Architecture Commons^™

Expanding Planning’S Public Sphere: Street Magazine, Activist Planning And Community Development In Brooklyn, Ny 1971-75, Laura Wolf-Powers

Laura Wolf-Powers

During the late 1960s and early 1970s, a paradigm of activist planning or critical city planning became a new “tributary” feeding the stream of the planning profession. STREET Magazine, published from 1971 to 1975 by the Pratt Institute Center for Community and Environmental Development in Brooklyn, NY, offers a lens through which to examine the expansion of the profession to encompass a range of ideas associated with this paradigm. This article, drawing on an extensive review of STREET magazine’s content within the historical context in which it was produced, as well as interviews with people involved with the publication, argues …

The Sustainability Implications Of Building Adaptive Reuse, Craig A. Langston

Craig Langston

Building adaptive reuse is an important global topic. In the context of sustainable development and the effects of climate change caused by previous disregard for our environment, adaptive reuse has significant implications. This paper aims to examine how the construction industry can reposition itself to increase focus on the revitalization of existing buildings as an alternative to demolition and replacement. The paper reports on current research undertaken in Australia as part of a nationally-funded program in collaboration with industry, proposes a new model for early identification of adaptive reuse potential, tests this model with case study data, and looks at …

The Road Not Taken, Michael E. Lewyn

Michael E Lewyn

Defends Jacksonville's annexation of its Duval County suburbs, and compares Jacksonville's post-annexation fate with that of less elastic southern cities.

Circular Logic, Michael E. Lewyn

Michael E Lewyn

Criticizes cul-de-sacs on the ground that they detract from neighborhood walkability, and proposes a variety of alternatives.

Life-Cycle Cost Design Of Deteriorating Structure, Dan M. Frangopol, Kai-Yung Lin, Allen C. Estes

Allen C. Estes

A lifetime optimization methodology for planning the inspection and repair of structures that deteriorate over time is introduced and illustrated through numerical examples. The optimization is based on minimizing the expected total life-cycle cost while maintaining an allowable lifetime reliability for the structure. This method incorporates: (a) the quality of inspection techniques with different detection capabilities; (b) all repair possibilities based on an event tree; (c) the effects of aging, deterioration, and subsequent repair on structural reliability; and (d) the time value of money. The overall cost to be minimized includes the initial cost and the costs of preventive maintenance, …

Conservation In A Box: A Primer Of Basic Paper Conservation Procedures And Treatments, Michaelle Biddle

Michaelle Biddle

No abstract provided.

The Development And Testing Of A Purchasing Power Parity Method For Comparing Construction Costs Internationally, Rick Best

Rick Best

Over the past fifty to sixty years there have been numerous attempts to compare the performance of the construction industries of different countries. In almost all cases the cost of construction has been an important, sometimes the single parameter Cost performance has sometimes been equated to productivity, and productivity measurement and comparison is attempted by governments and their agencies on a regular basis.

Fundamental to these exercises has been the necessity to bring construction costs in different national currencies to a common base. This is imperative as amounts in different currencies cannot be directly compared.

Money market exchange rates do …

Summary Of 2008 Homeland Security Symposium At The National Academies: Fostering Public-Private Partnerships, George H. Baker, Cheryl J. Elliott

George H Baker

Recent U.S. high consequence events have made clear the importance of government collaboration with industry. The benefits of such collaboration were clearly seen as a lesson from Hurricane Katrina. The resources owned and controlled by American industry dwarf those available to local, state and even the federal government departments. Better agreements and incentives to bring the full capabilities of industry squarely into the national response agenda will be indispensable in effectively responding to large-scale catastrophes. General Russel Honoré who led the National Guard response to Katrina has said, “We need the partnering between local, state, and federal governments; but the …

Lots Of It, Michael E. Lewyn

Michael E Lewyn

Criticizes municipal minimum parking requirements.

Ojo: Le Estamos Filmando, Fernando Carrión Mena

Fernando Carrión Mena

Las políticas de seguridad ciudadana se hacen cada vez más complejas –entre otras razones– porque la violencia también se ha expandido. En este proceso, llama la atención el creciente desarrollo del componente tecnológico, lo cual ha levado a una disputa también en ese campo. Son tecnologías sofisticadas y de punta que se ponen al servicio de las políticas, muchas de las cuales se han generalizado significativamente.

Dentro de este proceso sobresale con peso propio los instrumentos de video vigilancia, que inicialmente estuvieron circunscritos al es-pacio privado (casas comerciales, bancos) para cumplir con dos fines explícitos: vigilar la calidad productiva y …

Measurement And Analysis Of Vitiation Of Secondary Air In Air Distribution Systems (Rp-1276), David P. Yuill, Grenville K. Yuill, Andrew H. Coward

David Yuill

Saving Nigeria's Islamic Manuscript Heritage, Michaelle Biddle

Michaelle Biddle

No abstract provided.

Ordenanza Metropolitana De Protección Del Patrimonio Natural, Fernando Carrión Mena

Fernando Carrión Mena

El Concejo Metropolitano de Quito

Considerando

Que por mandato del número 16 del artículo 14 de la Ley Orgánica de Régimen Municipal y del número 3 del artículo 2 de la Ley Orgánica de Régimen para el Distrito Metropolitano de Quito, es función primordial del Municipio prevenir y controlar la contaminación del ambiente;

Que la ampliación de los espacios verdes del Distrito Metropolitano de Quito, es fundamental para el logro del fin indicado;

Que para ello deben establecerse sistemas que aseguren la participación de la comunidad; y,

En ejercicio de la atribución que le confiere el número 1 del artículo …

Residential Security Maps And Neighborhood Appraisals. The Homeowners' Loan Corporation And The Case Of Philadelphia, Amy E. Hillier

Amy Hillier

At the request of the Home Loan Bank Board, the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation (HOLC) created color-coded maps for cities across the country between 1935 and 1940 that indicated risk levels for long-term real estate investment. Involvement in this City Survey Program marked a departure from the original mission of HOLC to provide new mortgages on an emergency basis to homeowners at risk of losing their homes during the Depression. This article considers why HOLC made these maps, how HOLC created them, and what the basis was for the grades on the maps. Geographic information systems and spatial regression models …

Closing The Gap: Housing (Un)Affordability In Philadelphia, Amy E. Hillier, Dennis P. Culhane

Amy Hillier

No abstract provided.

Who Received Loans? Home Owners' Loan Corporation Lending And Discrimination In Philadelphia In The 1930'S, Amy E. Hillier

Amy Hillier

The lending record of the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation (HOLC) has received little attention compared with HOLC’s residential security maps. Specifically, the extent to which HOLC practiced racial and ethnic discrimination in the process of making and servicing more than a million loans to homeowners during the Depression has not been carefully examined. Using primary sources including HOLC publications, newspaper articles, 1930 census data, and mortgage records from Philadelphia, this research shows that HOLC did make loans to African Americans, Jews, and immigrants. Evidence suggests, however, that HOLC supported racial segregation in the process of reselling properties acquired through foreclosure.

Redlining And The Homeowners' Loan Corporation, Amy E. Hillier

Amy Hillier

This article analyzes the impact of the residential security maps created by the Home Owners’Loan Corporation (HOLC) during the 1930s on residential mortgages in Philadelphia. Researchers have consistently argued that HOLC caused redlining and disinvestment in U.S. cities by sharing its color-coded maps. Geographic information systems and spatial statistical models were used to analyze address-level mortgage data from Philadelphia to determine if areas with worse grades actually had less access to residential mortgage credit as a result. Findings indicate that the grades on HOLC’s map do not explain differences in lending patterns with the exception of interest rates, which were …

Light Motion Machines, Thomas Fowler, Iv

Thomas Fowler IV, DPACSA, FAIA

Students worked in four teams of three to four each and were assigned the construction of a light motion machine. Teams developed devices, which were an interpretation of László Moholy-Nagy’s 1930’s Space Light Modular Machine. These machines had to have moving parts for the purpose of studying light and shadow projections in motion. László Moholy-Nagy’s Space Light Modular Machine was a mechanically driven rotating kaleidoscope projecting ever-changing patterns of light, shadow, and color. Students were provided information on Moholy-Nagy’s machine and also shown a range of interpretations students developed in a previous studio.

Intimate And Transparent Production Of Space, Thomas Fowler, Iv

Thomas Fowler IV, DPACSA, FAIA

This paper illustrates the design work from an integrated third-year Architecture Design Studio and a Professional Practice (a.k.a., project constructability) Studio. There are two parts to this paper. The first part shows how students were involved in a collaborative interdisciplinary project with New Media Arts students in the Liberal Arts Department on campus. Students in collaborative teams designed and constructed a temporary pneumatic structure to house a virtually interactive technology called “Intimate Transactions”. Lessons learned from this design build collaboration in working with the inventor of this technology system, along with the reading of a range of essays on new …

Physical And Digital Media Strategies For Exploring "Imagined" Realities Of Space, Skin And Light, Thomas Fowler, Iv, Brook Muller

Thomas Fowler IV, DPACSA, FAIA

This paper will discuss an unconventional methodology for using physical and digital media strategies in a tightly structured framework for the integration of Environmental Control Systems (ECS) principles into a third year design studio. An interchangeable use of digital media and physical material enabled architectural explorations of rich tactile and luminous engagement. The principles that provide the foundation for integrative strategies between a design studio and building technology course spring from the Bauhaus tradition where a systematic approach to craftsmanship and visual perception is emphasized. Focusing particularly on color, light, texture and materials, Josef Albers explored the assemblage of found …

Digital And Analog Strategies For Design Studio, Thomas Fowler, Iv

Thomas Fowler IV, DPACSA, FAIA

In a third year design studio, assignments are crafted for students to refine skills in both digital and analog media tools (physical modeling and traditional drawings), to allow them to see the advantages and disadvantages of both, to develop a critical attitude towards media and to develop a design project using these tools. Students start out the quarter participating in a week-long group warm-up diagramming exercise that allows students who are not as familiar with form•Z to learn how to use the software in the context of completing a design assignment. Groups are arranged with students who are familiar with …

Exploring The Constructability Of 'Imagined' Realities, Thomas Fowler, Iv

Thomas Fowler IV, DPACSA, FAIA

In the third year of the 5-year Bachelor of Architecture Program, form•Z is used as the preferred 3D digital modeling tool. form•Z is used with a range of other 2D digital media (Photoshop, etc) along with 3D traditional-digital media (physical models, plan & section drawings) that allows the architecture students to go back and forth between multiple mediums during the design process. This particular methodology has the advantage of revealing more quickly and more clearly, weaknesses in the developing project as well as inconsistencies between a student’s original intentions (for example about how daylight will change the character of a …

The Tectonics Of Motion, Light And Space, Thomas Fowler, Iv

Thomas Fowler IV, DPACSA, FAIA

This paper illustrates the design work from an integrated third year Architecture Design Studio and Environmental Controls Systems (ECS) Studio. As the final project, all students developed a ‘Center for the Study of Light’, based on the quarter long experiments with light. The quarter began with spatial experiments with both day and electric lighting. In the ECS course students started with several physical model interpretations of James Turrell’s electric light installations and in the Design Studio several full-scaled working versions of Moholy Nagy’s Light Space Modular were constructed to explore the connection of movement, light, space and materials. Another instructor …

The Application Of British Neoclassical Design Principles: The Greek Island Of Kefalonia, Nicholas Patricios

Nicholas Patricios

A fascinating example of taking available designs and then engaging in the act of designing new designs is the application of the British Neoclassical architectural style to new buildings in the Ionian Islands off the west coast of Greece. This occurred when Britain occupied these Islands in 1809 which then received independent status in 1815 under the British crown. It is ironical that the country that created classical architecture had neoclassical architecture introduced from the outside. The largest of the Ionian Islands, Kefalonia, provides an insightful case of the application of British neoclassical design principles to new civic buildings and …

Prologue: Ordinary Places, Extraordinary Events, Clara Irazabal

Clara Irazabal

Scholars have argued that public space is a prerequisite for the expression, representation, preservation, and/or enhancement of democracy (Sassen, 1996; Holston, 1989, 1999; Caldeira, 2000; Low, 2000; Low and Smith, 2006). However, this optimistic outlook is betrayed in reality by the many examples in recent history when public spaces have been used for the deployment and reproduction of totalitarian regimes. In the Americas, we can recount the experiences of Pinochet’s Santiago, Videla’s Buenos Aires, Strossner’s Asuncion, and Pérez Jiménez’s Caracas, among others. Yet, even in those cases, political demonstrations in public spaces conversely played a critical role in the eventual …

Why Pedestrian-Friendly Street Design Is Not Negligent, Michael E. Lewyn

Michael E Lewyn

American streets are typically designed for fast automobile traffic. As a result, those streets are often dangerous for pedestrians.

In part, the anti-pedestrian design of American streets is a result of transportation planners' perceptions of American tort law. In negligent street design cases, courts and juries sometimes rely upon guidelines set by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO), a national association of government transportation officials. Because AASHTO's street-design rules have historically favored wide streets built to accommodate high-speed traffic, planners sometimes assume that in order to avoid liability, they must do the same.

The purpose of …

The History And Future Of Homeless Management Information Systems, Stephen R. Poulin, Stephen Metraux, Dennis P. Culhane

Dennis P. Culhane

This chapter reviews the history of the development of management information systems in the homelessness program area. Efforts begun in the 1980s and 1990s by individual cities are discussed, as are the Congressional initatives that led to the mandated implementation of such systems in the US. The use of these systems for the Annual Homelessness Assessment Report to the US Congress is described, as are potential future uses of HMIS for research, policy and program planning.

Rearranging The Deck Chairs Or Reallocating The Lifeboats?: Homelessness Assistance And Its Alternatives, Dennis P. Culhane, Stephen Metraux

Dennis P. Culhane

Problem: At present, homelessness in the United States is primarily addressed by providing emergency and transitional shelter facilities. These programs do not directly address the causes of homelessness, and residents are exposed to victimization and trauma during stays. We need an alternative that is more humane, as well as more efficient and effective at achieving outcomes. Purpose: This article uses research on homelessness to devise alternative forms of emergency assistance that could reduce the prevalence and/or duration of episodes of homelessness and much of the need for emergency shelter. Methods: We review analyses of shelter utilization patterns to identify subgroups …

Ontologies And Shape Grammars: Communication Between Knowledge-Based And Generative Systems, Francois Grobler, Ajla Aksamija, Hyunjoo Kim, Ramesh Krishnmurti, Kui Yue, Casey Hickerson

Ajla Aksamija

This paper discusses information flow between knowledge-based models and shape grammars for generation of building designs, explaining the interaction, system and implementation. The benefit for using the interactive system is that the complementary properties of the two schemes are used to strengthen the overall process. Shape grammar contains rules about the geometric organization, while knowledge-based model supports the contextual information.

Information Technology And Architectural Practice: Knowledge Modeling Approach And Bim, Ajla Aksamija, Mir Ali

Ajla Aksamija

This paper presents recent developments in information technologies and their impact on architectural design. It presents a practical technique for knowledge-based information modeling extending the currently prevailing Building Information Modelling (BIM) to include information beyond the building elements, and to foster analysis during the design process. Interactive web-based application for information discovery and design analysis is discussed as a case study. The application integrates several aspects of the early schematic design, and is intended for demonstration of integrated design factors.