School of Sustainability Graduate Culminating Experiences
Student capstone and applied projects from ASU's School of Sustainability.
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- All Subjects: Development Tools
Description
Arizona and the Phoenix metropolitan area are experiencing a housing crisis, both in terms of affordability and supply. While the number of affordable and available units has been shrinking, a separate trend has emerged that is also adding pressure to the housing market, particularly for renters—a demand for transit-oriented, walkable, sustainable communities. As governments invest in projects and infrastructure falsely branded as sustainable, environmental gentrification often occurs resulting in displacement of current residents. Without new, moderately priced housing being built, displaced residents remain housing cost burdened. Workforce housing, priced to serve lower-middle to middle-income residents, offers a release from the pressure on the housing market, but innovative models for workforce housing development are necessary to navigate the regulatory and financial barriers in place. During a Solutions Round Table event facilitated by my client, a variety of potential tools for mitigating the housing crisis and removing barriers to workforce housing development were discussed. Based on conversations documented during the event, a robust list of workforce housing development tools was created. With the help of my client, the list was winnowed down to six tools for focused research—off-site construction, cohousing, land banks, missing middle infill models, community land trusts combined with limited equity cooperatives, and public-private partnerships. This project describes these tools and outlines best practices for developing and implementing them in the Valley. The best practices are organized to serve as guidance for the private sector and public sector separately, and for embedding health and social equity. Each tool is assessed using a simplified version of Gibson’s (2006) sustainability criteria, combined into four dimensions—environment, social, economic, and holistic. The findings from the assessment are embedded as guidance throughout the final product, a white paper, which will be delivered to Urban Land Institute (ULI) Arizona District Council Task Force for Health, Equity, and Housing Affordability, my client for this project.
ContributorsVan Horn, Elizabeth (Writer of accompanying material)
Created2020-05-26
Description
This project focuses on building capacity for the long-term viability of the garden based learning program at Martin Luther King Early Childhood Center through cultivating relationships with local organizations and businesses. Building upon Matthew Waldman’s 2018 MSUS project work with this school and The Farm at South Mountain, this project’s purpose was to explore ways to integrate the greater school community and allow them to share their vision for an outdoor community space.
The intervention tool used to engineer this collaborative mindset was individual square foot garden boxes that each child in the 2019 student body was able to decorate and take home.
As a tangible piece of this Culminating Experience, I have installed a pollinator garden that has been registered with Monarch Waystation Program. This space serves as a celebration of the school’s mascot and provides a totem for the collective action of the community.
With the onset of COVID-19 and the implementation of local, state and federal guidelines, the school has been closed since March and has curtailed the anticipated deliverables.
The intervention tool used to engineer this collaborative mindset was individual square foot garden boxes that each child in the 2019 student body was able to decorate and take home.
As a tangible piece of this Culminating Experience, I have installed a pollinator garden that has been registered with Monarch Waystation Program. This space serves as a celebration of the school’s mascot and provides a totem for the collective action of the community.
With the onset of COVID-19 and the implementation of local, state and federal guidelines, the school has been closed since March and has curtailed the anticipated deliverables.
ContributorsSchmitt, Christina (Writer of accompanying material)
Created2020-05-13
Description
"Community and Composting in Victory Acres” implemented a pilot composting program for a local neighborhood in an effort to increase community cohesion. Victory Acres is a low-income, culturally diverse neighborhood located in Tempe that used to have easier access to the Escalante Community Center before the 101 freeway divided the community. Residents of the neighborhoods surrounding ECC do not have access to the Escalante Community Garden except on Community Harvest Days twice a month. The goal of the project was to reconnect broken ties to the ECG through a neighborhood composting service. Through composting, residents could directly benefit from the community garden’s composting capabilities while encouraging a more sustainable method for dealing with food waste. The composting pilot project in Victory Acres was used as a way to mitigate the greenhouse gases emanating from food waste along with other neighborhood issues. The project would encourage aspects of community cohesion, sustainability, and happiness. By the completion of the project, composting in the neighborhood could continue through increased access to the Escalante Community Center Garden. An assessment via survey responses was made on improvements in perceived community connectedness, sustainability, and happiness. The pilot was unsuccessful in gaining a large client base for composting participation, but it was successful in exploring challenges and barriers to implementation of projects in Victory Acres. Several intervention points were explored, several lessons were learned from successful and unsuccessful engagement techniques, and opportunities arose for further future research.
ContributorsKiefer, Alyssa (Author) / Cloutier, Scott (Contributor) / Prosser, Paul (Contributor)
Created2017-04-28