Architecture Commons^™

Rural Sustainability In The Intermountain West, Mary L. Oliver

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Assessing the sustainability of communities is important for planners and citizens alike. Sustainability plays a central role in forming healthy, successful communities and in planning for responsible growth and development. Most current sustainability evaluations favor urban environments due to their high densities and resulting efficiencies, leaving rural areas labeled “unsustainable” because of their decentralized growth patterns. Characterized as “not urban,” they fall short of urban sustainability benchmarks (Isserman, 2005). The importance of rural sustainability to both small communities and regions leads to the question: how can rural sustainability be characterized and assessed?

This study applies a comparative assessment model to …

New Urbanism: Its Interpretation And Implementation, Sherri Marie French

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

New Urbanism is a popular development movement that combines old and new development strategies in an attempt to build unique and lasting communities of value. However, as this movement employs practices that are not currently considered typical, developing in this manner can be difficult. This research seeks to identify the common difficulties that arise during the development of New Urbanist communities as well as possible solutions for overcoming those difficulties.

Researching the barriers to implementing principles of New Urbanism is important as this movement may offer solutions to some of the challenges arising from current development practices such as:

• Sprawl …