Latest News

faculty and students with a model in studio in Hayes Hall.

The central hub for news on the activities and accomplishments of our faculty, students and alumni.

  • Tired of Big-City Squeeze? Score a Bargain in America's 10 Cheapest Housing Markets
    1/15/18
    An article on Realtor.com about the housing bargains that are available in the country’s most-affordable metropolitan areas interviews Robert Silverman, professor of urban planning. “There are a lot of people in that first-time home-buyer group looking for starter homes, and they can’t afford it in many top metros,” he said. "If they’re mobile, [they can move to] a smaller, affordable community with cheap homes and great amenities." The article also appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle.
  • Expressway seen as symbol of racial inequity, health problems
    1/15/18
    A story on WBFO-FM about the construction of the Kensington Expressway in the early 1960s and the impact it had on the African-American community it cut through interviews Henry Louis Taylor Jr., director of UB’s Center for Urban Studies, who said the expressway changed city neighborhoods. “They planned the design and construction of the 33, really before the African-American population got there. So they had not yet started construction until the 1960s," he said.  "So whites knew that the highway was coming through and they started to sell their houses to blacks.”
  • Despite setbacks, Bailey Green project pushes ahead with houses, urban farms
    1/15/18
    An article about the Bailey Green project, which pledges to bring new houses and apartments, a community garden, soccer pitches, greenhouses and other amenities to a seven-block East Side neighborhood reports the internationally acclaimed plan has had the involvement of UB and community organizations like Habitat for Humanity.
  • Studying Extreme Weather's Impact On Cities, From Hot To Cold
    1/11/18
    A story on KJZZ-FM in Phoenix interviews Nicolas Rajkovich, assistant professor of architecture in the UB School of Architecture and Planning, about a study he and a colleague from Arizona State University are conducting to learn how extreme weather impacts American cities – on both the hot and cold side of the spectrum. “When you look at the city of Buffalo, one of the things that we do well is to deal with things on the cold side. On the flip side, we don’t have a lot of houses with air conditioning, so as we look to the future with climate change, there’s a real concern that as we have higher heat days, days over 90 [degrees], how do we start to prepare for that?” he said.
  • Ernest Sternberg reflects on leadership of program during period of growth
    1/5/18
    In his six years as chair, Ernest Sternberg oversaw one of the Department of Urban and Regional Planning’s most dynamic periods of growth.
  • Daniel Hess takes helm as chair of UB’s urban and regional planning program
    1/5/18
    Daniel B. Hess, professor of urban planning who studies the socio-economic dynamics of housing, transportation and land use, has been appointed chair of the Department of Urban and Regional Planning at UB, effective January 1, 2018.
  • New collaboration makes it easier for students to earn dual MUP, MPH
    12/22/17
    The degrees themselves aren’t new. But the collaborative arrangement between the two UB schools that are offering them is.
  • Real estate development students win national case study competition
    12/19/17
    BUFFALO, N.Y. — A duo of University at Buffalo real estate development students won first place in an intercollegiate competition, placing UB and Buffalo’s story of rebirth on the national stage.
  • It's Not That Hard To Avoid Normalizing Nazis
    12/12/17
    Writing in The Atlantic, Despina Stratigakos, professor of architecture and author of “Hitler at Home,” explains the pitfalls of writing about fascists in a way that normalizes them. The piece was written in response to the controversial New York Times profile of white nationalist Tony Hovater and places the Hovater profile within the context of the puff pieces popular media outlets wrote about Hitler’s domestic life in the 1930s. “The deeply rooted cultural belief that we reveal our true selves at home gave these accounts the veneer of authenticity. And it was precisely this uncritical attitude that allowed not only Hitler’s PR team but also Hollywood agents to use such domestic profiles to mold their clients’ images and sweep any unpleasantness under the rug,” Stratigakos writes.
  • Reimagining terra cotta facades
    12/11/17

    Now in its second year, the Architectural Ceramic Assemblies Workshop convenes architects, engineers and ceramicists to develop environmentally-responsive terra cotta façade prototypes. 

  • Gentrification Can’t Be the Theme of Rust Belt City Recovery
    12/4/17
    An article on Architecture Design about gentrification of Buffalo’s East Side and West Side and concerns among municipalities that feel stuck between the need to generate tax revenue through development and the fear of displacing residents when rents rise as a result of the increased development interviews Henry Louis Taylor Jr., director of the Center for Urban Studies. “If you play the long game in neighborhood revitalization, costs go down when equitable investments are made. Cities can be more creative around taxation and spending,” he said.
  • Climate change and the tale of two cities
    12/4/17

    With funding from National Science Foundation, two architecture and urban planning faculty members are studying the impacts of heat and cold in Tempe and Buffalo.