Architecture Commons^™

Brutalism And The Public University: Integrating Conservation Into Comprehensive Campus Planning, Shelby Schrank

Masters Theses

The University of Massachusetts Amherst, the Commonwealth’s flagship campus, is home to several Brutalist buildings. Similar to other buildings of this genre, they have gone unrecognized for their importance to the campus and their prominent architectural significance. Additionally, due to the ravages of close to 50 years of exposure coupled with limited maintenance and, in some instances, neglect they are now at a point where restorative maintenance is critical in ensuring their future contribution to the campus.

This thesis addresses the importance of creating a comprehensive, long-term plan for these buildings, by first looking to the University’s most prominent, yet …

Springfield's Legacy: A Vision For A Transformative Transit-Oriented Union Station District, Keith Benoit, Nigel Cummings, Caitlan Davis, Kinjal Desai, Marcos Gonzalez, Jiaqi Guo, Anna Kellerman, Olivia Ashjian James, Bryce Lloyd-Hahn, Stephen Mccusker, Chris Ramage, Jessica Schottanes

Landscape Architecture & Regional Planning Studio and Student Research and Creative Activity

This urban design studio developed concepts around equitable transportation Union Station in Springfield, Massachusetts. The work creates a vision for the Union Station District, a revitalized mixed-use walkable neighborhood adjacent to the restored transportation center. It emphasizes reusing the city’s historic street grid in new, forward thinking ways that enhance neighborhood connectivity. The plan creates physical and social networks that bring together diverse groups of residents and visitors. The Union Station District will be a place that offers a range of non-automobile transportation options to residents and visitors and will help transforming an area characterized by vacant lots and empty …

Urban Redevelopment Through City-University Partnerships: Envisioning An Education District In Springfield, Massachusetts, Mohammed Abdelaal

Masters Theses

This thesis examines the impact of planning a potential new urban university campus in Springfield, Massachusetts on the city’s long term goals for urban revitalization. By exploring a collaborative and community-oriented process for higher-educational development, I propose a dynamic model that could work as a catalyst for urban revitalization.

The study will focus on the following: developing partnerships between the city of Springfield (government, community, local groups) and major educational institutions (such as the University of Massachusetts system); identifying potential sites suitable for the anticipated urban/mixed-use campus or compound; and studying and analyzing the forces within the city (neighborhoods around …

Building For The Future: Revitalization Through Architecture, Rebecca N. Perry

Masters Theses

This thesis focuses on the revitalization of a once thriving manufacturing city, Gardner, Massachusetts. In the past the city of Gardner was rich with furniture manufacturers. Over the years the manufacture of furniture has left Gardner. The goal of this thesis is to reinvigorate the furniture making and craft back into Gardner. The proposed revitalization of the town was furthered through teaching and the design and production of a new product line. The renovation and retrofit of an existing now abandoned, building. Designing to meet the strategies, methods, and processes of furniture production; merged with an architecture meant to signal …

No Space Left Behind - Graduate Urban Design Studio - Landarch 606, Christopher H. Counihan, Matthew R. Hisle, Yanhua Lu, Maozhu Mao, Emilie Marques Jordao, James S. Prendergast, Michalagh C. Stoddard, Ruoying Tang, Jing Wang, Nelle Katharine Ward, Yuqing Yang, Yi Yang, Yu Yu, Kellie Fenton, Yue Li, Yuquing Wu

Landscape Architecture & Regional Planning Studio and Student Research and Creative Activity

The following report documents the work of the 2015 Spring Graduate Urban Design Studio course in the Department of Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning. This fourteen week studio focused on using tactical urbanism to engage Springfield’s Metro Center neighborhood with visions to revitalize the downtown core of this legacy city.

In addition to completing the components of a traditional urban design studio (site analyses, schematic plans, spatial designs, and programming), the student teams also developed conceptual projects to immediately engage the public. These efforts culminated in a free afternoon walking tour throughout the Metro Center that presented several tactical interventions. …

Architecture For The Revitalization Of Community, Erin Riley

Masters Theses

While human society has changed a great deal through time, our need for community has remained prevalent. Architecture is a reflection of this need for community in its ability to gather people together by its definition of space, even in that of the basic plane of the public plaza. Though there are many factors to creating a sense of community, architecture and the manipulation of our environment can act as a tool for drawing people together and encouraging interaction between them.

The community of Holyoke was at one time a thriving industrial community in the 1900’s. With the passage of …

Redefining America’S Postwar Urban Renewal At The Northgate Of Springfield, Ma, Mohammed Abdelaal, Meilan Chen, Zhuoya Deng, Ericka Duym, Laura Keskula, Joseph Larico, Bin Liu, Shu Liu, Wenjie Liu, Tharyn Nein-Large, Junzhi (Jason) Yu, Zhangkan Zhou

Landscape Architecture & Regional Planning Studio and Student Research and Creative Activity

This project presents visions for an underutilized and overlooked district in Springfield, MA, developed by the Graduate Urban Design Studio in the spring of 2014. The area between downtown and the North End neighborhood has undergone major transformations in the 1950’s and 1960’s during America’s era of postwar urban renewal. Residential blocks were replaced by large office buildings and oversized streets left a ”no-man’s land”. The current rehabilitation of the Springfield’s Union Station into an intermodal transportation hub should draw new attention to the area as the northern gateway to downtown - the “Northgate”. Five visionary design proposals rethink and …

Springfield’S “X” – From Crossroads To Center, Joseph A. Agrillo, Theodore D. Chesbro, Nic M. Brown, William Cody Black, Patrick W. Corey, Krystal A. Ford, Jay M. French, Alexander Jardin, Da Hee Lee, Henry C. Puza, Sean J. Regnier, Charles M. Richard, David William Ross, Stphen Sanborn, Julia Rose Sim, Thomas F. Holt, Bryan Anderson, Samuel Brown, Richard Disharoon, Andrew Fang, Dan Kamins, Colin Lord, John Nicol, Tricia O'Grady-Howard, Brett Riley, Jennifer Verville

Landscape Architecture & Regional Planning Studio and Student Research and Creative Activity

The work explores a community service learning strategy within the framework of two urban design studios with the goal of revitalizing the city of Springfield, Massachusetts, through design, planning, and engagement with the community. The studio worked in the Forest Park neighborhood around the “X” – on the intersection of three major street arteries. Our study contains a diverse catalogue of strategies to make the Forest Park Neighborhood a better place to live, work, and recreate where the most important streets meet. Through rerouting of the traffic patterns around the “X” the number of pedestrian crossings is increased and the …

The Revitalization Of Springfield’S North End - Envisioning New Housing And Places To Live, Work And Recreate, Samantha R. Anderson, Ngoc Xuan Doan, Ivette Banoub, Keith W. Hannon, Trudy M. Hall, Irene Estelle Miller, Colin N. O'Donnell, Amanda Lynn Rookey, Yan Xu

Landscape Architecture & Regional Planning Studio and Student Research and Creative Activity

This report summarizes the results of a seven-week design studio in our Landscape Architecture Program and engaged experts, stakeholders and medical students of the Memorial Square Neighborhood, in conjunction with planning officials from the Springfield Office of Planning and Economic Development. The project brought students and local export together in a supportive and constructive atmosphere of reciprocal learning.

The proposals seek to connect the powerful economy of the medical sector with the rich culture of the North End to create a more balanced social and economic climate. More spatial, green connections of the hospitals with local businesses on Main Street …

Canvas And Catalyst: Reinventing Urban Space, Ricardo A. Borges

Masters Theses 1911 - February 2014

As an intervention strategy set amid a stark and neglected, yet highly energized urban setting of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, this project seeks to relieve a stagnating urban condition through the introduction of contemporary and dynamic forms of expression. Skateboarding and street art can be seen as interpretative modes of action that reinvent objects, spaces, and conditions within the urban landscape, lending creative and engaging gestures to the everyday. As (sub) cultural expressions in their own right, these practices transcend their mere formal representations, and present unique identities, spaces, and modes of engagement within a society, initiating a creative mindset and DIY …

Gleasondale Village Revitalization Plan, Kirsten Bryan, Ivette Banoub, Anita Lockesmith, Tara Gehring, Jonathan Cooper, Jennifer Stromsten

Center for Economic Development Technical Reports

In 2005, the Town of Stow received a Priority Development Fund Grant made available by MassHousing. The funds were used to develop zoning bylaws with the Metropolitan Area Planning Commission for a draft Mixed-Use Overlay District in town (Stow Lower Village 2011, 4). At that time, two of Stow’s villages, Gleasondale and the Lower Village, seemed like ideal candidates for the project. After focusing its initial efforts on the Lower Village, the Town is preparing to turn next to Gleasondale, in the southern edge of town. A classic mill village on the Assabet River, Gleasontdale is home to Stow’s contribution …

Revitalization Of An Urban Riverfront To Revitalize The Socio-Economic Conditions Of Springfield, Ma, Sneha Rasal

Landscape Architecture & Regional Planning Masters Projects

The City of Springfield, Massachusetts is one of the largest cities in western Massachusetts, and was established on the Connecticut River for trading and as a fur-collecting post. In 18th and early 19th century, it experienced an industrial boom and became a regional financial center. Springfield became a major railroad center and grew to become the regional center for banking, finance, and courts. However, in mid-19th century Springfield suffered due to the flooding of the Connecticut River and the disinvestment in industry. These resulted in an urban sprawl as people started moving away from heart of the city.

Now, once …

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 …