Architecture Commons^™

Children's Playscapes: Risk, Safety, And Creativity, Ngoc Doan

Landscape Architecture & Regional Planning Masters Projects

This project focuses on urban playgrounds in the Boston metropolitan area in Massachusetts. Since 1995, renovations implemented through the Boston Schoolyards Initiative (BSI) have transformed school playgrounds into more vibrant environments for children. Nonetheless, these playgrounds may provide further opportunities for innovative designs that help promote creativity.

In the twenty-first century, children seem to be more interested in exploring the world of digital technology rather than spending time outdoors. However, the outdoor environment provides a great medium for children to explore and learn along with other children, which cannot be experienced via technology. One of the challenges that prevents children …

Building A Modern Agricultural Planting Garden In An Urban Area, Restoration Of Shenzhen Central Park, Guangdong, China, Yan Xu

Landscape Architecture & Regional Planning Masters Projects

This master project proposes a restoration plan for building a modern agricultural planting garden in an urban area for Shenzhen Central Park, China. There are various challenges in the selected area including weak accessibility, lack of social activity, and loss of cultural identity. This paper will propose a restoration plan based on field study, literature review, background data analysis, and case studies. Urban agriculture practice and community garden study provide guidance on the selection of strategies to deal with those challenges in the urban context. Specific concepts include sustainable urban development and creating social and cultural experiences. The design proposal …

Creative Placemaking: A Case Study Exploration Of How Creative Economy Strategies Can Provide Potential Opportunities For Revitalization In Downtown Chicopee, Ma, Laura Selmani

Landscape Architecture & Regional Planning Masters Projects

Chicopee, a former industrial center in western Massachusetts, is experiencing a stagnant economy, high vacancy and a steady loss of population. City of Chicopee wants to increase downtown visibility and bolster its economy by attracting in the area people constituent of creative class. This research represents an attempt to identify creative strategies to develop the neglected downtown of Chicopee. After more than a century of economic blight, vacancy and declining population, the city wants to research and exploit the potential of arts and culture as means to a physical, social and economic revivification of its downtown.

A key aim of …

Increasing Urban Biodiversity In Springfield, Ma By Restoring The Native Floodplain Plant Community Along The Connecticut River, Keith W. Hannon

Landscape Architecture & Regional Planning Masters Projects

The purpose of this project was to increase urban biodiversity by restoring the native floodplain plant communities along the Connecticut River at the Pioneer Valley Riverfront Club (PVRC). Restoring or designing native plant communities is an important design alternative to the typical design methods of using non-native plant species and mono-culture plant palettes. Restoring a native plant community at the PVRC will allow the landscape to function once more as usable habitat for wildlife and native plants, encourage the natural succession of native plants, and become a more resilient landscape that can better withstand ecological changes caused by various factors …

Lake, Land, And Sky: A Design Proposal For Northerly Island, Chicago, Andrew L. Weir

Landscape Architecture & Regional Planning Masters Projects

Shortly before midnight on March 30th 2003, without notice and at the orders of Mayor Richard M. Daley, bulldozers destroyed a small airport known as Meigs Field on Chicago's Northerly Island. Planes were trapped on the ground and other flights diverted. This action, dramatic and of debatable legality, effectively ended the struggle between the Mayor's office who wanted the site for a park, and the state legislature who wanted to keep the airport open (in no small part for their own ease of commuting). With the airport now demolished, Chicago has turned its attention to developing a vision for the …

An Integrated Experience At Springdale Park, Holyoke, Ma - Designing For Ecology And Community At The Edges, Amanda Lynn Rookey

Landscape Architecture & Regional Planning Masters Projects

Springdale Park has potential to be a model urban open space in Holyoke, with a resurgence of its connection to the Connecticut River. Springdale Park's edges offer opportunities to connect to urban agriculture, recreation, ecology, heritage, education and community. The park has successfully served as a recreational space for the flood plain communities of Holyoke since before 1850.

Now, as the city is making efforts to rebrand with a focus on the Downtown Revitalization Project and Arts + Industry District, Springdale Park could play a significant role. By focusing attention on this area as a model, transformation of this city …

A Sustainable Alzheimer's Garden - Creating Outdoor Spaces At Long-Term Alzheimer Care Facilities, Barbara Jean Constable

Landscape Architecture & Regional Planning Masters Projects

Gardens built specifically for those with Alzheimer's disease are designed with the intention to improve the quality of life for the patient, caregivers and family. The focus on human health is built into Alzheimer's garden design. This project summarizes recent literature and establishes ten elements necessary in the design of an Alzheimer's garden and seeks to relate those ten elements to sustainability by focusing on relatable sections from the Sustainable Sites Initiative: Guidelines and Performance Benchmarks 2009. The Alzheimer's garden design elements and principles on sustainability are then applied to a design for a Sustainable Alzheimer's Garden at a long-term …

Application Of Stormwater Management Techniques For Mitigation And Education At The Stockbridge School Agricultural Learning Center, Samantha R. Anderson

Landscape Architecture & Regional Planning Masters Projects

The Stockbridge School Agricultural Learning Center (SSALC) will be a 40-acre hands-on agricultural learning laboratory for students, staff, visitors, and neighbors. Still in its planning phases, the Center will be located on what is currently a hay field just north of UMass Amherst campus. A conceptual master plan was created in 2013 that is being used for fundraising as well as planning for agricultural demonstration plots and architectural hubs. Improperly managed agricultural landscapes are known as one of the biggest threats to water quality in the United States. As a model of forward thinking agricultural practices, properly managed stormwater on …

Urban Informal Settlements As Sites For Green Infrastructure: Regenerating Dayouzhuang And Saoziying Urban Villages In Beijing, Feiqiang Tong

Landscape Architecture & Regional Planning Masters Projects

Urban villages are the primary form of urban informal settlements in China. They emerge from the ongoing process of extensive rural-to-urban migration. While urban villages provide more readily available and affordable housing options for new urban migrants, their overloaded population and poor living environment have become a problem in the city. The existing official solution of urban villages is to remove them and to replace them with new developments. This solution takes a long time to complete and neglects the social role of urban villages in the city. This project focuses on solving the inland flooding problem that occur regularly …