The GCPE graduating class of 2025 is making its mark! From designing infrastructure; to conceptualizing new types of spaces for shelter, culture, commerce, services and social connection; to inclusion of the natural world into built environments; to the elevation, celebration, and preservation of diverse forms of heritage — how we create, and for whom we create — sit at the heart of student inquiries at the Graduate Center for Planning and the Environment.
Join us in welcoming thirty-six practitioners to the fields of preservation, placemaking, environmental sustainability, and planning, whose research and commitment to community-based work expands and redefines our disciplines. We encourage you to connect with our graduates to learn more about their research and professional pursuits. Congratulations to the Class of 2025!
– Eve Baron, Chair, Graduate Center for Planning and the Environment
Historic Preservation, MS
The Historic Preservation program, this year celebrating the 20th anniversary of its founding, proudly congratulates five wonderful 2025 graduates! During their time at Pratt they delved deeply into how heritage conservation practice can address some of the most challenging issues of our time. Their intriguing Thesis projects propose strategies to strengthen traditional communities impacted by climate change, repurpose historic buildings to provide economic opportunity, and uplift the historic narratives of people whose stories are too often forgotten. We welcome these new historic preservation professionals to the field!
– Vicki Weiner, Academic Director
Zeynep Deniz Cavdir — Outstanding Community Service Award
Digital Relic: A Value-Based Approach to Cultural Heritage and Immersive Preservation
Moira Gasior — Outstanding Merit Award
Intervention as Justice: Strategies for Preserving Interment Sites of Marginalized Communities
Kaylee Johnson (Fall 2024) — GCPE (MS in HP) Applied Research Award
Unearthing Indigenous Knowledge: Adobe as Climate Solution and Heritage Preservation in Marfa, TX
Siena Leone-Getten — Excellence in Academic Achievement Award, Outstanding Community Service Award
Timex Headquarters: Preservation for 21st Century Buildings
Shannen Smiley (Fall 2024) — Commitment to the Profession Award
Reinventing Significance: Neutralizing Suburban Sprawl in the American Southwest
Sustainable Environmental Systems, MS
We are proud of the ten Fall 2024 and Spring 2025 MS in Sustainable Environmental Systems graduates! Throughout their time at Pratt, and in their Capstone projects, these emerging sustainability professionals demonstrated their ability to transcend disciplinary boundaries and propose creative solutions to intractable socio-environmental challenges. Graduates have produced projects that respond to the urgency of the climate crisis, include actionable outcomes for clients and stakeholders, and envision a more resilient, adaptive, inclusive, and just future. We look forward to their future work and contributions!
– Leonel Lima Ponce, Academic Director
Nicholas Conklin (Fall 2024) — Excellence in Academic Achievement Award, MS in Sustainable Environmental Systems Capstone Impact Award
Word on the Creek: A Steward Engagement Strategy for Building Socio-Ecological Reciprocity Between Flushing Creek and its Watershed Communities
client: Guardians of Flushing Bay
Ruth Daniel (Fall 2024) — Eva Hanhardt Environmental Advocacy Award
Rising Solutions: Green Infrastructure for Stormwater and Water Quality in Newtown Creek’s High-Groundwater Landscape
client: Newtown Creek Alliance
Victoria Gulino (Fall 2024)
Designing for Resilience – A Passive Design Approach for New York City Public Schools
client: ALIGN
Valeria Milesi (Fall 2024) — Environmental Sustainability Award, GCPE (MS in SES) Applied Research Award
Repurposing Wind Blades into Public Infrastructure and Art in New York State as a Solution to the Wind Blade Waste Problem
client: NYSERDA
Rebecca Rice — Outstanding Merit Award
Permeating Kansas City, Kansas: Leveraging Green Infrastructure for Community Use
client: Unified Government of Wyandotte County + Kansas City
Mariana Torres
Localizing Farm-to-Table in NYC Restaurants: The Role of Rooftop Farming in Urban Food Supply Chains
client: Boca Valdivia NY
Sakshi Trivedi — Jaime Stein Innovation in Sustainability Award
Aqua – Rituals: A Business Model for Food Security and Economic Equity in New York City
client: Agritecture
Nandini Vavhal
A path to recover and revive: Strengthening strategies for disaster debris management following coastal storm events in the critical flood zones of New York City.
client: DSNY
Niyati Vira
Local Law 97: Addressing the Unintended Burden on NYC Co-ops
client: Urban Green Council
Ajwah Zahid (Fall 2024)
Corporate Sustainability: The Future of Small and Medium Enterprises in Pakistan
client: Minhas Pipes
Urban and Community Planning / City and Regional Planning, MS
Spring 2025 UCP/CRP graduates, welcome to the wonderful world of Pratt alumni! You worked so hard to get to this point, and we know that you are bound to do great things with your new skills and experiences. Keep in mind that we’ll always be a professional and academic home for you. Onwards!
– Eve Baron, Academic Director
Becca Abellera — GCPE (MS in UCP) Applied Research Award
Climate Havens: The Protection Paradox. Defining and redefining resilience and vulnerability in Vieques, Puerto Rico and Buffalo, New York
Ayah Alruwais
Displacement is Not a Natural Disaster: Solidarity, Resistance, and Homeplace as Planning Praxis in East Flatbush
Emma Bartley – Excellence in Academic Achievement
Reckoning With The Past Through Public Space Planning: An Assessment Of The Hart Island Planning Process
Natasha Dwyer
Housing Justice and Planning for State Prison Closures in NY
Rebecca Kobert — Commitment to the Profession Award
Middle Housing Gone Missing: Mediations of Neighborhood Change in Brooklyn Community District 6 (2003-2024)
Scott Lauher — American Planning Association Metro Chapter Outstanding Student Award
Brownfields: Investing in the Community
David Ludwig
Changing Tides; The Use of Nature Based Solutions for Coastal Resiliency by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
Matt Meyer — Community Service Award
Creative Resilience: Sustaining and Expanding Affordable Art Spaces in New York City
Conner Poulsen
Finding Harmonious Disorder: Skateboarders and Stewardship of Public Space
Jenna Simons — American Institute of Certified Planners Outstanding Student Award
Equity at Every Stop: Opportunities for Just Transit Along the Interborough Express
Aishwarya Venkatesh — Excellence in Academic Achievement
Resilience through Relocation: Navigating Challenges of Climate Vulnerability and Housing Instability in Edgemere, Queens
Hannah Whitney — Outstanding Merit Award
Planning the Just Transition: Industrial Zoning, Land Use, and the GRID Special Purpose District in Sunset Park
Elisha Wilson — Community Planning Award
Healing Bed-Stuy’s Foodscape: Local Resources as A Vehicle for Achieving Justice
Urban Placemaking and Management, MS
In spring 2025 we celebrated the 10th anniversary of the UPM program. Alumni from around the world, including India and Japan, joined a symposium to share experiences. The students graduating this year will add to the body of knowledge on Placemaking with their final DPC projects, adding to the growing alumni network.
– David Burney, Academic Director
Lisa Albin
Co-creating Design Principles for Youth-Led Public Space: For a Modular Placemaking System
Isabel Campbell-Gross — Excellence in Academic Achievement Award
Tackling Storefront Vacancy in NYC: Are Artist Activations a Path Forward?
Lauren Goshinski
Cyrus Henry — GCPE (MS in UPM) Applied Research Award
Transitioning to a Hybrid Model: A Place-Based Approach to Office Conversions
Penelope Lewis — Department Service Award
Pratt Community Day: A Proposal
Lina Pattaybut — Department Service Award
The Blooming Ground: An Exploration of Globalization and Placemaking in Flower Markets
Che Powell — Stuart K. Pertz Award
Toward a Black Placemaking Manifesto
Ghuncha Shaheed — Outstanding Merit Award
Street Vendors and Public Life in NYC: An Analysis of Vending in Central Business Districts and Multi Ethnic Enclaves