Fall 2016 EDRA Connections by EDRA

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contents

In this issue

onnections we have with our immediate surroundings can run deep. Some such surrounding environments are deemed as ‘ordinary’ and ‘taken for granted’ from an external vantage point. But from the viewpoint of environmental design research, no environment is truly ‘ordinary’ - as people’s perceptions and experiences of such environments constantly lead to constructs of a variety of meanings, instrumental or latent, good or bad, positive or negative. Looking closely with a keen eye, such constructs reveal to us deep connections, inner voices, hidden stories, leading us to reconceptualize and reshape our environments to create happy endings.

In this Issue Nisha A. Fernando, Editor

Comparing Qualities of ‘Insideness’ of Significant Places for Pre-teenage Boys Timothy Baber

Photovoice as a Methodology for Architects and Landscape Designers M’Lis Bartlett and Laura Cole

Greenness, Heat and Crime: Understanding Heat-Related Spikes in Crime in Relation to Affluence of Neighborhood and Access to Greenspace Paul Platosh and Eric Coker

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NISHA A. FERNANDO

With this very goal in mind, the Fall 2016 issue of EDRA Connections presents three research studies that delved into uncovering how everyday immediate environments have profound effects on user behavior and outcomes and in developing meanings and connections with them. These effects are unveiled through three different research methodologies. In the first two articles, three researchers offer illuminating information on representations of school environments among youth students. Timothy Baber presents how pre-teen boys create ‘insideness’ of place that are meaningful to them. Through environmental autobiographies that included both drawing and writing, they compare their own inner school outdoor environments with ‘other’ outdoor environments and results present

a vast potential for better, more representational school environments. M’Lis Bartlett and Laura Cole show young students’ perceptions and preferences in school environments and nearby neighborhood landscapes as well as green aspects of a school environment. Using photovoice and photo elicitation methods triangulated with interviews, the authors illustrate: (a) African American youth preferences of outdoor spaces for play, socialization and stewardship and (b) perception levels of sustainability of a green school environment. Last but not least, Paul Platosh and Eric Coker share with us an intriguing study that analyzed the correlation of greenness and thermal brightness of urban neighborhoods with the socioeconomic status and crime rates. The results indicate a very useful finding that more vegetation and greenness leading to less heat pockets can prevent crime rates in high poverty neighborhoods. EDRA Connections always takes pride in acting as platform for such unique and user-centered research conducted by EDRAites. Interested in seeing your research study published as a 1000word essay in an upcoming issue? Please contact me at: Nisha.Fernando@uwsp.edu. You can find more details at: edra.org/page/publications. Nisha A. Fernando, Ph.D. is the Editor of EDRA Connections and a Professor of Interior Architecture, University of WisconsinStevens Point. She can be reached at Nisha.Fernando@uwsp.edu.

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Comparing Qualities of ‘Insideness’ of Significant Places for Pre-teenage Boys TIMOTHY BABER

ypically, inner-city schools are squeezed for space and consequently lack outdoor learning environments that engender child-centred, activity-based learning. Instead of promoting the type of interaction that develops critical literacy, e.g. Where learners negotiate complexity, revel in variety, deal with challenge and encounter natural systems, our inner-city school learning environments are often fixed and static, hard and rigid, predictable and safe, crowded and rules-based. Schools are charged with the responsibility of critically engaging their students with their world, yet school outdoor learning environments rarely offer them the opportunities found in the places they frequent. This research asked pre-teenage boys to describe their relationships and sense of belonging with two significant places: their school and one other special outdoor place. The boys’ descriptions, which they drew and wrote about, were interpreted through the analytical lens of “insideness” of place to discover the impact of each place’s affordances. “Insideness” is the degree to which a person identifies with a place, and the extent to which they feel as though they belong to it. It is anticipated that the “insideness” experienced by the boys at school will be limited due to the limited affordances. The research aspired to discover how the affordances of the boys’ “other” places might inform how school’s outdoor places could be designed to provide a more diverse range of affordances and richer learning environments.

This research documents experiences of 30 boys of their urban, 125-year-old catholic school. Typical of many inner-city schools, the physical environment has hard playing surfaces, bordered by tall steel fences and enclosed by brick walls of the buildings. In contrast, their ‘other’ places varied in complexity and many were rich in nature, including local parks, playing fields, beaches, the bush and urban centres.

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Using environmental autobiographies (drawings, maps, self-portraits and a recount of a memorable experience), each boy provided a description of each place and of themselves in those places. Fifteen of the 30 were selected to be interviewed to clarify and gain a deeper understanding of their descriptions. Lim and Barton (2010) used Relph’s (1977) conceptual construct of “‘insideness’ to understand urban children’s relationship with place in its ecological and dynamic structure and found that, “as they cultivate their sense of place, they construct ‘insideness’ in their sense of place” by considering their environmental understanding, environmental competence and their diverse, strong affective relationship with place (2010, p. 328). This study replicates this approach and explores how each boy is ‘inside’ by considering three guiding questions: 1) What are the descriptions pre-teenage boys give of their school-grounds and one other significant outdoor place? • How do they perceive and represent their places? • What activities frame how they engage with the places? 2) What is their corresponding insideness of place, for each place? • What meanings do they construct regarding their places? 3) What is the correlation between the “insideness” of each place and the associated affordances? • Which affordances present in the boys’ ‘other’ places have the potential to be included in school grounds? Figure 1: The study site is a catholic boys’ school with 1350 students, years 5 to 12. Paved central courtyards provide the focus for play in this 125-year old school in sydney’s gentrified inner-west. The researcher is a teacher at the school.

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School

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Sydney Opera House

Comparing Qualities of ‘Insideness’ of Significant Places for Pre-teenage Boys (CONTINUED)

Sam at school

I’ve drawn a straight face to represent concentration and dedication towards learning, neat uniform to show my care for how I represent the school and I’ve used lack and white to represent my change of person. Concrete and bricks.

Figure 2: Sam’s (a pseudonym) drawings and annotations provide an insight into his ‘insideness’ of place. These descriptions, along with our shared critical dialogue, give both of us a deeper understanding of his ‘insideness’ in each place. Working together in the classroom, critical dialogue between teacher-researcher and studentparticipant took place, centring the boys’ voices, co-constructing an indication of their sense of identification with the school and with another place of significance in their lives. Viewing the research methods actively rather than passively, the researcher was, bricoleur, actively structuring the research methods from the tools at hand. A series of lessons guided the boys in developing their environmental autobiographies; four phases of this process (1. Drawing the places, 2. Mapping the places, 3. Writing a recount of a memorable experience there, and, 4. Drawing a self-portrait in each place) were taught as a lesson in which direction was given, class time allocated and critical dialogue fostered. Throughout the process of working on their autobiographies, the teacher-researcher and individual student-participants discussed what the boys were drawing and writing, considering them together. Tay-lim and lim (2013, p. 69) Found that, “what children draw and what they draw should be

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Sam at his ‘other’ place

My helmet represents my dedication; my band-aid represents my devotion. I’ve made my skin orange to represent me like fire; being excited and pumped up.

considered together, and both ‘languages’ should be seen as an integrated unit if we want to obtain critical information about children’s perceptions.” The nature of this interactive process is central to my methodology. When critical dialogue between teacher-researcher and student-participant occurred in this project, they entered a shared space in which they shared meaning, and in so doing, gave rise to the ‘voice’ of the boy. Through this process of co-construction, both ‘languages’ were considered together in order to gain detailed understanding of the boys’ perceptions. The methods used in this study allowed students to disclose their thoughts and ideas about the qualities of place that have particular meaning to them at this stage of their lives, and express ‘insideness’. These ideas include both material and non-material qualities of place. Translating these insights into strategies for improving school outdoor environments will be the next step. The first phase of the fieldwork is done, with environmental autobiographies and interviews complete. The first phase of analysis involves my review of the environmental autobiographies, interviews and behaviour mapping for themes, which will be complete by the end of september. These themes will be taken back to the boys (as a group and individually) in october for their interpretation, comments and feedback. Literature review is

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on-going, while conclusions and final write-up complete by march 2017. The author wishes to thank his supervisors: associate professor Linda Corkery and Dr. Nancy Marshall. The first phase of the fieldwork is done, with environmental autobiographies and interviews complete. The first phase of analysis involves my review of the environmental autobiographies, interviews and behaviour mapping for themes, which will be complete by the end of September. These themes will be taken back to the boys (as a group and individually) in October for their interpretation, comments and feedback. Literature review is ongoing, while conclusions and final write-up complete by March 2017. The author wishes to thank his supervisors: associate professor Linda Corkery and dr. Nancy Marshall. References Lim, M. and Barton, A.C., 2010. Exploring insideness in urban children’s sense of place. Journal of environmental psychology, 30(3), pp.328-337. Relph, E., 1976. Place and placelessness (vol. 1). Pion. Tay-lim, J. And Lim, S., 2013. Privileging younger children’s voices in research: use of drawings and a co-construction process. International journal of qualitative methods, 12(1), pp.65-83

Tim Baber is a Master of Philosophy student in the Faculty of Built Environment at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia with a particular interest in schoolground design. He holds the degrees of Master of Landscape Architecture, Bachelor of Education and Bachelor of Teaching (Primary). As a landscape architect he has worked on public housing projects in the UK, designing children’s playgrounds. He currently teaches secondary mathematics at an inner-city Sydney Catholic Boys’ School.

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Photovoice as a Methodology for Architects and Landscape Designers

M’LIS BARTLETT AND LAURA COLE

esigners think about youth environments, both natural and built, can play a key role in creating spaces that support environmental learning and sustainable behavior. Before imagining what these spaces might look like, it is important for designers to understand what young people are learning from the environments in which they learn, play, and find respite. Accordingly, environmental design researchers need a toolkit of methodologies that can be used to understand how youth from a variety of communities engage with their everyday environments. Photographic images can be one powerful way to do this. Photography, used as a research methodology, can increase participant empowerment in the research process by shifting the dominant lens on the issue from the researcher to the participants. It has been used to better understand issues such as childhood obesity (Darbyshire, 2005), public health promotion (Wang & Redwood-Jones, 2001), and youth perceptions of their urban environments (Wilson, 2007), to name a few examples. Two unique research projects demonstrate the use of photography in environmental design research, from the school building to the surrounding landscape. Summarized here, the projects show two different photography-based methods (photovoice and photo-elicitation) used in the context of the school environments. The first study draws on the strengths of photo-elicitation and preference studies to understand low income minority teen’s (or teens’) experiences of urban landscapes. The second study utilized Photovoice methodology to understand what middle school students are learning about sustainablity from the design of their green school buildings.

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Study 1: Social Justice in the School Landscape During a design-build program, this photo elicitation project asked 57 African American 9th grade students about their relationship to local green spaces (Bartlett, 2015). Nine images reflective of public, private and institutional green spaces surrounding the school were chosen based on literature describing the differing ways communities of color may access and utilize green space (Gobster, 2002). Students were asked to choose the three spaces they would most want to hang out in and the three places they would least like to be. As they reflected on their preferences, they discussed how to improve those spaces for other teens and who could help them make these changes. Results indicated that these young teens still want places to play, socialize and relax with friends and family. Additionally, they are keenly interested in spaces that provide opportunities for stewardship. Teens realistically assessed their abilities to make improvements to these spaces and described family members and school staff with the skills to help them do the work they could not do alone. Notably they associated safe, well-cared for green spaces with good behavior. Alternatively, they expressed concern that uncared for spaces are poorly associated with them or their community. Their suggestions, combined with results from a related survey, indicated that low cost design interventions which engage local community members may provide students in similar communities with immediate access to places that support recreation and support community pride.

Recreation “The swings cause even though we teenagers we still like to swing on stuff.”

Stewardship “A place I could help out.”

Community Figure 1. Urban African American Teens Respond to Landscape Photos

“It looks suspicious. If you go there the police or somebody gonna think I’m doing something suspicious or something.”

Photovoice as a Methodology for Architects and Landscape Designers (CONTINUED)

Study 2: Sustainability in the Green School Building This project was conducted in four green middle schools where the researcher asked students to answer, via photography, the following question: Where do you learn about environmental sustainability around your school building (Cole, 2013). The project methodology was based on Photovoice techniques that put cameras in the hands of students. Students took photographs indoors and outdoors around their green buildings. They selected, ranked, and wrote about their top photos. Select students were then interviewed using their photography board as the basis for conversation. This process allowed the researcher to analyze both visual and verbal data for emergent themes. The researcher documented the features that most caught students’ attention, such as wind turbines and fun recycled materials. The data further revealed varying levels of student knowledge about their buildings and campus – from high knowledge to vague awareness to confusion (Figure 2). Photography data was triangulated with survey data and interviews with adults at each school. The major insight from the photography research was that students at green schools are aware of, but not exactly knowledgeable about, the green features of their school buildings. Photos together with student writing and interview quotations all weave together into an evidence base and compelling argument for improving green building curriculum in green schools.

Knowledgeable “This picture teaches me about sustainability because it shows that if you have big windows you can use the sun’s light instead of electricity”

Aware “I forgot what this was called, and I think I know what it does. It’s like a power thing or a wind thing. One or the other, it generates some kind of power to the school”

Figure 2. Green School Student Photographs Confused “I was kinda confused when I took this picture so I don’t really know what it’s about. I do know that it’s a stump”

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Conclusion Taken together, these two studies show the rich and valuable contribution of photographic data to environmental design research. They further highlight the ways that photography research methodologies complement other methods in a mixed-method research design. While each of these studies had interesting results that can stand on their own, results from these studies added nuance and deeper insight to data obtained from other methods. In Study 1, student reactions to photographs contributed to a better understanding of local efficacy for making suggested landscape changes and design ideas for an on-site schoolyard restoration project. In Study 2, a student-driven photography project helped the researcher to see green school campuses through the eyes of middle school students, which lead to insights about gaps in curricula. Using photography in research is not without challenge. In Study 1, school leaders shared safety concerns for students using cameras throughout the neighborhood. While photo elicitation created a safe space for conversation, by pre-selecting photos, the researcher reduced the students’ agency for choosing the places in their community that most interested them. By contrast, the challenges in Study 2 centered on the complicated logistics of obtaining a fleet of cameras, working a multi-step process into the school week, and the expense of developing photos. Despite these challenges, using photographic images presented a compelling way to spark conversation about what teens and pre-teens are learning from and about their environment. In both studies, the researchers found that the use of visual imagery provided students a safe, fun and engaging way to talk about their school environments and community landscapes. Understanding what young people are seeing and learning from their environments has important implications for how we think about designing and stewarding spaces for youth.

Photovoice as a Methodology for Architects and Landscape Designers (CONTINUED)

References Bartlett, M’Lis. (2015). Participatory Landscape Design with Urban Minority Teens: Building Collective Efficacy for Landscape Stewardship. (Ph.D.), University of Michigan. Cole, L. B. (2013). The Teaching Green School Building: Exploring the Contributions of School Design to Informal Environmental Education. (Ph.D.), University of Michigan. Darbyshire, P., MacDougall, C., Schiller, W. (2005). Multiple methods in qualitative research with children: more insight or just more? Qualitative Research, 5(4), 417-436. Gobster, P. H. (2002). Managing Urban Parks for a Racially and Ethnically Diverse Clientele. Leisure Sciences, 24(2), 143-159. Wang, C. C., & Redwood-Jones, Y. (2001). Photovoice Ethics: Perspectives From Flint Photovoice. Health Education & Behavior, 28(5), 560-572. Wilson, N., Stefan Dasho, Anna C. Martin, Nina Wallerstein, Caroline C. Wang, Mereditch Minkler. (2007). Engaging Young Adolescents in Social Action Through Photovoice. Journal of Early Adolescence, 27(2), 241-261.

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Dr. M’Lis Bartlett‘s research weaves together theories and practices of environmental education, environmental justice and landscape architecture to explore how participatory design can support the engagement of youth in future environmental stewardship activities. Her most recent work draws on over 20 years of experience as an urban environmental educator in communities located in New York City, Detroit and Flint. She is passionate about using community based participatory research principals and participatory design to support communities working for social and environmental change.

Laura Cole, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor of Architectural Studies at the University of Missouri where she teaches undergraduate studios, design business practices, and sustainable design. Her current research focuses on the social dimensions of green buildings, with a particular focus on how sustainable design can be environmentally educational for building users. She examines buildings designed as “teaching tools” for environmental sustainability, asking how such buildings can be stages for formal and informal education.

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Greenness, Heat and Crime: Understanding Heat-Related Spikes in Crime in Relation to Affluence of Neighborhood

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and Access to Greenspace PAUL PLATOSH AND ERIC COKER

Introduction A predicted effect of climate change is longer and more frequent heat waves. Research shows that as heat rises, so does violent crime. (Butke & Sheridan, 2010). In urban areas where high vegetative cover still exists in forms of tree canopies, parks, lawns, golf courses, heat effects are mitigated (Zhang, Wu, & Chen, 2010). Since these are features of affluent neighborhoods, it can be argued that the effects of climate change are disproportionately affecting low income neighborhoods not only through thermal discomfort, but also in increased likelihood of violent crime.

taken in 2005 in the same time period with “normal” temperatures. (2) To assess the potential for greenness (as represented through NDVI) to play a mitigating role on thermal brightness. (3) To investigate the statistical associations between neighborhood poverty (US Census Bureau) and neighborhood greenness in addition to thermal brightness. (4) To assess whether daily violent crime was higher during an extreme heat event compared to a normal temperature time period. Crime data was gathered from the LA country Sheriff’s department.

Background & Description Of Study Area Previous research has quantified disproportionate effects of climate change on poor populations (Su, Jerrett, Morello-Frosch, Jesdale, & Kyle, 2012), but few have studied neighborhood-level effects, and fewer still correlations between poverty, NDVI (Normalized Vegetation Difference Index), thermal brightness, and crime within a single study.

Data and Methods Landsat 7 images from July 21, 2006 and July 18, 2005 for the Los Angeles County area were downloaded from the GLOVIS website operated by the USGS. These dates were the closest days of the month for available Landsat 7 images. Also, July 21, 2006 was in the midst of a prolonged extreme heat event that occurred throughout Los Angeles County. Landsat 7 images were selected based on the relatively high spatial resolution (compared to MODIS or Landsat 4/5) with regard to the thermal brightness band (band 6), and near-infrared (band 4) and red (band 3) bands for NDVI derivation (30-meter spatial resolution). Bands 4 and 5 were imported to ENVI, subsetted to the region of interest

Hypothesis We hypothesized that: (a) Greenness, measured through NDVI,is negatively correlated with high poverty neighborhoods; (b) Thermal brightness is positively correlated with high poverty neighborhoods; (c) Extreme heat events are associated with lower greenness and higher daily crime; (d) Highly localized differences in thermal brightness between an extreme heat event day and normal heat event day would be influenced by differences in greenness features. Research Objectives (1) To examine Landsat 7 images taken in late July 2006 of Los Angeles. This period was marked by an extreme heat event [5 days above 100 degrees, with some neighborhoods reaching 110] (Steinhauer, 2006). These images were compared to images A publication from Environmental Design Research Association A publication from thethe Environmental Design Research Association

(the urban areas of LA county) and corrected for atmospheric interference. Statistical Analysis The subsetted thermal and NDVI raster images from ENVI were imported into ArcMap for the purposes of performing raster calculations required for NDVI analysis. All statistical analyses were performed at the Census tract level using R statistical software where linear mixed effects regression models in order to estimate these relationships. Crime events throughout the study area were aggregated by day to derive the number of crimes per day for the time periods ranging between July 14 through August 1st for both 2006 and 2005. A linear mixed effects model was implemented in order to compare the average daily crime by year (i.e. 2006 versus 2005). Since daily crime data was highly dependent upon the day of the week (e.g. violent crimes tended to spike during Fridays and Saturdays), a random intercept for “day of the week” was included as a time-dependent random effect in our statistical model. Figure 1: Comparison of NDVI in an extreme heat event vs. non-extreme heat event Figure 2: Linear regression estimates of the association between census tract poverty and census tract greenness *** = P-value <0.0001

Greenness, Heat and Crime: Understanding Heat-Related Spikes in Crime in Relation to Affluence of Neighborhood and Access to Greenspace (CONTINUED) Mean NDVI values were calculated in ENVI for the study area in order to compare overall greenness between the image for July 21, 2006 and July 18, 2005. A t-test was used to statistically compare mean NDVI by day. Results Daily spikes in crime tended to fluctuate with spikes in daily temperature, while for the extreme heat event year daily crime levels (year 2006) were significantly higher compared to the daily crime levels during the non-extreme heat event year (2005). Mean NDVI over the entire study areas was significantly lower during the extreme heat event day (July 21, 2006) compared to Mean NDVI during the non-extreme heat day (July 18, 2005) (Figure 1). Based on a linear mixed effects regression we found that relative to low poverty census tracts, increasing poverty was significantly associated with lower average greenness (Figure 2) and significantly higher average thermal brightness by census tracts. Additionally, we calculated census tract-level mean differences in greenness between year 2006 and 2005. The map below (Figure 3) presents these differences, indicating that neighborhoods in Southern LA County experienced the highest negative mean greenness differences between the extreme heat event time period (July 12-July 27, 2006) versus the non-extreme heat event time period (July 12-July 27, 2005).

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Moreover, linear regression analysis indicated that relative to the lowest poverty census tract, the highest poverty census tracts experienced significantly negative mean greenness differences between the extreme heat event time period versus the non-extreme heat event time period. The NDVI and thermal images depicted in Figure 4 indicates that for a given zoomed in neighborhood, areas with elevated NDVI (i.e. a park) correspond to areas of lower thermal brightness, and areas covered in concrete (i.e. a roadway) correspond to areas of higher thermal brightness. Also, when thermal brightness is plotted against NDVI, we see that thermal brightness decreases with increasing NDVI. Moreover, the linear relationship between NDVI and thermal brightness was stronger for the extreme heat event day (β = -22.18, R2=0.64) compared to the non-extreme heat event day (β= -20.90, R2=0.52). Discussions and Conclusions This study implies strong correlations between poverty/crime and greenness/heat. Relationships between vegetation, heat, poverty and crime could prompt further study into different land-use factors. For example, city planners may require tree canopies and edge plantings in order to encourage higher NDVI in urban areas in efforts to reduce small area-scale heat islands, thus reducing heat-related crime in high poverty neighborhoods. Figure 2: NDVI difference and poverty

Figure 3: NDVI by neighborhood

Targeted irrigation in heat/poverty prone areas could have a significant cost effective cooling effect. We plan to create an index suggesting high NDVI plant choices specific to a given area. Much like a plant hardiness zone map or a plant heatzone map, the system would offer plant choices that exhibit high levels of transpiration even during extreme heat events, when other plants become stressed and cease transpiration. Fortunately, many of these plants are native, and offer those environmental benefits as well. For landscapers and designers, this means adding another consideration to plant specifications – aesthetics, growing habit, water usage, sun preference, and now, NDVI value. The goal is to plant high NDVI plants without straining water resources.

Greenness, Heat and Crime: Understanding Heat-Related Spikes in Crime in Relation to Affluence of Neighborhood and Access to Greenspace (CONTINUED) References Butke, P., & Sheridan, S. C. (2010). An analysis of the relationship between weather and aggressive crime in Cleveland, Ohio. Weather, Climate, and Society, 2(2), 127–139. doi:10.1175/2010WCAS1043.1 Pu, R., Ge, S., Kelly, N. M., & Gong, P. (2003). Spectral absorption features as indicators of water status in coast live oak ( Quercus agrifolia ) leaves. International Journal of Remote Sensing, 24(9), 1799–1810. doi:10.1080/01431160210155965 Steinhauer, J. (2006, July 28). In California, Heat Is Blamed for 100 Deaths. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/28/us/28heat.html Su, J. G., Jerrett, M., Morello-Frosch, R., Jesdale, B. M., & Kyle, A. D. (2012). Inequalities in cumulative environmental burdens among three urbanized counties in California. Environment International, 40, 79–87. doi:10.1016/j.envint.2011.11.003 Zhang, X. X., Wu, P. F., & Chen, B. (2010). Relationship between vegetation greenness and urban heat island effect in Beijing City of China. Procedia Environmental Sciences, 2, 1438–1450. doi:10.1016/j.proenv.2010.10.157

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Paul Platosh is CAD/GIS Analyst in the CFO’s office at the State of Oregon. His job is to provide geospatial intelligence and behavioral modeling to Facilities Planning throughout the State of Oregon capital planning process. In addition, Paul is a PhD candidate at Oregon State University in the School of Design and Human Environment, and is in the process of completing his dissertation. His current research focuses on the study of technologically mediated wayfinding though head-mounted displays. Prior to pursuing his PhD, Paul was as Associate Professor of Communication Design at the Pacific Northwest College of Art. He works to unite design thinking with spatial thinking by enriching the design process with geospatial information technology and remote sensing. In this way, his research program aims to leverage the power of geographic data in the context of creative practice. Paul has been an EDRA member since 2013, and co-chairs the Cyberspace and Digital Environments Knowledge Network. He lives in Portland with his family and enjoys geocaching and exploring the Northwest with his boys.

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2016 Annual Review

I Environmental Design Research Association 1000 Westgate Drive, Suite 252 St. Paul, MN 55114 651-379-7306 www.edra.org EDRA Connections is published two to three times a year by the Environmental Design Research Association. All rights reserved ©2016. EDITOR Nisha A. Fernando Nisha.Fernando@uwsp.edu 2016-2017 BOARD OF DIRECTORS Lynne C. Manzo, PhD, Chair University of Washington Jeremy Wells, PhD, Chair-Elect Roger Williams University

n September, EDRA moved to a new management company, Ewald Consulting, Inc. and welcomed Kris Haskin as its new Executive Director. The Board Directors met in mid-September for its annual retreat. During the retreat, the Board revised EDRA’s purpose, mission, and vision. PURPOSE EDRA’s purpose is to advance and disseminate research, teaching, and practice toward improving an understanding of the relationships among people, their built environments, and natural eco-systems. MISSION The mission of EDRA is to provide a collaborative, multidisciplinary community to connect theory, research, teaching, and practice to recognize, create and advocate for environments that are responsive to diverse human needs. EDRA is committed to equity, inclusion, and respect for all persons. VISION EDRA bridges theory, research, teaching, and practice to:

Nisha A. Fernando, PhD, Secretary University of Wisconsin – Stevens Point

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Jennifer Senick, PhD, Treasurer Rutgers University

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Shauna Mallory-Hill, PhD, Past Chair University of Manitoba

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Karen Kim, PhD Student, Student Representative University of Buffalo, SUNY Sue Weidemann, PhD, Emeritus Member University of Buffalo MEMBERS-AT-LARGE David L. Boeck, PhD The University of Oklahoma Emily Chmielewski, EDAC Perkins Eastman Deni Ruggeri, PhD The Norwegian University of Life Sciences Vibhavari Jani Kansas State University EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Kris Haskin krish@edra.org A publication from the Environmental Design Research Association A publication from the Environmental Design Research Association

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Recognize and create more humane environments in collaboration with global stakeholders/communities Promote cutting-edge research and practice that is essential to improve quality of life for all people Transcend disciplinary boundaries and industry sectors in collaborative pursuit of environments that are responsive to diverse human needs. Advocate for diverse voices in the pursuit of social justice

PLEASE MARK YOUR CALENDARS AND PLAN TO JOIN US IN MADISON!

SCHEDULE AT A GLANCE WEDNESDAY, MAY 31, 2017 8:30am-5:30pm Pre-Conference Intensives 8:30am-5:30pm Graduate Student Workshop 6:00pm-8:00pm Welcome Reception: Great Places Awards & CORE Recognition THURSDAY, JUNE 1, 2017 8:30am-6:00pm Concurrent Sessions, Networking Sessions, Poster Session, Keynote Session FRIDAY, JUNE 2, 2017 8:30am-6:00pm Concurrent Sessions, Networking Sessions, Poster Session, Keynote Session SATURDAY, JUNE 3, 2017 8:30am-5:30pm Concurrent Sessions, Plenary Session, Mobile Sessions 6:30pm-9:00pm EDRA Awards Banquet