Architecture Commons^™

Curb Appeal, Eric Liu

Masters Theses

This thesis hopes to reimagine the suburbs and challenge the conventional role of architects and the homogeneity of suburban housing. Currently, architects are nearly excluded from the building of suburban homes altogether, resulting in cookie-cutter houses lacking resilience for evolving demographics. The suburban home, symbolizing consumerism, prioritizes affordability and return on investment over adaptability and community.

Homebuyers must also redefine homeownership, valuing diversity and community over financial investment. Rather than focusing on McMansions and superficial renovations, this proposal advocates for a more collective, interconnected approach to suburban design. It explores depictions of the nuclear family, reconfigures single-family homes, and utilizes …

The Flow Of Power: Addressing Asymmetric Flood Risk In The Upper Valley, Eric Vr Hryniewicz

Geography Undergraduate Senior Theses

Floods are the most damaging natural disasters in America. Land use change in upland watersheds can increase the probability and severity of floods (Bronstert, Niehoff, & Burger, 2002). When watersheds are divided by political and private property boundaries it leads to a misalignment of incentives in which downstream users lack recourse for upstream land use decisions contributing to flood risk. In this thesis, researchers interrogate the attributes of town officials and towns that determine what motivates town governments to act on flooding and what motivates and enables town officials to collaborate on planning and how do they collaborate in practice. …

Frontier - A Bus Rapid Transit System In Frisco, Tx, Matthias Berry

City and Regional Planning

This study explores the increasing inaccessibility produced by reliance and catered infrastructure to mass ownership of personal vehicles. Accessing employment, service, and activity destinations has become extremely difficult for those who cannot possess, afford, or operate personal vehicles; even cyclists have a more difficult time navigating roads due to limited infrastructure and accommodations. Public transit has often become an afterthought within cities, with local routes competing with other cars on the road and adding to overall traffic volume. Bus-Rapid Transit (BRT) systems are an expanding concept within car-centric regions, often being called the "subways, but on wheels", that not only …

Guiding The Future Of The Cache County Fairgrounds, Logan Hall

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

The County fairgrounds have been a fixture in Cache Valley, Utah for over 100 years. They provide a valuable resource to the community. Effective planning can ensure the appropriate use of this public asset and prevent underutilization. Modern design guidelines have been developed for other fairgrounds in the Intermountain West, but not the Cache County fairgrounds. This research is focused on developing a contemporary visioning plan to guide the growth and future of the County fairgrounds, create design guidelines for future development, and maximize the fairground’s economic potential. The methodology used to develop this plan involved an extensive review of …

Perceived Safety And Equitable Access: An Investigation Of The Northwest Arkansas Regional Greenway, Jessica Shearman

Landscape Architecture Undergraduate Honors Theses

In today’s world, designers, planners, and policymakers are grappling with conflicts of climate change, habitat loss, and increasing diversity all during a migratory trend towards urban areas and higher densities of living. Creating public spaces that are both resilient ecologically and environmentally, while also creating a sense of place is essential for providing a higher quality of life equitably for all citizens. Through case studies and literature review, the public’s safety perceptions when accessing public spaces is key to equitable access. Specifically, differing perceptions of safety based on gender, race, and backgrounds. Perceived safety can be defined as an awareness …

Growing Pains: Toward A Coalition-Based Theory Of State Land Use Policy, Patrick Rochford

Honors Projects

In the decades following World War II, mass suburbanization remade the American landscape. While suburbs accounted for 83% of the nation’s growth between 1950 and 1970, cities bled their populations and natural resources dwindled. Treating the postwar era as a critical juncture, this thesis examines the political history of twentieth-century state land use policy to illuminate how competing interests have shaped policy outcomes across the United States. Specifically, the paper seeks to explain the passage of statewide growth management and smart growth programs. After providing a history of American suburbanization, the paper considers an emergent challenge to the postwar growth …

Development Of A Model Sustainability Management Plan For The City Of Morgantown, West Virginia, Caitlyn Elizabeth Lewis

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

This report has been prepared to demonstrate the research for a model planning document with a focus on sustainability in Morgantown, WV. It discusses the role of three categories in the context of sustainability and proposes a design solution for selected areas of concern throughout the City of Morgantown in order to demonstrate opportunities for a sustainable approach toward resolution for city officials.

The City of Morgantown, West Virginia, is a college town along the Monongahela River with a backstory of industrialism that is echoed by many other places in Appalachia. However, distinctively, in Morgantown 25,000 college students populate the …

The Importance Of Street Lighting: A Study In San Luis Obispo, Kaitlyn P. Lam

City and Regional Planning

The purpose of this report is to shed light on the importance of resident and student safety in the City of San Luis Obispo. The report goes over exact locations of frequently used areas in the City of SLO that lack street lighting. By spreading awareness, studying different lighting types, and getting citizen input, it helps to plan out a method of bettering San Luis Obispo’s streets. The report presents information on efficient and cost-effective lighting in order to integrate them into a location specific proposal that the city could utilize. By the end of the report, readers will be …

North Logan Active Transportation Plan, Lloyd Sutton

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

The North Logan Active Transportation Plan provides a small, Utah community with background information, data, public involvement summaries, and recommendations regarding active transportation planning. The plan focuses on providing transportation infrastructure recommendations for use by bicycles, pedestrians, and other forms of active, non-motorized transport.

A City Planning Card Game, Francisco Alfarozierten

City and Regional Planning

This senior project aimed to create a card game based on the concept and professional practice of city & regional planning. It consists of 103 unique cards, being separated in the following manner:

• 1 City Center card
• 6 Unique Zoning cards
• 74 unique Development cards
• 22 unique Action cards

Our Streets: Increasing Equity In Active Transportation Planning Through Community Outreach, Jordan Hoy

Master's Projects and Capstones

ABSTRACT Significant research has demonstrated that active transportation infrastructure is essential for the growth and livability of San Francisco: it increases access to economic opportunities, promotes overall improved public health, encourages mobility without contributing to roadway congestion, prevents traffic injuries and fatalities, and supports the sustainability goals of the city. Despite the fact that communities of color will benefit the most from active transportation infrastructure development, historical disenfranchisement in tandem with a lack of diverse representation within public participation contributes to an inequitable distribution of walking and biking investments throughout the city of San Francisco. While research shows that Black …

The Old Harbor: A Diachronic Study Of Charleston's Cooper River Waterfront, 1884-1990, Branden Gunn

All Theses

For the better part of three centuries, Charleston’s Cooper River waterfront functioned as an important commercial seaport complete with wharves, warehouses, offices, workshops, and other related buildings. These resources defined the area for nearly three centuries, yet today, most connections to the maritime past have been severed. Revitalization efforts and modern developments have redefined the area and filled voids created by the waterfront’s steady decline throughout the 20th century. With an aim to better understand the Cooper River waterfront’s developmental history, this thesis utilized historic Sanborn Fire Insurance maps to track the harbor’s physical and spatial changes from 1884 to …

Dance In Public Space, Rachel Cruzan

Architecture Undergraduate Honors Theses

Dance is a universal cultural phenomenon that provides physical, emotional, and social benefits. Public Space, when well-utilized, provides people with opportunities to meet various needs. In this way, Dance and Public Space have the potential for a mutually beneficial relationship, Public Space providing a way for people to meet certain needs through Dance, while Dance improves the quality of Public Space. This relationship is already in existence worldwide. This paper explores seven case studies globally where Dance occurs in Public Space. Written research is combined with diagrams developed to study key aspects of these spaces. The diagrams study Dance and …

Modular Interior Partitions In Commercial Housing: A Case Study, Adam David Meleo

Construction Management

The ability to modify an interior space with ease and reasonable cost is beneficial to designers, owners, and end-users. Modular interiors are not a new concept. Modular interior partitions can come in the form of Japanese Shoji screens, as well as folding walls that would be found in a convention center. While not new in concept, the market for products that allow partitioning an interior space with ease appears to be growing with the introduction of innovative products and solutions. This paper will focus on two student housing projects in San Luis Obispo, California, with regards to their design and …

Health Infrastructure Accessibility In San Joaquin, Ca, Vinson Lok Kwan, Trisha Phuong Tran

City and Regional Planning

The purpose of this study is to assess the health infrastructure and accessibility in San Joaquin, California through the existing conditions of the city, reviewing various cities facing similar conditions, and creating potential solutions or recommendations to be implemented into the city to accommodate growth and overall well-being in the community.

Health infrastructure and accessibility is important to every community since it has the ability to influence the quality-of-care individuals are able to receive. When it comes to infrastructure, it is important to determine the underlying health conditions the local population faces and whether the services provided are adequate in …

San Joaquin Parks And Recreation Site-Specific Strategic Plan, Ida Araghieyan, Jessica M. Gastineau Romero

City and Regional Planning

The San Joaquin Parks and Recreation Strategic Plan (SJPRSP) outlines a road to success for parks, open space, and recreational amenities. Areas of improvement are identified, and local assessments of opportunities and strengths of San Joaquin are examined to curate a site-specific plan of what could be implemented regarding local parks and recreation and open space.

Classifying Desire Paths Utilizing A Campus Master Plan Study: A Method For Recognizing Urban Design Flaws, Michael Shuey

Landscape Architecture Masters & Design Theses

Desire paths are the informal pathways created from the erosional effect of repeated foot traffic. These footpaths come in many shapes and sizes and can occur in spaces where there are no formal pathways for pedestrians. However, in many developed urban and natural areas, desire paths may appear within a landscape that has been intentionally designed. In some perspectives, desire paths can represent user dissatisfaction with the pedestrian landscape, as well as a failure of the urban design process. Recent literature on this topic considers the environmental, economic, and social impacts caused by desire path occurrences. However, desire paths are …

Cal Poly Rodeo Observation Deck, Timothy Smith

Construction Management

This senior project was designed to help continue the winning tradition that the Cal Poly Rodeo program established in 1939 with a new observation deck for the practice arena. The major steps taken to complete this project were design, fundraising and construction. The total area of the deck is approximately 1,100 square feet and includes connections to an ADA approved ramp and multiple staircases. This is a landmark project for the Cal Poly Rodeo program and will assist them in keeping the winning Mustang tradition alive.

Parking By Design, Lane R. Sutherland, Shayna K. Gropen

City and Regional Planning

A comprehensive study of adaptive reuse of urban parking garages.

Protocolo Para La Implementación Efectiva De Los Elementos De La Gestión Del Riesgo De Desastres En La Elaboración De Planes Municipales De Gestión De Riesgo De Desastres Pmgrd, Fernando Andrés Palacios Erazo

Maestría en Hábitat y Gestión del Territorio

Este trabajo parte de la necesidad de los entes territoriales de elaborar de forma pertinente y efectiva, el Plan Municipal de Gestión del Riesgo de Desastres (PMGRD), puede entenderse como una herramienta conceptual y metodológica mediante la cual los tomadores de decisiones puedan interpretar su territorio y elaborar el Plan municipal de gestión del riesgo. Metodológicamente el trabajo se fundamenta en la revisión de acuerdos internacionales y normas nacionales que dieron origen a la ley 1523 de 2012, evalúa los instrumentos de planificación de los municipios, analiza el PMGRD y EMRE e identifica el papel de las Instituciones en la …

La Planificación De Equipamientos Colectivos En Proyectos Del Sistema General De Regalías: Región Centro Oriente 2013 2018, Carolina Aguilera López

Maestría en Hábitat y Gestión del Territorio

En Colombia, la inversión de recursos públicos en la provisión de equipamientos colectivos tiene el potencial de generar transformaciones sociales y urbanas que contribuyen directamente a mejorar la calidad de vida de las personas y las comunidades, aportando así al desarrollo de los territorios; sin embargo, las falencias en su planificación, asociadas a la ausencia de lineamientos que garanticen una adecuada distribución, y las deficiencias en la formulación de los proyectos, han menoscabado el impacto de la inversiones realizadas con los recursos de regalías. El propósito de este trabajo es proponer unos criterios de planificación que contribuyan a mejorar la …

Planning Practices For The Public Mental Health, Kaitlin A. Mcbride

Planning Theses

The rapid urbanization taking place in the 21st century poses its own unique set of public health concerns. In addition to changing lifestyles around the world, mental illness rates are higher in our cities. While the conversations surrounding public health usually focus on the physical, mental health has an equal impact on the overall wellbeing of individuals and populations. Just as the planning profession finds it crucial to be involved in efforts to improve the physical public health in cities, we must do the same for the public mental health. Like most professions, planning is guided by our theories. These …

Is Transportation Planning Effective? A Critical Review Of Long-Range Regional Transportation Planning In The United States, Razieh Nadafianshahamabadi

Civil Engineering ETDs

The Federal-Aid Highway Act requires urban areas with a population greater than 50,000 to create Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs) to ensure that funding for transportation projects and programs are based on a continuing, cooperative, and comprehensive planning process. A major responsibility of each MPO is the creation of a long-range transportation plan (LRTP) that addresses the transportation needs of a metropolitan region over the next twenty years or more. While long-range regional transportation planning goals have grown to include a wide range of concerns and technical methods for evaluating planning scenarios have advanced substantially over the past 50 years, there …

Have You Seen The Poop Fairy?, Sergio Lozoya

Architecture and Planning ETDs

This research seeks to understand the effectiveness of the There is no Poop Fairy campaign through a public survey of dog owners. The There Is No Poop Fairy campaign was initiated in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in 2014, with the goal of getting dog owners to pick up and properly dispose of their dogs’ waste. The Rio Grande is contaminated with E. coli bacteria that originates in part from dog waste, which is carried to the river through storm water. Levels of E. coli in the Rio Grande have decreased dramatically within the past few years, coincident with the campaign. The …

Framing Exterior Partitions For The Great Northern Services Housing Project, Patrick Pierre Shami

Construction Management

In the wake of a fire in Weed, CA that destroyed 150 homes, Great Northern Services (GNS), a nonprofit organization, reached out to Cal-Poly San Luis Obispo about a service-learning opportunity. This opportunity involved designing a single-family home and prefabricating the exterior partitions in San Luis Obispo. In Fall 2017, interdisciplinary teams of students delivered design proposals in the Integrated Project Delivery studio. The selected design was then finalized into a permitted set of drawings, and planning for the prefabrication began. The extent of the prefabrication was limited to the framing and sheathing of the exterior walls. The length of …

Prefabrication Of Exterior Partitions For Great Northern Services, John Christofer Claudio Espino

Construction Management

In the wake of a fire in Weed, CA that destroyed 150 homes, a non-profit organization called Great Northern Services (GNS) reached out to Cal-Poly San Luis Obispo about a service-learning opportunity that involved designing a single-family home and pre fabricating the exterior partitions in San Luis Obispo. In Fall 2017, interdisciplinary teams of students delivered design proposals in the Integrated Project Delivery studio. The selected design was then finalized into a permitted set of drawings and planning for the prefabrication began. The extent of the prefabrication was limited to the framing and sheathing of the exterior walls. The length …

The Reinvigoration Of Oakland Neighborhoods Through Public Art Installations, Riley Anderson-Barrett

City and Regional Planning

The driving factor behind this project is my interest in how public art can drastically improve areas with somewhat little tangible change. With the implementation of a few key pieces, an area can gain recognition, triangulation, and life. Recognition begins when the location becomes recognizable and memorable, as opposed to being yet another mundane street corner or node. Making a location memorable and recognizable sparks the interest and desire for people to come visit the area. Having these pieces can generate interest and triangulation, which is when people come together to experience or converse about whatever it is drawing them …

How Grants Improve Public Health In Sanger, California, Emily A. Rudger, Tabitha J. Tolsma, Jamie L. Mosler

City and Regional Planning

This report analyzes public health needs in Sanger, California. Gathering research from the community and generating a background using Healthy People 2020, the project outlines potential grants the community could benefit from, now and in the future. The grant chosen focuses on parks, as physical activity is an important factor and need for the community.

Planning Methods For A Sustainable Future, Anthony Jay Herrington

City and Regional Planning

Today, climate change, pollution, poor health, and economic crisis pose a threat to Earth and its inhabitants. If these global threats are left unmitigated, serious economic, environmental, and social consequences will occur. Earth’s future currently rests in the hands of urban planners and policy makers. It is their responsibility to develop and implement methods that ensure a sustainable future. Sustainability is defined as meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. The current effort to achieve global sustainability needs to be improved as conditions continue to decline. Urban planners and …

Policy Alternatives That Provide California School Districts With The Policy Options Necessary To Develop Facilities To Enhance Student Learning Opportunities And Optimize Financial Resources, Brett Mitchell

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to develop policy alternatives by the years 2019 to 2025 that would assist state policy makers, legislators, and advocates in adding definition to California school facility development and funding.

Methodology: This study involved descriptive statistics using a Delphi study method. Within the theoretical framework established for policy analysis, this Delphi study was inclusive of the knowledge and expertise of an expert panel that was nominated through peers. The Delphi panel consisted of 24 experts knowledgeable about statewide school facilities policy in California. The Delphi study was comprised of 3 rounds of electronic questionnaires …