Urban Studies and Planning Commons^™

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 …

Restoring Dignity In The Gardens Of Ekhenana, Jordan Buser

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This case study investigates the lived experiences of eKhenana, a shack settlement under the leadership of Abahlali baseMjondolo, as they attempt to navigate the increasingly unequal urban landscape. The research presented is focused on theories of urban marginality, food sovereignty, and dignity. I advocate that, in the margins, dignity can be restored through the implementation of a communal garden. Presented as a case study, this research centers the voices and experiences of the commune. The paper first depicts a brief timeline of eKhenana, and explains how they have created not just a place to live, but a community and a …

The Rise Of Southern Nevada As A Cluster For Metropolitan Transit Technology Innovations, Arthur C. Nelson

Policy Briefs and Reports

Southern Nevada is emerging as the nation’s leader in private sector-driven innovations in transportation technologies. From the humble beginnings of a monorail system serving a portion of major hotel and gaming venues along the Las Vegas Strip, now supplemented by an array of people movers, Southern Nevada continues to attract transit innovations in tunneling, Hyperloop, and driverless vehicle delivery technologies. The region may soon anchor a high-speed rail system connecting Southern Nevada to Los Angeles. The purpose of this briefing paper is to frame the nature of this emerging transportation cluster and the opportunities this creates for Southern Nevada to …

Cities, Settlements And Key Infrastructure, David Dodman, Bronwyn Hayward, Mark Pelling, Vanesa Castan Broto, Winston T. L. Chow, Et Al.

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

In all cities and urban areas, the risk faced by people and assets from hazards associated with climate change has increased (high confidence1 ). Urban areas are now home to 4.2 billion people, the majority of the world’s population. Urbanisation processes generate vulnerability and exposure which combine with climate change hazards to drive urban risk and impacts (high confidence). Globally, the most rapid growth in urban vulnerability and exposure has been in cities and settlements where adaptive capacity is limited, especially in unplanned and informal settlements in low- and middle-income nations and in smaller and medium-sized urban centres (high confidence). …

Cruser Place Green Streets Plan, Neal Friedman

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Capstone Projects

Combining green and complete street design techniques leads to multiple environmental, social and economic benefits that often enhance each other's effectiveness. In urban areas confronting increased pressures of sea level rise, green streets, which incorporate landscaped features or vegetative areas to manage stormwater within the right of way, can be crucial pieces of pedestrian oriented urban design and multimodal planning frameworks that consider and plan for diverse, complementary transportation options. This plan works with the Colonial Place and Riverview Civic League as well as the Norfolk Preservation Collective to come up with green street design recommendations in order to strengthen …

Constructing Colma, Ethan Treiman

Library Map Prize

The American Cemetery Movement tells the story of American cemeteries in roughly four chapters, demarcated by the emergence of new cemetery forms: the rural cemetery, the memorial park, and so on. This paper identifies the salient features associated with each epoch of cemetery development and locates them within the city-cemetery of Colma, California — America’s only official necropolis — to demonstrate how Colma extends America’s cemetery tradition in familiar ways. In Colma, the trends of cemetery growth and ‘flattening’ reached their natural conclusions, throwing the uncertain future of earthen burial in America into the spotlight. This paper analyzes the societal, …

Food Systems Financing Action Plan, Noah Holmes Foster

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Capstone Projects

Food insecurity is a well-documented issue in Virginia and throughout the United States. Food enterprises, especially those in under-resourced communities, often lack access to the credit needed to start or expand their operations due to the narrow profit margins of food enterprises. Community development financial institutions (CDFIs), such as Virginia Community Capital (VCC) address this issue by providing low-interest financing to food businesses that can increase food security and strengthen local economies. Food systems financing is a developing field for VCC and other CDFIs, and changes to standard practices are required to ensure that lending is as accessible as possible …

Comparative Life Cycle Assessment Of Mass Timber And Concrete Residential Buildings: A Case Study In China, Cindy Chen, Francesca Pierobon, Susan Jones, Ian Maples, Yingchun Gong, Indroneil Ganguly

Publications, Reports and Presentations

As the population continues to grow in China’s urban settings, the building sector contributes to increasing levels of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Concrete and steel are the two most common construction materials used in China and account for 60% of the carbon emissions among all building components. Mass timber is recognized as an alternative building material to concrete and steel, characterized by better environmental performance and unique structural features. Nonetheless, research associated with mass timber buildings is still lacking in China. Quantifying the emission mitigation potentials of using mass timber in new buildings can help accelerate associated policy development and …