of historical photographs are used to highlight the variegated semiotics and spatial contentions between this study’s authoritative and community-drawn maps. By colliding, annotating, and reimagining Seattle’s urban past according to a melange of imperfect representational forms, competing claims on knowledge are challenged. This research celebrates and holds sacred practices of mapping and storytelling, while fully acknowledging that reality is unknowable. Here, Japanese American life and loss are emblematic of a larger interrogation; one that questions the production and portrayal of geographic information in organized space. If data is to have a role in equitable sociopolitical processes, it must in its own creation account for the plurality of our lived experiences. Thus, an invitation to spatial practitioners and beyond: the conventional epistemologies of geography and urban planning are movable; how might we critique and reshape them together?

SHU YIN

Advisor: Anthony Vanky

NOISE EXPOSURE AND COMPLAINT DISPARITIES IN NYC: A CONTEXTUAL AND COMMUNITY-BASED APPROACH USING THE COMPOSITE NOISE RATING SYSTEM

In dense metropolitan environments like New York City, noise pollution is a persistent urban stressor with deeply uneven impacts. While official complaint systems serve as the primary channel for addressing noise issues, they often reflect social inequalities more than acoustic realities. This thesis investigates how urban noise, as both a physical exposure and a social construct, reveals disparities in who is heard, who complains, and who is ignored. Focusing on Manhattan, the study models the disjunction between measured noise levels and complaint data using a newly developed Composite Noise Rating System (CNRS). By integrating sensor data, 311 records, land use information, and demographic variables, the analysis shows that non-English-speaking and lower-income communities are significantly underrepresented in formal complaints despite comparable or higher noise exposure. In contrast, more affluent and demographically privileged neighborhoods exhibit higher complaint rates under lower exposure conditions. Strengthening community-based and inclusive complaint systems becomes essential in addressing these representational gaps. In response, the thesis introduces Noize, a participatory prototype that reframes noise governance as collective witnessing rather than isolated grievance. By connecting empirical analysis with design intervention, the research calls for more equitable and context-sensitive approaches to urban sound management.

SOO JIN YIM

Advisor: Anthony Vanky

Patterns of Urban Sprawl Without Zoning Regulations: Focusing on Houston Metropolitan Area

Urban sprawl, often viewed negatively due to its association with uncontrolled urban expansion, should not be evaluated solely through a binary lens of whether it is good or bad. Instead, the focus must shift toward how urban areas can be managed more efficiently. As urban populations grow and the demand for wide scale, comfortable living increases, the emergence of multiple urban cores drives for stronger connectivity with existing central business districts (CBDs). These developments should be supported by encouraging mixed land use in surrounding neighborhoods. In zoning free urban environments, like Houston, market-driven development tends to prioritize residential, office, and retail uses. However, this often results in inadequate accessibility to essential public services such as educational, recreational, and medical facilities. This study examines the patterns of urban sprawl in Houston from 2002 to 2022, and proposes the need to adopt more flexible zoning policies or targeted planning interventions to ensure balanced spatial development and improve accessibility to public amenities. Ultimately, the goal is not to prevent urban sprawl, but to manage it in a way that enhances livability, connectivity, and inclusiveness across metropolitan areas, rather than the complete absence of zoning regulation. Moving beyond traditional zoning, flexible planning strategies that encourage spatial efficiency and land use diversity while ensuring equitable access to public services.

JAMES S. PIACENTINI

Advisor: Anthony Vanky

smile! you’re on camera: stories of placemaking, surveillance, and carcerality from the bronx bodega

This project explores processes of placemaking, surveillance, and political participation through stories from Bronx bodegas and through the frameworks of carceral geography, extrastatecraft, and actor-network theory. It attempts to understand the expansion of surveillance regimes into bodega spaces, not by observing moving objects, but by looking at the relationships of information flows, decision-making processes, and actor participation. By embedding the analysis in the narratives of local bodegueros, community members, and public representatives, this project contributes to critical technology and surveillance studies by complicating the literature with the lived experiences, epistemologies, and infrastructures of feeling in and around bodegas in the Bronx. In finding that surveillance as extrastatecraft is expanding into the immigrant spaces of bodegas without meaningful community engagement, this project concludes with a call to plan for abolition with intentional realignment of community organizations, bodega associations, and city institutions that center forms of collective care and protection as articulated by the communities they intend to serve.

DANIEL XU

Advisor: Matthre Bauer

Harnessing Active Transportation to Redefine a Commercial Center: A Study of the Hudson Square Business Improvement District

This thesis examines how Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) can evolve beyond their traditional service roles into active infrastructure leaders, focusing on the Hudson Square BID in New York City. Through a mixed-methods approach combining Citi Bike trip analysis, GIS mapping, commuter surveys, and stakeholder interviews, the research documents how the BID led efforts in planning, funding, and implementing active transportation infrastructure. Findings reveal that strategic investment in pedestrian-friendly streetscapes and protected bike lanes attracted a younger, creative-class workforce and reshaped commuting patterns, transforming Hudson Square into a dynamic live-work neighborhood. The study proposes a hybrid governance model where BIDs act as localized stewards of urban infrastructure, offering a replicable framework for other districts seeking mobility-driven revitalization.

MIAOJING WEI

Advisor: Anthony Vanky

Mapping Micro-Scale Heat Risk in New York City: A Fine-Grained Index Incorporating Adaptive Capacity

Extreme heat poses a significant public health risk in urban areas, intensified by climate change. Effective responses require detailed assessments of heat risk at fine spatial scales. Conventional heat risk assessments, often conducted at broad community levels, overlook critical micro-scale variations in heat exposure and adaptive capacity. This study introduces a fine-grained Urban Heat Risk Index incorporating Adaptive Capacity (UHRI-AC), using a 30-meter spatial resolution in New York City.

The analysis integrates Landsat-derived land surface temperature (LST), normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), population density, and socioeconomic factors representing adaptive capacity. Results illustrate significant spatial variability in heat risk within urban neighborhoods, revealing localized hotspots of elevated heat exposure and limited adaptive capacity even within areas previously classified as lower-risk. Comparative analysis with existing community-level heat indices underscores the necessity and advantage of fine-resolution mapping in identifying vulnerable areas missed by coarser methods. Crucially, many micro-scale hotspots identified are located in socioeconomically disadvantaged communities, highlighting critical environmental justice concerns. This study demonstrates the importance of detailed, micro-level heat risk assessments for urban climate resilience planning, offering a methodological framework to promote equitable and targeted urban heat mitigation interventions.

KEXIN WANG

Advisor: Matthew Bauer

Beneath the Metal Canopies, Beyond the Past: Branding the Industrial Heritage of the Meatpacking District

This thesis examines the preservation of industrial heritage in New York City’s Meatpacking District, focusing on the physical manifestations of its historical past, such as metal canopies. Once a hub of industrial activity defined by meatpacking plants and warehouses, the district has transformed into a high-end mixed-use area, marked by luxury retail, hospitality, and residential development. Although the Gansevoort Market Historic District received local landmark designation by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission in 2003, this form of designation regulates physical alterations to building exteriors rather than their use. As a result, much of the district’s industrial functionality has faded, leaving behind symbolic remnants of its past. The study investigates the role of adaptive reuse practices and architectural elements, particularly metal canopies, in shaping the district’s evolving identity. It evaluates how these physical features contribute to preserving the district’s industrial character amid pressures of economic development. By examining these elements in the context of preservation efforts and urban branding, this thesis sheds light on how historic authenticity can be maintained while accommodating contemporary urban needs. This research aims to provide insights into preserving industrial heritage through architectural features and offering strategies that emphasize both functionality and historical integrity.

VADLAMUDI AKHIL AKASH

Advisors: Jonathan Stiles, Kevin McQueen

Middle Income Housing and Urban Equity in New York City

New York City’s housing crisis is often framed around low-income affordability, but middle-income households increasingly face severe housing challenges. This thesis examines the state of middle-income housing in NYC through a mixed-methods analysis encompassing policy review, quantitative needs assessment, spatial analysis of housing conditions, and a case study of the Mitchell-Lama program. The findings reveal a significant mismatch between middle-income housing demand and supply – hundreds of thousands of additional units would be needed to close the gap​ (cbcny.org) . Quantitative analysis shows that roughly one-third of “middle-income” renter households (earning ~60–120% of Area Median Income) are now cost-burdened by rent​ (jchs.harvard.edu). Housing maintenance data indicate that code violations are rising and heavily clustered in specific neighborhoods, underscoring pockets of substandard housing​ (citylimits.org). Spatial statistics (Moran’s I, Geary’s C, Local Indicators of Spatial Association, and Getis-Ord Gi*) confirm non-random geographic patterns in housing stress, identifying distinct “hotspots” of affordability gaps and deteriorating housing. The case study of the Mitchell-Lama program – a centerpiece of NYC’s middle-income housing policy in the mid-20th century – illustrates both the potential of public-private partnerships to create affordable homes at scale and the vulnerability of these units to loss through privatization. These insights point to critical policy gaps: NYC lacks sufficient tools today to serve households who earn too much for traditional subsidies yet cannot afford market-rate housing. The thesis concludes by proposing a suite of policy reforms, including reviving production programs for moderate-income housing, strengthening preservation of existing units, zoning changes to enable more “missing middle” development, and new financing mechanisms. Taken together, these strategies chart a path toward a more inclusive housing policy that addresses the full spectrum of urban housing need.

ANDREA SZE

Advisor: Jonathan Stiles

Benchmarking Airport Ground Access: A Spatial And Policy Analysis Of Ground Transportation To New York City International Airports - John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK), Laguardia Airport (LGA), And Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR)

New York City is a major world-class destination served by three international airports: John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK), LaGuardia Airport (LGA), and Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR), welcoming 62 million travelers and increasing every year. Airport ground access refers to the ways in which travelers get to and from airports. Due to the spatial distribution of these airports within New York City, ground access varies in travel time, cost, and overall accessibility. This research aims to benchmark the travel accessibility of the three major airports by asking: How accessible are JFK, LGA, and EWR to neighborhoods across New York City, and what historical, policy, and funding barriers have shaped this access? A mixed methods approach was employed utilizing GIS, historical and policy research, and site visits. Travel time is the primary quantitative factor in assessing airport ground access across all neighborhoods in New York City.

The findings of this research reveal differences in accessibility to all three airports through both private and public forms of transportation, identifying neighborhoods where investments in transportation infrastructure should be made. Furthermore, research indicates that Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) regulations on airport ground access projects greatly restrict how projects can be funded through the Airport Improvement Program (AIP), Passenger Facility Charge (PFC), and Airport Revenue. This research serves as a benchmark for airport ground access today, identifying gaps in transportation infrastructure and contributing to future planning that supports more equitable and efficient travel for future generations.

SUMMER SMITH

Advisor: Matthew Bauer

The Covenants of Queens: Exploring Covenants as an Alternative form of Land Use Control in Queens, NYC

In NYC, property deeds and covenants still explicitly exist. These covenants affect land use by regulating what can be built and where it can be built. Covenants in properties today, while they don’t restrict the groups of individuals who can live in a certain area, continue to control land use. Covenants are a portion of a deed that is passed to each successor of property. They control how property is used, the density, and in the past, explicitly were used to restrict individuals based on their racial and ethnic group. The results of these exclusions endure in the locations today by establishing a certain character of a neighborhood. Covenants are a secondary source of land use control, above and beyond that of what the city controls through zoning. This, in turn, has consequences for the physical landscape of an area. Zoning is the main form of land use control in NYC. However, I will research how covenants act as an alternative form of land use control in NYC. My research will investigate how covenants in Queen’s property deeds perpetuate land use controls by controlling the characteristics of a home or neighborhood. I will explain how this differs from zoning, which controls land uses (i.e., the type of building that can be built on a plot of land) and building bulk/ density. Covenants primarily control land use by regulating things like yardage, building character, architectural details, or home value. The result of these restrictions and regulations is the establishment of a specific neighborhood character and feel. In Queens, the result of the covenant restrictions and regulations are the creation and maintenance of exclusive, private, garden-style suburban neighborhoods each with its own specific appeal.

SAUMIL SANGHAVI

Advisor: Emily Tolbert

The Cost of Exclusion: How Local law 97 Shapes Energy Inequities in NYC Communities

buildings (over 25,000 square feet), aiming for a 40% reduction by 2030, and 80% by 2050. While this policy is pivotal in advancing urban decarbonization, its design and implementation have raised concerns about exacerbating existing inequities across the city. The thesis investigates how LL97 shapes energy disparities by analyzing its socio-spatial impacts on disadvantaged communities excluded from compliance mandates. Using a quantitative approach, the study uses geospatial analysis of census tract level emissions data with socio-economic indicators with greater access to resources for compliance while perpetuating systemic inequities in historically marginalized areas. Exemptions for rent-regulated buildings and limited support for retrofitting older housing stock exacerbates energy burdens in low-income communities. The research highlights the emergence of new forms of spatial injustice, where environmental and economic benefits of decarbonization are unevenly distributed. This study argues for a reimagined policy framework that integrates targeted investments in disadvantaged neighborhoods, enhancing financial support for retrofitting projects, and community-driven planning processes to ensure inclusive participation in the energy transition. By addressing these gaps, New York City can achieve a more equitable low-carbon future while mitigating unintended consequences of climate policies. These findings contribute to broader discussions of energy justice and the need for spatially inclusive approaches to urban sustainability.

AUGUST NASTASI

Advisor: Jonathon Stiles

Demystifying City of Yes: Bridging the Gap Between Zoning & the Communities It Affects

New York City is currently grappling with a severe housing and affordability crisis. Rents and home prices continue to climb beyond the reach of many residents, while housing construction has failed to keep pace with population growth. A major culprit in this shortfall is the city’s restrictive zoning code—often compounded by local opposition to new development. The pattern of development has also been uneven: while wealthier neighborhoods tend to block new housing, lower-income areas face heightened risks of displacement and gentrification.

This issue is not unique to New York. Cities across the United States are wrestling with the legacy of decades-old zoning frameworks that artificially constrain housing supply. As demand surges and availability stagnates, costs skyrocket—pushing middle- and lower-income families out of neighborhoods they’ve long called home.

In response, some cities have taken bold steps to modernize their land-use rules. In 2024, New York City followed suit by enacting its most ambitious zoning overhaul in more than sixty years. This amendment, part of a three-part reform known as the City of Yes, aims to “make it easier to build a little more housing everywhere” by loosening outdated and overly rigid zoning regulations.

Yet this shift has not come without controversy. For many, zoning is more than policy—it’s personal. Gentrification and rapid development have brought profound changes to neighborhoods over the past generation, often accompanied by displacement and community trauma. The City of Yes reforms have sparked anxiety and skepticism, especially in areas already wary of the public and private forces driving change.

This is where the zoning handbook comes in. In partnership with Urban Cartographics, I’ve developed Demystifying City of Yes: Bridging the Gap Between Zoning & the Communities It Affects—a practical, accessible resource that reflects these transformative changes. This handbook is intended as both an objective guide and a foundation for productive, collaborative dialogue between communities and developers.

ARIMBI ALESSSANDRA NARO

Advisor: Hugo Sarmiento

Displacement Within and Beyond the Physical: Examining Political Geology, Traces of Materiality, Collective Memory and the Practice of Gotong Royong in the Sidoarjo Mudflow Disaster

The Sidoarjo Mudflow Disaster, which began in May 2006, is not merely an environmental catastrophe but a manifestation of Indonesia’s complex entanglement between political power, geology, and cultural identity in the postcolonial era. This sudden disaster, triggered by industrial drilling activities, transformed many sub districts into a submerged landscape where life, history, and memory are buried beneath layers of mud. To this day, the mudflow continues as an unceasing crisis, deeply rooted in political geology and extractivism, where human activities, corporate negligence, and the state of governance intertwine with Indonesia’s volatile geology.

In Indonesia, land is imbued with cultural and spiritual significance, and this capitalism-driven disaster has disrupted not only the physical landscape but also deep-rooted traditions tied to place attachment, memory, and collective identity. As a result, the affected communities have engaged in rituals and acts of remembrance, ranging from religious prayers to the creation of mud sculptures, seeking to maintain a connection to the land. The spirit of gotong royong, an enduring Indonesian tradition of mutual care, communal solidarity, and collective support, also played a significant role in the community’s response to the disaster.

However, it is important to critically reflect on how the discourse of “resilience” operates in such contexts. In Sidoarjo, what is often described as resilience did not emerge from autonomous agency alone, but was largely necessitated by structural neglect and the prolonged absence of institutional support. While the community’s capacity for collective action demonstrates strength and dignity, these forms of grassroots endurance simultaneously reveal the uneven distribution of recovery burdens. The framing of resilience, when left uninterrogated, risks naturalizing systemic failures and obscuring the responsibilities of the state and corporate actors. This research therefore engages with resilience not as a celebratory endpoint, but as a contested lens through which to examine how vulnerability is managed, normalized, and redistributed in disaster governance.

This research focuses on strategies to improve the enforcement of government policies, focusing on the intersection of political power, geology, and tradition. It will explore how these policies can be more effectively implemented amidst local corruption, power dynamics, and influences that disrupt justice processes. By examining governance and transparency in disaster recovery, the study will also highlight the critical role of place attachment and collective memory in shaping public discourse.

The goal is to ensure that the communities affected by the Sidoarjo Mudflow disaster, whose experiences have largely faded from recent public discourse, remain central to the conversation despite the complex political and social challenges surrounding the disaster’s aftermath. This study highlights the relevance of integrating cultural resilience, collective practices such as gotong royong, and place attachment into disaster recovery. By reflecting on the gaps and enduring challenges observed in the Sidoarjo case, the research invites further inquiry into questions of governance, memory, and justice in post-disaster contexts.

OLIVIA MCCLOY

Advisor: Anthony Vanky

Modeling Margins—Disability-led Housing as Planning Precedent

The intersection of housing, disability justice, and comprehensive neighborhood planning is a critical yet underexplored area in urban planning. This thesis argues that for adults with intellectual and developmental disability (IDD), housing and care are inseparable infrastructures and that separating them in planning and policy perpetuates exclusion. Focusing on a site in Cincinnati’s Westwood neighborhood, this research explores how integrating inclusive housing and community-based care into local planning frameworks can promote long-term individual stability and communal interdependence. Through spatial analysis, comparative case studies, and policy critique, the thesis identifies the structural barriers that prevent IDD-inclusive development and proposes concrete planning recommendations. Using a comparative case study approach, this thesis analyzes three housing models that center developmental dis/ability and intergenerational living: Cass Housing (Fort Wayne, IN), Noah Homes (San Diego, CA), and Cathedral Park Cohousing (Portland, OR). These cases are examined through qualitative methods, including policy analysis and stakeholder interviews, alongside spatial analysis using GIS to assess the built environments of each city. Subsequently, this analysis informs recommendations for Westwood and the broader Cincinnati context, framed through critical urban theory, spatial justice, and dis/ability justice to examine how neoliberal planning structures shape the current housing crisis for IDD populations.

Findings indicate that three case study housing organizations all lack comprehensive planning input awareness in their counties and cities. Additionally, zoning classes and land uses do not align with the little engagement efforts these plans presented to the community. This research culminates in planning recommendations for Westwood’s comprehensive plan, a policy framework for disability-inclusive housing, and an outreach guide for planners engaging with IDD residents. By embedding disability justice theory into urban planning, this thesis argues for a fundamental shift toward equity, interdependence, and truly inclusive urban development.

MINGKAI LI

Advisor: Hugo Sarmiento

Comparative Study of Informal Economies in Marginalized Communities: Xiaobei, Guangzhou, and Harlem, New York

This thesis examines informal economic practices among West African migrants in Xiaobei and Harlem. Using interviews and field observations, it explores how these communities adapt to exclusion through trade networks. The study argues that formalizing informal economies can promote inclusive, equitable urban development.

GUILIANG LI

Advisor: Jonathan Stiles

Transit Deserts in the New York–New Jersey Metropolitan Area

Sustainable and equitable urban development relies on fair access to reliable public transportation, especially for communities that depend heavily on transit. However, public transit services remain unevenly distributed in many metropolitan regions, creating areas known as “transit deserts.” These areas are defined by significant mismatches between transit demand and available services. This thesis investigates the spatial distribution and socioeconomic characteristics of transit deserts within the New York–Newark–Jersey City Metropolitan Statistical Area (NY–NJ MSA), focusing specifically on accessibility to bus and rail transit.

The research employs Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and spatial statistical methods, including Kernel Density Estimation (KDE), Local Indicators of Spatial Association (LISA), and K-means clustering, to identify fine-grained patterns of transit service inequity at the census tract level. Separate analyses for bus and rail transit highlight distinct accessibility issues often hidden by aggregate measures. Additionally, qualitative field observations in representative underserved neighborhoods of Newark, Jersey City, and Ocean County validate the spatial analysis and illustrate the everyday impacts of inadequate transit service.

Transit deserts disproportionately affect low-income households without cars, elderly residents, and communities of color, further exacerbating existing socioeconomic vulnerabilities. Areas identified as “double transit deserts,” with critically low access to both bus and rail, represent zones of compounded disadvantage. Yet findings indicate that many transit deserts are adjacent to more transit-rich areas creating opportunities for connection. This thesis highlights these spatial inequities and recommends targeted, equity-oriented transportation interventions aimed at enhancing mobility and fostering inclusive regional development.

JARON KAPLAN

Advisor: Anthony Vanky

Santurce for Whom? Understanding Resistance to Colonialism and Gentrification in Santurce, Puerto Rico

Over the past decade, Puerto Rico has faced a wave of economic and political change driven by PROMESA (a US law establishing colonial oversight of Puerto Rico’s government), mounting debt and austerity measures, a suite of new neoliberal policies, and natural disasters like Hurricanes Maria and Fiona. A wealth of media and academic literature followed, analyzing this polycrisis through siloed perspectives on gentrification, politics, or economic crisis, often failing to identify solutions to the problems they diagnosed. In response, this thesis leverages advocacy planning as an interdisciplinary tool to combine understandings of gentrification and colonialism in the Puerto Rican context. By taking a holistic approach, it develops networked understandings of power structures to identify effective strategies for future resistance. To do so, a comprehensive review of the existence of crypto, disaster, and settler colonial structures contextualizes the present political economy of the island. In-depth community surveys and a case study developed from a site visit to Santurce – an island in San Juan – help contextualize the everyday experience of gentrification and colonialism, referred to here as “gentrification-powered colonialism.” These testimonies frame the relationship between Boricuas (Puerto Ricans), their government, and the US government. Reading existing resistance movements through these colonial and gentrification-based power structures reveals effective strategies for political resistance to these unjust systems. Findings identify colonialism and gentrification as inherently linked through government policy, effectuating community resilience as an effective tool for resistance against political corruption, dispossession, and cultural erosion.

WEITONG HU

Advisor: Jonathan Stiles

Determinants of Charging Station Usage Satisfaction in Beijing’s Historic Downtown

Against the background of the global transition to electric mobility, historic urban areas face difficulties in the construction of electric vehicle charging facilities due to conflicts between cultural protection and policy development goals, limited space, and the dual contradiction between people’s livelihood needs.

This study uses multiple methods such as GIS spatial analysis, field observation, questionnaire surveys and PLS-SEM modeling to systematically analyze the spatial layout of charging facilities within the second ring of Beijing, user behavior and satisfaction feedback, and policy coordination. The study found that:

(1) the spatial distribution of charging piles in the second ring is uneven, with facilities mainly concentrated in commercial areas and transportation hubs. There is an insufficient distribution of facilities in residential areas, especially old communities, and historical and cultural areas, especially hutong-dense areas, creating a spatial mismatch of “high population density and sparse facilities”.
(2) Residents’ satisfaction with the use of charging piles is mainly affected by the three dimensions of “Built Environment”, “APP Usability” and “Charging Experience”. Among them, APP Usability has the highest overall influence, and Charging Experience, as a direct explanatory variable of satisfaction, is also a key mediating variable through which Built Environment indirectly affects Satisfaction.

In addition, this study also reveals the spatial-policy-technology triple contradiction in the layout of charging piles in historical urban areas, and proposes a policy optimization path.

CAN HUANG

Advisor: Hugo Sarmiento

Understanding Waterfront Resilience Through Participatory Planning Practices for Climate Adaptation in Lower Manhattan

As centers of activity and connectivity, waterfronts, especially in coastal cities, face increasing challenges from climate change, including sea level rise and storm surges. These risks heighten the challenge of balancing public access, economic vitality, and ecological preservation while ensuring long-term urban resilience. At the same time, resilience efforts often intersect with social justice, as planning decisions can reinforce or mitigate existing socio-economic inequalities.

This study examines how participatory planning practices enhance urban resilience in Lower Manhattan, with case studies in the Lower East Side and Battery Park City. Through comparative analysis, the research will explore how distinct socio-economic contexts have shaped participatory planning processes, the challenges and conflicts that emerged, and how these practices have strengthened waterfront resilience against climate risks. It also investigates the roles and power dynamics of various stakeholders, assessing how they navigate tensions, resolve conflicts, and foster collaboration in resilience planning.

By critically analyzing these processes, this study aims to extract key lessons from participatory planning practices that can inform more inclusive and effective resilience strategies. While rooted in the context of Lower Manhattan, the findings will offer broader insights into developing sustainable and inclusive approaches to resilience, helping cities worldwide reconcile social justice with the urgency of climate risks not limited to waterfront environments.

YUAN HE

Advisor: Jonathan Stiles

Balancing Growth and Community Well-being: The Socio-economic and Environmental Impacts of Airports on New York City’s Surrounding Communities

This paper is devoted to the socio-economic and environmental effects that airport development has on the adjacent fit neighborhood of New York. A mixed-methods approach including encompassing geospatial analysis, descriptive statistics, and temporal comparison, examines three key dimensions: housing rentability, employment structure, and environmental evolutions within Jamaica, East Elmhurst, and Corona.

Findings reveal that airport-adjacent communities experienced significantly higher housing price increases, coupled with deteriorating affordability as price-to-income ratios exceeded the “severely unaffordable” threshold of 5.0 in most communities. Environmental analysis demonstrates concerning patterns, with airport-adjacent areas suffering more than double the surface temperature increases and substantially greater vegetation loss compared to city averages. Employment patterns reveal a spatial segmentation of labor markets, offering divergent economic opportunities with varying degrees of stability and upward mobility.

These findings highlight the multifaceted pressures facing airport-adjacent communities, where housing unaffordability and environmental stress coexist alongside limited but valuable job pathways. Despite the fact that airports’ development are a source of many skilled jobs that are accessible locally, ensuring these positions offer living wages and career advancement is essential. The findings highlight the need for integrated planning frameworks that include affordable housing protections, environmental mitigation strategies, and inclusive economic policies to ensure airport development benefits local residents across socioeconomic backgrounds.

MUMTAZ HAMMAD

Advisor: Hugo Sarmiento

The Music of Placemaking

This thesis explores how performances of music can be used as a form of placemaking, in site planning for public spaces within cityscapes, advancing crucial planning projects of spatial justice, holistic urbanization, community participation, and public space recovery. This study will conduct a site specific analysis of the General Grant Memorial in uptown Manhattan in respect to the site’s historical significance and theoretical frameworks of: ephemera and engagement to examine how performative activations of music can create ‘invisible’ infrastructures of public space which enhance civic participation and spaces for collective memory building within the built environment.

In offering a dense methodology, new interventions in urban planning emerge that incorporate musicality into placemaking, as a potentially citywide project of public space recovery after 2020, with potential implications of cultivating civic culture throughout the rest of the city and community building within these third spaces that are audiovisual by design. Through referencing theoretical, historical, and participatory approaches, this study advocates for greater institutional support of performance initiatives in public spaces, revitalizing civic culture within the city.

CASPAR GOLDMAN-NEDERGAARD

Advisor: Emily Tolbert

Highway Infrastructure in Rochester, New York: Removing Barriers & Reconnecting Communities

This thesis investigates highway infrastructure in Rochester, New York, with a specific focus on the effects of the original construction and eventual partial filling of the ‘Inner Loop’. Constructed in 1965, the Inner Loop is an extension of the I-490, an interstate highway that connects Rochester to major cities like Syracuse, Buffalo, and Albany. This loop-shaped freeway encircled Rochester’s downtown business district, isolating it from surrounding neighborhoods for half a century. Since 2014, the city has taken a phased approach to its removal and redevelopment of the land into housing, mixed-use spaces, cultural centers, and multi-modal infrastructure. This thesis asks to what extent highway removal creates opportunities for reconnection and urbanization for the City of Rochester. Archival research and semi-structured interviews with key planners, businesses, cultural institutions, and residents are the primary research methods. I supplemented this research by conducting a historical analysis of the Inner Loop’s original construction in the mid-20th century, as well as a spatial analysis of the study area before and after the Inner Loop’s partial removal (2010-2020). The research concludes that highway removal can be used as a tool for planners in mid-sized American cities looking to reintegrate urban fabric and improve neighborhood equity, quality of life, public health, connectivity, urban services, etc.

BENEDETTA FREIIN VON PALOMBINI

Advisor: Anthony Vanky

Futures Assembled: Futures Assembled: Sociotechnical Imaginaries and Infrastructural Transformation in Western Massachusetts

High-performance computing (HPC) infrastructure is emerging as a critical site through which economic development, technological advancement, and urban revitalization are being negotiated in post-industrial contexts. While most scholarship on data centers focuses on hyperscale, corporate-owned facilities and their environmental costs, the distinct role of computing facilities operated by academic institutions remains underexamined. This thesis addresses that gap through a case study of the Massachusetts Green High Performance Computing Center (MGHPCC) in Holyoke, MA. Drawing on interdisciplinary literature in planning, infrastructure studies, and science and technology studies, this research examines the future-oriented imaginaries that facilitated facilities development and its material entanglements in Holyoke.

Using a qualitative approach focused on interviews, supplemented through an examination of relevant literature, policies, news articles and industry documents, this project investigates how sociotechnical imaginaries—articulated by state, academic, and municipal actors—have shaped the siting, development, and symbolic positioning of the MGHPCC. These imaginaries frame the facility as an engine of regional revitalization, scientific innovation, and environmental leadership. At the state level, the MGHPCC is positioned as a strategic investment in the knowledge economy and a model for green development. Locally, however, these imaginaries are contested, as residents express aspirations to be part of these visions through meaningful engagement. It finds that while the MGHPCC is using clean energy and contributes to scientific research, its integration into the civic and economic fabric of Holyoke has been limited by uneven access, opaque accountability mechanisms, and a narrow definition of public benefit. The data center’s location on a former mill site reflects a broader trend of spatial continuity between past industrial geographies and emerging digital infrastructures. This study offers planners and policymakers insights for understanding both infrastructural and social dimensions of HPC infrastructure in post-industrial cities. In doing so, it underscores the need for transparent accountability frameworks, equitable access strategies, and sustained institutional partnerships to ensure that the promises made in the name of scientific and technological innovation are met with tangible, inclusive benefits for local communities.

WILLIAM FAINARU

Advisor: Emily Tolbert

Housing First. Now What? Continuity of Care, Deinstitutionalization, and the Evolution of Mental Health Care in New York City

Mental health care in New York City has transitioned from institutional settings to a community-based model of care, with supportive housing providers now playing a pivotal role in providing treatment. This shift emphasizes community integration as a pillar of recovery; yet unlike clinical institutions, cities are dynamic, shaped by the volatility of real estate markets. This study argues that housing market instability disrupts the continuity of mental health care, undermining the Housing First model.

The central research question is: How effective is supportive housing in New York at protecting residents from displacement, particularly residents with mental health diagnoses? This study investigates how real estate volatility, housing insecurity, and displacement pressures systematically disrupt the effectiveness of supportive housing and undermine the Housing First model. By integrating ethnographic research and semi-structured interviews with residents, this research offers a comprehensive evaluation of supportive housing, exploring the limitations of the program and the lived experiences of its residents.

Supportive housing sits at the nexus of housing and mental health care, offering a microcosm of New York’s psychiatric system. This research draws on the concepts of “niching” and the “life-space network” to understand how supportive housing residents acclimate to their communities. I explore the difficulties residents find in adapting to neighborhoods plagued by displacement and housing insecurity. These conditions ultimately threaten the cohesion between housing and mental health care, undermining continuity of care and jeopardizing the goals of the Housing First model.

OTIS EMSLIE

Advisor: Mattew Bauer

Systematizing the Campus Planning Process: A Model for University Spatial Decision Making

This thesis presents a novel, replicable, standardized model for understanding how universities approach campus planning initiatives. The model accounts for a range of internal decision-making factors, including academic priorities, spatial demand pressures, and institutional strategy, and it aims to systematize the spatial decision-making process across higher education. Rather than focusing exclusively on a single project, the study uses Columbia University’s Manhattanville expansion as an illustrative case to test and iterate the proposed framework. The project draws from qualitative interviews with experts directly involved with the field of campus planning including but not limited to: campus planners, real estate professionals, architects, and facilities managers to understand how universities negotiate long-term growth considerate to a variety of external market forces and internal institutional demands. The Manhattanville case serves as a lens through which the thesis examines how a major urban university integrates real estate acquisition, programmatic planning, and architectural implementation within a constrained and politically sensitive environment. The goal is not to evaluate the outcomes of the expansion, but to use it to better understand the conditions and considerations that shape university development patterns. Ultimately, this thesis contributes a transferable planning model that illustrates the typical sequencing, inputs, and feedback loops involved in campus expansion and redevelopment.

STEVEN DUNCAN

Advisor: Anthony Vanky

Beyond Access: Indigenous Sovereignty & Digital Equity in Alaska’s Broadband Future

Broadband infrastructure is essential for meaningful participation in modern life, shaping access to education, healthcare, governance, and economic opportunity. Yet for Indigenous communities in rural Alaska, broadband access remains deeply unequal—not simply because of technical gaps, but because of decades of infrastructural neglect, extractive federal funding models, monopolistic corporate control, and limits on tribal self-governance. This thesis argues that broadband is fundamentally a political and spatial challenge. Drawing on policy analysis, interviews, and case studies, it examines how Indigenous communities balance short-term pragmatism with long-term goals of sovereignty.

The research finds that while many communities turn to immediate solutions such as Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite internet, they are also building tribally owned networks, pursuing spectrum sovereignty, and developing local digital platforms to reclaim control over digital infrastructures. These Indigenous-led efforts improve service reliability, strengthen community decision-making, and lay the groundwork for long-term autonomy. Even as federal broadband funding increases, national programs often fall short by failing to address Indigenous governance needs and cultural priorities.

At this moment of historic broadband investment, these findings point to the urgent need to center Indigenous leadership in connectivity efforts. By focusing on tribal agency, this thesis presents broadband development as a matter of planning, power, and infrastructural justice. Indigenous communities are not passively awaiting connection—they are actively creating digital futures that reflect their own values, governance structures, and collective aspirations. Achieving meaningful digital equity will require a shift in policy and practice that recognizes digital sovereignty as essential to a just and inclusive connectivity future.

REINA DISSA

Advisor: Matthew Bauer

Public vs. Private: A Comparative Study of Public Space Management in Jakarta, Indonesia

This thesis compares the management approaches of publicly and privately managed public spaces in Jakarta, Indonesia, a city facing significant challenges in providing adequate green space with only 5.2% of its area dedicated to such purpose against the mandated 30%. Through qualitative research methods, including desk research and semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders, the study analyzes three case study locations: Tebet Eco Park, Taman Suropati (publicly managed), and Taman Martha Christina Tiahahu/Literacy Park (privately managed). The research investigates fundamental differences in management structures, funding models, decision-making processes, and operational frameworks between these management approaches.

The findings reveal distinct operational paradigms: publicly managed spaces follow state-centered models characterized by hierarchical governance, provincial budget dependencies, and standardized procedures, while privately managed spaces employ quasi-market approaches with decentralized public-private partnerships, commercial revenue streams, and more adaptive programming. Every model has its benefits and drawbacks. For example, publicly maintained spaces guarantee universal access but face difficulties with funding sustainability and bureaucratic inefficiency. Privately run venues, on the other hand, exhibit financial independence and operational agility, but they are vulnerable to over-commercialization and may exclude economically disadvantaged groups.

The thesis proposes targeted recommendations for improving both management approaches, including streamlining governance and diversifying funding sources for public management, balancing commercial activities with public service for private management, and developing context-specific models that leverage the strengths of both approaches. This research contributes to urban planning discourse on effective strategies for managing public spaces in densely populated cities. It offers insights for policymakers in similar high-density urban environments facing comparable public space provision and management.

RYAN CLARK

Advisor: Jonathan Stiles

A “Car Free” Olympics in Los Angeles? Examining 2028 Olympic Legacy Planning, Transit Expansion, and Mobility Justice in Greater L.A.

This work is a case study examining the potential short- and long-term impacts of the 2028 Olympics on transit planning in Los Angeles County. It utilizes mapping, historical analysis, and interviews with experts to build an understanding of Los Angeles’s current plans for the 2028 Games as well as trends occurring in the expansion of the county’s rail and bus rapid transit (BRT) network. This transit expansion is analyzed within the framework of Olympic priorities and funding, transit-oriented development, and mobility justice in order to provide conclusions and recommendations.

The study concludes that while there will very likely be short-term transit improvements, mostly involving the procurement of additional buses to provide a sort of temporary bus rapid transit network, little is being done to ensure a lasting transit legacy long after the Olympic Games conclude. Los Angeles’s rail and BRT networks are expanding, though this is due mostly to public funding outside of Olympic priorities, such as Los Angeles’s many sales taxes designed to fund public transportation and other public funding at the federal and state levels.

Recommendations emphasize stronger leadership on and direct funding for Olympic legacy transportation planning, the need for more planning decisions to be made at the regional level, zoning for higher density around transit stations, improving first-and-last-mile connectivity, and an increased focus on suburb-to-suburb transit connections.

RILEY CHAN

Advisor: Hugo Sarmiento

Engaging the Bayview: A Proof-of-Concept Walking Tour For Community-Centered Planning in Islais Creek

How can vulnerable waterfront neighborhoods remain resilient, accessible, and inclusive as climate change accelerates sea level rise and heightens flood risks? As coastlines around the world face unprecedented environmental pressures, the need for comprehensive and community-driven engagement has never been more urgent.

Working in partnership with the Port of San Francisco’s Waterfront Resilience Program (WRP), this capstone project explores the transformative potential of community-centered engagement in coastal adaptation. Using the Bayview-Islais Creek neighborhood as a case study, it develops a framework for public engagement rooted in placebased learning and experiential storytelling. This capstone serves as a proof of concept for how interactive, community-led narratives can deepen understanding of climate risks, highlight infrastructural vulnerabilities, and empower residents to participate meaningfully in resilience planning.

As San Francisco prepares for the challenges posed by sea level rise, seismic risks, and environmental inequities, ensuring that local communities are not only informed but actively engaged in the planning process is critical. This project emphasizes the importance of integrating community voices, local histories, and lived experiences into waterfront adaptation strategies. Through on-the-ground storytelling, digital platforms, and interactive workshops, Engaging the Bayview positions community knowledge as a vital component of sustainable resilience planning.

The capstone assesses current public engagement practices within the WRP, identifying gaps and opportunities for greater community involvement. By collaborating with city agencies, community organizations, and local stakeholders, the project aims to create an accessible engagement tool that connects urban planning concepts to the everyday realities of Bayview residents. In doing so, it seeks to model a more inclusive and equitable approach to resilience that empowers communities to lead in shaping their own adaptive futures.

ATSEDE ASSAYEHGEN

Advisor: Hugo Sarmiento

Image-making for a Nation: Understanding the tethered trajectories of the Addis Ababa City Corridor Project, foreign influence, and heritage

This research examines the historical construction and ongoing influence of foreign financial inflows, labor importation, and knowledge transfer on the development practices and aesthetic identity of Addis Ababa. It explores how multi-form foreign investment has been leveraged as part of a modernist urban development agenda that doubles as a nation- and image-building strategy. Such a dynamic mimics the hierarchical patterns of colonialism, despite Ethiopia’s historical resistance to formal colonization, through gradual displacement of indigenous urban vernaculars, and socio- spatial identities that are tethered to place and cultivated over generations. Focusing on the 21st century China-Ethiopia relationship, the study discusses how Chinese infrastructural investments have shaped Addis Ababa’s contemporary urban landscape, building upon a historical lineage of Italian, British, and French interventions. The Addis Ababa City Corridor Development Project (CDP) serves as the central case study, revealing how the pursuit of modernity through large-scale development has reproduced an uneven and dependent relationship, where Ethiopian development practices have now internalized neocolonial dynamics and trace.

In the Piassa neighborhood, one of the first neighborhoods to be overturned for the Corridor Project, this research examines the socio-spatial impacts of Phase 1 of the Project – including widespread displacement and erasure of cultural and architectural heritage. Mobilizing tezeta as a conceptual framework – an Ethiopian musical and linguistic expression of memory and longing – this research documents resident and diasporic reflections on loss, attachment, and place. Further evaluating how the sterilization of Piassa’s urban fabric has disrupted collective memory and community identity. By bridging an analysis of foreign influence with lived experiences connected to heritage loss, this research critically assesses who the Corridor Project truly aims to serve and interrogates the consequences of modernization pursued under the banner of national progress and international recognition.

MATEO ALEXANDER

Advisor: Anthony Vanky

E-Governance Development and Accessibility Readiness of Municipal Home Pages and Municipal Service Portals in the United States

Despite how crucial municipal websites are to urban planning in omnichannel governance, there are shortcomings in effectively information dissemination, public participation, and successful service delivery in an attention economy despite rapid digitalization. Municipal websites may not be optimized to serve central roles in municipal service informational flows in a platform economy, leading to a further stratification of a gap between citizen needs and e-participation. Difficulties in service findability and usability for municipal residents might substantially affect at-risk urban populations. With the time being 20 years past the E-Government Act of 2002, the study sought to examine the development and maturity of municipal websites and municipal service portals. With growing conversations in Congress and the legal system how the American Disability Act applies to websites, the study also sought to examine how municipal websites and municipal service portals are performing in digital accessibility. Municipal websites did not seem to be as developed and the lack of features such as sitemaps, search navigation tools on service portals, and lack of languages on some websites poses questions of website accessibility and maturity for populations such as people with low digital literacy or non-English speakers. Despite high levels of ARIA features, municipal websites showed strong presences of accessibility alerts and errors, which poses problems for the differently abled who might physical or cognitive disabilities like the blind, the deaf, and those with low vision. Planners should advocate for digital e-inclusion, helping to create more inclusive digital governance, smart city, and platform urbanism models.

HUI CHEN

Advisor: Jonathan Stiles

Breaking the Gridlock-NYC: Cycling and Transit Lessons From Amsterdam

This thesis investigates how integrated cycling infrastructure can address transit access disparities in New York City, with a focus on neighborhoods identified as “subway deserts.” Through spatial analysis of subway coverage, demographic indicators, and cycling infrastructure—using tools such as the Subway Gap Index and Local Moran’s I clustering—this research identifies Throgs Neck and Harding Park in the Bronx as high-need areas where limited subway proximity, low bike network coverage, and socio-demographic vulnerability intersect. Combining Geographic Information Systems (GIS), multivariate regression, and qualitative insights from interviews and surveys, the study explores how bike lanes, bike parking density, and population characteristics influence subway accessibility. It also evaluates how cycling can complement the subway system by extending first- and last-mile connectivity. Drawing on international case studies—particularly Amsterdam’s experience in reversing car-dominant planning since the 1970s, the study explores transferable strategies for linking cycling and transit in equitable and context-sensitive ways. Field observations and site documentation of the Buhre Avenue and Tremont Avenue subway stations reveal key barriers to multimodal access, including disconnected bike routes, underused infrastructure, and limited cultural familiarity with cycling. In response, this thesis proposes a set of targeted planning initiatives grounded in low-cost, high-impact interventions to address transit gaps in underserved neighborhoods. These include the development of protected connector bike routes, the strategic expansion of secure bicycle parking near transit stations, pilot programs for cycling education in public schools, and localized community cycling initiatives informed by Dutch precedents. These proposals build upon existing equity-focused planning tools, such as the New York City Department of Transportation (DOT)’s Priority Investment Area designations, to ensure that resource allocation addresses long-standing disparities in transportation access. This thesis argues that equitable bike-transit integration must go beyond infrastructure to include behavioral, cultural, and institutional change.

JANE COLE

Advisor: Emily Tolbert

Connecting Place and Purpose: Land Grant Institutions, Cooperative Extension, and Urban-Rural Linkages

Founded under the Morrill Act in the late nineteenth century, land-grant universities and their affiliated Cooperative Extension programs have historically concentrated their research, community engagement, and economic development efforts on rural communities and challenges. In recent years, however, calls to expand their presence and impact in urban and metropolitan areas—framed as essential for maintaining relevance amidst rapid urbanization—have gained significant momentum. How might these universities harness their longstanding tradition of serving the “non-university public” through Cooperative Extension to meet this mandate? And further, how can physical campus planning and Cooperative Extension programming coalesce to strengthen urban-rural connectivity in and around land-grant campuses?

Drawing on case studies of four major land-grant universities—Rutgers University–New Brunswick, The Ohio State University–Columbus, the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, and the University of Minnesota–Twin Cities—this Capstone investigates how planners, Extension professionals, and city planners interpret and operationalize the land-grant mission in metropolitan contexts. Through semi-structured interviews that accompany this case study analysis, the research reveals disconnects between Cooperative Extension and campus development strategies, as well as underutilized opportunities to foster reciprocal relationships between urban and rural communities. Findings suggest that while many land-grant universities recognize the need to adapt to changing demographics and geographies, institutional silos, resource constraints, and governance fragmentation hinder integrated approaches. The project argues for a more intentional alignment of spatial planning and public service mandates—ones that are forward-looking while also reckoning with the land-grant system’s deeply colonial origins—to enhance its relevance, equity, and impact in the twenty-first century.

RITA KARTIKA

Advisor: Matthew Bauer

This thesis examines transit equity challenges faced by shift workers at the Hunts Point Food Distribution Center (HPFDC), one of New York City’s largest industrial employment hubs. Through surveys with workers and interviews with institutional stakeholders from the New York City Economic Development Corporation (EDC) and Department of City Planning (DCP), the study explores how limited off-peak transit service, inadequate pedestrian infrastructure, and affordability constraints shape the commuting experiences of workers in this essential sector.

Findings reveal a mismatch between existing transportation systems—often designed for peak-hour, white-collar commuters—and the realities of shift-based, low-income workers. While regional infrastructure investments like the upcoming Metro-North station are framed as equity-oriented solutions, the research finds they may bypass current workers unless complemented by localized improvements such as last-mile connectivity, nighttime bus frequency, and inclusive workforce engagement. The thesis also proposes the creation of a Mobility Management Center to support coordinated, worker-centered transit planning.

Ultimately, this study expands the discourse on transit equity by centering off-peak labor, advocating for multi-scalar mobility planning, and emphasizing the need to integrate the voices of workers into infrastructure and policy decisions.