Architecture Commons^™

Preservando La Playa Del Pueblo, Tasha A. Sandoval

Capstones

After more than 80 years, the only queer beach in New York City, the People’s Beach at Jacob Riis, is in danger. In 2022, the city announced the demolition of the Neponsit Hospital, a long-abandoned structure that shelters the beach from the street, creating a sense of privacy and safety. Can Riis Beach live on as a safe and joyous utopia for queer communities without the presence of the hospital buildings? Some beach-goers are campaigning to ensure that whatever replaces the hospital space centers the queer community and preserves the beach’s queer history, including the legacy of Ms. Colombia, a …

The Rehabilitation Of Fulton Bag & Cotton Mills: A Case For A Unique Public-History Site And Open-Air Museum, Nina Elsas

Master of Arts in Art and Design Theses

By the 1990s, Atlanta's historic Fulton Bag & Cotton Mills (The Mill) had fallen into extreme disrepair. After operations ceased, the 19th-century factory suffered from years of neglect, forcing the decision to either demolish or rehabilitate its industrial structures. Fortunately, a choice was made to convert the majority of Fulton Bag & Cotton Mills’ buildings into residential lofts, despite the significant financial risk. The research related to this study aims to address whether the successfully renovated Fulton Bag & Cotton Mills could identify as an open-air museum.

Answers to this question were obtained from Primary Sources (such as interviews and …

Sconce Upon A Time: Evaluating Multimodal Methods Of Researching Period Lighting Technology, A Case Study Of Drayton Hall, Neale Elizabeth Grisham

All Theses

This thesis reviews several methods of researching light sources and lighting schemes from the “long eighteenth century,”[1] on a historical site. Despite the period’s cultural reliance on lighting as well as technological advancement in this era, there has yet to be published documentation on how to engage with evidence of lighting technology on historic sites for better understanding of the site’s relationship with lighting.

Using Drayton Hall in Charleston, South Carolina as a case study, this thesis outlines and demonstrates the process of five methods of investigating period lighting technology. These methods are: wall investigation, anchorage points comparison and …

The Cost Of Urbanization: A Look Into The Transformation Of Mao Era Reforms, Tieren A. Dokes

Master's Projects and Capstones

Mao Zedong has played an influential role in Chinese society, whether for better or for worse. His policies have caused ripples throughout contemporary Chinese society, but nothing stronger than his desire for urbanization and economic land reform. Utilizing Mao’s drive for urbanization and economic reform as essential historical context, this paper connects how the contemporary governmental push for urbanization has been unyielding, and, in some ways, counterproductive as decade-old Mao-era institutions reverberate in an echo chamber with cracks that allow darker forces to seep in. Real estate and urban development companies and local governments are given monetary incentive to redevelop …

Transparency In Architecture: Reflecting The Practice Of Democracy In City Halls, Ana Mendoza

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

The last election cycles of 2016 and 2020 became a tumultuous time for many Americans. More than ever, Democracy has been tested through recent events and has had many doubting the integrity of our governmental structures and the strength of our civic buildings. The events of January 6th unfolded before all of America’s eyes as we witnessed the breaching of the United States Capitol, which was supposed to be the most secure and honored building in Washington. America’s cultural diversity brings different opportunities within distinct contexts. So how do we reflect our ideals and necessities into the city halls that …

Preservation And Public History In Mound Bayou, Mississippi, Walker Bray

Honors Theses

This paper is an exploration of the history of Mound Bayou, Mississippi, an all Black community in the Mississippi Delta formed by freedmen in the wake of Reconstruction. This paper also discusses the ways in which Mound Bayou citizens are working to preserve their history and make it known to a wider audience. In particular, this work discusses the recently opened Mound Bayou Museum of African American Culture and History and related efforts to restore and preserve historic structures in Mound Bayou. In addition, this work also seeks to explore ways in which the University of Mississippi can effectively supplement …

Memorial Craze: How War Memorials Have Been Changed By War, Jillian Bass

War, Diplomacy, and Society (MA) Theses

This thesis project argues that memorials constructed after 9/11 were designed specifically in a way that privileged and focused on the dead individually. By taking a look at memorials throughout American history, the study of memorialization sets up the stage for the way the lives of ordinary people have been memorialized throughout history. 9/11 is one of the most memorable days in the history of the world in the 21st century. However, the academic world has generally ignored the study of war memorials throughout American history as a subset of memorials. Chronicling memorials from the Civil War period to present …

Contextualizing Britain’S Holocaust Memorial And Museums: Form, Content, And Politics, Rebecca D. Pollack

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The quantity of Holocaust memorials in Britain and their prominence in public debates beseeches the question: Why does a country with a modest Jewish population, that was neither occupied by the Nazis nor lost its citizens in the horrors of the Holocaust, devote large quantities of resources and time to memorializing the events of the Holocaust? While there are private and synagogue-based Holocaust memorials in Britain, this dissertation centers on Britain’s statefunded Holocaust memorials and museums, a substantial network of memorials that is often left out of the abundant literature on Holocaust memory. Each memorial project is examined through the …

“A Certain Brauch:” German-Georgian Palatine And Rhenish Immigrant Houses In Columbia County, New York And Their Vernacular Architectural Roots, Andrew J. Roberge

Senior Projects Spring 2022

In this archaeological and architectural survey of 18th Century Palatine and Rhenish immigrant houses in New York's Hudson Valley, specifically in Columbia County, I track the development of three houses from their earliest vernacular forms to those touched by the Georgian influence. The Georgian worldview, stemming from European Enlightenment ideals, began permeating colonial American society in the 18th Century. It's influence first began to touch the wealthy and elite most connected with mother Europe, and then trickled into more common society. I chronicle and analyze Germantown, NY's Reformed Sanctity Church Parsonage, Germantown, NY's Simeon Rockefeller House, and Clermont, NY's "Stone …

Eyes On The Street: Racialized Bodies And Surveillance In Urban Space, Hana Parker Soule

Senior Projects Spring 2022

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Arts of Bard College.

The Public Bathroom: Tracing A History Of Architectural Symbolism And Social Control, Mayim Frieden

Senior Projects Spring 2022

Through a cross-disciplinary analysis of New York City's urban, architectural and infrastructural histories, this thesis explores the various sociocultural beliefs, dynamics and tensions that led to the architectural typology of the public bathroom. In turn, the controversies often associated with public bathrooms are contextualized, and the demarcating and influential capabilities of architecture are made apparent. This work spans from the 19th century and into the 2010s, demonstrating how architectural and urban design and planning can contain and uphold determinations made hundreds of years prior.

Les Six Continents: An Exploration Of Political Visual Rhetoric In Public Sculpture, Olivia Liu Guillotin

Senior Projects Spring 2022

Les six continents series stands as remnants of the 1878 Exposition Universelle and as a visual marker of the cultural, social, and economic culture of the time period. The series, serving as public art, continues to inform and participate in its environment and space, as it is on display by the entrance of the Musée d’Orsay today. Personified representations of Europe, Asia, Africa, North America, South America, and Oceania as allegorical female figures, the series offers insight into the colonial world where it emerged, and how its impact has visually been ingrained in contemporary society. By using these six statues …

9/11: News Media As Prism, Luka L. Murro

Senior Projects Spring 2022

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Arts of Bard College.

Building Home In Diaspora: New York’S Jewish Left And The History Of The Bronx Housing Cooperatives, Micah Benjamin Wilson

Honors Projects

This thesis investigates three predominantly Jewish housing cooperatives that emerged in the Bronx in the late 1920s. The Amalgamated Housing Cooperative, the United Workers Cooperative Colony (the “Coops”), and the Sholem Aleichem Houses offered garment workers utopian retreats from the drudgery of Lower East Side tenements where Jewish immigrants arrived in droves between 1890-1920. With each cooperative housing a distinct faction of the Jewish Left––from socialists to communists to Yiddish nationalists––the Bronx housing cooperatives, more than experiments in communal living, were the site of a highly contested battle over competing Jewish cultural and political worldviews across the 1930s and 1940s. …