Bob Scarfo, MLA, PhD
Associate Professor, Landscape Architecture
MS Landscape Architecture Graduate Coordinator
Education
Professional Credentials
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Scholarly interests
Currently
- Successful and Productive Aging – research in support of more vital and vibrant communities; how the built environment contributes to intergenerational social connectivity.
- Health and the Built Environment – research in support of improved health of the public; how the built environment contributes to people's individual, social, and economic wellbeing.
- Oil Depletion – research into improved energy efficiency in individual structures, neighborhoods and districts, and the larger municipality; how the built environment can contribute to reduce energy use and low service and maintenance costs.
- Converging Trends – how to see and prepare to use the potentials embedded in the convergence of the aging of America, the obesity and type 2 diabetes epidemics, and oil depletion.
- Building collaboration between health and environmental design professionals.
Long standing
- Social Production of Space – identification of personal, social, and cultural value systems and their interpretation into built environments.
- Integration of Ecological and Social Principles into Build Environments.
- Neighborhood and Small Town Planning and Design.
- Teaching Methods Informed by Intended Learning Experiences.
Teaching emphasis
- LA 460, Interdisciplinary Design Studio: Actual projects, real sites and clients that contribute to the community while meeting university and design professions' expectations. Learning through practical experiences that call for interdisciplinary design decisions derived from on-site facts, client interviews, and researched journal and professional literature.
- LA 475, Senior Project Proposal: Development of a self-selected specialization. Personally-selected topics are researched and interpreted into a detailed written proposal to be carried out the following semester. Approximately 75% of the proposal topics are actual projects that result in built products influenced to some degree by the students' work. Sample projects include:
- AMST 410: Cities in Fiction: Life as an interplay with urban settings is explored through fictional works by North American authors from the 1800s to the present day. Methodologies drawn from critical analysis and literary criticism are discussed and applied to the readings. Fictional works will include those of Walt Whitman, Joan Didion, John dos Passos, and more.
Personal projects
- Directing One-day Workshops that Build Collaboration between health Care, Public Health and Architecture, Landscape Architecture, and Land Planning Professionals.
- Interdisciplinary Panel Presentation at 2004 Annual Gerontological Society of America conference.
PowerPoint presentations
- Building Human Capital on Retirees' Intellectual and Skilled Backgrounds
- Uptown Downtown – people, economy and health
- Converging Trends: oil, aging, and the environmental designer's role
- Building Collaboration
Writings
- Coming Changes to Downtown and the Practice of Landscape Architecture
Spokane can lead nation, give retirees opportunity
- Telephone: 509.358.7913
- E-mail: scarfo@wsu.edu
- Office: SCLS-261
