Partnering with the College of Architecture
Designing Impactful Futures, Together
Our faculty and students collaborate with communities across Nebraska and beyond, engaging in hands-on projects that make a real and positive difference. By connecting the local anywhere to the global everywhere, we empower our students to envision and create a more resilient, healthy, and beautiful world.
How Our Partnerships Work
We welcome exploratory project requests from city governments, municipalities, and nonprofit organizations. These proposals are shared with our faculty and program directors. If a request aligns with our curriculum, fits within our academic calendar, and there is faculty availability, a professor may reach out to discuss next steps.
It’s important to understand that we are not a professional service or order-taking agency. Projects must fit into the academic semester’s teaching plan — and upcoming semesters are often already scheduled with student activities. Unfortunately, time-sensitive projects or those with very tight deadlines may not be feasible.
When selected, our academic partnerships offer community partners creative thinking and fresh perspectives that can help build support, explore possibilities, and inspire new conversations.
If your project isn’t selected, we encourage you to connect with professional architectural and design firms across Nebraska, who are well-qualified to provide comprehensive design services.
Our Academic Programs
We offer professional degree programs in:
- Architecture
- Interior Design
- Landscape Architecture
- Community and Regional Planning
Students in these programs develop essential design and planning skills guided by faculty and real-world projects. Beyond graduation, they also complete supervised professional experience and pass licensing exams to become licensed practitioners.
Project Request Forms
We invite you to submit your project idea by completing a form from one of the following tabs.
Please note:
- Only public agencies (local, regional, state, and federal) and nonprofit organizations are eligible to partner.
- Projects must align with our curriculum and fit within our academic calendar and faculty availability.
- Upcoming semesters may already be planned, so projects with short timelines or urgent deadlines may not be possible.
Architecture Program
At the College of Architecture, we bring together faculty, students, and community partners to address real-world challenges and opportunities across Nebraska and beyond. Through our Design/Build and Community Assist studios, students work side by side with local governments, nonprofits, and community groups to create meaningful, place-based solutions.
Our Design/Build studios guide students through the entire process — from concept to construction — delivering projects that make a visible difference in Nebraska communities. Meanwhile, our Community Assist studios engage in research and design efforts that tackle issues affecting neighborhoods, towns, and cities throughout the state.
Interior Program
Many of our interior design faculty collaborate directly with local stakeholders to explore creative design solutions that address community needs. In addition, our Community Assist studios — taught collaboratively by faculty from architecture and interior design — engage students in research and design initiatives that tackle pressing issues in communities throughout Nebraska.
Landscape Architecture Program
Faculty and students in landscape architecture engage in collaborative partnerships with communities across the state to develop sustainable solutions, advocate for historic preservation, assess landscape performance, and revitalize parks. Through these endeavors, they address critical local, regional, and national priorities, contributing to the enhancement of public spaces and the well-being of communities.
Community and Regional Planning Program
The Community and Regional Planning program engages student teams in community service projects aligned with the university’s land grant missions. These projects encompass various areas, including land use planning, economic and housing planning, as well as environmental and hazard mitigation planning. Through these initiatives, tangible benefits can be directly delivered to communities across Nebraska.