Architecture Commons^™

Postwar Cooperative Housing: On The Historical And Community Significance Of South Dahlia Lane, John Boydstun

Architecture and Planning ETDs

American cities after WWII including Denver experienced a boom in population resulting in a shortage of affordable housing. One innovative response to the demand for affordable housing was the formation of the Mile High Housing Association (MHHA), a Colorado non-profit organization founded in 1948 by four University of Denver professors. The MHHA was Colorado’s first housing cooperative and founded on the ideals of a supportive and collaborative community. MHHA’s goals included providing affordable single-family homes with a new modernist design and a neighborhood site plan that supported a cooperative lifestyle. Backed by new legislation in 1948 for FHA financing, the …

Estimating Vehicle Infrastructure: Downtown Albuquerque, New Mexico, Zachery Phillip Baiamonte

Architecture and Planning ETDs

Cities have little knowledge about their parking infrastructure despite clear evidence that abundant parking has environmental, economic, and transportation consequences. The objective of this thesis is to illustrate the need to accurately estimate the area dedicated to vehicle infrastructure (parking lots and streets) within urban areas. I focused on a method that estimated the vehicle infrastructure area within the Downtown Core of Albuquerque, New Mexico, by cross-referencing geospatial cadastral data with minimum parking requirements. Three parking space types were identified: 1) parking in structures; 2) surface parking (parking lots and residential driveways); and 3) on-street parking. To illustrate the need …

Albuquerque Public School’S Vision Zero For Youth Initiative: Engaging Student Youth In Designing A School District Transportation Safety Program, Cordell S. Bock

Architecture and Planning ETDs

The APS (Albuquerque Public Schools) Vision Zero for Youth Initiative adopts the global Vision Zero traffic safety movement’s goal of eliminating traffic fatalities and injuries to pedestrians and cyclists from vehicular crashes. The APS Vision Zero for Youth Initiative is comprised of a traffic-safety curriculum for K-8 students, an action plan that sets traffic-safety goals and progress evaluation frameworks for the school district, and a campaign to build a new culture of traffic safety for students, families, and local communities.

This project employs participatory methods that build the capacity of students enrolled in local public schools to produce and share …

An Adverse Path To Home: Challenges For Low-Income Workers In Access Housing In Some Mexican Cities, Aurora Melisa Munoz Casarrubias

Architecture and Planning ETDs

This thesis studies the homeownership discourses that encouraged low-income Mexican workers to commit to paying home loans and the process of providing mortgages as a strategy to address housing needs in Mexico with a case study of Homex developments. Homex was a large-scale housing construction project, which enabled me to study housing supply through loans and mortgages.

Currently, the purchase of new housing in Mexico is only accessible to those who receive more than five minimum wages (CONEVAL, 2018). To extend homeownership to low-income workers, financial institutions and the Mexican government promoted mortgage securitization and large-scale construction projects like Homex. …

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 …

Ya No Tengo Vecinos: Local Understandings Of Neighborhood Change In Cusco, Peru, Kalyn Finnell

Architecture and Planning ETDs

This thesis involves the San Blas neighborhood in the Historic Center of Cusco, Peru. It aims to better understand local effects of the changes that San Blas has undergone since the 1990s and to explore possibilities related to improving the qualities of life of long-term residents (vecinos) who have lived in San Blas for at least two generations. It has two principal objectives: 1) Make recommendations to present to various public and private entities who have a presence and influence over the San Blas neighborhood to improve the likelihood that vecino demands are heard, 2) Illuminate the ways that vecinos …

Urban Scaling And The Impact Of Socioeconomic Performance On Health And Environmental Outcomes, Sky Tallman

Architecture and Planning ETDs

This thesis explores the question of whether correlations between socioeconomic indicators and health and environmental indicators can be observed at the metropolitan level of analysis. Indicators are considered both in terms of per capita values and scale-adjusted values. Scale-adjusted values are a concept based on research on urban scaling which account for the agglomeration effect of population on socioeconomic output and describe a city’s performance in terms of how it compares with expected performance on an indicator for its population size based on the power law scaling of that indicator to population. These indicators provide an alternative baseline for comparing …

Managing Riparian Succession And Stabilizing Native Plant Assemblages In The Middle Rio Grande State Park, Roman M. Lopez

Architecture and Planning ETDs

Anthropogenic alterations of hydro geomorphological conditions of the Rio Grande River have changed the processes that have created the mosaic of riparian habitats valuable for ecosystem functioning, wildlife, and enjoyment by residents. These changes have created conditions that have increased the frequency of historically unprecedented disturbances such as fire and aggressive invasion of exotic species. Restoration activities and planning efforts have begun to reverse these effects, yet large areas of the Middle Rio Grande State Park, commonly called the Bosque, are still being affected by ecosystem changes. Studies of the Rio Grande and other Riparian corridors suggest that lack of …

Direct Potable Reuse In Small-To-Medium Sized Inland Communities: Lessons Learned For Public Education And Outreach, Claudia B. Pratesi

Architecture and Planning ETDs

Drought, growing populations, and potential conflict over water in the American Southwest have water authorities examining highly treated wastewater as an option to augment municipal supplies. Direct potable reuse (DPR) holds promise for improving sustainability and reliability of potable water supplies by generating high-quality drinking water from wastewater. Despite research demonstrating that DPR can be safe, one of the biggest hindrances to DPR is negative public perception. Attempts to implement some DPR project have failed, while others have proceeded quickly. Using insights from the literature and interviews with water managers, this study aims to: (1) examine existing community conditions related …

We Walk With Time, Time Does Not Walk With Us, Angelina Grey

Architecture and Planning ETDs

The conceptual framework of Indigenous placemaking is defined as a fundamental and complex approach to the processes of the Indigenous planning paradigm. To identify placemaking is to acknowledge and recognize Indigenous place-based knowledge as essential planning tools when working with Indigenous communities. Colonization and western acculturization adjudicated the divestment of Indigenous languages and cultures through western policies and Indian school education. Today, Indigenous worldviews are tainted with extreme levels of sociocultural disparities. The implementation of Indigenous planning processes establishes an understanding to Indigenous community-building through shared knowledge and collaboration. The concepts of placemaking thus enables and empowers Indigenous communities to …

Understanding Intersections And Impact: Planning, Police Violence, And Reform, Rachel L. Hassna

Architecture and Planning ETDs

Although public safety has long been an integral aspect of planning, issues such as police violence and reform have been left to other professions and fields of study. Despite the fact that planning policy is executed and enforced by police power, and despite the fact that planning has a lengthy history of perpetuating structural inequality that condemns marginalized communities to higher rates of police violence and premature death, planners are rarely encouraged to consider the intersections of planning and police violence. By reviewing the history of planning and policing as interconnected mechanisms of social engineering and control, this research attempts …

Albuquerque Street Paper Value Chain Development, Jeff C. Hertz

Architecture and Planning ETDs

Rationale for conducting this research project was based upon prior experiences with the street paper community. The first objective of this study was to work cooperatively with local experts in the fields of social entrepreneurship, workforce development, social service provisioning, city planning, and journalism to identify barriers and strategies for developing a street paper value chain for Albuquerque. The second objective of this study was to support these experts in selfidentifying their involvement as potential actors and/or value chain coordinators in developing a street paper operation in Albuquerque. While a comprehensive list of barriers to upward mobility for low-income and …

Climate And Culture: Values, Risk Perception, And Climate Change Adaptation In Delta County, Colorado, Tara Kane Prendergast

Architecture and Planning ETDs

This thesis contributes to literature on climate risk perception and adaptive capacity. It is an investigation into the relationship between values, climate risk perception, and agricultural practices at the community scale. Findings indicate that cultural values have a strong influence on both climate risk perception and the specific practices agriculturalists employ to contend with the environmental conditions they find themselves operating within. They also suggest that environmental conditions – specifically the prevalence of microclimates, topographical complexity, and significant preexisting variability – play an important role in influencing agriculturalists’ perception and climate management.

A qualitative project, this paper is based on …

Our Grandmothers' Stories: The Role Of Mestiza, Mexican, Spanish, Nuevamexicana Women In The Settlement And Community Development Of The Wagon Mound Area, Bianca Manuelita Encinias

Architecture and Planning ETDs

The study addresses and deconstructs inaccurate historical images, perspectives, and interpretations of Mestiza, Mexican, Spanish, and Nuevamexicana women from northeastern New Mexico in the field of planning. Concerns for the way that Mestiza, Mexican, Spanish, Nuevamexicana women are portrayed, in the history of the United States, and my observations of the way that this population of women were treated and continue to be ignored as serious topics of research for study in higher education in mainstream U.S. planning efforts led me to reconstruct the position of the Mestiza, Mexican, Spanish, Nuevamexicana women in community and economic development, as community planners …

The Cost Of Direct And Indirect Potable Water Reuse In A Medium Sized Inland Community, Jason Glenn Herman

Architecture and Planning ETDs

In the face of increasing population, development pressures, and climate change, many regions around the world face freshwater shortages. Planned potable water reuse can improve sustainability and reliability of water supplies by providing drinking water from wastewater. Most potable reuse research has focused on large coastal communities with relatively high mean household incomes. However, the US Department of Interior predicts that “hot spots” of conflict over water in the arid West are “highly likely” in numerous small-to-medium-sized inland communities with low-to-moderate household income levels. Potable reuse options may be different for larger, wealthier coastal communities as compared to small-to-medium-sized inland …

The Glocal Creation Of Space: Paru Paru’S Youth Casting Their Own Futures, Teresa M. Drenten

Architecture and Planning ETDs

This thesis illustrates the active participation of Indigenous children in the creation of space intersecting across multiple scales. I engaged with critical decolonial theories to create a community based participatory process with eleven bilingual Quechua-Spanish children in Paru Paru, Peru. My methodology focuses on the desires of the community, concentrating on their lived experiences and honoring the community’s challenges and resiliency. This research and knowledge belong to the community. Through small group and observation methods, these young participants demonstrated two desires; First, they want to remain connected to their lands and cosmology; next, they wish to receive the benefits from …

Worldbuilding: A Survey Of Games And Architecture At Play, Charlotte M. Mckernan

Architecture and Planning ETDs

Architecture often looks to the value of digital spaces for simulation and computation. This thesis argues that the architectural value of games comes not from their role as mimetic digital spaces, but instead from their ability to teach playful worldbuilding. Working with Ian Bogost's methodology of unit analysis, I unpack a number of examples of worldbuilding throughout architectural history. I begin specifically with the construction toy, then move on to explore playful architectural theories in general. Next, drawing from the fields of game design, literature, and philosophy, I unpack the value of worldbuilding itself as a method for generating meaningful …

The Right To City In Argentina: Building Capacity Through Hecho En Buenos Aires, A Street Newspaper, Keira Philipp-Schnurer

Architecture and Planning ETDs

As the new millennium unfolds, many activists and scholars have responded to enduring inequality in urban environments by embracing French philosopher Henri Lefebvre's writings on the "right to the city" as a "rallying cry and demand." In an effort to contribute to this dialogue, this thesis explores the concept of the "right to the city" by operationalizing it as a theoretical framework rooted in Lefebvre’s original writings and applying it o a grounded examination of the street newspaper Hecho en Buenos Aires to examine the intersection of "right to the city" theory and practice. This investigation finds that the organization …

Best Practices In Community-Based Water Projects, Deborah Anyaibe

Architecture and Planning ETDs

International potable water projects are becoming more common in underdeveloped countries. The necessity of getting clean drinking water to remote areas, or areas with limited access to water is becoming more desperate. This desperation is causing more people to seek to give aid to those in need but often times this comes with a price to the community. This price comes in the form of infrastructure that is unsustainable, building materials left behind instead of disposed of properly, and systems that require upkeep without proper training, as well as many other cultural and economic negative impacts. Many times aid organizations …

Cycles Of Life, Henry J. Foreman

Architecture and Planning ETDs

Engaging storytelling is both the means and medium of Cycles of Life(COL). This thesis project consists of a video documentary and curriculum magazine that highlights the visioning process, implementation, and cyclical design of this transformative learning model. Throughout the COL co-creative process, students collectively utilize Indigenous research methodologies to examine innovations in planning, design and education from diverse sources including guest speakers, social media, and contextual multi-sensory experiences. Incorporated into the COL curriculum is a regenerative process where students vision their own curriculum model that impacts health, education, planning and design. It is my hope that these seed projects will …

Citizen Science Ecological Monitoring: For Whom?, Cameron Weber

Architecture and Planning ETDs

In ecosystems undergoing rapid change, habitat management and restoration present special challenges for land managers. To reduce uncertainty about such systems and, thereby, improve the success of their decisions, managers may consult ecological monitoring data. Limitations in time and resources for data collection have highlighted the role that citizen science can play in applied conservation science. One citizen science project, the Bosque Ecosystem Monitoring Program (or BEMP), supplies decision makers with ecological monitoring information about the historically dynamic Middle Rio Grande riparian forest corridor (or bosque) ecosystem through engaging nearby K-12 students in collecting ecological data over a large area. …

Connecting Schools And Communities: A Spatial Approach To Social Capital And Student Performance In The Albuquerque Public School District, Steven Bishop

Architecture and Planning ETDs

Locating services and accesses to opportunities is a growing trend in community schools. Having on-site health services, employment programs, after-school programs, and other social services for students, parents, and members in a community surrounding a school, strengthens the relationships between schools and the communities they serve. These relationships foster increased stocks of social capital in a community and with parents, and the link between parental and community social capital and student performance is strong. In order to make the most of limited resources, schools and school districts implementing community school models must identify which services and accesses to opportunities help …

Ecotone Conditions Along Pinon-Juniper And Ponderosa Pine Elevational Ranges, Jemez Mountains, Nm, Christopher Sanderson

Architecture and Planning ETDs

While climate variability is endemic to Southwest North America (SWNA), mounting evidence indicates the region is undergoing significant warming and becoming increasingly arid. Species are at or near their physiological limits at ecotone boundaries and are therefore particularly sensitive to climate change. Drought and warming associated tree mortality has been particularly acute in the semiarid forests and woodlands of the Jemez Mountains, New Mexico, USA, where ponderosa pine forests (Pinus ponderosa var. scopulorum) and piñon--juniper woodlands (Pinus edulis and Juniperus monosperma) have been subject to cambium-feeding pine beetle (Dendroctonus spp., Ips spp) attacks and increased wildfire activity and severity. Grazing …

Cartography Of Power: The 47th State's Aversion To Graffiti Art, Priscila Poliana

Architecture and Planning ETDs

While unauthorized graffiti has been historically associated with crime, vandalism, and property damage, the visual incursions of corporate advertisers on urban landscapes have been mostly exempt from criminal characterization– by purchasing private and public spaces for cash, upfront. The persistent transfer of capital to the private sector, and by extension commercialization of public spaces and services, invades individual privacy by intensifying exposure to relentless, unsolicited advertisement. Guerrilla Art thus emerges as a force challenging the favoritism of consumer culture vis-à -vis the agency of ordinary citizens to utilize the urban fabric as a medium for expression and public discourse. Every …

The Relationship Between Parks, Health, Income, And Education In Albuquerque, New Mexico, Jessica Sebring Small

Architecture and Planning ETDs

As resources are becoming scarcer, Southwestern cities are looking for ways to expend less water and money, leading to removal of green spaces. This is happening alongside the current health crisis occurring throughout the United States, which is unfortunate since urban green spaces have been found to improve human health. The purpose of this study, focusing on Albuquerque, New Mexico, is to determine: (1) if those benefits appear to exist in a desert city, and (2) how additional variables, such as income and education, compare with parks regarding impact on community health. A GIS analysis was conducted using park, health, …

Role Of School In The Community Development Of Kin Dah Lichii, Arizona, Michaela Paulette Shirley

Architecture and Planning ETDs

I wanted to understand how the school impacted the physical development of Kin Dah Lichii, as well as, other impacts that were seen after the school came. I argue, under the belief, that the school was an asset for Kin Dah Lichii’s historic and present-day community development. The Asset-Based Community Development, Indigenous planning, and Landscape perspectives are used to analyze the role of a school in the community development of Navajo Nation and Kin Dah Lichii. The data collection entailed two phases: (1) archival research and (2) community interviews. The insight gained from the archival research is that schools did …

Collaborative Community Development Of Rural Places And Local Assets, Susan Vigil

Architecture and Planning ETDs

This work is compiled from reflections on community development efforts in a rural New Mexico region invested with shared traditions and livelihoods emerging from a unique location herein referred to as the “Village of Magdalena, City of Socorro Study Area”. The possibility that rural communities may leverage place-based resources and networks comprehensively comprises this study’s propositional anlage to spark questions as to how leveraging may unfold through initiatives supporting both arts and agricultural activities. How communities identify with their location--its history, economy, resource and communal spaces—defines opportunities both realized and imagined in this scarcely populated New Mexico place. Interviews and …

Women's Roles And The Gender Division Of Labor Within The Local Food System Of The Central New Mexico Regional Foodshed, Tiffany Terry

Architecture and Planning ETDs

Within the Central New Mexico regional foodshed (i.e. within a 300 mile radius of Albuquerque), many women are working within the local food system to help locally grown food go from farm to fork. In certain roles, women predominate. In others, women are less represented. Women participating in the local food system provided their insights and expertise on how gender affects their own participation, as well as their perceptions of the gender division of labor within the local food system. Through this exploration, eleven women co-participants of this study found that regardless of the role, there are challenges based on …

Increasing The Supply Of Affordable Housing: Expanding Affordable Housing Policy In Albuquerque, Nm., Erin Callahan

Architecture and Planning ETDs

Providing affordable housing in the United States involves coordination between the federal, state, and local levels of government. Local jurisdictions must ensure that all requirements are met in order to receive funding. In Albuquerque, NM, this includes the production of a Consolidated Plan to satisfy federal requirements, and an Affordable Housing Plan to satisfy state requirements. However, even when the requirements are satisfied, the amount of funding available is never enough to create enough housing to meet the needs of the population. The objective of this study is to show how the supply of affordable housing in Albuquerque can be …

Costa Rica- Planning For Climate Change Through Forward- Looking Policy, Rachel Helen Erickson

Architecture and Planning ETDs

Using Costa Rica as an example, this paper will address the problem of climate change and analyze the strengths and weaknesses of the climate change planning policies that are utilized in Costa Rica. This study reveals how the Costa Rican government has been proactive in terms of its climate change policies. The Costa Rican government has always been an active participant in international conferences on climate change. Costa Rica aims for carbon neutrality by the year 2021. As Costa Rica is so far ahead in terms of developing effective climate policy, other countries can look to Costa Rica as an …