The CRDS brings together educators, scientists, engineers, designers, and students to study and respond to issues affecting Delaware’s coastlines and coastal communities. Students and faculty from the University of Delaware as well as community members and sponsor organizations all contribute to the CRDS’s efforts to research our coast’s biggest issues and work toward practical and sustainable solutions for the future.
Below is a list of the faculty and other collaborators who are based at the University of Delaware who assist in the projects that the CRDS helps with across the state.
Zach Hammaker – Principal
Ed Lewandowski – Principal & Co-Founder
Ben Muldrow – Creative Director
Current CRDS Designers
DJ Bromley UD landscape architecture student
Chris Fettke von Koeckritz UD landscape architecture student
Leigh Muldrow UD landscape architecture student
Ilana Shmukler UD civil engineering student
Ryan McCune UD environmental and civil engineering student
Former CRDS student designers:
Emma Ruggiero UD landscape architecture (’19), Currently UD Plant & Soil Sciences graduate student
Joshua Gainey UD landscape architecture (’20), currently employed at Sposato Landscaping
Mark Switlitski UD civil engineering (’19), currently employed at Dewberry
Olivia Boon UD landscape architecture (’21), currently Penn State MLA graduate student
Shannon Brown UD environmental engineering (’19), currently a graduate student in the geoscience program at the University of North Carolina-Wilmington.
Janelle Skaden UD civil engineering (’19), currently a graduate student in the ocean engineering program at the University of Rhode Island.
Associates:
Anna Wik UD Landscape Architecture Faculty
Tina Callahan Delaware Environmental Monitoring & Analysis Center
Jon Cox UD Art & Design Faculty
Jame McCray Delaware Sea Grant
Catherine Morrissey Center for Historic Architecture & Design
Greg Shelnutt Art & Design
Danielle Swallow Delaware Sea Grant
Jenn Volk UD CANR/Cooperative Extension
Before the internship started, they were asked to complete several pre-reflection questions about their expectations of working in an interdisciplinary team. Here is one reflection by Shannon Brown that encapsulates the value of interdisciplinary work:
“Each discipline has a different skill set and process. I believe sharing these processes will strengthen both parties. Each process was developed to suit each discipline, but when there is collaboration in a project it is important to combine multiple disciplines in a way that highlights the strengths of each. I think combining both the processes and skill sets of landscape architecture and engineering will prove to be very valuable. While the engineer’s point of view is more practical and rigid, the landscape architectural perspective is more fluid and adaptive. I think that there are strengths to both of these viewpoints, but the strongest is the combination. When you combine both of these outlooks, it is like using a decision matrix that weighs feasibility and creativity.” – Shannon Brown, January 11, 2019
