Landscape Architecture Commons^™

Firesafe: Designing For Fire-Resilient Communities In The American West, Brenden Baitch

Masters Theses

The perception that wildfires are completely preventable has caused many structures and communities to be built in locations that will inevitably experience an uncontrollable fire event, risking human lives and infrastructure. Modification of built environments into fire-adapted communities has been explored in this thesis, through multiple strategies. Central to this analysis is the idea that sustainable human developments could adopt a form of biomimicry and indigenous design informed by the adaptions of plants, animals, and native groups that endure and even thrive with regular cycles of fire. This possibility has been assessed through the scope of fire adaptation strategies available …

Correctional Landscape Studies: Improving The Restorative Potential, Allyson Fairweather

Landscape Architecture & Regional Planning Masters Projects

The United States is the world’s leader in incarceration with 2.2 million people currently in the nation’s prisons and jails. On average, one-third of former offenders will return to prison for re-offence within three years of their release (Bureau of Justice Statistics 2018). This cycle is known as recidivism, and demonstrates a major reflection of the criminal justice system’s failure to provide rehabilitation that meets the needs of the incarcerated population. However, horticultural therapy in prison may offer a sliver of hope. Also referred to as Green Prison Programs (GPPs), studies indicate that participants in these programs gain valuable job …

Arc Of Recreation 2.0 Connecting The Mcknight Rail Trail From Mason Square To Union Station, Springfield Ma, Kevin Atkinson, Benjamin Boschetto, Sicheng Cui, Lauren Fiedler, Micah Franzman, Jiaqi Guo, Joseph Herman, Ross Kerr, Thomas Leary, Xueqi (Lucia) Li, William Taylor, Joseph Wynne Jr.

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

ARC OF RECREATION 2.0

Connecting the McKnight Rail Trail From Mason Square to Union Station, Springfield MA

ARC OF RECREATION 2.0 is a Senior Urban Design Studio that created design concepts to envision the McKnight Rail Trail on an abandoned railroad corridor as a place to walk, bike, recreate, and congregate and to connect Mason Square to Union Station. Arc of Recreation was a name that was coined over 10 years ago through a different project at UMass. Finally realization is within reach. The City published a feasibility study in 2014 and has freed a construction budget of $430,000 for …

The Art Of Healing The Landscape: Creating A Sense Of Place With Phytotechnology, Tia Novak

Landscape Architecture & Regional Planning Masters Projects

This project builds on previous work completed as part of a masters project by Matt Hisle under the guidance of Frank Sleegers in Hadley, Massachusetts at an abandoned Getty gas station. The previous project sought to integrate phytotechnology into a “comprehensive experience that provided connectivity and educational purposes” and used Phyto by Kate Kennen and Niall Kirkwood as a framework for applying six phytotechnology typologies (referred to as phytotypologies) in the design (Sleegers & Hisle, 2017).

This project also explores the site’s historical, social, and ecological sense of place and the application of phytotechnology as garden art to create a …

Using Phytotechnology To Redesign Abandoned Gas Stations, Matt Hisle

Landscape Architecture & Regional Planning Masters Projects

Hazardous pollutants that exist in contaminated soils represent a threat to human, animal, and environmental health if left unmanaged. Phytoremediation in the U.S. was generally named and formally established in the 1980s and applied as an alternative method using plants to cleanse contaminated soils on site in a more economically and environmentally friendly way than removing contaminated soils off site. High expectations and mixed performances with failures outnumbering successes led to a crash of phytoremediation with a decline in environmental research funding by the early 2000s. “Phyto”, a book by landscape architects Kennen and Kirkwood (2015) recently reintroduces the subject …

Restoration: Bridging The Gaps A Graphic Translation Of Ecological Restoration, Alyssandra Black

Masters Theses

The terms restoration ecology and ecological restoration are used interchangeably confusing the definition and work of ecological restoration and its many components. Restoration ecology is a type of scientific practice whose work will be a component of a restoration project while ecological restoration is the sum of practices, social, historical and ecological that constitute the field of restoration (Higgs, 2005). Within our rapidly urbanizing society the role of ecological restoration and restoring ecosystem services is increasingly important, especially within our coastal cities. The goals of restoration differ when the classification of restoration techniques is by ecosystem service, not ecological function, …

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. …

The Community Garden As A Tool For Community Empowerment: A Study Of Community Gardens In Hampden County, Shanon C. Kearney

Masters Theses 1911 - February 2014

The purpose of this study is to gain a better understanding of how community gardens can catalyze positive change in an urban environment, to determine and catalog the impacts, and to learn about their importance to small-scale agricultural production. The study surveyed neighbors of the two umbrella organizations community gardens, The Nuestras Raices of Holyoke and Growing the Community of Springfield, who strive to ensure that local families gets enough food to feed their families on a daily basis.