For their capstone project, graduate students in planning and sustainable development have spent the year conceiving a new life for an area at the western entrance of Clinton, IA. The group sought public input during design charrettes in order to come up with four concepts for the narrow land that was once the site of a railroad repair shop.

The University of Iowa’s Iowa Initiative for Sustainable Communities program, or IISC, will bring more than 20 student-led projects to the City of Clinton by the end of the academic year. The program allows students from a range of disciplines to develop and share ideas to help advance a community’s goals. This year, the IISC partnered with the City of Clinton.

Original designs for a new pocket neighborhood in Maquoketa, IA, were created by University of Iowa Civil and Environmental Engineering students in conjunction with the Iowa Initiative for Sustainable Studies’ (IISC) partnership with the East Central Intergovernmental Association (ECIA). The homes in the development are affordable and help the community increase its housing stock.

Members of IISC class participate in formation of new westside neighborhood association.

Students from the Tippie College of Business' Marketing Institute provide consulting services to IISC partner communities, including Clinton.

Students in the University of Iowa's Civil and Environmental Engineering Department provide designs to renovate and add to Clinton's Riverview Park as it prepares to host a large music festival.

A group of graduate students from the University of Iowa's IISC program are spending the academic year studying the housing needs of the city of Clinton.

Caitlin Shanahan received her Master’s in Urban and Regional Planning with a focus on Land Use and Environmental Planning in 2014. We checked in with Caitlin to learn about her current work and the ways in which participating in IISC has impacted her. 

Emani Brinkman’s undergraduate studies were a bit of a smorgasbord. She double majored in economics and business administration, minored in religion, and got a concentration in environmental studies. She jokes that it was the “I-don’t-know-what-I-want-do!” combo platter, but now as a Master’s student in Urban and Regional Planning, she realizes it was evidence of her desire to blend many interests under one job area.