UMass Amherst is among the eight universities to receive the inaugural National Design Studio Awards from Envision Resilience, an organization that aims to advance innovative planning and design through student and community partnerships focused on creating adaptive solutions to climate change.
The Department of Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning (LARP) at UMass Amherst has been an active participant in Envision Resilience's signature program, the annual Envision Resilience Challenge, which convenes multidisciplinary student teams of architects, landscape architects, planners, environmental scientists, and artists to develop creative and adaptive solutions to climate change in communities throughout the Northeast. In 2025, for example, UMass Amherst students in Assistant Professor Samantha Solano's landscape architecture graduate studio competed in the Midcoast Maine Challenge. Students partnered with communities in Bath, ME, to co-develop strategies for mitigating the effects of extreme sea-level rise and tidal flooding on Bath's critical landscapes and infrastructure. Project samples are available here.
In 2026, UMass Amherst will continue to support Envision Resilience's mission as the program expands its reach nationwide. For the first time, Envision Resilience student teams will span universities across the United States, exploring a multitude of design strategies for rivers, forests, wetlands, coastlines, and urban landscapes. The universities awarded the National Design Studio Grant to participate in next year's nationwide challenge are UMass Amherst, Mississippi State University, University of Arizona, University of Houston, University of Texas at Arlington, University of Washington, Wentworth Institute of Technology, and Yale University.
To learn more about the National Design Studio Grant, please visit envisionresilience.org or read the press release here.