Outreach studios provide an opportunity to involve students in hands-on service-learning projects. These projects involve local communities, clients and interactions with stakeholders and officials. Students produce conceptual designs and visualizations of how things might be, which lead to discussions on how to improve sites for parks, campuses, streets and village centers. Student work generates enthusiasm and excitement in the communities the students serve.
Project Examples
- Rebalancing the Port of Galilee - This work contained in the PDF was prepared by the 2022 LAR 444 sustainable design studio for the Town of Narragansett. Their project titled Rebalancing the Port of Galilee is a project that followed an earlier one (2015) which was also conducted for the Town of Narragansett titled Galilee, A Vision for a Resilient Port.
- Reconnecting The Blackstone & The City - A Project by the 2020 Sustainable Design Studio at The University of Rhode Island Prepared for the City of Woonsocket Planning Department
- Revitalizing the Seekonk River Henderson Bridge Corridor - This Fall 2018 project analyzed conditions on the Henderson Bridge and Expressway, along the banks of the Seekonk River and other areas abutting the river and its communities.
- A Vision for A Post-Industrial Seekonk River Corridor - This Fall 2017 project focused on developing a sustainable vision for a Post-Industrial urban corridor along the Seekonk River.
- Building Coastal Resiliency at Misquamicut Beach - This Spring 2017 senior design studio was structured to integrate student generated data from Landscape Architecture, Ocean Engineering and Natural Resource Economics. This data focused on examining coastal hazard risk management in Misquamicut, RI from these three interdisciplinary perspectives.
- A Vision for the Saugatucket - This Fall 2016 project focused on developing sustainable solutions for the Saugatucket River and Main Street in Wakefield, RI. Working with the Town, senior LAR students analyzed community needs and existing conditions along the river and Main Street.
- Building a Resilient Newport - Conducted in Spring 2016, this project addressed storm water flow and drainage issues with the Easton Pond Reservoir and Easton Beach in Newport, using green infrastructure and roadway redesign.
- Wickford Parking Lot Project - This project from Spring 2016 was carried out by 16 students in the junior design studio course, who redesigned 3 parking lots in Wickford that are prone to flooding at lunar and king tides.
- Galilee: A Vision for a Resilient Port - This interdisciplinary studio report followed a semester-long project focused on resilience and adaptation for the Commercial Port of Galilee. Students studied coastal precedents related to sea level rise, and applied methods and approaches to the port of Galilee under different scenarios.
- Westerly Park Designs - In the Fall 2014, junior studio students worked with the Westerly Town Planners office to examine a 2.5 acre site near the Amtrak station in downtown Westerly which had experienced severe flooding from the Pawcatuck River in recent years.