Architecture Commons^™

Subversia: The SubUrban Subversive, Emily Cox

All Theses

The palimpsest is, by definition, 'writing material (as a parchment or tablet) used one or more times after earlier writing has been erased.' It provides a conceptual field for the layering of text, or meaning, over time. This text may be built up by successive authors and can be altered by additions and erasures. Traces of these amendments remain, providing a history of revision of the original text. Additions that comment on and interpret the primary text are called marginalia.
Landscape operates as a palimpsest, with written, rewritten, erased, and revised layers of history. While typically considered ahistoric, the suburban …

Planning For Growth In Cities And Metropolitan Regions: An Empirical Study Of Impact Fees And Choice, Chi-Hyoung Park

Planning Dissertations

This research examines what city factors relate to the likelihood of adopting impact fees by local governments within metropolitan regions using data from the U.S. Census Bureau. More and more cities are adopting different types of impact fees for financing public facilities and infrastructure to accommodate their cities' growth without full understanding of issues, public and private criticisms of impact fees, and the empirical information needed. This dissertation investigates a random sample of 278 cities out of 827 cities populations over 25,000 located within 97 MSAs to understand what variables within their settings relate to impact fee adoptions using five …

A Comparative Study Of Performance Measurement In Korean Local Governments Using Data Envelopment Analysis And Stochastic Frontier Analysis, Dong Jin Lim

Planning Dissertations

This study examines efficiency as a key component of performance, applies new performance measurement techniques to the measurement of local government performance, and verifies theoretical debates on economic, financial, political, and environmental factors related to performance in local government. Improving performance and promoting efficiencies in local government are important issues in both academic and practical public administration. Despite the remarkable development of performance measurement in local government since the 1990s, empirical evidence is still limited on the extent of the utility and practicability of performance measurement in local government.

Results of this research are developed from a study of Korean …

Growth/Decline Of Employment Subcenter In Polycentric Regions: The Case Of The Dallas-Fort Worth Metropolitan Area, Maher Sayel Al-Shammari

Planning Dissertations

This research is concerned with explaining the variation in growth rates among employment subcenters. The purpose of the study is to find answers to the question: What factors/variables contribute to the growth or decline of employment subcenters? More specifically, the study aims to 1) identify and describe employment subcenters in the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area, and 2) explain the variation in their growth rate over a specified period of time through testing a set of variables extracted from related literature. A multiple regression analysis technique is employed to complete the empirical analysis. The DFW metropolitan area was chosen as a …

Incorporating Neighborhood Social Patterns Into Neighborhood Planning Models, Paul Duggan

All Theses

ABSTRACT
Neighborhood models and patterns are used by developers, planners, and urban designers to plan new neighborhoods and guide the revitalization of older ones. Models are typically based on theories about ideal communities and frequently include significant social objectives.
Comparing neighborhood models with studies of neighborhood life, reveals that neighborhood social and behavioral patterns do not always fit the plan or social objectives of the proposed neighborhood models. There is a gap between the objectives and vision of the models and the patterns of life in the neighborhood. Social patterns such as neighboring, urban cognition, travel preferences and personal meaning …

An Engage-Ment Of The Significant Everyday, Suzanne M. Walker

Masters Theses

This paper investigates the engagement of our everyday lives with the place we inhabit. Three case studies introduce us to engagement through architecture and the experiences that are created. In conjunction with case studies, site analysis of the ecological and cultural site will reveal significant everyday experiences for the individual. Architecture can then act as a filter through which the site trickles into the interior experiences of the individual’s everyday life.

Space / Anti-Space: Revisiting A Relationship Of Opposites, David Dayne Cook

Masters Theses

In the article “Space and Anti-Space” Steven Kent Peterson states that:

…our objective (as architects) is an elaborate condition of spaces, a collision of inventions; not a neutral ground of anti-space but a plasma of spatial fields promoting multiple interactions, choices and opportunities.”

The article focuses on the separation of the two and promotes the exclusion of anti-space in favor of space. Therefore, it is the contention of this thesis that architects can, in fact, fuse the aspects of space and anti-space in order to create more meaningful places than either can do alone.

The vehicle chosen to explore this …

Wound/ Healing/ Scar: An Urban School, Heather R. Stone

Masters Theses

The American city contains large brownfields and urban wastelands, remnants of our industrial past. The sprawling and unchecked development of our cities combined with short-sighted zoning laws and vast industrial infrastructure created these gashes in the post-industrial landscape. Old rail yards, industrial processes, abandoned buildings, interstates, and abandoned riverfronts and wharves wound the urban landscape, and the reactionary response is to clear the site and start over. Yet as Carol Burns states, there is no such thing as a “clear” site- all sites contain permanent imprints of past and present events. This thesis posits that architecture possesses the power to …

Architecture And And Zen Calligraphy: Shaping Spiritual Space, Rubina R. Siddiqui

Masters Theses

“The ancients penned characters as a means of spiritual elevation, for it was considered possible to express the essential spirit of the universe through brushwork. …the act of writing a character is seen as parallel to the universal process of creation, and an embodiment of the principles that govern life.” -Barbara Aria

“The way a word is written can convey as much meaning as the word itself.” -Haji Noor Deen Mi Guangjiang

“Alas, one who does not enter the gate of this art will not glimpse its mysteries!” -Sun Qianli, Treatise on Calligraphy

Calligraphy is the means by which the …

Continuity Within Islamic Art And Architecture: Hassan Fathy As A Modern Catalyst, Ahmad Hamid

Archived Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

The Impact Of Combined Maternal Alcohol And Tobacco Use On Low Birth Weight In Singleton Pregnancies : A Population Based Study In The Us, 2003, Della A. Campbell

Dissertations

Background: The Black-White disparity in birth outcomes in the United States remains embedded. The World Health Organization (WHO) defines low birth weight (LBW) as birthweight less than 2500 grams/5.5 pounds or below the 10th percentile for gestational age. LBW is a frequent marker of poor maternal/infant health outcome. A reduction in the incidence of LBW is a major public health initiative in the US. Objective: The objective of the study was to determine the magnitude of risk for low birth weight, defined in this study as neonatal birth weight less than 2500 grams, in relation to combined maternal alcohol and …

Reservoir Sedimentation And Property Values, Ronald Leftwich Jr.

All Theses

This thesis uses multiple regression analysis in the determination of two hedonic models to explain the impact that sedimentation and algal bloom events may have on property values along Lake Greenwood, SC. Utilizing different independent variables, the hedonic equations reflect the market value and the sales price of the selected lakeside properties. With an average 4.6 percent of the original lake area lost to accreted sediment, the models show a $7,800 to nearly $10,000 average loss in property value or an estimated $5 to $6 million in value lost within the study area. Properties sold within a two-year period following …

Adaptive Customization: New Design Opportunities In Orthopedics, Driven By The Merging Of Imaging And Surgery, Marie Mcfaddin

All Theses

The architectural response for an out-patient orthopedic surgery and rehabilitation facility that merges the fields of imaging and surgery needs to be an architecture of changing needs. Orthopedic patients are a diverse population with varied and changing medical treatment needs. The practice of orthopedic medicine is rapidly changing in response to these needs and ongoing advances in medical technology. One of the most significant changes under way today is the merging of surgical and imaging modalities. Settings for the delivery of orthopedic medicine must be able to better accommodate these changing needs by becoming more easily adaptable while being highly …

The Interactive Medical Emergency Department (Imed): Architectural Integration Of Digital Systems Into The Emergency Care Environment, David Ruthven

All Theses

In healthcare, the architectural response to the development of information technologies has largely been relegated to a reactive role, essentially waiting for systems to develop and simply accommodating them with appropriately sized spaces. Designing IT systems independently from, rather than integrally with, their environment impedes them from reaching their full potential as vital components in the delivery of care by creating a lack of flexibility, decelerating performance, and degrading the healing environment. The flexibility of the environment is compromised by fixed position, single user data systems which prevent it from actively adapting to changing conditions, especially during volumetric surges associated …

Integrated Treatment Facility: An Alternative Care Setting For Adults With Mental Illness, Brenna Costello

All Theses

ABSTRACT The current model of community mental health care does not provide adequate therapeutic settings for many mentally ill patients to fully recovery. Due to this deficiency, patients are falling into a harmful cycle where they are admitted to the hospital through the emergency department, stabilized at the acute care setting, and discharged within a matter of days into the larger community where they have limited access to resources and support networks. At this point, patients become overwhelmed, have another event, and come full circle back to the emergency department. As a result, there is a drastic need for new …

Design Guidelines For The Historic Downtown Of The City Of St. George, Utah, Bronson R. Tatton

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

This document proposes historic preservation guidelines for the downtown area of the City of St. George, Utah. It grew from a summer internship with the city where I took inventory of the streetscape in the Historic Downtown and prepared recommendations in the form of a PowerPoint Presentation that was given to the city council. This paper summarizes the summer internship and introduces a more appropriate approach based on reflection of the intern ship. The new approach involves a thorough inventory of the historic character, in depth research of the historic elements that contribute to the historic character, development of design …

A Catalog And The Perceived Effectiveness Of Stormwater Best Management Practices Bmps Used On Municipal Sites In Northern Utah, Saadia E. Ahmed

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Stormwater, as a result of hydrological events and urbanization, has contributed to problem s of water quality and flooding. Stormwater picks up pollutants and flows into sewer systems ultimately impacting water sheds and wildlife habitat. The primary method to control storm water discharge is by the use of best management practices. This research seeks to evaluate the perceived effectiveness of stormwater structural Best Management Practice s (BMPs) installed on municipal sites in northern Utah. A representative sample of sites is chosen using a snowballing sampling method. Selected sites are visited and surveys addressing effectiveness and maintenance issue s are answered …

Reservoir Sedimentation And Property Values: A Hedonic Valuation For Waterfront Properties Along Lake Greenwood, South Carolina, R. Wayne Leftwich Jr.

All Theses

No abstract provided.

Inventorying Landscape Assets In Rural Utah Communities: A Sociocultural Approach, Jennifer F. Hale

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

A community's physical environment embodies distinct natural and built elements, which hold meanings and values that are formed through daily social interactions within that environment. Such elements, however, are not often recognized until they are dramatically changed or lost. As amenity-rich rural areas of the Intermountain West steadily attract new residents, consciously identifying these elements prior to rapid growth is critical to their preservation.

Research suggests that strong social capital has the potential to encourage the identification of a place's visual assets prior to such change. A documentary research approach was used to understand why citizens do not actively participate …

Bionic Architectural Design: Assembly, Symbiosis, & Repetition, Henry Louth

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.

The Integration Of Historical And Green Planning In Commercial Development, A Study For The Potential Use Of The Historical Canada Packers Site In Edmonton, Alberta, T. David Murray

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

The Canada Packers meat packing plant stood as a symbol of the agricultural heritage and formed part of the collective memory in the city of Edmonton throughout much of the twentieth century. Abandoned in 1994, the site has remained undeveloped and neglected for over a decade, while new development has expanded in every direction of the city. The development of the site is inevitable as property values skyrocket and the booming oil economy continues throughout Alberta. Currently the site is owned by RONA, a large Canadian home improvement store, and will be developed in the next few years. It is …

A Water-Efficient Landscape: Public Lands Center, Montrose, Co, Marcus Pulsipher

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

The problem of water-wasting landscapes is prevalent throughout the western United States. For decades western settlers struggled to turn their arid lands into the more familiar settings of lush vegetation found in their native New England and Western Europe. This mind set has been passed down through generations and has transformed into the basis of the current western water crisis (Brundin and Pearson 2001). Only in the last few decades has this mentality been challenged and we've seen the emergence of several water-efficient landscape models. Through careful application of water-efficient landscape principles, western communities can greatly extend the life of …

Design Response To Humanitarian Crisis: An Analysis Of Low-Income Labor Camps In Doha, Qatar In The Context Of A Student Charrette, Holly Murdock

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

"Imagine a future where design can alter the quality of life." So began the instructions for "Charrette: A 48 hour Design Challenge" hosted by Virginia Commonwealth University's School of the Arts in Qatar. ("Charrette," 2007.) Combining sustainable design solutions with issues of human rights, an experiment in design education was created to challenge students to improve the quality of life for some of the world's most disadvantaged workers.

Historic Preservation And Revitalization In Working-Class Communities, Paul Woodward

All Theses

Historic preservation and revitalization efforts undertaken in lower-income, working-class communities often have negative consequences, including displacement and gentrification. Too often, sense of place and community spirit are sacrificed in an effort to save important historic buildings. As both sense of place and historic fabric are important, it is necessary for preservationists, planners, community members, and others to analyze the current condition under which preservation and revitalization take place, and begin looking at alternatives. Through analysis of case studies that focus on mill villages, three different approaches to preservation and revitalization are considered. Each case study offers valuable information for other …

Reviving Community Identity Using Movement In And Through Public Space, Nekia Strong

Masters Theses

“…the interweaving of human patterns. They are full of people doing different things, with different reasons and different ends in view, and the architecture reflects and expresses this difference...Being human, human beings are what interest us most. In architecture as in literature and the drama, it is the richness of human variation that gives vitality and color to the human setting…” – Raskin (Jacobs 229)

This thesis asserts that the greater opportunity for people to interact socially, the greater sense of identity a community has. Over time, as historically defined public space has been in decline, so has the level …

The Experience Of Place And Body In The Built Form, Joshua R. Shinn

Masters Theses

“The place is the concrete manifestation of man’s dwelling, and his identity depends on his belonging to places.” (Norberg-Schulz 1980, 6)

Human existence is defined by our being in the world; the daily actions of individuals in places over time. To enhance this existence, it is necessary for us to connect to place, to become aware of the relationship between body and place. Architecture provides a venue to bring together body, place, and time. Architecture can articulate the experience of being-in-the-world; therefore, through the experience of architecture an individual can become aware of place. As we come to …

Design Outfit An Interdisciplinary Think + Act Tank, Douglas Jack

Honors Capstone Projects - All

The Design Outfit is a real project derived from a conceptual program. The program, or set of concepts from which the project sprang, critically approached three aspects of design practice:

I) reality: how design proceeds from initial sketches to finishing touches, with all steps and scales given comparable attention

II) collaboration: how designers interface with one another and others throughout a design process

III) social awareness: how designers can shape and place their efforts in relation to social significance

The project was designed to explore and test these aspects of design.

Based at Henninger High, a public Syracuse City school …

City, Interrupted : A Study Of Infrastructure And The Urban Condition, Seaneen Lucretia Murphy

Masters Theses

Urban renewal and revitalization, considered an essential component to the rebuilding and reshaping of most promising communities, customarily attaches with its definition a “for the common good” connotation. The efforts of city and regional planners with local governments concerning renewal projects is one of offering great change and providing potential to a sector of a city that had not previously been successful; one where every member of the community seemingly would benefit from such projects. The strategies, when executed, most specifically concerning the Eisenhower Interstate System, sought to create affirmative change within the infrastructure of metropolitan areas and provide a …

The Interpretation Of Comingtee Plantation, Kimberly C. Norton

All Theses

This thesis provides a long term preservation plan for Comingtee Plantation, located at the confluence of the east and west branch of the Cooper River in Berkeley County, South Carolina. The plantation, owned by the Ball Family for almost two hundred years, includes the ruins of an eighteenth- century house, a nineteenth-century rice mill, as well as yet undiscovered archaeological resources. The site is owned by the Department of Natural Resources, a state agency, and is accessible to the public, though use is generally limited to hunting activities. During the summer of 2006 I participated in an internship project with …

Campus Commuting: Barriers To Walking And Bicycling Use In A University Town, Benjamin Miller

All Theses

Policy makers frequently express a desire to increase the use of non-motorized modes of transportation for commuting. However, walking and bicycling are only viable commuting modes if people live within acceptable distances of their destination and transportation networks can safely accommodate pedestrians or bicyclists. This research uses a combination of stated maximum-acceptable commute times for walking and bicycling and an assessment of the suitability of the transportation network to develop walking and bicycling commute catchments from which a person could be reasonably expected to commute to a destination by walking or bicycling. Identifying commute catchments such as these then allowed …