Mashyat Tomory was born and raised in Bangladesh. She has witnessed and suffered the consequences of climate-change-driven floods, including infrastructural loss, health hazards, a lack of governance and education. Her hometown Dhaka often sinks underwater and canoes often replace cars. Mashyat moved to New York in 2016 and earned her undergraduate degree in Coastal Environmental Studies from Stony Brook University. In Spring 2021, she began the City College of New York’s Sustainability in the Urban Environment program to learn how planning and policy could improve the lives of groups disproportionately harmed by climate change. Her interest in the environment started …
Student Profile: Chelsea Encababian
Sometimes taking one class can completely change your point of view. That was the case for Chelsea Encababian, a Bronx native who went to college intending to major in Asian Studies and become a Japanese Translator. Despite her intentions, she decided to enroll in an Environmental Ethics course during her sophomore year of college, because she knew the instructor was incredibly passionate. This course ultimately influenced her college experience and future career more than she could have ever imagined. Chelsea’s extracurriculars revolved around environmentalism and so did her coursework. After graduating with a double major in Asian Studies and Environmental …
Watery Edges with Catherine Seavitt Nordenson, Pt I
The following is a transcript of Jay Wu’s interview with Catherine Seavitt Nordenson, Director of CCNY’s Graduate Landscape Architecture Program. This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity. Q. How did you become interested in sustainability? A. I have a long history of traveling through various aspects of architecture and landscape architecture. I earned my undergraduate architecture degree at Cooper Union in New York and went on to Princeton for my graduate degree. I worked in Europe for a while — first in Paris, then the American Academy in Rome. It was there that I really started to see …
Denise Hoffman Brandt: “Landscape Issues are the Confluence of Society, Culture and Environment”: Part II
The following is part 2 of Jay Wu’s interview with Denise Hoffman Brandt. Check out part 1 here! This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity. Q. Let’s talk about your book, City Sink: Carbon Cycle Infrastructure for our Built Environment. I was looking at the Google Books description and it said, “City Sink is a design research proposal for a meta-park of dispersed landscape infrastructure to boost carbon stocks and biomass, and through the formation of long-term sequestration, reservoirs for soil organic carbon in New York City and Long Island.” Let’s break that down a little. A. The whole project …
Denise Hoffman Brandt: “Landscape Issues are the Confluence of Society, Culture and Environment”: Part I
The following is a transcript of Jay Wu’s interview with Denise Hoffman Brandt, Professor at CCNY’s Anne Spitzer School of Architecture and Director of Graduate Landscape Architecture from 2010 to 2020. This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity. Q. Many of my classmates don’t come from either environmental or urban studies backgrounds, yet we’re all here studying Urban Sustainability. Given that context, I thought it was really interesting that you first earned degrees in art history and painting before studying landscape architecture. Why did you become a landscape architect after studying art, and how does that background inform …
Introducing Our Big Sibling/Little Sibling Program!
A priority of our Sustainability Program is creating an interdisciplinary community of professionals addressing the many issues surrounding equitable climate change mitigation and adaptation in our cities. Especially in the current era of remote learning, creating that sense of community is more challenging and more critical now than ever before. That is why two of our students, Navida and Kathy, came to the Program with a spectacular idea to support our incoming students. The Sustainability Big Sibling/Little Sibling program will pair each new student with a current Sustainability Student or recent Program graduate based on interests to help guide them …
Final Capstone Presentations, 2020
Below see the video recordings for the final capstone reviews for the Fall, 2020 semester. Following each presentation is the abstract for the project. Open Passive House: Making a business case for multifamily affordable Passive House Summary (Abstract): There exists a highly compelling case for promoting Passive House building standards for the affordable multifamily sector in New York City. In addition to deep energy and carbon reductions that align with the goals of New York City’s Climate Mobilization Act, increased occupant comfort and climate resiliency will greatly benefit some of New York City’s most vulnerable populations. There is great interest in Passive …
Happy Holidays from Sustainability
2020 can be a difficult year to feel holiday cheer. While we would ordinarily gather in-person, we can at least celebrate together from afar! Featuring some of our current students and recent alumni, wherever you are and how ever you’re able to celebrate, we wish you a safe, healthy, and happy 2020 holiday season! The languages represented in the video are (in order) Spanish, Turkish, Urdu, Polish, Arabic, Portuguese, Russian, Marathi, Hebrew, Bengali, and English.
Research Guide on Sustainability Topics: A Post from Professor Nilda Sanchez-Rodriguez
Sustainability in the Urban Environment program at the City College of New York is fortunate to have the support of two knowledgeable liaisons to a trove of sustainability-related information: Professor Nilda Sanchez-Rodriguez, Chief Librarian of Architecture division [[email protected]; Drop-In Zoom; (212) 650-8767] Professor Philip Barnett, Reference Librarian, Science & Engineering Library [email protected] As the librarian liaison for Sustainability in the Urban Environment, I am pleased to provide library services and support for an extremely diverse population of students, faculty, and alumni. Providing equitable access to digital resources is increasingly critical to as CCNY Libraries continue to serve their communities amid …
Events: Division of Science Student Research Panel and Research Opportunity Fair
On Tuesday, October 13th, 2020 the Division of Science held a student research panel with representation from each Program including Sustainability. The video of the full event is below. Students had the opportunity to present and discuss how they’ve gained research experience in their field and fun facts about themselves and their work. Also discussed was the Division of Science Student Council and the forthcoming graduate student club: Masters of Science. On October 20th, the Division of Science Student Council hosted a Research Opportunities Fair. The video is below to learn more about opportunities (many of which occur annually) at …
