Architecture Commons^™

Urban And Community Tree Cover In The Mountain West, Zachary Billot, Zachary Walusek, Annie Vong, Caitlin J. Saladino, William E. Brown Jr.

Environment

This fact sheet examines data on tree cover and impervious cover in urban land for the United States and for the five states in the Mountain West: Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah. The original report includes data for each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia

Jiquilisco Bay Mangrove Restoration Center, Julio Romero

Architecture Theses

Due to advanced degradation of mangroves, local ecosystems and social structures suffer. Non-profit organizations, consisting of community volunteers and researchers from abroad, are on the forefront of these restoration practices. Protecting these forests prevents local families from starving and keeps their homes from flooding. Applying research-based thinking to create a lab and education space for better implementation of restoration policies on a site-by-site basis was crucial, and the result was a low-tech space with serious material considerations based on local construction and best practices based on improvements in relatively low-tech seismic and water impermeable technology. The result is a celebration …

Reinventing Educational Spaces, Angel Coleman

Masters in Architecture Program: Theses

Problems always existed in our educational system, but many issues intensified in the pandemic. One of the biggest is the mental impact on the children, with those in high school tripling in numbers. The spaces these students spend their time has a great impact on their mental well-being. Our schools need to create places for the students to make communities and feel a sense of ownership. Giving students a place to belong and making them proud of their work helps build their self-esteem, relieving some mental health issues.

My thesis is redesigning these environments to create classrooms, schools and a …

Debrisia, Alice Rong, Jing Ying Chin, Tanya Tungkaserawong

Architecture Senior Theses

The project aims to explore the potential of enhancing vacant lots to the benefit of the community and achieve net zero waste by introducing a self-sustaining system. Debrisia acts as a prototype that addresses local needs and adapts to different scales of community. There are five networks supporting each other: energy, water, agriculture, livestock and recycling workshops. The locals will generate electricity collected by motion, manage the livestock, produce fertilizer for vegetation, and create products from their food waste. Emphasis is placed on participation from the residents, and such, the residents will get to receive back what they help produce …

Law School News: National Housing Advocate Named To Lead Rwu's New Real Estate Initiatives 02/08/2022, Roger Williams University School Of Law

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

Landfill Suitability Analysis Using Gis (Geographic Information System) And Ahp (Analytic Hierarchy Process): A Case Study Of Scotts Bluff County, Nebraska, Sunah Moon

Community and Regional Planning Program: Theses and Student Projects

The objective of this study was to identify and prioritize the potential sites that are the most suitable to host landfills using Geographic Information System (GIS) and Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) in Scotts Bluff County, Nebraska. First, the criteria that influence in a decision-making process of landfill placement in social, environmental, and physical perspectives were established, and the area was assessed based on the grading structure of each criterion on a scale of 0 to 10. The second step was the main process for the study using the AHP. Thirty-two experts who work as planners, engineers, landfill staff, and environmental …

Guidelines For Sustainable Practices In The Rural Built Environment, Nash Kelly, Ethan Weiche

UCARE Research Products

This poster provides information about sustainable changes people can make to better improve their health, community and built environment. From what is shown, this can be done through community gardens, pedestrian access and building certifications.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), climate change will have direct and significant health impacts (1), which the Lancet Countdown identifies as disproportionately affecting at-risk populations.(2) The challenges of geographic isolation and lack of population density in rural and remote areas limits adequate access to basic healthcare services, such as primary care, emergency care, and mental health services. Additionally, the health deficit experienced by …

Re-Designing Gentrification, Elena Whittle

Architecture Senior Theses

In Paris sans le people, a book on the gentrification of Paris, Anne Clerval writes (in a French to English translation) that, “gentrification reflects the dynamics of class relationships in the urban space” (p. 10). This thesis explores this dynamic in the context of American cities and additionally points to race relations, and private-public interests’ relations as other important factors in the American urban sphere. This thesis is an exploration of how capital plays a critical role in the morphology of the built environment. One of the ways that this is most obviously observed is through the commonly occurring phenomena …

School: A Community And Environmental Resource, Samantha M. Kelley

Architecture Theses

Schools play an important role in the lives of children, and can play a larger role in the broader community. Throughout history, schools have existed that have been connected to the environment, whether it was to simply provide children with the opportunity to spend time outside, or to teach students about the natural world. With the state of climate change that exists today, connecting students to the environment is of utmost importance. Students must understand the environment, in order to appropriately understand the threat of climate change, and ultimately take action to combat it.

Schools are an ideal location to …

Dissolving Boundaries: Revitalizing A Forgotten Neighborhood In Los Angeles, Dominic Cirillo

Architecture Theses

Studying great American Cities and their development also gives us insight into the problems many cities have faced during industrialization and urban growth. Los Angeles, California is at the forefront of these issues caused by its age old paradigm of progression and innovation above all in order to reach prosperity. From Bulldozing entire historic districts to constructing over its former rail system in order to accommodate for its rapid growth (twice that of an average city). In this process of urbanizing, the city had almost forgotten about its community identity and neighborhoods. Urban sprawl has caused a weaker city center …

Linking Space: A Transit Oriented Design, Jessica Vara

Architecture Theses

I propose to impact change for people and planet by architecting a community within a dense living space that is sustainable by means of public transportation that would enable travel to all essential activities as well as many leisurely places, events, stores, shopping centers and theaters. The carefully planned and architected ecosystem would blend commodities of life with dense living spaces to provide a self- sustaining community within a city. People who work outside of the ecosystem could utilize it by connecting through branches of the public transportation system. People who live within the ecosystem could depend on various means …

Sunset Park, Brooklyn: Reclaiming An Urban Industrial Area And Creating Community, Yincheng Zhang

Landscape Architecture & Regional Planning Masters Projects

Like many metropolises around the world, urban renewal in New York dominates the process

of urban development due to the scarcity of urban land resources and the ever-expanding population of New York. In the history of New York’s urban expansion, with the continuous expansion of the city’s outer edge and industrial relocation, industrial land originally on the edge of the city is gradually surrounded by residential areas.

The large area of vacant land and building also limits the further development of the region.

How to reuse the existing infrastructure and brownfield with the highly degraded environment is

particularly important for …

Imagine Community, Imagine Home (Chicopee, Ma), Christian Appia, Francesca Cigliano, Jenna Davis, Greg Labombard, Kristen Whitmore, Simeng Zhang

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

The goal of the Master of Regional Planning Studio is to develop a student’s techniques for collecting, analyzing, and synthesizing spatial and non-spatial data and then presenting that collective data in a manner (i.e., report, video, presentation, and charettes) that is understandable to academics, professionals, and the public. Planning Studio allows students to integrate knowledge from coursework and research, and apply such knowledge to resolving representative planning problems. At UMASS Amherst, these problems are found in neighborhood, rural, urban, and/or regional settings.

For the fall 2018 Planning Studio, Chicopee tasked the Masters of Regional Planning Studio to prepare a Housing …

Shake Rag Clippings File, Kentucky Library Research Collections

Research Collections

The Shake Rag Historic District, located along the north end of State Street in Bowling Green, Kentucky, was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in September 2000. It is Bowling Green’s first National Register District recognized for its significance to African American history. The Shake Rag Neighborhood developed around Lee Square, a parcel of land donated in 1802 for use as a public square. From https://www.visitbgky.com/shakerag/, see for more information.

Community Connections: Relief Through Athletics, Joshua Arthur

Architecture Theses

A sports based recreation facility can significantly enhance the quality of life in a community. Activities held within these facilities can encourage participation, promote health and well-being, and foster a sense of community and togetherness. Today with crime and obesity being increasingly troublesome in the US a space focused on athletics, health, and wellness would allow for kids to have a plethora of activities to do after school and on weekends. There they can make friends, learn about health, and stay off of the streets. Sports and recreation can demonstrate and contribute to the sustainable use of natural resources. They …

A Simulation-Assisted Workflow For Outdoor Thermal Comfort Design In Downtown Syracuse, Pouya Zhand

Architecture Senior Theses

Cities are not just about the buildings and skylines. Cities are also about the space be­tween buildings (the ground in figure-ground). More importantly and fundamentally cities are about people and the life that happens between buildings. Simulation tools can inform the design of attractive public spaces by pro­viding insight about the environmental conditions.

Restoring The Heart: A Community Vision For The Neighborhood Of Aldenville, Nicholas Campbell, Eric D. Gemperline, Todd R. Horner, Sean G. O'Donnell, Sierra T. Pelletier, Seth Taylor, Keitlin Young

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

The goal of the Master of Regional Planning Studio is to develop a student’s techniques for collecting, analyzing, and synthesizing spatial and non-spatial data and then presenting that collective data in a manner (i.e., report, video, presentation, and charettes) that is understandable to academics, professionals, and the public. Planning Studio allows students to integrate knowledge from coursework and research, and apply such knowledge to resolving representative planning problems. At UMASS Amherst, these problems are found in neighborhood, rural, urban, and/or regional settings.

For the Fall 2017 Planning Studio, Chicopee tasked the Masters of Regional Planning Studio to prepare a vision …

The Architecture Of Place: Amaranth Bakery And Café, Biwer Bella

Architecture Student Research

The goal of this essay is to show that Amaranth Bakery and Café in Washington Park, Milwaukee better represents its community than other buildings in the area. The aspects I chose to discuss are the building’s physical character, its unique setting and the work of its dedicated owners, David Boucher and Stephanie Shipley. This essay discusses these three facets of the business and how they allow for a very successful bakery in the struggling neighborhood of Washington Park. Some of the aspects discussed are the building’s front-back morphology, the way the community utilizes the bakery and the collaborative work of …

Real Estate: Urban Renewal At Shibati Community, Chongqing, Wenxin Zeng

Architecture Thesis Prep

The project is a “urban renewal” project at Shibati Community in Chongqing, China. The title “Real Estate” suggested that the land never become “real” until there are activities, communications happened between the occupants. The government did several renovation project in Chongqing, either totally destroy the entire site and build a copy on the site by saying we are preserving the history, or solely refurnished the façade of the houses but leave the inside of the house at a rough condition. The project is a critique of what the Chinese government and other official agencies in China have tended to respond …

It's Not Easy Being Whole | Reevaluating The Relationship Of Part Whole In Pursuit Of A New High-Rise Vernacular, Josh Bransky

Architecture Senior Theses

Architecture has the power to structure societal relationships. Specifically, architecture's form can bring the balanced relationship between community and individual identity, as exhibited in vernacular single-family homes, to the housing tower. This thesis plans to achieve such a social orchestration through a nuanced understanding of formal part-to-whole relationships, or "differentiated" parts within the whole, exhibited in a 300' housing tower in Seattle, WA.

By carefully balancing the relation, material, scale, and form of each part, this project will achieve this difficult whole (of differentiated parts). Mining this middle ground will produce a housing tower in Seattle, which actively balances the …

Absorbency In Tidal Resiliency | The Thickened Pier, Shauna Strubinger

Architecture Senior Theses

The inevitable truth of climate change has placed coastal cities at great risk. Past natural disasters in the United States such as Hurricane Sandy and Katrina, displaced many people because these communities’ only protection was their failed infrastructure.1 Although hard and soft infrastructure strategies have addressed the rising sea level, architecture at the building scale creates static surfaces and divisions that are slow to adapt to flooding and leave little to no room for the ambiguity of tidal flooding and storm surge. Though numerous areas are at risk of sea level rise across the globe, the Chesapeake Bay area is …

Continuation Of A Life Worth Living: Empathetic Design For The Alzheimer’S Community, Leslie Hulbert

Architecture Theses

This thesis’ mission is to create a comfortable environment for those suffering with Alzheimer’s and dementia. The institutional environments of the past are not sufficient for such individuals and their families. A community atmosphere is what they need; an entire complex just for them. The victims of this terrible memory defeating disease just want to go home. For many, this is not possible, therefore they should be given an environment that reminds them of home. They should have their own space that is customizable and warm. They should also be free to wander at their leisure. Their freedom should not …

Rethinking The Food Narrative, Pt. 2, Danielle Foisy, Taskina Tareen

Architecture Senior Theses

If there is anything to be learnt from developed cities around the world, it is that the private sector will continue to play an increasingly important role in the urban food supply of emerging cities. In the context of Southern Africa, where the informal sector continues to serve a large percentage of the urban poor population, but is losing power due to the advent of modern agribusinesses, it becomes necessary to derive methods to integrate small-scale vendors into formal food marketing systems through the respatializing of logistical spaces of food aggregation and distribution in the city. Through a consolidation of …

Living On The Edge: Landform Resilience, Pt. 1, Lauren Festa

Architecture Senior Theses

The program of a resilience center on the site serves as a way to engage the community with the threat of rising sea levels through education and office facilities, as well as providing a location to double as an emergency evacuation center. The community of East Boston is particularly vulnerable due to its identity as a low income neighborhood. An MBTA ferry terminal supplements the emergency evacuation center, providing an added source of public transit. A square, and a recreation building along the city of Boston's Harborwalk creates an opportunity for the public to engage with the waterfront park.

Living On The Edge: Landform Resilience, Lauren Festa

Architecture Senior Theses

The program of a resilience center on the site serves as a way to engage the community with the threat of rising sea levels through education and office facilities, as well as providing a location to double as an emergency evacuation center. The community of East Boston is particularly vulnerable due to its identity as a low income neighborhood. An MBTA ferry terminal supplements the emergency evacuation center, providing an added source of public transit. A square, and a recreation building along the city of Boston's Harborwalk creates an opportunity for the public to engage with the waterfront park.

Modernization Of Death Spaces: Solution To The Problem Of Lacking Death Space In Hong Kong, Simon Tse

Architecture Senior Theses

Digital media opens up a new dynamic in maintaining and recalling memories. It requires digital ancestral halls to provide spaces for the data to be stored, and for people to commemorate deceased people in the digital age. Using existing pedestrian bridges, these halls will once again be placed in the very center of the community. This thesis proposes the fashioning of a new culture of remembrance of those who have passed away. People will be able to visit casually as a daily routine. The proposed digital death spaces merge the traditional idea of ancestral halls with digital information. The Infusion …

“There’S No Way I’M Moving Into A Nursing Home. You're Going To Have To Shoot Me First.", Robert Moldafsky

Architecture Thesis Prep

Current retirement homes near universities introduce the burgeoning minds of college students and the academic culture of a university, the lectures, professors, and resources to satisfy the mind, but do not provide a bridge for the experience and knowledge of the elderly to benefit the university. One area of a possible Collective Group Form is the University medical center. The elderly require more medical attention as time goes by and Universities have some of the most advanced and highest ranked geriatrics programs. Perhaps there is a cross over where the university provides medical services and the elderly are available to …

Detroit Works Long-Term Planning Project: Engagement Strategies For Blending Community And Technical Expertise, Toni L. Griffin, Dan Cramer, Megan Powers

Publications and Research

In January 2013, civic leaders, community stakeholders, and residents came together to release Detroit Future City: 2012 Detroit Strategic Framework Plan, a guiding blueprint for transforming Detroit from its current state of population loss and excessive vacancy into a model for the reinvention of post-industrial American cities. Three years prior, the U.S. Census had reported that the city had lost 24% of its population over the last decade and had experienced a 20% increase in vacant and abandoned property, bringing total vacancy to roughly the size of Manhattan. In addition to physical and economic challenges, Detroiters had also acknowledged significant …

Measuring The Adoption Of Development Management Policies As An Instrument Of Disaster Mitigation Toward Resilient Coastal Communities In Florida, Asmaul Husna

Community and Regional Planning Program: Theses and Student Projects

Coastal hazards have been known as the scariest group of hazards, monsters that threaten 39% of the nation population and in less than 10 years. With the current population growth, the monsters will harm almost half of the nation’s population (45% to be exact) and uncountable properties placed at only 17% of land area of the country. The threat of coastal hazards has never been low, but it keeps rising because no human being in this world can prevent, stop, contain or avoid the hazards from happening. But, there always are ways to lower the risk and the loss with …

Volunteered Geographical Information: An Alternative Solution For Overcoming The Chasm Between Stormwater Management And Community Participation, Yanfu Zhou

Community and Regional Planning Program: Theses and Student Projects

It is a dramatic challenge to promote public engagement in stormwater management and green infrastructure initiatives. When traditional outreach approaches made important influence on public engagement, their limitations are also obvious. With the development of Web 2.0 technology, Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI) has been emerging as one of the most important user-generated geographic contents. The crowdsourcing data that generated by volunteers through geo-web, smartphones, and other geo-devices provides invaluable mass data for decision-making. VGI can provide a better understanding of planning issues and other challenges. The research aims to develop a mobile information platform to allow citizens to report the …