Mission
The Center for Resilient Cities and Landscapes (CRCL) uses planning and design to help communities and ecosystems adapt to the pressures of urbanization, inequality, and climate change. CRCL works with public, nonprofit, and academic partners to deliver practical and forward-thinking technical assistance through interdisciplinary research, visualization of risk, project design scenarios, and facilitated convenings. CRCL integrates resilience thinking into design education and academic programming, bringing real-world challenges into the classroom to train future design leaders.
Established in 2018 at Columbia University’s Graduate School for Architecture, Planning and Preservation (GSAPP), CRCL extends Columbia’s leadership in climate-related work and supports the interdisciplinary collaborations and external partnerships needed to engage the most serious and challenging issues of our time.
Our Work
News
CRCL Co-Leads Earth Networks 2020 Environmental Justice and Climate Just Cities Network
Environmental injustices leading to poor health and quality of life for people of color and low income communities are rife everywhere, with long legacies. Environmental injustices are well documented within our cities and metropolitan regions, provoking community-based activism and creativity around alternative, more just futures.
Green New Deal Superstudio
CRCL teams up with McHarg Center at Penn Design, Landscape Architecture Foundation, American Society of Landscape Architects and Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture.
WeACT Summer Institute with Washington Heights Expeditionary Learning School
Students from the Washington Heights Expeditionary Learning School (WHEELS) have conceived a plan to turn the street in front of their school, 182nd Street, into a “Clean Air Green Corridor.” This project would create a new park and public space that would connect the many schools in the community and Highbridge Park. Under the guidance of their teachers and partners at WeACT for Environmental Justice, students have already taken their plan to the Community Board, Councilmember, and began further public engagement and pilot greening projects on their block.