Dingliang Yang (MAUD ’14, DDes ’19) and Jennifer Yoos (LF’02) Received SOM Foundation 2024 Research Prize
Dingliang Yang (MAUD ’14, DDes ’19) and Jennifer Yoos (LF’02) received the 2024 Som Foundation Research Prize for their proposal “Soft-Urban Riverfront: A New Paradigm for Headwater Metropolises .”
Building on their previous work reconceptualizing the Mississippi River as a cohesive “Urban Spine” for the Twin Cities (Minneapolis and St. Paul), integrating sustainable development, cultural spaces, ecological restoration, and natural habitats into urban life, Yang and Yoos will lead a team of faculty members at the University of Minnesota. Together, they will tackle the “Headwater Challenge” by examining the unique responsibility of the Twin Cities as the first major metropolitan area downstream from the Mississippi River’s headwaters.
Yang and Yoos plan to address critical issues along the Mississippi—historical waste disposal, industrial pollution, and climate-induced threats to water quality—that endanger ecosystems and communities downstream if left unaddressed.
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Photo courtesy of Dingliang Yang.
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