Architecture Commons^™

Tefft Street Corridor Redesign, Andres M. Figueroa

City and Regional Planning

The Tefft Street Corridor Redesign is a proposal for a buffered shared use path along the most significant 1.75 mile portion of Tefft Street located in Nipomo, California. The proposal includes an introduction, background information, existing conditions analysis, regulatory standards analysis, community engagement, conceptual designs, and implementation framework.

The Use Of Biomimicry In Urban Planning And Design, Cole Sorensen

City and Regional Planning

No abstract provided.

From Greens To General Plans: Reinventing Abandoned Golf Courses, Chloe Carolyn Partain

City and Regional Planning

This paper examines three case studies from different areas of the western United States to analyze the challenges and opportunities associated with redeveloping underutilized or abandoned golf courses. By examining how different communities from across the region have approached this process, this study aims to inform city planners, developers, policymakers, and other stakeholders about the intricacies and potential pitfalls of this process. It concludes with a list of necessary considerations for the redevelopment of any golf course and recommends best practices to follow throughout the process of redevelopment.

Development Of The New Hasslein Caed Collaborative, Catie Dines

Construction Management

This paper outlines the development and execution of the new Hasslein CAED Collaborative student competition which engages students of all five majors in the College of Architecture and Environmental Design in a Request for Proposal style competition. CAED houses students studying Architecture, Architectural Engineering, City and Regional Planning, Construction Management, and Landscape Architecture. There is little opportunity for interdisciplinary collaboration within the CAED, despite our future career paths being heavily intertwined. This competition followed research by Greta Stout, class of 2022, on the benefits and support of interdisciplinary collaboration at Cal Poly SLO in CAED. The competition is named after …

Three Rivers Community Town Center, Jamie Moffatt

City and Regional Planning

This project is an extension to the Community Planning courses in the City and Regional Planning Department, CRP 410 and 411. The project began in Fall 2022 and was completed in Winter 2023. The first quarter, the studio team worked with Three Rivers, California, which resulted in a thorough general plan background report for the community. The Tulare County Mountain Area Plan – Background Report, will be referenced throughout the project. The second quarter, the studio team switched directions and completed a five-year review for the Three River’s community, based on their community plan and the General Plan for Tulare …

Estimating The Impact Of Infill Housing On Reduction In Vehicle Miles Traveled, Peyton Marie Ratto

Master's Theses

Vehicle miles traveled (VMT) and its relationship with the built environment has been extensively studied. Most notably, five D variables of the built environment including density, diversity, design, destination accessibility, and distance to transit are the key variables included in this research to explain VMT generation from housing developments. This thesis uses prior research that developed robust statistical models and findings to create a framework to estimate VMT reduction affected by infill housing developed using incentives provided by the state compared to a regional comparator. The regional comparator is typically a suburban single-family housing development in the region. The models …

Investigating Cost-Effective And Time-Efficient Ways To Speed Up Transit, Joe Yin Jo Tam

City and Regional Planning

With the emphasis on cities worldwide prioritizing more environmentally friendly forms of transportation, along with a new focus on equity to ensure that underserved and disadvantaged communities are served equitably and receive services that enable economic opportunity, access to recreation opportunities, and social services, equitable and sustainable forms of transportation are required. This study explores potential methods for enhancing and strengthening transit as a reliable and sustainable means of transportation. This study evaluates cost-effective methods for achieving significant gains in improving transit reliability and speed.

Plansplaining Ceqa: Explaining The Basics Of The California Environmental Quality Act, Eric Yu Wang

City and Regional Planning

The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) is a half-century old public disclosure law. In recent years, it has attracted public attention in its role in hindering essential developments such as affordable housing and other major public projects. Throughout its lifetime, CEQA has evolved from a simple public project disclosure law into a complex system. However, because of the spread of sensationalized media, CEQA has become frequently mystified and misunderstood by the public.

Through a six-video series called Plansplaining CEQA, the YouTube channel Plansplainer seeks to de-mystify California's unique and infamous public disclosure law. The videos are made to accessible …

Home Based Business Ordinance For The City Of Reno, Maxwell Hp Johnson

City and Regional Planning

Home based businesses allow for some commercial and business activities to occur within private residences by residents without the need of commercially zoned properties or structures. Home based businesses provide affordable accommodation for less impactful small businesses, but can additionally impact neighbors and communities with negative externalities when not properly regulated. The City of Reno, Nevada currently faces rising land prices and limited availability of commercial properties. Such conditions increase the adoption of home based businesses, and combined with the lack of regulation can create nuisances within communities.

The ordinance proposal analyzes relevant legal cases, case study ordinances, and the …

The Integration Between Housing And Transportation In Contemporary City And Regional Planning: Transit-Oriented Development For The San Luis Obispo Station, Aidan Zachary Clark, Keigo Justin Yamamoto, Owen Deane Troy

City and Regional Planning

This transit-oriented development will help mitigate the housing crisis in California starting with San Luis Obispo at the local level by developing housing for all demographics. The project will be beneficial towards increasing the livability and connectivity of current residents, commuters, and visitors of the San Luis Obispo region. The project will also activate the spaces by providing a walkway and commercial development for people that were previously not present. The proposed development is projected to activate the area, with new amenities, while promoting the site’s existing uses; The existing cafe and restaurant within the project site will not be …

Intelligent Transportation Systems (Its): A Survey Of What It Is, What It Does, Where It Faulters, And Where To Go With It, Niklas Nordstrom

City and Regional Planning

The world of technology continues to find itself incorporated into an ever-expanding number of fields with a rapidly increasing number of applications. One of these is transportation, under the umbrella of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS). The intention of this application at a macro scale is to increase the surface transport safety, efficiency, and convenience. As technological improvements continue to be made, ITS grows in popularity and implementation, and is now found in many cities across the United States. Correct implementation of ITS could have huge benefits in the transportation sector, but without thinking about its implications now, there is a …

Boulevard Apartments - Long Beach, Ca, Daryl P. Hernandez

City and Regional Planning

The proposed development will provide Long Beach residents with more opportunities for housing. The project is located on lots 923 and 927 Long Beach Boulevard in Long Beach, California. Currently, the lots are underutilized and vacant with no existing development on them. The apartment complex will consist of 75 units that include studio apartments, one-bedroom apartments, and two-bedroom apartments. An additional four units will be for qualified, low-income residents. The purpose of this development is to provide quality housing for young adults and families located in the heart of Long Beach.

Three Rivers: Plan Analysis And Recommendations Including An Environmental Justice Addendum, Gerardo Arregui

City and Regional Planning

This document examines the existing Three Rivers Community Plan in order to find shortcomings, missing information and to recommend appropriate format and content for future iterations. The final section of this document has been designed to be a model for the Environmental Justice section for the Three River’s future community plan update because the current plan is silent on this topic.

Itentifying Suitable Sites For The Rotating Safe Parking Program In San Luis Obispo, Finnegan James

City and Regional Planning

This report has been created with the intention of identifying a new Safe Parking location in the City of San Luis Obispo (SLO) for the Rotating Safe Parking Program. SLO currently has two Safe Parking locations, though one is being discontinued due to inadequacy of the site. The City wishes to identify a new location, or locations, that can replace this. This report came to life after coordination with the City to determine how this senior project could best support the City’s efforts to address homelessness in SLO in 2023. My work began when I identified areas in the Homelessness …

Urban Design On A Global Scale: A Comparison Of Four Cities, Avery Grace Crower, Shane N. Strunk

City and Regional Planning

This senior project encompasses an analysis of urban design on a global scale. The authors chose four cities to analyze using eight different urban design elements. The cities chosen were Los Angeles, Paris, Rio de Janeiro, and Tokyo. Understanding how each city exemplified the urban design elements, assisted the authors in conducting a compare and contrast of the most and least desirable design attributes within each city. The authors were able to conclude with important takeaways and lessons from the analysis and comparison.

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 …

Evanescent: Animating Space, Kyle Servando

City and Regional Planning

A redesign of the open space of The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA into an plein air gallery for the public to be their own artists.

The Grand Entrance: A Faculty And Staff Housing Development, Emily M. Ladue, Susana T. Toner

City and Regional Planning

The team chose this project because it is one of many upcoming projects detailed for California Polytechnic State University (University) in the 2035 Master plan. The University has a capacity of over 21,000 students and 3,000 employees, including 1,400 faculty. Many students and faculty from the University live within city limits, with students making up a majority of the rental market in the city. In a typical four-bedroom house, four students with four separate incomes can rent out a house together and pay a much higher rent than a faculty member with one to two incomes could. Additionally, The City …

Precious Plastics - Plastic Brick Machine Fabrication, Timothy Ukaobasi Kanu, Evi Paraskevi Troulis

Architectural Engineering

The goal of this research is to determine the structural parameters of the recycled plastic polypropylene when molded into bricks resembling CMU blocks. To accomplish this, three mechanisms had to be assembled: the shredder, the injector, and the 1x1 mold. A tensile and compression test were to be performed on the plastic brick, and the values would be used to compare the tensile and compressive strength of PP plastic bricks, as well as their modulus of elasticity and stress vs. Strain performance. These values would be analyzed to determine whether it would be feasible to build an entire plastic wall. …

Urban Densification At Twin Creeks Apartments: High-Density Living With Low-Density Luxuries, Ryan Griswold

Construction Management

Urban sprawl is characterized by the rapid growth of the extent of cities and towns. In the United States, urban sprawl is greatly influenced by housing density. In the past half-century, developers have favored constructing and consumers have preferred living in neighborhoods of detached, single-family homes. This is because low-density living provides more housing services, or additional benefits, than most high-density developments, such as apartments and townhomes. Residents of low-density living often have more privacy, outdoor space, interior natural light, and many other benefits over residents of higher-density developments. However, Twin Creeks Apartments, located in San Luis Obispo, California, is …

Planning, Preserving, And Increasing Accessibility: A Reflection On Going “Car-Free”, Abigail J. Weizer

City and Regional Planning

This paper studies the accessibility of car-free areas to those with mobility impairments by examining three car-free and car-lite experiments in California. Whether slowly converted to car-free with long-term, careful planning, or expeditiously changed to car-free during the COVID-19 pandemic, these three car-free experiments show the shortcomings of planning for accessibility in car-free spaces, and how instead of improving accessibility, current planning practice often hinders it. This paper offers a deep-dive into the drawbacks and benefits of going car-free and the ethical and legal reasons why urban planners, designers, and policymakers must consider the accessibility of a space before planning …

Assessing The Utility Of Procedural Modeling For The Urban Planning Discipline: Cityengine And Missing Middle Housing, Riley A. Nelson, Trevor K. Winnard

City and Regional Planning

In recent years, procedural modeling techniques have been introduced to the urban planning discipline. By enabling the quick generation of design alternatives, these methods have the potential to expedite the public participation process. In this study, we explore ArcGIS CityEngine, an Esri procedural modeling software, and its application for depicting new missing middle housing developments in San Luis Obispo, California. Missing middle housing is an abstract planning concept and the public may benefit from 3D visualizations of the typology contextualized within their own neighborhood. To this end, we procedurally model two existing missing middle developments in San Luis Obispo and …

Skip The Grid: Providing Power And Light To The Navajo Nation, Esai Contreras

Construction Management

Skip the Grid was created as an initiative to power communities that are in need. This project was made possible through a collaborative effort from California Polytechnic State University San Luis Obispo (Cal Poly) students, industry partners SOLV Energy and Goal Zero, and facilitated through the educational non-profit organization Heart of America (HOA). The goal of this project was to help families of school age children in the Navajo Nation by providing solar energy systems including a battery and lighting. We hoped to achieve a long-lasting effect on the families by installing necessities for families with school-aged children. For the …

Site Development Feasibility Study, Andy A. Tenekjian

Construction Management

A feasibility study in the world of construction is deemed as a preliminary due diligence process in which key components of a project are addressed to determine if the project is viable or not. These components are related to time and money, and the end goal of a feasibility study is to determine if the initial investment of time and money is worth the amount of future financial return. What deems a project successful in the preliminary stage is up for interpretation. Each developer and investor have their own return on investment threshold in a multi-family project like the one …

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 …

Rekindling The Human Spirit Through Urban Design: Creating Spaces For Joy, Sharon Charlotte Ng

City and Regional Planning

What makes people joyful? How can we foster happy, healing spaces through urban design that allow for all community members to channel emotional wellbeing? In a fast paced, consumer-oriented economy, the importance of maintaining mental health and well-being is often ignored. This paper seeks to answer these questions through the synthesis of existing literature on urban design, society, and case study analyses of existing public spaces. Although the research focuses on social transformation through the implementation of urban design principles, the disciplines of city planning, public health, sociology, and psychology are discussed as well. The research explores techniques that would …

Feasibility Report On Water Recycling And The Housing Crisis, Tally A. Perry

City and Regional Planning

The western United States is experiencing increasing population, a housing shortage, and a drought. These challenges demand creative and unprecedented changes to development. Water recycling is slowly emerging as a viable solution for developers, home owners, and cities as a way to continue much-needed housing development while mitigating unnecessary water depletion. With all change, policy, feasibility, and awareness can be the largest influencers. Drought-ridden western-American states require additional and revised regulatory requirements to promote recycled water in new development. Currently, water reuse is largely used for agricultural and industrial purposes. To motivate and encourage housing development, water recycling needs to …

The Mustang Bridge, Dominic Loreto, Jacob Bulotti

City and Regional Planning

The purpose of this project is to develop a pedestrian overpass in San Luis Obispo, California at the entry of the city that will successfully provide crossing and safety on Boysen Ave. and Santa Rosa Street connecting Mustang village to university square. The current circulation routes have a significant impact on a community’s pedestrians, cyclists, and automobile drivers. Safety becomes a growing concern when the streets are illegally crossed in unsafe sections, putting everybody at risk. The planned environment will be revised and accurately assessed to provide safety, flexibility, and proper use of the circulation route in place. The community’s …

Cityengine As A Tool For Visualizing Neighborhood Change: An Initial Study, Zach Noyes

City and Regional Planning

Urban planning is reliant upon genuine public engagement to ensure that planning and policy decisions reflect the ideas shared by the public. Because planning is a profession largely focused on the physical and built implications of more abstract planning concepts, effective graphic communication is critical to securing public support and understanding of policy decisions. ESRI's CityEngine uses procedural modeling technology to render personally-tailored scenes to non-planner members of the public, and shows potential to positively change the way that planners generate graphic representations of physical impacts of policy changes. This initial study establishes a methodology for determining the efficacy of …

Crissy Field Improvement Project, Giselle Huan Beld

City and Regional Planning

This senior project report is an exploratory analysis of the National Park Service’s passively-managed lands at Crissy Field.

There are always multiple alternatives to a new development project and the priorities established at the beginning of a process can have a major impact on the final outcomes. This senior project report investigates implications of reconnecting the city with the northern waterfront and investigates key recommendations related to transportation, environmental, and historic planning.