Architecture Commons^™

A Re-Design Of The Native Orchid House At The Belize Botanic Gardens, Jill A. Weissman

Landscape Architecture & Regional Planning Masters Projects

This project focuses on the re-design of The Native Orchid House (NOH) at The Belize Botanic Gardens (San Ignacio, Cayo District, Belize, Central America). The project question is: What is the research/design process associated with creating a collection display at a public [botanical] garden? More specifically, how can this process be applied to re-design the Native Orchid House at The Belize Botanic Gardens?

Reclaiming The Miracle Mile: A Greenway Park Design & Land Use Strategy For Springfield's Lower Mill River, Amy C. Verel

Landscape Architecture & Regional Planning Masters Projects

The City of Springfield, Massachusetts, a city set on the bluffs and shoreline of the Connecticut River and home to just over 150,000 people, is seeking to develop a strategic plan for improving the lower reaches of the Mill River (highlighted in yellow) between the Armory Watershops on Allen Street and the river's confluence with the Connecticut River just west of Interstate 91, approximately 1 1/4 miles to the southwest. This section of the Mill River (referred to herein as the Lower Mill River) is heavily urbanized and functions as a barrier between its neighborhoods. Once valued for its benefits …

Green Infrastructure Application In The Chelsea River Subwatershed, Lianying Bao

Landscape Architecture & Regional Planning Masters Projects

This master project uses green infrastructure as a tool to protect urban environment and wildlife habitat under degradation due to urbanization in the Chelsea River Subwatershed in eastern Massachusetts. The goal of the project is to improve the Chelsea River Subwatershed, and therefore to improve the impaired Chelsea River by identifying the best locations for urban landscape interventions and creating blue-green network with green infrastructure in the subwatershed. Site visits, literature review, background data search, interview with government staff and watershed associations helped with site analysis to identify the problems and potentials for green infrastructure implementation. Landscape Urbanism theory as …

A Green Core For The Maroon And Gold: Creating A Sustainable Campus Expansion At The University Of Minnesota, Frank J. Varro

Landscape Architecture & Regional Planning Masters Projects

The sustainable design movement has been one of the most influential trends seen in the last 10 years. This movement is still seen by the public at large as something that is difficult, ugly, and rural. Creating a showpiece project in an urban area allows these myths to be dispelled through education. This project focuses on a proposed design for an 80 acre campus expansion of the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. This site has many advantages including a location in an urban core, a Big Ten football stadium that would attract national attention, and a local population made up …

Craigmillar Castle Park: Design Parameters In A Historic Designed Landscape And Scheduled Ancient Monument: Planning To Restore Attraction To A Dilapidated Park, Aaron M.N. Crowell

Landscape Architecture & Regional Planning Masters Projects

The castle of Craigmillar was begun in the late 14th century and was developed until the late 17th century when it was abandoned and the lands surrounding it which today comprise Craigmillar Castle Park (CCP) developed into a picturesque park and a plant nursery. This land has been a retreat from Edinburgh's city center recorded as early as the time of King James the IV of Scotland, six centuries ago (Tabraham, 2003). The castle and its parkland have seen significant development of the gardens in the Tudor, Restoration, Georgian, Regency, and the Victorian British historical periods. The park like setting …

Direct-To-Business And Direct-To-Institution Marketing And Distribution Arrangements For Ethically-Based Farms: Reduced Value Chains And Other Strategies For Increasing The Viability Of Mid-Sized Southern New England Farms, Evan C. Aird

Landscape Architecture & Regional Planning Masters Projects

This Master's Project aims to examine the issues involved in the creation and enhancement of direct-to-business and direct-to-institution marketing and distribution arrangements for mid-sized farms in Southern New England. Previous scholarly and professional literature has indicated that regional food systems are less costly from an environmental perspective than national or local ones, identity-preserved products have inherent marketing advantages over untraced farm products, and these advantages can be enhanced through cooperative efforts by major farm customers. This research study involves reviewing leading examples of local farm marketing and distribution networks, analyzing regional spatial and statistical data, and conducting interviews with farms, …

Watershed As Metaphor For Nested Hydrologic Systems, Christopher Todd Lynch

Landscape Architecture & Regional Planning Masters Projects

The Tan Brook watershed vision and recommendation matrix give the town of Amherst a road map for making the watershed into a resilient ecosystem that could sustain life across many scales. The Master Plan for Amherst Regional high school nested within the Upper Reach of the Tan Brook Watershed, specifically implements components of the recommendations so that it becomes a model for what stream restoration, rain gardens and impervious materials might do to improve water quality, provide social benefit and restore habitat. The landscape of the high school is a metaphor for what the Watershed might become, and with its …

Umass Center For Exploration And Innovation In The Built Environment, Neal A. Overstrom

Landscape Architecture & Regional Planning Masters Projects

This project proposes the design of a studio facility on the University of Massachusetts campus dedicated to the exploration and application of both traditional landscape materials (earth, structure, plants, water) and contemporary technical media (infiltrators, irrigation systems, green-roof systems) as a part of an interdisciplinary learning landscape committed to sustainability in built environments. At no time in history has the appropriate choice and application of materials for use in the built landscape been more significant. Today the use of materials and techniques that mitigate and, where possible, reverse the impacts of environmental degradation is vital. This mandate notwithstanding, the importance …

Designing The Phytoremediation Landscape: Exploring Phytoremediation Of Urban Brownfields As A System And Stage In Designed And Managed Successional Processes, David N. Maynes

Landscape Architecture & Regional Planning Masters Projects

The present day challenges facing the post-industrial city are economic reinvention, social equity, and environmental recovery. The urban mosaic of these places is vague and broken, and demands new and innovative solutions for the reclamation of vacant, abandoned, and contaminated landscapes that create a unification of economic, environmental, and cultural healing. A multi-scalar approach is proposed as a strategy for the integration of multiple components in multiple contexts. Particular focus is on the synthesis of community engagement and environmental remediation of these spoiled, derelict lands. Specifically, phytoremediation is explored as a solution for land reclamation, ecological and social recovery of …

Designing Base Station For Living Routes Auroville, India, Vandita Mudgal

Landscape Architecture & Regional Planning Masters Projects

Living Routes is a Non Governmental Organization based in Amherst, MA that sends students overseas for semester long courses affiliated by the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. The courses comprise of sustainable living practices, ecological studies and a lifestyle that supports nature. These sites are primarily eco-villages spread throughout the world. In some of them Living Routes has its own campus and in others they function from temporary guest houses and hired accommodations.

This Master's study project worked to develop the spatial design for a campus located in Auroville, India for Living Routes. As the course is more established in Auroville, …

The Design Process Of A Residential Project, Christine Gale

Landscape Architecture & Regional Planning Masters Projects

This master's project is a residential design project that focuses on the design process and the design of the residence itself. The residence that was used for this project was a thirty five acre site located in Rydal, Pennsylvania. The design process started with research that looked at the country place era and three case studies that were quintessential examples of axial residential designs from different eras. This research was meant to serve as inspiration for my design. The second phase of the project focuses on a site analysis which was also crucial in helping to make design decisions.

The …

Redeveloping Amherst Town Center: Sustainable Zoning And Design With Form-Based Codes, Nathaniel J. Malloy

Landscape Architecture & Regional Planning Masters Projects

Today with 3-dimensional computer modeling and sophisticated mapping technology, a community can envision their future more realistically than in recent history. This software and technology can help communities plan to use energy-efficient construction, preserve open space, reduce dependence on the automobile, and increase the diversity, density and affordability of housing opportunities; these tools can help communities plan and develop sustainably. Many communities, however, continue to rely on conventional zoning and traditional land use techniques that cannot take advantage of these new resources - will sprawl ever end? Form-based codes have evolved in response to criticisms of conventional, Euclidean zoning and …

New Dirt On The Roof: Green Roofs For Umass Amherst, Lee Jennings

Landscape Architecture & Regional Planning Masters Projects

This project describes the educational, environmental, and financial benefits of green roofs on the University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMA) campus. The project examines the campus' current roof-tops to determine which buildings are the best candidates for green roofs using a three-step selection method. Other campuses or cities can apply this method to select priority buildings for green roofs. Two of the best candidates are studied in greater detail in order to create schematic designs for green roofs at those sites. In addition, this project explores the design of a potential new building to be constructed on campus with an intensive …

Gateway As Greenway - Re-Envisioning Gateway National Recreation Area: An Inquiry Into Biophysical Processes And Cultural History To Interpret A National Park Of The Future, Beth Ann Fenstermacher

Landscape Architecture & Regional Planning Masters Projects

On October 27, 1972, Gateway National Recreation Area (NRA), located in New York and New Jersey, was established as one of two national recreation areas intended to serve urban areas. Along with Golden Gate NRA in San Francisco, California, these were the first two national parks to be brought closer to large, urban populations. The creation of these urban parks was the result of a social objective: creating parks that were truly in reach of large populations of people (Rothman, 2004). Thirty-five years later, while Golden Gate NRA thrives as an active recreation area for the people of the San …

Sustainable Industry At Various Scales: Regulatory Approaches, Green Urbanism, And Low Impact Site Design, Amy C. Verel

Landscape Architecture & Regional Planning Masters Projects

Climate change and atmospheric warming are problems of global scale, significance, and impact and are arguably dealt with most effectively at the level of national and supra-national governance. The mixed success of the Kyoto Protocol demonstrated the importance of accommodating the needs and rights of nations with vastly different economic structures, development trends, and progress towards greenhouse gas reduction in order to reach a perception of fairness for and among all parties. Despite some progress, the goal of an effective international agreement to reduce carbon emissions and other greenhouse gas-contributing pollutants remains unfulfilled.

In the absence of a workable international …

Hadley West Street Common And Great Meadow: A Cultural Landscape Study, Patricia Laurice Ellsworth

Landscape Architecture & Regional Planning Masters Projects

No abstract provided.

Visualization In Municipal Planning, Andrew C. Galusha

Landscape Architecture & Regional Planning Masters Projects

In recent years a variety of groups have been using combinations of GIS (Geographic Information Systems) and Real Time, Virtual Reality modeling for planning applications, as described by Barnes. For these applications, Virtual Reality modeling was used to show existing conditions as well as the effects proposed planning decisions would have on a community. These models allow users, whether they are planners or community residents, to see these effects and make changes to their planning strategies accordingly (Barnes 2002).

The CommunityViz staff describes how the models being used are generated with real time modeling developed for the gaming and simulation …

Learning Through Experience: An Interpretive Trail Design For Nasami Farm, Mark Wamsley

Landscape Architecture & Regional Planning Masters Projects

Almost fifty years ago Freeman Tilden suggested that outdoor places have an ability to speak for themselves (1957). They each impart their own set of unique experiences for visitors, fostering the senses of fascination, attachment and understanding. This alluring voice may, in part, explain why nature centers, botanical gardens and other informal learning sites with interpretive trails have grown in popularity. Such sites attract roughly 420 million visitors a year worldwide, making them prime locations for increasing public awareness and action toward broader environmental issues (Jones 2001, 11). Yet, as interpretive trails become a ubiquitous part of the landscape, their …

Stormwater Management Trends: A Review Of Tools, Techniques And Methods For Design And Development Of The Land With Implications For Sustainable Design, William C. Cone

Landscape Architecture & Regional Planning Masters Projects

The design of stormwater management systems is currently undergoing scrutiny and revision. This has been a long ongoing process that began to take shape in the late 1980s following the adoption of new federal regulations controlling discharge of pollutants into water bodies, rivers and streams. It became apparent after these regulations began to have an affect that other sources of pollution existed that were less easily pin pointed to a single source. Researchers and engineers began looking at stormwater as a culprit. This corresponded with revisions to the understanding of ecology as well as deeper richer understanding of the natural …

Preserving Modernist Space - Exploring The Spatial Integration Of A House And Garden In Baltimore, J. Peter Witke

Landscape Architecture & Regional Planning Masters Projects

The goal of this thesis has been to enhance the documentation process for historic houses and gardens. The Macht House is a historic designed house and garden in the modernist style, designed by James C. Rose. The house is being documentated for the on-going James C. Rose Documentation Project. This thesis has attempted to show a new way to document and record the spatial relationship between the indoors and the outdoors through the use of scale models and digital photographs of these models. The Historic American Building Survey (HABS), Historic American Engineering Record (HAER), and the recent Historic American Landscape …

Preservation Of Small Town Character In The Town Center Of Rutland, Massachusetts, Karen Good

Landscape Architecture & Regional Planning Masters Projects

Throughout the United States many small towns are facing development pressure. Many downtowns are dying or in danger due to competing large commercial developments outside the town center. More economic opportunities and incentives are needed in order to survive. Some communities respond to this pressure, while others simply let it roll over their town. In Rutland, Massachusetts, a small town of approximately 6,200 people, the townspeople are taking a step back to view their town and evaluate their situation before they lose their community character.

A key event that raised town consciousness was the demolition of a Greek Revival house …

H.H. Richardson Train Station, Holyoke: A Nineteenth Century Landscape For Twenty-First Century People, Nancy Howard

Landscape Architecture & Regional Planning Masters Projects

The Collaboration between H.H. Richardson, Frederick Law Olmsted, and Charles Sprague Sargent on the train stations and grounds of the Boston and Albany railroad, and connected lines, involved the newest technology of the day, yet engaged the landscape reverently. Their work for the Boston and Albany Railroad was called, by Charles Mulford Robinson, "the railroad beautiful", and led the way for the City Beautiful movement of the turn of the century. Richardson completed nine stations before he died at age forty-seven. His successor Sheply, Rutan and Coolidge completed another twenty-three.

Although no landscape plans exist, the train station in Holyoke …

Main Street Revitalization Master Plan - Memorial Square, Springfield, Ma, Ignacio F. Campillo

Landscape Architecture & Regional Planning Masters Projects

Chapter I is an introduction to urban problems, urban revitalization, and current tendencies in urban revitalization. This chapter also mentions the situation of cities in Massachusetts and the case of the city of Springfield and its neighborhood Memorial Square. Chapter II explains the goals and objectives for this project. Chapter III is the literature review of those areas that are pertinet to review for this kind of project. Chapter IV includes case studies that are significant to this kind of project, and bring relevant findings that help to see ways the project can take shape. Chapter V briefly explains the …

Eastern Pioneer Valley Greenway/Greenspace Planning: The Applications Of Geographic Information Systems To The Regional Greenway/Greenspace Planning Process, Yongbin Sun

Landscape Architecture & Regional Planning Masters Projects

The public agencies and non-governmental organizations (NGO) have made major stride in acquiring, planning and managing of valuable public lands in Eastern Pioneer Valley Region. The nine communities of the region have recognized that they need to coordinate and perhaps integrate their efforts to increase mutual benefits from such integration. Indeed, these towns are poised to create a unique greenway network which could maximize nature protection, outdoor recreation and historic preservation.

The purpose of the study is to integrate each town's effort to create the Eastern Pioneer Valley Region greenway/greenspace system or network that links the nine communities, protects the …

The Restoration Of Forest Park, Norman J. Corigliano

Landscape Architecture & Regional Planning Masters Projects

No abstract provided.