Urban Studies and Planning Commons^™

Valley On Board 2023 Addendum Safety And Access To Pvta Bus Stops A, Tatum Thomas

Landscape Architecture & Regional Planning Masters Projects

The Pioneer Valley Transit Authority (PVTA), Massachusetts’ largest regional transit authority (RTA), has partnered with the University of Massachusetts at Amherst (UMass) on a two-year project. The goal of this project is to analyze and redesign the current transit network and service offerings to enhance equity and economic vitality throughout its service area in Hampshire and Hampden counties. The UMass planning project, Valley On Board (VOB), is part of a larger Pioneer Valley Transit Review and Improvement Planning Study (PV-TRIPS project). Funded by the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) and the US Department of Transportation through a Helping Obtain Prosperity for …

Reinvigorating The Hill In Turners Falls, Ma, Patrick Burns

Landscape Architecture & Regional Planning Masters Projects

This masters project will focus on the site of the Hillcrest and Sheffield Elementary School campus in the "The Hill" neighborhood of Turners Falls, MA. This project aims to create a vision of possibility for an underutilized neighborhood amenity. This project reviews social, demographic, physical data of the neighborhood in Turners Falls as well as research on play, nature play, outdoor experiential learning, and the local ecology of Montague Wildlife Management area. To execute this goal, the study aims to achieve the following objectives:

• Revitalize an underutilized space into a neighborhood asset;
• Improve elementary school campus reinforcing a positive learning …

Bournewood Hospital: Designing A Healing Landscape, Winfield Henry

Landscape Architecture & Regional Planning Masters Projects

Currently in the United States there are 51.5 million Americans suffering from mental illness (Mental Illness, 2021). With trends having been on the rise over the past decade, particularly for depression and anxiety, and showing a significant jump during the COVID-19 pandemic, it is crucial that behavioral health hospitals utilize all available treatment methods (Daly et. al., 2021, & Goodwin et. al., 2020). While the outdoor environment has played a role in mental and physical healthcare since the 11th Century, it has been largely lost until the late 1900s. Through research and evidence-based design, a holistic approach to healthcare is …

Massachusetts Complete Streets Program: An Exploratory Spatial And Social Equity Analysis, Toriellen Swistak

Landscape Architecture & Regional Planning Masters Projects

The effects of transportation planning on equity are often overlooked or not prioritized, sometimes resulting in an inequitable distribution of infrastructure investment with disparities in access. This paper examines the characteristics and distribution of approved Complete Streets projects across Massachusetts using social and spatial methods to analyze trends across socioeconomic demographic data. The methods applied include buffering techniques in GIS software to analyze population data within a half-mile radius of approved projects from 2016-2019. The half-mile measure of proximity is used as a proxy for access, in which descriptive statistics and regression models examine in detail.

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 …

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 …

Uncovering The Potential Of Peabody's Hidden North River: A Greenway For Social And Ecological Connectivity, Mitch Johnson

Landscape Architecture & Regional Planning Masters Projects

Project Goal Demonstrating the opportunity to strengthen both urban and ecological qualities, this project has the goal to transform an old industrial corridor in downtown Peabody into a green corridor integrating stormwater management, habit restoration, recreational, and catalyst for urban development.

The site’s location at the downstream end of existing creeks combined with its proximity to the Salem Sound makes this an extremely sensitive area to flooding events. This design proposal transforms this risk into an opportunity by restoring this former industrial site to its former function as a floodplain within the existing North River Watershed. In a phased process, …

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 …

Innovative Waste Water Strategies In The Landscape: The Application Of Green Infrastructure Principles In Cape Cod, Massachusetts, Kellie Fenton

Landscape Architecture & Regional Planning Masters Projects

Context Wastewater management is an issue that every community faces. Whether a small-scale septic tank or a large-scale centralized wastewater treatment plant, these systems are often insufficient in accomplishing their singular purpose: cleaning water. This results in the contamination of hydrological systems. In its focus on the intersection of the natural and built environment, the practice of landscape architecture may include the design of wastewater management systems. This project demonstrates how landscape architecture principles applied to waste water management systems provides both ecological and human benefits. Goals The goal of this project is to find ways that waste water systems …

Creating A Successful Wayfinding System: Lessons Learned From Springfield, Massachusetts, Yanhua Lu

Landscape Architecture & Regional Planning Masters Projects

The masters project presents findings from recent work the author completed related to wayfinding, and wayfinding systems. This work began as part of a graduate urban design studio, followed by work as a research assistant at the UMass Design Center in Springfield, on a new “demonstration” wayfinding system installed in Springfield, Massachusetts. The wayfinding project was done in association with the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission and the Springfield Office of Planning and Community Development, was implemented with the main goals of improving public health by encouraging more people to walk.

Wayfinding systems are increasingly seen as an important part of …

A New Vision For An Old Institution: Addressing The Challenges For Urban And Peri-Urban Agriculture At The Waltham Experiment Station, Kevin C. Hartzell

Landscape Architecture & Regional Planning Masters Projects

Urban and peri-urban agriculture has a new place in (sub)urban landscapes because of the suite of ecosystem services it can provide including, but not limited to; increased local food production, waste recycling, stormwater infiltration, and reconnecting urban dwellers to their food source. The University of Massachusetts Amherst’s Waltham Experiment Station, located in Waltham, Massachusetts, is poised for redevelopment as a model for multi-use urban agriculture production, research, and education as well as a living laboratory to monitor and document the ecosystem services provided to the surrounding community. This project will focus on educational and research categories within the theme of …

The Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station Study: A Socioeconomic Analysis And Closure Transition Guide Book, Jonathan G. Cooper

Landscape Architecture & Regional Planning Masters Projects

Between February 2013 and December 2014, four communities hosting a nuclear power plant in the U.S. were faced with the sudden closure of the plant. These closures were largely attributable to market changes in the energy sector, driven by sustained growth in the natural gas industry. The rise of natural gas-fired plants has recently forced several of the nation's older coal-fired and petroleum-based power plants into early retirement, and nuclear industry analysts suspect that the nuclear closures of the past two years may be just the beginning of a similar trend.

Unfortunately, the extent of nuclear power plant closure impacts …

Urban Redevelopment And Gentrification: How Will Hartford's Downtown North / Downtown West Master Plan Affect The Adjacent Neighborhoods?, Jesse Regnier

Landscape Architecture & Regional Planning Masters Projects

The purpose of this project is to determine the impact of a redevelopment master plan on the existing population surrounding the project area. In the Spring of 2014, the City of Hartford, Connecticut and Utile prepared a redevelopment Master Plan for a portion of their downtown titled "Downtown North / Downtown West: A Plan for the City of Hartford". The Downtown North (DoNo) section of the plan area consists of vacant lots, parking lots, and underutilized properties, many city-owned, which appear prime for redevelopment. My research questions and analysis focus on the housing portion of this Master Plan in the …

Public Consultations On Undergrounding Power Lines For Downtown Revitalization: The Cases Of Pleasant Street In Northampton, Ma And Main Street In Medfield, Ma, Noam Goldstein

Landscape Architecture & Regional Planning Masters Projects

This research is about a particular form installation of electric cables known as Undergrounding. The term undergrounding is associated to the fact that this type of infrastructural installation consists in burying the power lines beneath the surface instead of leaving these cables hanging on top of poles that are spread throughout the landscape.

Mapping Access To Fresh Produce, Fish And Shellfish At A Local Level Using A Mixed - Method Community Food Assessment Approach: A Case Study - St. Helena Island, South Carolina, Pedro-Miguel Soto

Landscape Architecture & Regional Planning Masters Projects

This report is a summary of a community food assessment (CFA) conducted over the course of five field survey trips to St. Helena Island, South Carolina, from December 2011 to July 2013. The goal of this CFA was to understand community characteristics related to the distribution and consumption of fresh produce, fish and shellfish. The method used for this CFA is composed of three parts, (1) spatial analysis using Geographic Information System (GIS) data (2) a community food assessment survey focused on where residents obtain their food and (3) ethnographic interviews with local growers, subsistence farmers and consumers. Applying this …

Reemergence Of The 21st Century Massachusetts Gateway City: The Role Of Commuter Rail Connectivity In Improving Employment Opportunity And Access, John A. Rosa

Landscape Architecture & Regional Planning Masters Projects

The South Coast Rail is a proposed transit infrastructure upgrade project that is intended to provide affordable Commuter Rail connectivity from Boston, Massachusetts to the South Coast Region communities of Fall River, New Bedford, and Taunton. State and regional policy makers have debated the practicality of this project over the last 25 years while the estimated project cost reached $2.2 billion in 2013. The most fundamental benefit of this proposed project is improved economic stability in the South Coast Region in the form of increased access to employment opportunities, local industrial development, and expanded municipal tax revenue.

Increasingly, public transit …

Preserving Project-Based Section 8 Within Tight Rental Markets In New England, Megan K. Reagon

Landscape Architecture & Regional Planning Masters Projects

In New England alone, 57, 508 privately owned, affordable housing units, otherwise known as project-based Section 8, are at risk of converting to market rate housing by 2017. Even though community-based organizations and active residents, in conjunction with local governments, are utilizing federal and state preservation tools, these units are still at risk due to market pressures and administrative burdens.

With proper policy intervention, expired Section 8 contracts, and future expiring contracts, may sustain a reasonable level of affordability. This study assesses the on-going affordability of recently expired Section 8 units within New England. With a broader definition of affordability, …

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 …

An Implementation Study Of A Business Improvement District For Davis Square In Somerville, Massachusetts, Alexander Casey Mello

Landscape Architecture & Regional Planning Masters Projects

The purpose of this Master's project is to research how a business improvement district (BID) could be implemented in the Davis Square commercial district of Somerville, Massachusetts. An assessment of Davis Square has been conducted through a collaborative effort between planning staff in Somerville's Mayor's Office of Strategic Planning and Community Development (OSPCD) and neighborhood stakeholders to identify key issues in the area. This project uses case study examples to understand the types of improvements and services that BIDs in neighborhoods similar to Davis Square provide. Furthermore, case study examples provide information regarding assessment methods and services provided by pertinent …

A Gis Multi-Criteria Evaluation For Identifying Priority Industrial Land In Five Connecticut Cities, Mark Berube

Landscape Architecture & Regional Planning Masters Projects

Rising land values, environmental regulations, lack of investment, and a declining industrial economy greatly threaten the existence of industrial land. Therefore, the purpose of this project is to establish where priority industrial districts are located within five Connecticut cities through the implementation of a GIS weighted multi-criteria evaluation. This tool applies various constraints and factors critical to industrial location and business investment. In addition to identifying suitable industrial districts, a tax base analysis assesses the overall value of industrial land within each community and an employment outlook measures future job growth for Connecticut Workforce Investment Areas. The overall goal of …

Preserving The New England Mill Town: Encouraging Adaptive Re-Use By Identifying Community Factors That Contribute To Success In Mill Revitalization Districts, Sarah A. Spencer

Landscape Architecture & Regional Planning Masters Projects

Mill Revitalization Districts have the ability to generate new vitality in some of the nation's oldest communities. When efficacious, these districts promote economic development, community beautification, and environmental health. However, when attempts at redevelopment fail they leave ugly scars in the form of decaying buildings and underutilized resources. Monetary investment and intent to improve a community are two factors that by themselves, will not preserve a mill complex or benefit a city. The first Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recognized districts in the early 2000s showed signs of varying success; there was a missing catalyst besides monetary investment. In fact, it …

Inside And Outside The Lines: The Socio-Ecological Differences Of Landscape Conservation Partnerships And Their Surrounding Regions, Somaye Garmroudi Dovirani

Landscape Architecture & Regional Planning Masters Projects

This study examines the socio-ecological criteria forming physical boundaries of regional conservation partnerships and the differences between outside and inside the boundaries. The purpose of this study is to first of all know more about the existing condition of regional partnerships' boundaries, and to seek a method to maximize the efficiency of regional partnership goals to conserve more land. Using a patch-and-corridor matrix ecological model to proves to allow for stronger conservation plans than the existing more opportunity-driven approach currently taken by RCPs.

Partnership Refuges: The Future Of The National Wildlife Refuge System? A Case Study Of Mashpee National Wildlife Refuge, Massachusetts, Margaret Catherine Engesser

Landscape Architecture & Regional Planning Masters Projects

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service works with partners to carryout management activities and events on national wildlife refuges. Partnerships provide financial and conservation management assistance for refuges and allow the Service to expand its breadth of influence to different agencies and organizations nationwide. As partnerships become a more valuable tool utilized by refuges, the Service should consider establishing partnership-based refuges, in which the refuge is owned by multiple organizations and not solely by the Service. This Master of Regional Planning Project evaluates one of the first partnership refuges, Mashpee National Wildlife Refuge, located on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Through the …

A Mill Town's Downtown: Assessing The Needs Of Ware's Main Street, Christina E. Mills

Landscape Architecture & Regional Planning Masters Projects

At the heart of every city and town is a downtown and a Main Street that not only serves as an economic engine, but defines the community, reflects its values, and acts as a living barometer of the state of the town. Downtown Economic Development is an essential component of any community's plan for prosperity and growth.

A once thriving mill town with a robust manufacturing industry, Ware Massachusetts is a bedroom community that today is made up of many industries, none of which present an obvious symbol or unifying identity for Ware the way manufacturing once did. That reality …

Proposed Reuse And Redevelopment Of The Salem Harbor Power Station, Salem, Massachusetts, Peter Matchak

Landscape Architecture & Regional Planning Masters Projects

This master's project analyses the potential reuse of the Salem Harbor Power Station. The station is slated to close June 2014. The closure is an opportunity for Salem, Massachusetts, to redevelop this site and to envision its future socio-economic possibilities. In this project, the parameters of potential development are reviewed, potential reuses are examined, and the best redevelopment strategies are presented.

This project uses five basic steps. The first was a literature review that focuses on planning concepts for the waterfront industrial landscape and its redevelopment. The second is a site analysis of the power plant that discusses the characteristics …

Low Budget Planning For Natural Resources And Open Space Conservation In Whitingham, Vermont, Paul Gagnon

Landscape Architecture & Regional Planning Masters Projects

This master's project was created for the Town of Whitingham, Vermont for the purpose of guiding town planning strategies with regard to open space and natural resources. It responds to Whitingham's draft town plan created in 2010 with the assistance of the Windham Regional Commission and was originally presented to the town planning Commission in May of 2010.

Whitingham is a rural community of 1,300 residents located near the Massachusetts border. Although Whitingham's population has grown slowly over the last twenty years, it has seen a significant increase in subdivision and housing construction, particularly vacation homes. Loss of the town's …

Grey Scars Of The Past: Case-Study-Based Green Principles Of Historic Mill Redevelopment With A Sustainable Future, Marianne E. Iarossi

Landscape Architecture & Regional Planning Masters Projects

Historic mill buildings are vast structures that tend to have a negative connotation associated with them. They are usually looked at as eyesores or symbols of a historic, working past that should be demolished. However, due to a variety of reasons, and the array of benefits that can be created if preserved, these mill buildings should be redeveloped and in a green, sustainable way. This Master's of Regional Planning Project examines the concept of sustainable mill revitalization, and various case study examples in the state of Massachusetts that demonstrate this. Various patterns of the concepts and elements were evident amongst …

Revitalization Of An Urban Riverfront To Revitalize The Socio-Economic Conditions Of Springfield, Ma, Sneha Rasal

Landscape Architecture & Regional Planning Masters Projects

The City of Springfield, Massachusetts is one of the largest cities in western Massachusetts, and was established on the Connecticut River for trading and as a fur-collecting post. In 18th and early 19th century, it experienced an industrial boom and became a regional financial center. Springfield became a major railroad center and grew to become the regional center for banking, finance, and courts. However, in mid-19th century Springfield suffered due to the flooding of the Connecticut River and the disinvestment in industry. These resulted in an urban sprawl as people started moving away from heart of the city.

Now, once …

A Comparison Of Resource-Centric Vs. People-Centric Approaches To Open Space Planning: A Case Study In Jaffrey, Nh, Mark W. Kresge

Landscape Architecture & Regional Planning Masters Projects

Land preservation can be an important planning tool when used as part of a strategic and comprehensive vision. This planning process is complicated, however, by the diversity of functions and values associated with open space and the large number of potential stakeholders with an interest in the issue.

This project examined alternative ways to approach the development of an open space plan and observed the interaction between competing forces during the planning process in the small rural community of Jaffrey, NH. One of the main issues examined was whether identification of potentially valuable open space would have different results when …