Planning

The School of Planning Capstones will join DAAPWorks 2024. The common trend is exploring issues that impact—and will impact—Cincinnati, its region, its communities, the economic and social development, and the natural and built environment.

The Bachelor of Urban Planning Capstone, under the leadership of Professors Danilo Palazzo and Hye Yeon Park, has explored the Future of Cincinnati. Students analyzed urban innovation case studies, considering their implications for the public good using Trend Reports for Planners developed by the American Planning Association (APA) in partnership with the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy. The BUP Capstone’s students were asked to investigate some of the trends described in the APA documents—such as climate change, the housing crises, or environmentally responsible transportation—and develop a scenario-based course of action to address the intersection of the identified urban problems, applying skills and tools they have learned for the past five years. As such, students were encouraged to be as creative as possible. Each student has suggested how to engage, incorporate, or face one of the potential trends to be applied to the City of Cincinnati and its region based on the cited documents and others discovered by the students or proposed by the faculty.

The Bachelor of Science in Urban Studies Capstone, led by Anne Delano Steinert in collaboration with the Department of History in the College of A&S, has asked students to design and undertake a significant exploration of a topic of individual interest. Students draw on experience with their degree focus area to develop a research question, design a research plan, conduct meaningful analysis, and create a final product that conveys their findings and looks forward to meaningful future implications for their work.

The Capstone of the Bachelor in Horticulture students, led by Stevie Famulari, explored a great range of research in the horticulture field, including inclusive design, green health, nursery practices, community greening, horticultural sciences, green infrastructure, green fashion, racial issues, and remediation.

Professor Rainer vom Hofe and Professor Leah Hollstein have led the Master of Community Planning Capstone. The MCP Capstone topic originated from the APA Trend Reports—developed by a partnership of the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy with the American Planning Association (APA)–which identifies current and future trends in planning. The Capstone focuses on developing innovative, future-oriented, and ‘out of box thinking’ solutions on how to address emerging planning challenges, such as climate change, increasing demand for affordable housing, or access to public transit, while acknowledging the shift towards incorporating future technologies, such as Smart Cities thinking, Big Data analysis, or Artificial Intelligence (AI). In brief, the Capstone project theme is “planning (for) the future” where the future obviously merges with the present.

The Master in Landscape Architecture Capstone, led by Professor Barry Kew, has explored the impacts of a series of total and partial body irradiation experiments/tests performed on at least 90 patients in the 1960s and into the early 1970s by the Cincinnati General Hospital (now University of Cincinnati Hospital.) Students have developed designs for a memorial in commemoration of the victims, their families, and communities impacted by these experiments to keep the remembrance of the victims alive. This dark history hidden by the university presents a challenge for this Capstone to make visible and accessible a memorial to commemorate and give each victim back their humanity by acknowledging them in an individual and personal way, and the memorial will also provide aspiring medical personnel space and opportunity to reflect on the responsibilities that come with their chosen profession.

The motto of the School of Planning at the College of DAAP is "Impacting Urban Futures." For the faculty and students, impacting urban futures means providing an inclusive environment where innovation and freedom of intellectual inquiry flourish for livable and sustainable futures that would impact real people and real communities. We celebrate the exhibitions of the final works of the various undergraduate and graduate programs the school offers here and in the building.

—Danilo Palazzo