Placemaking
In 2013 Krista helped found the Downtown Hazleton Alliance for Progress (DHAP), a diverse 501c3 nonprofit coalition of city officials, community and economic development organizations, educational institutions, business owners, and volunteers. As Executive Director she led the strategic planning, fundraising and implementation of more than $6M worth of investment designed to revitalize the downtown as an Arts & Innovation District. These partnership initiatives resulted in 165 new net businesses (more than half Hispanic-owned), more than 340 net new jobs, 300,000 square feet of renovated property, and $30 million worth of leveraged private investment. The downtown district was awarded Pennsylvania and National Main Street Program designation (2016-2021).
Hazleton Arts & Innovation District
Working closely with partners, Krista spearheaded the acquisition, rehabilitation, and adaptive reuse of the historic Security Savings Bank and adjacent vacant parcel as anchors of Hazleton's emerging Arts & Innovation District.
Photo by Joe Pecora.
CAN DO Community Park. Led $1.5 million redevelopment of a vacant lot into a new 1/2-acre civic space for community gathering and special events.
Hayden Family Center for the Arts. Led $2.5 million rehabilitation of historic (ca. 1909) bank for adaptive reuse as a new 12,000 SF community multicultural art center.
Penn State Hazleton LaunchBox. Led $1 million rehabilitation of blighted 5,000 sq. ft. building for reuse as a new business incubator and co-working space.
The HUB Welcome Center. Led $100K renovation of a 600 sq. ft. retail space that functions as a welcome center with an interactive mural and a pop-up retail shop.
St. Paul's United Methodist Church. Coordinated acquisition of the ca. 1899 church and rectory, a Preservation PA endangered property, for rehabilitation and adaptive reuse.
Facade Rehabilitation Program. Administered $160K in grant funding to support the renovation of 20 properties, leveraging more than $500K of private investment.
Innovation and Entrepreneurship
Throughout her career, Krista has led the strategic planning, fundraising, and implementation of education programs and capital improvements designed to address the socioeconomic and cultural needs of her community and the broader Northeastern Pennsylvania region. Many projects have focused on advancing innovative technologies and developing entrepreneurship opportunities for youth and new Americans.
Hazleton Kitchen Incubator
As Executive Director of the Downtown Hazleton Alliance for Progress, Krista led the planning and development of the Hazleton Kitchen. This culinary incubator gives food entrepreneurs a low-risk opportunity to start small, test, develop, and scale without the cost of equipping, and maintaining their own commercially licensed facility.
Teen Entrepreneurship Challenge. Launched a pitch competition for high school students in partnership with Penn State Hazleton. The program is now offered for dual enrollment.
Butler Township Community Garden. Led development of a 1.3-acre community garden and Growing Markets Internship Program for community-supported ag-entrepreneurship.
Leadership on the Rise. Led development of an education program designed to enhance the leadership skills of Hazleton's immigrant business community.
University Engagement and Public Scholarship. Assisted tech startups connect with Penn State faculty and students to advance research commercialization and experiential learning.
Pennsylvania Industrial Hemp Engine. Secured a $1M NSF Regional Innovation Engine Development Grant and served as project manager during the Engine's launch phase.
Energy & Environment. Provided technical assistance to dozens of small and medium-size Pennsylvania manufacturers to help decarbonize building operations.
cultural landscape preservation & planning
In her role as a private consultant, Krista worked with communities, non-profit organizations, and state and federal agencies to plan for the preservation and interpretation of historically significant cultural landscapes throughout the U.S. This includes city-wide park systems, National Heritage Areas, national parks, historic sites and districts, battlefields, campuses, vernacular and designed landscapes, and neighborhoods.
Sangre de Cristo National Heritage Area Management Plan
As principal of Heritage Strategies, Krista helped develop a coordinated vision and action strategy for the heritage area's resource conservation, recreation, preservation, interpretation, tourism, and organizational governance.
Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad National Historical Park. Cultural Landscape Assessment led by JMA, in support of the National Park Service's Special Resource Study.
City in a Park. City of Niagara Fall Citywide Parks Master Plan, with Berman Associates. Recipient of the 2014 ASLA NY Upstate Chapter, Planning & Analysis Honor Award.
Abraham Lincoln National Heritage Area. Management Plan, led by Heritage Strategies. Provided guidance to the Looking for Lincoln Heritage Coalition for NHA management.
teaching & scholarship
Believing that engagement with the local community is essential to student learning, Krista's teaching philosophy is grounded in critical geography and critical proximity. This approach understands placemaking as dialectical and relational--influenced by power-laden processes through which place identities are negotiated and iteratively constructed. By exploring complex, real-world problems within a cultural construct, students learn to value local knowledge, respect competing ideologies, view the landscape as a material product of those ideologies, and contemplate concepts of social and spatial justice.
HUD Innovation in Affordable Housing Student Design & Planning Competition
Krista led an interdisciplinary team of Penn State graduate students to enter the annual 2024 U.S. Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Innovation in Affordable Housing Student Design and Planning Competition, which partnered with Madison, Wisconsin. The team was awarded an Honorable Mention.
Negotiating the Image of the Inner Bluegrass. Independent research concerning the preservation of Lexington's African American hamlets. Published in Landscape Journal 26:1 (2007).
Nelson County Rural Design Guidelines, Nelson County, Kentucky. University of Kentucky, Department of Landscape Architecture. 5th year community planning & design studio.
Legacy Plan: A Vision for the Future of Mercer County, Kentucky. University of Kentucky, Department of Landscape Architecture. 5th year community planning & design studio.