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The Future of the Public Realm

FRI-FS-02: Beyond the Quad: The Pursuit of the Climate-adapted Campus

Friday, September 18, 2026
7:15 AM - 12:15 PM PT
Location: Los Angeles Convention Center, Field Session Departure Area (South Lobby)
Ticket Purchase Required Extensive Walking
2.25 PDH, LA CES/HSW
Ticket Price: $125 per person
What if a university campus could simultaneously serve as civic infrastructure, a biodiversity refuge, and a cultural commons? Discover how an inclusive design process is helping a historic urban campus adapt to climate realities while strengthening identity, community well-being, and ecosystem health—becoming a living laboratory and a model for measurable landscape performance.

Includes transportation. Extensive walking.

Accessibility:This session includes approximately almost two hours of walking on paved surfaces, and some stairs may be encountered along the route.

Learning Outcomes:

  • Analyze how stakeholder engagement and deep interdisciplinary collaboration shaped guiding principles and implementation strategies that deliver measurable environmental, cultural, economic, and social impact at the campus scale.
  • Examine how campuses can serve as climate-responsive living laboratories for municipal initiatives and applied university research, including historic ecology and ecosystem sectioning, to advance habitat resilience.
  • Discuss a framework that replaces water inefficient landscapes with regionally appropriate plant communities that conserve resources, compliment historic architecture, reinforce an inclusive sense of place, and unify fragmented environments.
  • Evaluate how green infrastructure and a campus-wide hydrology framework can restore historic drainage patterns while advancing environmental performance, equity and education as integrated design drivers.