News

This year, the PLAN 211: Design Studio Foundations course, taught by Dr. Katherine Perrott, has partnered with the Sustainability Office to produce urban design visualizations that explore the possibilities of what the future of the University of Waterloo campus could look like when meeting the University’s sustainability goals. The students’ first project was to create a general idea of a sustainable campus by submitting prompts into the new cutting-edge technology: DALL-E 2. 

On November 23, the Government of Canada’s Environmental Damages Fund, administered by Environment and Climate Change Canada announced its support for a research project led by Dr. Michael Drescher, Professor in the School of Planning: “Residential development Impact Scorecard for the Environment (RISE) – An assessment tool for carbon stock and greenhouse gas impacts of residential developments”

School of Planning Associate Professor Michael Drescher and Associate Professor Luna Khirfan raise their concerns about the Government of Ontario's recently proposed a new bill, the More Homes Built Faster Act, or Bill 23 in an article published in "THE CONVERSATION".

We are pleased to see a large participation from students and faculty at the 2022 ACSP Conference.

The School of Planning's participation in the ASCP conference this year is excellent. You will find a number of student and faculty talks throughout the 3 day event starting on November 3rd and ending on November 5th.  The School's daily participation schedule is included below. We hope to see many more of you during the event. You can learn more about the event and view the full schedule at ACSP 2022.

Spatial Patterns of Freight and Logistics contribute to Calgary's Sprawl

Clarence Woudsma contributes to a recent article in "the sprawl", a worthwhile read about how consumerism is driving a warehouse boom in Calgary.

We are pleased to announce that Janice Barry has agreed to serve as the Associate Director, Graduate Studies for the School of Planning, effective July 1, 2022. 

The School of Planning is pleased to announce a new administrative role and Mark Seasons has kindly agreed to undertake the responsibilities of Associate Director, Professional Practice. This role will support building and maintaining strong relationships with the Planning profession in addition to other relevant stakeholders.

Mark will work to identify opportunities, liaise with stakeholders, and take initiative in the following areas: 

The School of Planning is pleased to announce our Planner-in-Residence for the 2022-2023 academic year is Becca Nagorsky. She will deliver PLAN 403 in the winter term to our 4th year undergraduate students and interact with the School community in various other ways throughout the year.

Moving to Canada comes with challenges, such as not being able to find work. On Tuesday July 26, Dr. Jennifer Dean, Associate Professor in the School of Planning, was featured in a brief clip on CTV news, and says this is common for newcomers due to lack of recognition of foreign credentials. She mentions that Canadian businesses prefer experiences in the workforce in Canada and this of course, is a challenge for newcomers to the country who do not have this experience.

On Wednesday, June 22^nd, Dr. Dawn Parker, Professor in the School of Planning, was featured in Kitchener City News: “UW researchers received funding to investigate lack of family-sized apartment housing in region.”