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The spirit of what the College of Built Environments calls “emergent-convergent design” — community-driven projects that start small but contribute to a large-scale vision — pulses through the College. But it may run strongest where de la Cruz found his academic home at the UW: the Informal Urban Communities Initiative, a donor-supported design activism, research and education program cofounded by associate professor of landscape architecture Ben Spencer.

“I was really interested in working with landscape architecture professors like Ben Spencer who have this emphasis on community engagement,” says de la Cruz, whose work was supported by the Margaret and Fritz Wagner Family Endowed Fellowship, the Norman J. Johnston Endowed Scholarship, and the University of Washington Graduate Opportunity Award.

That emphasis is what inspired de la Cruz to apply to the UW, where socially responsible design is a solution to some of the world’s greatest health and equity challenges.

He was also inspired by his mother, a longtime community leader in Pueblo del Rio whose outreach has included setting up neighborhood food banks and hosting support groups for widows and women who have experienced domestic violence. “Seeing my mother’s commitment to this idea of the collective well-being of her community — and the faith her community has in her — has shaped the work that I do.”

By deploying students like de la Cruz to work with residents on local improvement projects, the Informal Urban Communities Initiative aims to form cultural connections, then give some of the world’s most vulnerable communities a hand up.

Among the most vulnerable populations are informal urban communities (commonly referred to as “slums”) on the outskirts of Lima, Peru, and Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Philanthropy-supported study-abroad opportunities enabled de la Cruz and his peers to spend extended time at each site, where they witnessed firsthand what environmental injustice looks like around the world — as well as the looming threats faced by underprivileged populations.

These ranged from gentrification to displacement to toxic-emissions exposure. Some communities are plagued by drought, others by flooding. These historically oppressed groups have a feeling of being disposable, says de la Cruz. His goal? To work with communities to create longstanding solutions, together — an ethos core to the College of Built Environments.

Through participatory design workshops, de la Cruz and the Informal Urban Communities Initiative partnered with residents, community leaders and local agencies as they worked to implement environments that better served the residents’ needs, whether that meant harvesting fog and constructing gardens to address a lack of water and food security in Lima or creating a safe, attractive green alleyway to enjoy in Phnom Penh. “My international experiences taught me how to build and cultivate working relationships with communities that have a wealth of information to tap into,” says de la Cruz. “Now I know what a successful workshop looks like and how to ensure that decisions are made in a way that benefits community members.”

“Emphasizing community engagement and the lived experiences of community members is how I expect to continue my role as a landscape architect,” says de la Cruz. “That’s what I’m interested in: community well-being through community collaboration.”

As the 2017 National Olmsted Scholar — named by the premier national award program for landscape architecture students — he’ll have the chance to pursue this goal as he returns to South Central LA to address its most urgent threats: pollution, gentrification, displacement. (The restoration of the Los Angeles River, which involves all three, is high on his list.) He’s already applied his studies to the real world, hosting two workshops back in South Central LA that pulled in artists, park rangers, housing services coordinators and residents to mobilize de la Cruz’s community and imagine a neighborhood that trades industrial sites for green space.

The work has started, says de la Cruz. “People have found ways to thrive in these environments regardless of the systemic issues that suppress them. Walk down a few aisles from here, and you can see all these plants that people grow,” he says from his mother’s kitchen table, motioning outside to the grassy lawns separating the rows of apartments. “They’ve found a way to connect to the soil that’s here, which the plants have the potential to clean up. Even though it’s not at a systemic level, people have found ways to have some sort of control over their own health through the way they intervene right in their front yards.”

By applying this community knowledge on a larger scale, landscape architecture can combat widespread issues at the systemic level. “There are leaders in these communities,” says de la Cruz. “The intention is that they collaborate to take on projects at a front-yard level using local knowledge.” From there, he explains, they can scale up and shape healthier environments.

The impact of landscape architecture on the well-being of residents in Los Angeles, Seattle and around the world is monumental — and thanks in part to private gifts of support, de la Cruz has gained the knowledge to work toward ensuring a strong, positive future for everyone.

“Through community involvement and participation, I’m hoping to work with residents to articulate how we can transform these larger infrastructures — ghosted railways, abandoned factories, the Los Angeles River — in a way that benefits them,” says de la Cruz. “So much knowledge already exists in these communities, and there are opportunities to have more landscape architects who come from diverse backgrounds. My mission isn’t to lead, but to help community members realize their leadership potential.”

Update: After returning to his hometown, de la Cruz started working as a project manager for the Los Angeles Neighborhood Land Trust, an organization that creates parks and community gardens in underserved neighborhoods that have limited or no access to green space. He has also led an urban agriculture and community gardening workshop for local youth that was promoted by College Track, an organization focused on increasing educational attainment rates in communities of color nationwide.

Originally published July 2017