Portfolio
Washington University // Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts // MLA ‘28
HOPE CRANE STATEMENT Over time, I have developed a strong passion for design and caring for the environment, both of which have guided my studies and shaped my goals. Growing up and spending much of my life in Kansas and Missouri, I grew to appreciate that close Midwest connection between natural spaces and human communities. This foundation, along with my education in Interior Architecture and environmental studies, has inspired me to pursue a career focusing on sustainable and meaningful spaces that support both the environment and the people who use them. Within my undergraduate studies at the University of Kansas, I have completed coursework and projects that have expanded my knowledge of environmental justice and design. Some of these projects focus on promoting community welfare and the sharing of local history, through means like preserving building exteriors and highlighting neighborhood art and vendors. This kind of work has shown me the importance of community-focused solutions to build resilience, one of the many reasons why I chose to continue my education through a dual Master of Landscape Architecture and Urban Design. Incorporating concepts of human habits learned through interiors, and the translation of that into landscape design, is an exciting challenge that I hope to tackle throughout my career. I am especially captivated by the concept of nudging human habits to be beneficial on several scales- (turning parking into parks, promoting public/ free landscapes for events with safe spaces for pollinator support, etc.), and in the idea of rehabilitating existing spaces into places for the human community (with the environments and ecosystems alongside them). While I may not be pursuing building architecture, I like to say I’m interested in the manipulation of everything but the facade! A shell is important, but the guts and soul are too. I am eager to learn, collaborate, and grow as I pursue a career aligned with my values and aspirations.
Watson Library Pencil Sketch
RESUME CONTACT chope@wustl.edu hopeacrane@gmail.com 636.591.4884
EDUCATION Washington University St.Louis [current] Master of Landscape Architecture Master of Urban Design Projected Graduation: December 2028 3.8 GPA University of Kansas [2021-2025] Bachelor of Science in Interior Architecture Minor in Environmental Studies 3.7 GPA
PROFICIENCIES Photoshop Illustrator InDesign Revit Rhino ArcGIS Pro Twinmotion D5 Enscape Microsoft Office 3D Printing Laser Cutting CNC Milling Drone Operation [FAA Part 107 Certified]
AWARDS/ ACTIVITIES APPROACH Nominee 2025-2026 [Sam Fox] Graduate School of Architecture and Urban Design Scholarship KU Health and Wellness Student Design Competition Award Recipient Donald Eward Memorial Scholarship Recipient ASID Portfolio Competition 2025 Semi-Finalist KU Honor Roll 2024 KU Honor Roll 2023 KU Panhellenic Scholar of the Month 2022 KU Honor Roll 2022 KU Honor Roll 2021 IIDA Member ASID Member ASLA Member
EXPERIENCE Internship|Lamar Johnson Collaborative [Current] Planning and Landscape- Ongoing Summer full-time Internship position into academic year part-time position Fabrication Lab Monitor [current] Staff support for digital fabrication at the Sam Fox School of Design and Visual Arts, including 3D printing, laser cutting, and CNC milling Internship|Lamar Johnson Collaborative [Summer 2025] Interior Design Full-Time Internship position, exploring workplace and public projects. Teaching Assistant [Spring 2025] Instruction and evaluation of student work for ARCH215: Professional Communications (University of Kansas) KU Scholarworks/ ResearchGate Publication [Fall 2024] Performed group coursework providing community resilience research, threat and hazard assessments, and opportunity analysis for Overland Park, Kansas KU Search Committee Member [Spring 2025] Student representative on the Interior Architecture Professor of Practice search committee Internship|Cannon Design [Summer-Fall 2024] Gained experience assisting on projects, learning company-wide strategies, and collaborating in a firm environment KU Print Lab Monitor [Fall 2023-Spring 2024] Maintain lab and printer equipment whilst assisting students and assessing inventory Rock Chalk Revue Set Design [Spring 2024] Creative Director for design and construction of a musical theatre set for a non-profit organization Study Abroad Program [Summer 2023] [University of Kansas Arc/D] Spain, Morocco, Portugal President Banner Committee [2022-2023] Created original banner designs for Kappa Alpha Theta while managing equipment and budgeting with the chapter Kappa Alpha Theta- Member [2021-2025] Average of 10 service hours/ semester with the local community in Douglas County, KS ii
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TSBPP’S
Landscape Architecture Design Studio 01
THE MLK EXCHANGE
Landscape Architecture Design Studio 02
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15-28
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29-32
MISCELLANEOUS Off-Hours
TABLE OF CONTENTS
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1 TREEWAY STREET BAS Landscape Architecture Design Studio I Instructor Semester Project Programs
: Seth Denizen : Fall : Individual : ArcGIS Pro, Rhino, Adobe CC
SIN PARKING PARKS Wells-Goodfellow Neighborhood North St.Louis
CONCEPT St. Louis operates within a continental climate, bringing intense summer heat, severe winter conditions, flash flooding, and increasingly powerful storm events (recently, even an EF-3 tornado). These impacts are especially visible in North St. Louis neighborhoods such as Wells-Goodfellow, where aging combined sewer systems and limited tree canopy have created ongoing environmental and public health challenges. In 2007, the State of Missouri and the U.S. EPA filed a lawsuit against the City of St. Louis due to frequent combined sewer overflows discharging untreated wastewater into the Mississippi River. One of the first major projects developed under this mandate was the Harlem–Baden Basin, a 50-acre stormwater retention facility constructed within the WellsGoodfellow neighborhood. Its construction demolished approximately 55 homes and relocated residents in a historically Black community.
Parking Park Concept Render
Rather than treating stormwater infrastructure as a hidden or fenced-off utility, this proposed project treats it as an everyday part of neighborhood life, as something residents can walk through, gather around, and benefit from beyond its hydrological function. Emphasized by local community members was the need for trees, shade, beauty, and spaces for informal recreation- elements that were largely absent from the existing basin. 2
Project Background LEGEND
CSO Output Locations (Into Mississippi River)
Geological Time Prior to the 19th Century
0
1
2
4 MI.
Contemporary Time (Light Rainstorm)
Wastewater Treatment Plants (Bissel Point and Lemay) CSO Event (Heavy Rainstorm, Overwhelms System)
Analyzing Old And Complex Sewer Systems In St.louis Image Courtesy Of Washington University Landscape Architecture Studio 1 Class Of 2028 Lines Represent Water Paths Through the St.louis Sewershed
In 2007, the State of Missouri and the U.S. EPA filed a lawsuit against the City of St. Louis due to frequent combined sewer overflows discharging untreated wastewater into the Mississippi River (contaminating drinking water for neighboring states south of Missouri). The resulting 2011 consent decree required the city to invest at least $6 billion over 28 years to address stormwater and sewer issues, with much of the cost passed on to residents through higher utility bills. The city’s response has relied on a mix of grey and green infrastructure, including large retention basins designed to collect and control excess rainfall. One of the first major projects developed under this mandate was the Harlem– Baden Basin, a 50-acre stormwater retention facility constructed within the Wells-Goodfellow neighborhood. Its construction demolished approximately 55 homes and relocated residents in a historically Black community. A multi-year community engagement process was intended to explore how the basin could become an ecological and social asset for the neighborhood- however, the completed project is fenced off, visually imposing, and inaccessible to the public, functioning solely to hold and disperse rainfall rather than existing as a shared space.
TIMELINE OF THE HARLEM-BADEN BASIN
Existing Lots Within Basin Outline
Wells Goodfellow/ Harlem Baden Basin Left: 2003 Right:2017
To investigate how climate infrastructure is planned and experienced at the neighborhood scale, research included review of documented community perspectives. Andrew Hurley, a local historian with the University of Missouri St.Louis, completed community outreach in Wells-Goodfellow about 10 years ago. Hurley has provided accounts from his interviews with residents of the area through his Wells-Goodfellow Place Stories Exercise series:
“These basins are obviously a necessary evil. They stand out but they are necessary. I knew one person that used to work with my sister, and her house was on the corner of Ashland and Arlington and her little house was always flooding and I guess I know it was necessary that they did this. But it is still ugly, no matter what they do with it.” --Douglas Helm “I know that we need trees. We need them to cool us down. We need them for oxygen. So why don't we have them in our community? They should be on every block, every major street.” --Joyce Parks “We used to play ball in the back alleys, in the alley and out here in the street, we would play. The parents would come out, and, you know, watch the kids and everything, and referee and everything. We had fun…good clean fun.” --Annetta Archibald 4
Project Analysis Wells-Goodfellow sits within a broader North St. Louis context shaped by redlining, population loss, and uneven public investment. Vacant land is common, yet development pressure remains low, creating a fragile balance between opportunity and further displacement. In this setting, large infrastructure projects carry added weight- not just in how they perform, but in what they take away and what they leave behind.
The Harlem-Baden Basin, while addressing regulatory requirements, occupies land that once supported homes and community life. Its fenced condition limits public use and reinforces the idea that infrastructure is something done to a neighborhood, rather than built with it. For residents who are also paying increased utility costs to fund these projects, this disconnect is especially significant.
*Model Courtesy Of Washington University Landscape Architecture Studio 1 Class Of 2028*
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Testing Alternative Streetways
If climate resilience has been an issue in WellsGoodfellow for decades, why has the response resulted in displacement and exclusion rather than neighborhood investment, especially considering the amount of money required to address these issues by the EPA? This project, alongside the research to develop the design, challenges the idea that resilience infrastructure must be centralized and removed from everyday life. Instead, it explores how stormwater management, cooling strategies, and public space could be embedded directly into the neighborhood fabric without requiring the loss of homes or future development opportunities. Consistently full of combined sewer pipes, the residential area of Wells-Goodfellow lies at the lower portion of the Harlem-Baden basin watershed- where overflows would prove to negatively impact resident health. This area substantiates need for widespread green infrastructure. By working within existing streetways, which can often be the largest and most overlooked public spaces in disinvested neighborhoods, the design avoids demolition of existing residences. Shown is an existing site on Wabada Avenue, in the residential area of the Wells-Goodfellow neighborhood. The streetways are vast, wide (52’), currently unshaded, and public, proving that design work holds the potential to improve public community space.
EXISTING SITE 5390 WABADA AVE- 5391 WABADA AVE 38.671135, -90.267740
EXISTING SITE
EXISTING 5390 WABADA AVE-5391 WABADA AVE SITE 5390 WABADA AVE-5391 WABADA AVE
38.671135, -90.267740
38.671135, -90.267740
52’
*Model Courtesy Of Washington University Landscape Architecture Studio 1 Class Of 2028*
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Testing Alternative Streetways
AXONOMETR EXISTING SITE 5390 WABADA AVE- 5391 WABADA AVE 38.671135, -90.267740
KEY
ITERATION 1
TREEWAY LANES wider area provides more potential for seating and recreation, but takes away basin area
PROPOSED TREES BUILDINGS EXISTING TREES TREE FALL DIST. RADIUS
BASIN LANES wider area stores more water, but lessens trees for shading
ITERATION 2
ITERATION 4 selected to move forward due to its even shading and significant introduced green space/ water retention ITERATION 3
Streets are reframed as social and environmental assets rather than solely as corridors for cars. The proposed design introduces a distributed approach to resilience that responds to multiple challenges at once. Stormwater is managed through a network of smaller basins integrated into one-way street sections, while continuous tree canopy provides shade and reduces heat stress. Understory trees are selected to minimize risk during severe wind events, reflecting lessons learned from recent tornado damage. Multiple streetway iterations are considered within the existing 52’ width, shown in the table to the right. Removing on-street parking creates a major design challenge, especially in a neighborhood where residents often rely on cars for daily travel, (disinvestment in the area leads to less workplaces within the neighborhood, forcing residents to commute to work and beyond). This led to the development of Parking Parks, located on vacant parcels within a three-minute walk of nearby homes.
ITERATION 4
RIC
PLAN
BASIN LANES
TREEWAY LANES
1285 ft³
3788 ft³
2115 ft³
2841 ft³
615 ft³
3892 ft³
1500 ft³
1898 ft³
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Parking Park Site Selection
KEY LRA LOTS EXISTING BUILDINGS 3 MINUTE WALKING DISTANCE RADIUS 45 HOUSE MIN. Within 3 Minute Walking Radius
Upon analysis of LRA lots within the WellsGoodfellow neighborhood, this house- to- lot ratio diagram shows that certain lots of the neighborhood have a higher residency volume within a 3 minute walking radius. This informs the site selection process by confirming that these spaces will be supporting the highest percentage of people. With high chances of harsh weather conditions year round, this plan keeps parking within a 3 minute walking distance maximum from lot to residence. In the book Pedestrian Planning and Design, by John J. Fruin, PhD, Fruin asserts that “there are indications that the tolerable limit of human walking distance is more situation related than energy related”. The tolerable walking distance for a given design situation is related to such factors as the trip purpose of the individual, the available time, and the walking environment- meaning that the street design and parking parks must make the trip from car to doorway enjoyable for residents. Within the Wells Goodfellow area, there are 6653 existing buildings, with about 5% of those already having detatched garages. If this is taken into account, and the masterplan utilizes about 25% of potential lots for parking parks, this leaves the other 75% for future development. There are 2357 residences within the watershed boundary. With a proposal of 234 parking parks in these locations, that would mean the parking parks must support an average of 10 parking spots per lot.
Within 3 Minut
OVERLAY- RESIDENCE DENSITY Within 3 Minute Walking Radius
PROPOSED LOTS FOR PARKING PARK USE RESIDENCES 6653
VACANT/ POTENTIAL LOTS
2397
KEY LOTS UTILIZED FOR PARKING PARKS
RESIDENCES WITH SEPARATED GARAGES
632
332
LRA LOTS
3 MINUTE WALKING DISTANCE RADIUS
60 HOUSE MIN. te Walking Radius
75 HOUSE MIN. Within 3 Minute Walking Radius
105 HOUSE MIN. Within 3 Minute Walking Radius
90 HOUSE MIN. Within 3 Minute Walking Radius
Existing Basin Location
WATERSHED BOUNDARY
PROPOSED PARKING PARKS Within Basin Watershed 0.2 MI
0.4 MI
0.6 MI
0.8 MI
1 MI
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Parking Park Site Example
20 FT
40 FT
60 FT
80 FT
5390 WABADA AVE- 5391 WABADA AVE
38.671135, -90.267740
Because the goal is to support just 10 cars per lot, the design offers amenities and parking. This chosen example is shown to represent a corner lot- which is preferred due to its proximity to two parts of basin streetways.
KEY SITE BUILDINGS PARKING PARK LOCATIONS WALKING DIST. RADIUS
PROJECT GOALS Using Land Reutilization Authority data, lots were selected to serve the highest number of residents while preserving most vacant land for future development. Each Parking Park balances space for approximately ten vehicles with seating, paths, and shaded gathering areas. This project demonstrates how climate infrastructure can be designed by manipulating existing public infrastructure to manage water, offer public accessibility, cooling opportunities, and enhance neighborhood aesthetics to promote the growth of the neighborhood, rather than the existing form of one large hydrological, singular-functioning project that further diminishes a disinvested community.
STREETWAYS (PROPOSED)
PARKING PARKS (PROPOSED)
HARLEM BADEN BASIN (EXISTING) WATER MANAGEMENT PUBLIC ACCESS
COOLING STRATEGIES AESTHETICS
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2 THE MLK EXCHANGE Landscape Architecture Design Studio II Instructor Semester Project Programs Community Partners
: Alexandra Mei : Spring : Individual : ArcGIS Pro, Rhino, Grasshopper, Adobe CC, Physical Modeling : 4TheVille (see more at https://www.4theville.org/)
The Ville Neighborhood North St.Louis
CONCEPT The Ville is a historic African American neighborhood in St. Louis with a profound legacy: between roughly 1870 and 1970, it became an epicenter for Black excellence. Anchored by institutions like Sumner High School, Homer G. Phillips Hospital, Stowe Teachers College, and Poro College, the neighborhood supported generations of educators, health professionals, entrepreneurs, and artists, many of whom became nationally and internationally famous for their individual achievements. The Ville emerged as a cultural center in large part because restrictive racial covenants and city-led redlining confined Black residents to limited areas of the city. As a byproduct, this concentrated investment, talent, and community life within this small neighborhood. Within its relatively small footprint- (less than half a square mile)- The Ville offered a remarkably dense public realm built around learning, culture, community, and care. Over time, like much of the rest of North St.Louis, the Ville has faced drastic disinvestment. In recent years, 4theVille — a cultural heritage development organization founded by residents — has spearheaded a deliberate revitalization of The Ville. This work is deeply rooted in community voice and historical stewardship, reflecting the neighborhood’s past while imagining what a 21st-century Black cultural center can look like. Streetscape Intervention Concept Render
The main question this project aims to tackle is: “How can the public realm become a catalyst for economic, cultural, and ecological growth?” 16
Project Background Locally, one of the reasons for the lack of people in the area is the misconception of danger. Disinvestment and disinterest to the area causes a lack of people filling the area. In order to bring people to this neighborhood, people need to have a reason to use the street and have eyes upon it.
“If a city’s streets look interesting, the ci interesting. If the city’s streets look dull, dull.” (Jane Jacobs, Death and Life of the Grea
Design intervention area along the Cultural Corridor With historic and organizational anchors
^
ity looks , the city looks at American City)
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Project Analysis PUBLIC PROGRAMMING
LOCAL CONSIDERATIONS
The design result of these considerations is a convertible streetscape that operates as an improved vehicular roadway during daily conditions but can be safely and efficiently transformed into pedestrian priority event space. Flexible framework allows farmers markets, art fairs, neighborhood festivals, and more as a foundation for recurring community programming, and traffic calming measures create new opportunities for community wealth building and social connection.
-existing anchor of tourism in the neighborhood because of 4 infrastructure for the Trap Run holding 750 visitors in 2025 =e to 750 people, with references to this existing anchor
Historic sites in the Heart of the Ville
-long abatement timelines to incentivize development and gr encourage permanent storefront setup for compassion
-45% of Ville residents don’t own access to a car =improved along the corridor to support non-vehicular (or public)
Annie Malone Home
Homer G. Phillips Senior Center
Photos taken from tour of the Ville with Aaron Williams
Homer G. Phillips Snr. Ctr. Sumner H.S.
Annie Malone Home
Marshall School (Former)
Site 2 Site 1 Gray areas= 4TheVille Design Interventions White areas= Surrounding neighborhood context
MLK Dr. Site 3
4TheVille, with the existing event size to support up
rowth =infrastructure to nate capital
d pedestrian conditions ) transportation
-existing successful public events in St.Louis: Jazz Crawl on Cherokee, Food Truck nights, Tower Grove and Soulard Farmers Markets, even local school events like Fox Fridays =public programming can become the incentive for cultural development -sense of a neighborhood niche in St.Louis: like The Grove, with its neon overhead signs, or The Loop with its trolley lines and human scale downtown building strip = emphasis of a visual graphic language to draw people in, across their typical neighborhood lines
Sumner High School
Each plaza for event space was chosen because of its adjacency to MLK and existing as an LRA or LCRA lot. The pocket resides in the central corridor on MLK that resides between the heart of the Ville and the educational nodes North and South. The design intervention area acts as a connector between North neighborhoods like OFallon, South neighborhoods like Vandeventer, and a central node to MLK BLVD itself acting as a catalyst for expansion of growth down MLK.
5’ Contour intervals
Perspective down MLK Dr. 4TheVille Site Model Commission *Model Courtesy Of Washington University Landscape Architecture Studio 12Class Of 2028* 20
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FOUNDATI
THE 5 PILLARS Using a collective impact model, 4theVille’s Cultural Blvd Project cultivates a range of disciplines through collaboration to develop better ideas and holistic impact. They use these Five Pillars to guide and make the process accessible and relatable to all those involved and impacted. The vertical pillars and the horizontal ground patterning pair directly with one another, offering a wayfinding element for potential community events (Farmers market could always associate with the foundation pillar, or the art fair could advertise yellow coloring directing people to the yellow symbols). Each pillar also has an associated gate system, able to block off the street within these 5 “chunks” of streetway- so you can close off the road just from North Newstead to Billups, or all the way to Whittier, or anywhere in between- with traffic easily able to reroute around it because of the neighboring Aldine and Cozens Avenues. This playfulness is important, because there is a ”Need for stimulation in an increasingly monotonous landscape” (after the development of highways, suburbs, etc.) (Jan Gehl, Life between buildings)
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DESIGN OVERVIEW
MA LO N
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*Icons and branding developed by Anna Karpinski and Aaron Williams
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*Icons and branding developed by Anna Karpinski and Aaron Williams 22 6
Site Plans The edge of vehicular and pedestrian ‘zones’ is bllurred by emphasis of an undulating edge between pedestrian, roadway, and plaza space. The form also nods to the geometry of the ground patterning and pillars and brings an organic meandering of pathways for pedestrian enjoyement. Furthermore, walking distance is perceived as shorter if perceived in stages rather than a single stretch.
SITE 1
SITE 2
Ranken Plaza
Farmers Market Plaza
Mt. Sinai Baptist Church
Custom BLVD sculpture
Marshall School (Former)
Most private plaza with separated road access
Looped circulation for showcase events
Shaded seating opportunities Central speaking platform
Foundation Pillar/gateway Custom planter bench /bollards Undulating lanes blur lines between plaza and roadway
Great Commission Lutheran Church
Custom geometric bollards
Most public abundant o
525’
100 People
515’
520’
750 People
Planting Legend
Trees+Shrubs
Groundcover
Structural
SITE 3 Art Fair Plaza Jadens Diner
Culture Pillar/ gateway Semi public plaza with some openings to streetway
Section B
Section A Secondary “meander paths”
Geometric planter benches Permeable paver patterning
Community Pillar/ gateway
Geometric planting drifts
Shaded central pocket
c plaza with openings to streetway 505’
500’
EVENT CAPACITY
300 People
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Sections The connection to the streetscape is important, and signifies through design that public space is just as essential as private space in a neighborhood. By creating a concept where the road is on the same plane as the sidewalks, it would feel unusual to a car that previously had double lanes and an elevation change with the curb. Now, transport by foot, by bike, car, and bus are literally on the same playing field.
SECTION A
Site 2Daily Conditions
Site 2Event Conditions
SITE 2 Farmers Market Plaza
A variety of plantings are chosen by colors, textures, and bloom times. The design creates a buzz/energy, mirroring the geometric patterning on the streetscape in event space areas. Plantings are in geometric drifts along the back of plaza spaces (more private), with shorter plantings along pathway edges, and taller grasses in the middle, structurally supporting one another. Shade is emphasized, but there are full sun areas for prairie plantings. Many of these planting choices support wildlife- with events like farmers markets; opportunity for pollinator educational pieces exists. “Meander walks” encourage people to slow down, enjoy, and connect with these plantings.
SECTION B
Site 3Daily Conditions
Site 3Event Conditions
SITE 3 Art Fair Plaza
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Renders Conceptual Event Posters With Pillar Locations/Colors
How can the public realm become a catalyst for economic, cultural, and ecological growth? CULTURE Public events are supported by the design, bringing people together, sharing ideas, and giving people a reason to cross their ‘neighborhood lines’ and come into the Ville. The unique branding offers a visual language that emphasizes the energy and zeal of the cultural boulevard, and the hopes and dreams 4theVille. ECONOMY By supporting events that cast a wide net for local vendors, people who find success at these farmers markets or art fairs may be encouraged to set up a permanent storefront, offering a solution to “compassionate capital” that would have a reason to give back to the community. ECOLOGY Taking underserved and underutilized ecologically dead LRA/LCRA lots (with either asphalt or fully turf lawn on their ground) and strategically offering natives/ pollinator support plants brings life (literally) back into the area. The street becomes more pedestrian friendly, lessening vehicle dependency.
Plaza 3- Art Fair Event Render
Plaza 2- Farmers Market Event Render
Plaza 1- Technical Showcase Event Render
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3 MISCELLANEOUS Personal Work Time Project Materials
: Ongoing : Individual : Watercolor, Marker, Pencil, Pen
Time Change Series Brookings Hall | Marker
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Spain, Morocco, Portugal Public Spaces
Studies abroad exploring the design world of Spain, Morocco, and Portugal offered many opportunities to investigate the intricacies and detail of tiling, archways, courtyards, and more in the Eastern Hemisphere. Here is a digitally composed collection of hand sketches from time spent exploring these places.
Study Abroad Sketches Digital Compilation 32
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Interior Architecture Portfolio
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