Urban, Community and Regional Planning Commons^™

From Affordable To Equitable: An Analysis Of Affordable Housing As A Solution In A National Shortage, Machelle Cooper

Honors Theses

Amid a national shortage of housing, the United States needs housing solutions that both remedy infrastructural concerns imposed by outdated standards of urban development and address a widespread lack of equity across several urban areas. Conventional approaches to public housing have proven ineffective in promoting equitable change within underdeveloped contexts. These areas desire innovative, intentional interventions that adequately address all aspects of their social, economic, and environmental needs that existing patterns of development have neglected for decades. Public and state sentiments regarding areas of concentrated poverty and segregation in urban space must change for a future of equitable housing to …

A Comparative Study On The Design Typology Of Dense, High-Rise Housing, Nikita Mansinghani

Honors Theses

The three case studies are multi-unit residential buildings located in three vastly different European cities and designed in different times periods of architectural transformations and technology help us understand the value and development of these units and the significance of them in the future design typologies. The understanding of housing complex has been occupied with the exercise of control as a design tool for demarcating variation to further the purpose of housing and shift in approaches from typical architecture to non-standard creative practices, this article focuses on three precedents: the Unite de habitation, VM houses and The Whale. The three …

Building Before: Community Resiliency As Emergency Management, Alexandria Rinne

Honors Theses

This project seeks to address gaps in emergency preparedness education related to tornado response. Through an examination of current research about best practices for tornado emergency management response and an examination of the needs of FEMA Regions 7 and 8, the author has identified key strategies and stakeholders to increase positive outcome through building community engagement and resiliency. Three presentations were created for delivery to key community stakeholders—local government officials; non-governmental organizations, social networks, and associations; and individual private citizens. The project offers an overview of background research and provides presentation slide decks, scripts, and discussion guides, all created with …

Architecture And New Urbanism’S Relationship To Biomimicry And Floral Design, Alycia Timmerman

Honors Theses

The craft of floral design is classified as an art and a science. Similarly, architecture is rooted in the two disciplines. After conducting research and exploring biomimicry through the design process, it became evident that the process of design for architecture and floral design are similar. This relationship can also be extended into the field of planning and the New Urbanism movement. This study explores the integration of floral design and biomimicry with architecture and New Urbanism at the scale of the building and city block.

The Design Of An Agricultural Youth-Centered Rural Development Program In Rwanda, Laetitia Igiraneza Sinyigenga

Honors Theses

Rwanda is primarily a rural, young, and agriculture-based country. The referred variables- agriculture, rural population, and youth- can be creatively merged to engage and empower youth for rural development. This paper indicates the utilization of cross-disciplinary knowledge to design an agricultural youth-centered rural development program in Rwanda. The program uses the interdependence of economic sectors (agriculture and education) with resources (environmental & natural resources and human resources) to boost rural community development. The program’s main activities- mentorship, agribusiness training, tutoring, exposure visits, and community work- highly reflect the requirement for advancing the selected main economic sectors and resources. There is …

Out Of Sight, Out Of Mind: Analyzing Inhumane Practices In Mississippi’S Correctional Institutions Due To Overcrowding, Understaffing, And Diminished Funding, Ariel A. Williams

Honors Theses

The purpose of this research is to examine the political, social, and economic factors which have led to inhumane conditions in Mississippi’s correctional facilities. Several methods were employed, including a comparison of the historical and current methods of funding, staffing, and rehabilitating prisoners based on literature reviews. State-sponsored reports from various departments and the legislature were analyzed to provide insight into budgetary restrictions and political will to allocate funds. Statistical surveys and data were reviewed to determine how overcrowding and understaffing negatively affect administrative capacity and prisoners’ mental and physical well-being. Ultimately, it may be concluded that Mississippi has high …

A City Divided: A Gis-Informed Study Of Urban Planning In Amman, Jordan, Ella Lawson

Honors Theses

Amman, the capital of Jordan, faces an impending infrastructure crisis. The city is plagued by water shortages, a lack of affordable housing, extreme traffic congestion, and dwindling open space. Over the past seventy-five years, several urban planning commissions have attempted to address these issues through policy change and other municipal directives. These plans help illustrate the different forces at play in constructing the city—whether they be the residents themselves, city officials, or international consultants. All the plans use neighborhoods as a primary metric for measuring need and organizing development. Likewise, all the plans focus on the importance of green and …

Going Green: A Comparative Analysis Of Green Urbanism In Paris And Shanghai, Jeanne Torp

Honors Theses

As climate change becomes more pressing with each day and as we scramble to slow down the challenges it poses, adapting the means of operation within our cities will become an invaluable tool for reducing humanity’s carbon footprint. This paper seeks to study the ways in which green infrastructure in global cities can be used to do just that—adapting to and mitigating the effects of challenges resulting from climate change. In order to provide a broad overview of the effectiveness of such green infrastructure systems across the globe, this research will focus on two cities that vary greatly in their …

Understanding Spaces Of Abandonment Through Virtual Frameworks In Landscape Architecture, Aus Perez

Honors Theses

In recent years, design professionals have implemented many contemporary landscape architecture projects across the United States. With a primary goal of returning nature to urban environments, contemporary landscape architects and other transdisciplinary partners work diligently to sculpt physical spaces that reflect the human-living experience. However, a leap into the world of video game design could allow landscape architects and urban planners to more freely create virtual social environments to address rising issues of abandonment in today’s urban and rural spaces. Video game mechanics and methodologies can be used extensively in the disciplines of design that value participatory processes, like landscape …

What The Walls Say: Finding Meaning And Value In Tel Aviv’S Street Art, Rachel R. Bird

Honors Theses

This thesis explores street art in Tel Aviv, Israel through anthropological concepts of value. By defining street art as an interstitial practice—one that exists between permeable, socially defined boundaries and is characterized differently by different power structures—I attempt to define some of the different regimes of value that apply to street art. Using the emerging market of “street art tours” as a fieldwork site, I look at how street art is presented and re-presented to both tourists and locals. By situating my research in a historical and geographic context, I hope to understand the ways different value schema, from economic …

Symbols Of A Bourgeois Empire: The Intersection Of Class And Government During Paris's Transformation Into A Middle-Class Capital, Brian Teitelbaum

Honors Theses

Between 1853 and 1870 the face of Paris was dramatically altered by the modernization effort on the part of the Second French Empire. Hundreds of thousands were displaced, billions of francs were paid out by the government, and old Paris gave way to the new. This is important today to the study of history as it marks the definitive end of an era of aristocratic oriented government and the start of the prominence afforded to the middle classes.

The renovation of Paris and the Palais Garnier defined an architectural style called Second Empire that was copied by many cities across …

Visions For Waterville's Future: Perceptions Of Its Residents, Alex Wolansky

Honors Theses

Mills and factories in the United States have steadily been closing down as industry is outsourced in the globalized economy. Cities that were once prosperous face decay and often have no hopeful future outlook. Post-industrial towns face major unemployment and poverty and are not typically places for re-investment. But Rust Belt cities like Baltimore, Buffalo, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Detroit, Milwaukee and St. Louis are not the only post- industrial hubs that are struggling. Many small towns in rural areas once thrived from manufacturing and are becoming forgotten. Local governments, policy makers, urban planners, developers and scholars are working to figure …

Suburban Space And The City Of Rome: Liminality Fluidity And Differentiation, Henry Scherck

Honors Theses

The suburbs of the ancient Rome are a geographical area which is difficult to define, but a space which is filled with interactions between social classes which differ from those which exist within the urban space of Rome. Conceptualizing the suburbs as a space which is utilized for spectacle and as a means of exerting physical influence outside of the city of Rome, serving as a space which operates as a blank canvas as opposed to Rome as a palimpsest, this research surveys the Sallustian Gardens, the Tomb of Eurysaces the Baker and the Villa of Hadrian. Using research on …

Park Politics: Political Influences On Frederick Law Olmsted & The Creation Of Central Park, Kathryn Chow

Honors Theses

Frederick Law Olmsted, Sr. (1822-1903), renowned landscape architect and journalist, was also a political activist who saw urban parks as a way to facilitate social reform. This study focuses on Olmsted’s role as Superintendent of Central Park (1858-1861), evaluating the impacts of politics throughout his campaign for Superintendent and during the construction of Central Park. Politics, in this study, refers to both the interactions between Republican and Democratic parties, and the interactions between Olmsted and his constituents, in both the government and the intellectual sphere. This study will provide readers with a fuller understanding of how local political disputes, ideas …

A Test Of Simple Ledges For Facilitating Mammal Passage Through Inundated Culverts, Amy Kelley

Honors Theses

Culverts under roadways can provide safe crossings for many animal species and are readily available, numbering over 12 million in the United States. In this pre and post construction study, I added a simple wooden ledge to 7 culverts in Saratoga County, New York to investigate their effect on wildlife crossings. A motion sensor camera was used to monitor each culvert for 2 consecutive summers, 2012 summer without a ledge and 2013 with a ledge. Six species of small mammals accounted for the 55 culvert crossings in 2012 and 58 crossings in 2013. The ledges did not increase culvert crossings …

Yuppies And Bootstraps: The Impact Of Gentrification On The Preservation Of Community Identity And Urban Youth Culture In Somerville Ma., Kathleen Portillo

Honors Theses

Gentrification has been at the forefront of dialogue within major social science research fields, as it is a crucial urban phenomenon that prompts fascinating interchange regarding changing definitions of community. Traditional interpretations of this process have highlighted a dynamic in poor urban areas when residential shifts, urban planning, and other forces significantly alter the spatial, social, and cultural configuration of a particular city. Furthermore, much of the gentrification literature focuses on the displacement of poor pre-gentrification residents living in declining “broken” cities. The city of Somerville, MA, provides an interesting and refreshingly different context in which to observe the impact …

Destruction Of Place: Policy Diffusion And Schenectady's Urban Redevelopment, Alistair Phaup

Honors Theses

Cities search for solutions to local problems in other cities and on national policy menus. This process results in many cities relying on the same solution to the same problem. Usually this diffusion of policy across multiple cities produces positive results as environmental protection, water treatment, and other city services are expanded. However in urban redevelopment policy diffusion cannot be successful as redevelopment relies on providing unique, and sometimes competitive, projects to distressed downtowns. The of writings by Jane Jacobs, Gratz and Mintz, and Richard Florida result in a group of methods that can be used to determine the potential …

Sustainable Cities As The Gateway To The Future: A Case Study Of New Rochelle, Andrea B. Grenadier

Honors Theses

This thesis explores the characteristics of sustainable cities and uses New Rochelle, New York as a case study to further describe initiatives synonymous with green communities. Five prominent topics of sustainable cities and urban planning are discussed within the literature review and later mirrored throughout the case study of New Rochelle. These topics include, smart growth, energy efficiency, green buildings, transportation, and recycling. The mayor of New Rochelle and Sustainability Coordinator completed questionnaires and their responses contributed to an assessment of the contemporary issues facing sustainable cities.

Combating Suburban Sprawl In The Capital District: An Outline For Regional Sustainable Development, Andrew J. Cahill

Honors Theses

Urban centers in America have commonly been plagued by high rates of pollution, decaying infrastructure, and the overall image of being undesirable places to live. Beginning in the second half of the twentieth century, masses of people vacated the cities that they called home, for literally greener pastures, settling in outlying, low-density living areas that became known as the suburbs. Suburbanization has particularly impacted the land use pattern in the Capital District of New York State, as countless suburbs developed away from the region’s urban centers of Albany, Schenectady and Troy. Recently people have moved back into the Capital District’s …