Architecture Commons^™

Future Of The Library? Turning Conflicting Pressures Into Compelling Opportunities, Gerald Jay Schafer, Dugdale Strategy Llc, Ludmilla Pavlova-Gillham

Campus Planning Community and Conference Presentations

Many institutions are scrutinizing library space as a potential space bank in times of tight capital resources, while librarians are seeking ways to shift lesser-used collections into storage, create more user space, and improve services. Accomplishing these tasks at University of Massachusetts Amherst's Du Bois Library, a 26-story tower, posed a particular challenge. The library's master plan needed to explore compatible uses, partners for integrated services, and identify opportunities to repurpose space for university needs as well as the library's future vision.

Community Restoration: Reconciling The Legacy Of Contaminated Sites Within Our Communities, Kristofer H. Kennedy

Masters Theses 1911 - February 2014

Separation, removal, and relocation are the initial steps in the “clean-up” of a contaminated site. While crucial to safeguarding the public health of adjacent communities and the surrounding environment, conventional remediation is subtractive from the community leaving many psychological wounds untreated. Architecture has the greatest potential to address the social concerns which contribute to the complexities of redeveloping a contaminated site.

Focusing on the 52 acre former General Electric Brownfield site in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, I have explored through design alternative approaches for the redevelopment of contaminated sites. My design research focuses on the ways in which architecture can be used …

Situated Architecture In The Digital Age: Adaptation Of A Textile Mill In Holyoke, Massachusetts, Dorcas A. Brooks

Masters Theses 1911 - February 2014

The City of Holyoke, Massachusetts is one of many aging, industrial cities striving to revitalize its economy based on the promise of increased digital connectivity and clean energy resources. But how do you renovate 19th century mills to meet the demands of the information age? This architectural study explores the potential impact of sensing technologies and information networks on the definition and function of buildings in the 21st century. It explores the changes that have taken place in industrial architecture since 1850 and argues for an architecture that supports local relationships and environmental awareness. The author explores the industrial history …

The Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway: Making The Vision A Reality, Alec E. Zebrowski

Masters Theses 1911 - February 2014

The $15+ Billion "Big Dig", replaced Boston's deteriorating six-lane elevated Central Artery, known as the Green monster, with a widened highway tunnel running underground through Downtown Boston and crossing the Charles River, creating more than 27 acres of new land area for reuse in Downtown Boston.

Today, a significant portion of the land has been turned into a system of parks known as the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway. Since its completion in 2008, five civic and recreational developments planned for the Greenway have been abandoned due to poor funding, rising construction estimates, and a general lack of support. Disconnected, under-programmed …

Language Movement Museum And Library, Dhaka, Bangladesh, Mohammad J. Shahadat

Masters Theses 1911 - February 2014

The project aims to restore the cultural and historical richness of Bengali nation in urban scale and preserve the historical site of the area which contains some glorious memories of our Language Movement. To pass the history to new generation and to establish our cultural richness, a Language Movement Museum and a Library are proposed to be designed in the Shaheed Minar (Martyr Monument) Complex in Dhaka, Bangladesh. This museum and library will represent the movement of 21 February, 1952 that depicts our love for the mother tongue which is an unprecedented event for the whole world.

Revitalizing Mumbai Textile Mill Lands For The City, Vinay Surve

Masters Theses 1911 - February 2014

Cities are always in transition and so the city’s Architecture should respond to it. Transition brings opportunities of growth, expansion, improvement in social and urban fabric along with new development strategies. My thesis explores the current trend of textile mills development in the heart of the city of Mumbai, its drawbacks and proposes a development plan for a mill premise for the benefit of the city. It is an attempt to preserve the city’s old fabric, which at one time was a city in itself and merge its fabric with the new development in a cohesive manner.

I was looking …