Architecture Commons^™

Southern Nevada Regional Industrial Study, Brookings Mountain West, Center For Business And Economic Research, Transportation Research Center

Policy Briefs and Reports

Recognizing the ongoing need to diversify the Southern Nevada economy, in 2023 GOED commissioned Brookings Mountain West, the UNLV Center for Business and Economic Research, and the UNLV Transportation Research Center to evaluate how Southern Nevada can leverage its geography and connectivity to neighboring states and metros at the megapolitan level to pursue industrial opportunities in the face of shifting global supply chains, diminishing developable land, the need for efficient management of the regional water supply, and the availability of unprecedented federal resources to support clean energy development, manufacturing, electrification of transportation systems, and supply-chain resiliency.

The study builds on …

Linear Waltz With Nature: A Self-Supporting Infrastructure In Nature, Shangkun Zhong

Architecture Senior Theses

This project aims to create a sustainable system that addresses waste management issues in urban areas by examining the functionality of recycling infrastructures and how they can be integrated. The system will absorb waste and convert it into renewable energy to support a field station in Tibet, where self-sustainability is critical, due to the remote location. Architects often demonstrate their understanding of sustainability through various means such as integration, passive/energy-saving, and natural architecture. This thesis argues that a sustainable system such as CopenHill, can exemplify the combination of green-manifested design and recycle content as a sustainable cycle that supports human-nature …

Strengthening Urban Resilience: Understanding The Interdependencies Of Outer Space And Strategic Planning For Sustainable Smart Environments, Ulpia-Elena Botezatu, Olga Bucovetchi, Adrian V. Gheorghe, Radu D. Stanciu

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Faculty Publications

The conventional approach to urban planning has predominantly focused on horizontal dimensions, disregarding the potential risks originating from outer space. This paper aims to initiate a discourse on the vertical dimension of cities, which is influenced by outer space, as an essential element of strategic urban planning. Through an examination of a highly disruptive incident in outer space involving a collision between the Iridium 33 and Cosmos 2251 satellites, this article elucidates the intricate interdependencies between urban areas and outer space infrastructure and services. Leveraging the principles of critical infrastructure protection, which bridge the urban and outer space domains, and …

Structural Problems Of Latin American Cities 450 Years After Caracas’ Foundation, Fabio Capra-Ribeiro

Faculty Publications

Latin American cities face many problems that compromise them from different angles such as lack of infrastructure, government fragmentation, and environmental degradation. At the same time, each city tries to come up with its own solutions, but there are so many difficulties that in many cases it is difficult to keep attention and efforts focused on all these directions. For these reasons, this research aims to define some of the most common problems faced by cities in Latin America. Disseminating these similarities could help to face those problems, since, if local governments recognize that they face the same situations as …

The Process Of Urbanization And Modernization That Is Evolving Manchester, United Kingdom, Alison Mcneal

History and Political Science | History 3003 - The Globe

In 1760, Great Britain, among other surrounding countries, transitioned to a new manufacturing process known as the Industrial Revolution. As defined by Oxford Reference, the Industrial Revolution was the “rapid development of industry that occurred in Britain in the late 18th and 19th centuries, brought about by the introduction of machinery. It was characterized by using steam power, the growth of factories, and the mass production of manufactured goods” (Oxford Reference).1 The Industrial Revolution impacted the world by transforming businesses, the economy, and society. Prior, most European countries had economies that were strictly dominated by farming and artisan …

Reimagining Future Sustainable, Climate-Resilient Urban Design For Apia, Samoa: Developing Plans For A Developing Nation, Alyssa Kaewwilai

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Small island developing states are arguably the most vulnerable, exposed nations on a global scale to the harmful effects of climate change. Particularly in Samoa, an abundance of environmental, economic, and social impacts have severe impacts on both the country as a whole as well as on an individual level. This study analyzes future mitigation strategies of land use and urban design to recreate Samoa’s capital of Apia as a more climate-resilient city to encourage economic growth and to ensure the well-being of all inhabitants. This planning is based upon current challenges of Samoa driven by climate change such as …

The Economic Impact Of Failing Infrastructure In The New York Metropolitan Area, Nicholas Travis

Honors College Theses

Infrastructure in the New York Metropolitan Area has been seriously underfunded due to a failure of public investment on the local, state and federal level. Prior research has presented concrete reasoning that the now crumbling infrastructure will seriously affect economic growth and worker productivity. This research seeks to quantify the economic effects as a result of this failing infrastructure. My research asks: what are the concrete, additional economic expenditures, due to failing infrastructure, that drivers spend each year? How much do these economic costs decrease our economic productivity, and how do the economic costs compare with proposed infrastructure improvements? From …

Tallahassee Central City Planning Study, Tallahassee-Leon County Planning Department

City and Regional Planning -- Florida

Study on Developing Downtown Tallahassee

Feasibility Of Rainwater Catchment In The Taos Mesa Community In Northern New Mexico, Miranda Rivera

Water Resources Professional Project Reports

INTRODUCTION Lack of water is nothing new for New Mexico’s general population. However, its immediate negative effects are unevenly distributed throughout the state, which is increasingly evident in the context of rising temperatures and decreases in precipitation. Access to clean drinking water is significantly more pressing in rural and off-the-grid communities than in metropolitan areas of New Mexico. On the Taos Mesa in northern New Mexico, these off-the-grid communities continue hauling as the only available method for accessing water today. In these communities, water is not only a vital source of livelihood but also necessary for the continuance of cultural …

Absorbency In Tidal Resiliency | The Thickened Pier, Shauna Strubinger

Architecture Senior Theses

The inevitable truth of climate change has placed coastal cities at great risk. Past natural disasters in the United States such as Hurricane Sandy and Katrina, displaced many people because these communities’ only protection was their failed infrastructure.1 Although hard and soft infrastructure strategies have addressed the rising sea level, architecture at the building scale creates static surfaces and divisions that are slow to adapt to flooding and leave little to no room for the ambiguity of tidal flooding and storm surge. Though numerous areas are at risk of sea level rise across the globe, the Chesapeake Bay area is …

Philep | A Self-Sufficient Pod, Brenna Merola

Architecture Senior Theses

Since 2011 civil war has erupted in Syria causing many Syrians to flee the county. About 9 million people have been internationally displaced causing disruption to the surrounding countries, which have had to create new accommodations. Primary issues have been shortage of basic such as shelter, food and water. Through analysis of disaster situations and refugee conditions, the types of infrastructural systems needed for survival can be better understood. This analysis can determine how to integrate systems into an architectural solution to this global issue: temporary housing pods.

Michael McDaniels, EXO Reaction Housing founder, has created a prototype of a …

Two Lands, One System | Redefining The Border Crossing, Matthew Trulli

Architecture Senior Theses

The Israeli and Palestinian populations each have their own distinct infrastructural system, which operates independently and fails to connect the people in this region. This thesis contends that if a two-state solution is implemented under the guidelines of the 2003 Geneva Accord, new connections can stitch the populations of Israel and Palestine together through a reimagined border system.

These divisive infrastructural networks, which are a result of tense relationships, have also sparked increased violence throughout the region, particularly in Jerusalem. The French Hill, located north of the Old City in Jerusalem, is positioned at a critical point in the infrastructural …

Hacking The Urban Village | Architecture As Board Game, Xuyun Liu

Architecture Senior Theses

This thesis proposes the board game as a new research methodology and platform for the study of southern China's urban villages.

Hacking the Urban Village examines the urban villages that have, in recent decades, become a common but informal settlement type in China as a result of China's unprecedented period of urbanization.

This research forms the contextual core of a board game where game settings present the current urban conditions and players may explore alternative forms of urbanism. The board game offers players the opportunity to investigate both he formal conditions of the urban village life along with it attendant …

Prelude To A Master Plan: Ware, Massachusetts, Belen Alfaro, Bruno Carneiro, Margaret Engesser, Kathryn E. Fox, Evadne R. Friedman, Timothy Inacio, Anita Lockesmith, Christina Mills, Stephanie Molden, Meagen Mulherin, Russell Pandres, Vinicius Pereira, Brian Reid, Pedro Soto, Jennifer Stromsten

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

Prelude to a Master Plan offers ideas, recommendations, and a toolkit to help the town chart its own path towards that future. While the teams and individual students worked to ‘drill down’ into specific topic areas, the Studio defined three basic areas in order to think about how the various assets, challenges and ideas undermine or reinforce one another. The report is loosely organized in those terms: addressing the outlying rural areas and issues specific to these places, considering one of the key growth areas that has extended from town and the conflicts that arise from the many uses occurring …

Intensity Without Density, Nicole Blasetti

Architecture Senior Theses

"Within the field of residual space, a reactive public infrastructure is the setting for intense public intervention."

From The Personal To The Communal - Support For An Evolutionary Urban System, Noel Brady

Conference papers

A short discussion towards a model for the future of urban and interurban development. From the personal tot he communal argues for a futurist city that is an organic physiological time filled environment.

Integration Of Bicycling And Walking Facilities Into The Infrastructure Of Urban Communities [Draft], Cornelius Nuworsoo, Erin Cooper, Eugene Jud, Katherine Cushing

City and Regional Planning

Several manuals, handbooks and web resources exist to provide varied guidance on planning for and designing bicycle and pedestrian facilities. Yet there are no specific indications about which of the varied treatments in these guides work well for users. This project highlights best practices and identifies program characteristics associated with high levels of non-motorized travel, with an emphasis on bicyclists and pedestrians, in the selected Californian urban case study communities of Davis, Palo Alto and San Luis Obispo. The case studies are used to illustrate how urban communities can better integrate non-motorized transportation modes into the physical infrastructure and the …

Crossings, Noel Brady

Books/Book Chapters

Chapter concentrates on the bridges of Dublin’s river Liffey; their importance to the vitality of the city, its commerce and people. It also highlights the importance of crossings in the city linking and opening up new paths to growth and development.

Reconnect The Urban Surface --- By Making Landscape And Infrastructure, Ming Gao

Architecture Senior Theses

Today in the post industrial city, the connection between different places relies mostly on transportation by way of automobiles, public buses, and subway. By walking or biking, people are able to talk with nature directly. However, by modern transportation, people are confined in a close machinery space which prevents them from experiencing nature directly. They are separated from nature by consciously choosing to use modern transportation during their daily lives, and they get less and less direct access to nature. Nowadays, nature experienced space within walking distance int he city is limited to the tiny front yard garden, where landscape …

Architecture Of Population Flows | Localizing Tourism In The Inside Passage, Jennifer Tamblin

Architecture Thesis Prep

"This thesis focuses on a problem that arises due to the specific flows of tourists and migrant workers into the south east Alaskan Inside Passage. Because of these population flows, situations have emerged in the small town communities that create a need for an intervention designed to cater to the specific circumstances surrounding each individual group of people, and how they coexist with one another."

A Greenway Runs Through It: The Midtown Greenway And The Social Landscape Of Minneapolis, Minnesota, Aaron M. Brown

Geography Honors Projects

Minneapolis’ Midtown Greenway is a 5.5 mile bicycle and pedestrian corridor that replaced a grade-separated railroad line in 2000 and expanded to its current length in 2007. In an era of reinvestment in American inner cities and a heightened political awareness of both urban transportation alternatives and public spaces, the academic field of geography has much to contribute to the discussion about the viability, effectiveness, and success of projects such as this adaptive reuse of reclaimed, deindustrialized space. My research investigates results from a survey of 223 Greenway users, exploring participants’ demographics, residential proximity to the trail, and purposes for …

Activated Infrastructure, Joanna T. Myers

Architecture Thesis Prep

No abstract provided.

Connective Ecology: Reclaiming The Postindustrial Urban Landscape, Thomas Smith

Architecture Senior Theses

This thesis contends that by considering the urban landscape as an evolving interconnected network, much like an ecosystem, architecture can create flexible, accessible public space as part of a larger scale system which affects as well as responds to specific physical and social forces of the contemporary postindustrial city.

Mps Movement Public Space, Matthew R. Kanewske

Architecture Senior Theses

"Portland provides an opportunity to examine the way this can relate to formal construction because cities' primary sites of public spaces will be integrated with the flows of movement, but this creates a dichotomy between the nature of site as a singular entity and the requirements of multiplicity required by a system. In this lies an opportunity for architectural invention of new forms of communicative public space."

Gill, Massachusetts: The Mariamante Parcel, Center For Economic Development

Center for Economic Development Technical Reports

In December of 2004, the small Massachusetts town of Gill took a tremendous step to influence its own future. A fifteen acre parcel of land in the south of town, near the intersection of two important town roads, had been put up for sale by its previous owners. The land had been under an agricultural preservation restriction, a program enabled by Massachusetts General Law Chapter 61 A. As part of this restriction, if the land were ever sold, the town would have right of first refusal.

The town's recent Community Development Plan has identified the parcel as a prime site …

Haverhill Street Corridor Study: Methuen, Massachusetts, Center For Economic Development

Center for Economic Development Technical Reports

The City of Methuen’s Department of Planning and Community Development hired a team of students from the University of Massachusetts Amherst’s Master’s in Regional Planning studio class to examine the growth impacts of a potential highway interchange reconfiguration. Exit 46 of Interstate 93 in Methuen is a failed interchange, and will likely be reconfigured in the next ten years. Methuen, a middle class city of 44,000 midway between Boston, MA and Manchester, NH, is currently experiencing significant growth pressures. The reconfigured interchange will only add to these pressures.

In consultation with the client, the studio team focused its analysis on …

Fluid Architecture : Synthesis : City, Adriana L. Zarrillo

Architecture Thesis Prep

"This proposal intends to manipulate the streams of the city and their potential overlaps and deviations in order to create an intervention that will revitalize both economically and aesthetically a localized area. By further developing the city streams that are already present, the pre-existing conditions, and subsequently introducing those streams that are not present in order to produce the desired result, a successful dynamic node of convergent streams with the potential to link back to larger scales."

Gateway To Interaction, Adam C. Mcwilliams

Architecture Thesis Prep

"American cities presently face a moment of truth. While traditional city centers continue to signify established culture, science, education, and finance, in almost every city crucial sections of originally thriving city centers have persistently decreased as a location of interaction.

The regional city, if it is to sustain itself and maintain any diversity of architecture, density, and most importantly interaction, will need to accommodate a broad range of speeds, scales, and means of movement in both directions to reactivate the city center."

Rebuilding Community: Boston's North End, Maria A. Fazio

Architecture Thesis Prep

"The city is enhanced by architecture form which participates in the urban fabric as a means of connection, therefore promoting the formation of community... The intent is to propose developemnt for portions of the Central Artery Master Plan in Boston, Massachusetts. The city is currently in the process of relocating a major infrastructural element from its present location above grade to a tunnel beneath the city. Demolition of the exiting central artery offers the city an opportunity to infill much of the land and restore surface level streets reconnecting the east sire of the interstate to the downtown area...

The …

Vorhizomeid: Nodes Of Community Services Connecting Albany, Ny, Andrew Watkins

Architecture Thesis Prep

"The contention is to reposition terrain vague into the urban fabric recreating a continuum of the urban system while attempting to detract neither from the scale of the infrastructural system, nor that of the human body. Terrain vague muse be approached in a different manner than that of the traditional urban city. Establishing community through terrain vague should be done by measure of the forces, flows, and rhythms of space."