UAlbany Planning Studio

• Professional-quality research and analysis
• Maps, data and planning documentation
• Policy and implementation recommendations
• Final report and presentation for local decision-makers

1. Community partners submit project proposals.
2. Department faculty review the proposals and select projects that fit the semester’s scope.
3. Students work with community partners during the fall semester, from August to December.
4. Students deliver a professional report and public presentation summarizing key findings and recommendations to support informed local decision-making in December.

• Clearly defined but flexible in scope
• Relevant to current planning or development challenges
• Appropriate for a semester-long academic collaboration
• Able to benefit from research, data analysis, mapping or design exploration

Sample project ideas include:

• Neighborhood and focused area plans
• Downtown and corridor studies
• Housing and affordability
• Zoning and land use analysis
• Climate resilience and hazard mitigation strategies
• Transportation and mobility studies
• Environmental and open space planning
• Community engagement
• Data, mapping and geographic information systems (GIS)

Project Goal

The cohort worked with the city of Watervliet on a revitalization strategy for their Nineteenth Street Corridor. The goals shared by the city included:

• Exploring the city’s zoning and climate adaptations
• Creating downtown identity and sense of place
• Assessing potential catalyst sites along the corridor

Project Team

Prepared for: The City of Watervliet, 2 Fifteenth Street, Watervliet, NY 12189

Researched and written by:  

• Dalila Oliver  
• Fernanda Farche  
• Samuel Semon  
• Pallav Savaliya  
• Geoffrey Cowling  
• Michael Shannon

Professor: Kate Maynard, AICP

StoryMap

Access the Nineteenth Street Revitalization Study StoryMap.

Project Goal

To enhance climate resilience in disadvantaged communities through tree planting and mitigating urban heat island effects.

Project Team

Prepared for:  

• Institute for Transformational and Ecosystem-based Climate Adaptation (ITECA), University at Albany
• Radix Ecological Sustainability Center (Albany, New York)

Researched and written by:  

• Ted Chesnes  
• Raiden Guialdo  
• Hanifa Khatibi  
• Amir Pooladi Moghadam  
• Shan Prevatt  
• Erica Schneider  
• Melissa Spiegel
• Seymour Yarovoy

Professor: Kate Maynard, AICP

StoryMap

Access the Addressing Tree Equity in Albany StoryMap.

Project Goal

To incorporate strategies and current conditions on specific dams around Fulton and Clinton County in New York State, allowing for the improvement of dams as well as the incorporation of dam improvement within Hazard Mitigation Plans.

Project Team

Prepared for:  

• Fulton County Planning Department, New York
• Fulton County Emergency Management Office, New York
• Clinton County Planning Department, New York

Researched and written by:  

• Nahid Abbasian
• Likitha Boora
• Patrick Cross
• Ian DeSoucey
• Lance Gundersen
• Melia Hema
• Stephen Hiney
• Mathew Lee
• Vedant Mahajan
• Melissa Marton
• Sergio Ramirez
• Grace Sherburne

Professor: Dr. Jared R. Enriquez

Report

Access the Integrating Dam Risks and Failures in State and Local Hazard Mitigation Plans report.

Project Goal

As climate change continues to threaten humanity with the continuation of rising sea levels in coastal areas and flooding along the inland waterfronts, people and communities will need to relocate from spaces that are no longer tenable for permanent human habitation.

It is vital that planners and government officials share in the collective responsibility of reckoning with the challenges created by the relocation from those vulnerable spaces. Some of those challenges are clear; danger to human life and loss of wealth as properties become uninhabitable to name just a few.

This project focused primarily on the less apparent potential negative outcomes and problems officials are likely to need to address as sea levels rise and flooding become more common.

Project Team

Prepared for:  

• Dr. Jared R. Enriquez, Department of Geography, Planning, and Sustainability, UAlbany
• Dr. Catherine T. Lawson, Department of Geography, Planning, and Sustainability, UAlbany

Researched and written by:  

• Jack Connelly  
• Steven Golding  
• Julian Hicks  
• Mohammed Ibrahim  
• Cindy Isidoro  
• Stephen Napier  
• Mansi Parmar  
• Destiny Riviello
• Will Singleton

Professors:  

• Dr. Jared R. Enriquez
• Dr. Catherine T. Lawson

Report & StoryMap

Access the Strategies Against Unintended Consequences of Managed Retreat report.

Access the Strategies Against Unintended Consequences of Managed Retreat StoryMap.

Project Goal

The Fall 2021 Planning Studio focused on the problem of vacancy in the Arbor Hill and West Hill communities in the city of Albany.

In partnership with the Arbor Hill Development Corporation, the Studio’s overarching goals included strengthening and expanding our collaborative networks with racially diverse communities to promote racial justice and highlight potential strategies for preventing and mitigating vacancy.

The findings of the report provide a framework for future development available through a combination of existing assets and the ability to transform vacant areas.

Project Team

Prepared for: Arbor Hill Development Corporation, 241 Clinton Avenue, Albany, NY 12210

Researched and written by:  

• Sondos Assallami  
• Katherine Corini  
• Derek Crossman  
• Amanda Diaz  
• Austin Erickson  
• Samuel Haas  
• Alyssa Losee  
• Emily Loughlin  
• Dominic Maiello  
• Jon Midler  
• Tori Roberts  
• Christopher Seeger  
• Nikolai Tubbs  
• Megan Zimba

Professors:  

• Dr. Jared R. Enriquez
• Dr. Catherine T. Lawson

Report

Access the Mitigating Vacancy in Arbor Hill & West Hill report.

Project Goal

Like many communities in the United States, Delaware County, New York, is committed to reducing the impacts of severe and frequent disaster risks for its residents.

Integrating mitigation and adaptation solutions within community planning efforts can reduce exposure to the losses of life and property posed by natural hazards and climate change. The best time to implement mitigation measures is before disaster strikes.

This project sought to identify mitigation and adaptation solutions appropriate for supplementing Delaware County’s 2020 Hazard Mitigation Plan Update.

FEMA requires that jurisdictions updating their Hazard Mitigation Plans identify how stakeholders were invited to participate in the update process. Stakeholder engagement included partners in academia.

Project Team

Prepared for: Delaware County Planning Department, Delhi, New York

Researched and written by:  

• Andris Blumbergs
• Snehal Chavan
• Nora Culhane Friedel
• John Donnelly
• Aleesha Fiddemon
• Daniel Madigan
• Ikenna Mbadiwe
• Jesse McCaughey
• Mark Meigher
• Gopika Muddappa
• Michael Oleksyn
• Prachi Patel
• Ben Turin

Professors:  

• Dr. Jared R. Enriquez
• Dr. Catherine T. Lawson

StoryMap

Access the Delaware County Hazard Mitigation Plan Update report.