2026 LEWISTON-AUBURN CHALLENGE

How can the two riverfront Maine cities of Lewiston and Auburn build climate resilience through their shared histories, landscapes and infrastructure?

Beginning in August 2026 and continuing through spring 2027, five university teams of graduate and undergraduate students representing architecture, landscape architecture, urban planning and design, and environmental design will work alongside municipal departments, residents and local organizations to develop design proposals that respond to the climate challenges facing Lewiston and Auburn, Maine.

University Teams

  • Northeastern University College of Arts, Media and Design led by Sara Carr

  • University of Massachusetts Amherst Department of Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning led by Samantha Solano

  • University of Florida College of Design, Construction and Planning led by Aishwarya Shankar

  • Rhode Island School of Design led by Elizabeth Dean Hermann, Jonathan Bell, and Surella Segu

  • Carnegie Mellon University School of Architecture led by Christine Mondor

Situated along the Androscoggin River in central Maine, the cities of Lewiston and Auburn are two distinct, parallel urban centers shaped by a shared geography, a common industrial past, and an increasingly interdependent future. The river connects them physically and historically, yet the cities have developed different identities, development patterns and relationships to growth, investment and change. The Envision Resilience Challenge embraces this condition not as a problem to be solved, but as an opportunity to explore how shared systems—water, land, housing, infrastructure and public space—might support two thriving cities with their own identities and a more resilient collective future.

Together, these sites invite students to engage technical, ecological and social systems simultaneously, and to consider integrated design strategies that respond to the lived realities of Lewiston and Auburn while envisioning more resilient futures.

The 2026 Lewiston-Auburn Challenge marks Envision Resilience’s sixth year of programming and its third consecutive year partnering with communities in Maine, building on previous Challenges in Portland, South Portland, Bath, and Harpswell. Learn more here.