Architecture Commons^™

Transforming Downtown Springfield: The Green And Equitable City Of Tomorrow, Frank Sleegers, Abriana Brown, Ella Cormier, Benjamin Devos, Matheus Gomes, Justin Hailey, Stuart Han, Ming Huang, Nan Jiang, Joshua Lemieux, Rachel Newman, Zachary Numan, Makenna Palzkill, Carter Roy, Hannah Welsh

Landscape Architecture & Regional Planning Studio and Student Research and Creative Activity

Transforming Downtown Springfield, MA: The Green and Equitable City of Tomorrow

This urban design studio is a community service project that developed visions for the downtown in Springfield, MA, as a revitalized mixed-use walkable neighborhood. The project emphasizes neighborhood connectivity through walking and biking and creating a green mosaic of places to sit and gather outdoors. We understand cities as active, vibrant, and inclusive places that are accessible and inviting to all. The project covers 7 team projects from Dwight Street down to the Connecticut River.

Main Project Goal:

Create visions for a green downtown district and ways to foster …

A Framework For Performance-Based Facade Design: Approach For Automated And Multi-Objective Simulation And Optimization, Mahsa Minaei

Doctoral Dissertations

Buildings have a considerable impact on the environment, and it is crucial to consider environmental and energy performance in building design. Buildings account for about 40% of the global energy consumption and contribute over 30% of the CO2 emissions. A large proportion of this energy is used for meeting occupants’ thermal comfort in buildings, followed by lighting. The building facade forms a barrier between the exterior and interior environments; therefore, it has a crucial role in improving energy efficiency and building performance. In this regard, decision-makers are required to establish an optimal solution, considering multi-objective problems that are usually competitive …

Understanding Agrihoods: An Exploration Into The Growing Trend Of Farm-To-Table Communities Across The United States, Benjamin Breger

Masters Theses

Agrihoods are a recent trend in real estate development that integrate agricultural amenities - such as working farms, orchards, or community gardens - into residential or mixed-use communities. As an emergent trend, agrihoods have the potential to enhance farmland preservation and local and regional food systems, making them a ripe area for research. However, very little scholarly research has been carried out to characterize, contextualize or evaluate agrihood developments. Thus far, the development model has primarily been detailed in popular media sources. This thesis serves as a baseline study that seeks to understand how neighborhood food systems operate within agrihood …

Multimodal Transit And A New Civic Architecture, Samuel Bruce Hill

Masters Theses

We live in an age defined by the automobile and its infrastructure. This paradigm of movement has shaped how we live our lives, and the urban frameworks we inhabit. Cars as a form of transportation damage the environment and engender unsustainable lifestyles. They also create anti-social spaces with the infrastructure they require, and therefore their success is inverse to that of the pedestrian experience.

I seek to adapt this transit paradigm with a more flexible and resilient multimodal system. My work focuses on reinvigorating a rail line in central Massachusetts and designing a modular station system that can serve as …

Healthy Placemaking - Revitalizing Springfield's Medical District, Allyson Fairweather, Michael Gagnon, Tianyi Guan, James Mealey, Gwendolyn Stoll, Peter Wackernagel

Landscape Architecture & Regional Planning Studio and Student Research and Creative Activity

Healthy Placemaking - Revitalizing Springfield’s Medical District

Healthy Placemaking for the North End Medical District was a community engagement urban design studio for Springfield, MA to propose a new vision for the Medical District as an exemplary model of healthy place-making. WHAT IS HEALTHY PLACE-MAKING? Healthy place-making is a creative process that generates an interconnected mixture of amenities that activate the public realm, creating a livelihood that builds upon sense of place. Urban design strategies consider the ecological relationship between people and the environment in order to provide design interventions that improve the mental, physical, social, and economic wellbeing of …

Springfield's Legacy: A Vision For A Transformative Transit-Oriented Union Station District, Keith Benoit, Nigel Cummings, Caitlan Davis, Kinjal Desai, Marcos Gonzalez, Jiaqi Guo, Anna Kellerman, Olivia Ashjian James, Bryce Lloyd-Hahn, Stephen Mccusker, Chris Ramage, Jessica Schottanes

Landscape Architecture & Regional Planning Studio and Student Research and Creative Activity

This urban design studio developed concepts around equitable transportation Union Station in Springfield, Massachusetts. The work creates a vision for the Union Station District, a revitalized mixed-use walkable neighborhood adjacent to the restored transportation center. It emphasizes reusing the city’s historic street grid in new, forward thinking ways that enhance neighborhood connectivity. The plan creates physical and social networks that bring together diverse groups of residents and visitors. The Union Station District will be a place that offers a range of non-automobile transportation options to residents and visitors and will help transforming an area characterized by vacant lots and empty …

Knitting Together Communities - Designing The Heart Of Six Corners And Old Hill, Samantha Bowman, Ankur Choudhary, Alexandria Connell, Megan Davey, Katina Decoulos, Richard Duhamel, Brooklyn Feng, Ian Finn, Doreen Guan, Sophia Liquori, Connor Moloney, Claudia Namaroff, Emily Noonan, Hunter Proulx, Stephen Rezendes, Maura Robitaille, Vincent Shu, Jaques Skriletz, Frank Sleegers

Landscape Architecture & Regional Planning Studio and Student Research and Creative Activity

Knitting together Communities -Designing the Heart of Six Corners and Old Hill

Knitting Together Communities – Designing the Heart of Six Corners and Old Hill provides a framework to knit together assets and opportunities for creating a strong identity and sense of coherence for a transformative urban district in Springfield, MA. The Senior Urban Design Studio 2019 created six proposals that were searching for design opportunities that enhance the aesthetic quality of the neighborhood and increase services for the wellbeing of the residents. The two neighborhoods are characterized by strong neighborhood leadership through committed residents, community centers and active religious …

The Just Green City: A Vision Of The South Holyoke Neighborhood, Michael Gagnon

Landscape Architecture & Regional Planning Masters Projects

Landscape Architects need to take their place as formative roles in the planning and design of our cities in the era of climate change. Not only do we have to be a part of the collaborative efforts, but we also have to bring it to the communities who need it most to create long-lasting impacts. Climate change is an equity issue and without tackling our social problems, we cannot tackle climate change. Our role is to not reinforce the status quo but to change it. The Just Green City takes place in Holyoke Massachusetts. This legacy city was once the …

Correctional Landscape Studies: Improving The Restorative Potential, Allyson Fairweather

Landscape Architecture & Regional Planning Masters Projects

The United States is the world’s leader in incarceration with 2.2 million people currently in the nation’s prisons and jails. On average, one-third of former offenders will return to prison for re-offence within three years of their release (Bureau of Justice Statistics 2018). This cycle is known as recidivism, and demonstrates a major reflection of the criminal justice system’s failure to provide rehabilitation that meets the needs of the incarcerated population. However, horticultural therapy in prison may offer a sliver of hope. Also referred to as Green Prison Programs (GPPs), studies indicate that participants in these programs gain valuable job …