Architecture Commons^™

What Comes After The Boom? Baby Boomers In Santa Maria, California A Market Study For People's Self Help Housing, Elizabeth Anne Brighton

Master's Theses

This Master’s Project is separated into two parts: the introduction and background informing an affordable senior housing market study, and a market study prepared for People’s Self Help Housing (PSHH). The introduction begins by providing current and future trends for seniors at the national and state levels. This includes discussion of the “Baby Boomer” age cohort and their rapid growth and potential impact to the housing market. The introduction then describes challenges facing developers of affordable senior housing. These challenges include the type, location, and funding sources for future senior housing projects. All federal funding sources for affordable senior housing …

Addressing The Administration Of Planned Developments: The Case Of Arroyo Grande, California, Matthew J. Downing

Master's Theses

The City of Arroyo Grande, California has a problem administering the

regulations of five Planned Developments in the City. This problem arises

from these regulations being included in a 167-page appendix at the back of

the City’s Development Code. This appendix includes the original approvals

for the Developments. It also includes amendments to those approvals.

These amendments are only added to the appendix. Therefore, changes to

the regulations governing the Planned Developments are not tracked. It

takes City staff considerable amounts of time to research answers when

members of the public have questions regarding development in one of these

Developments. …

Evaluating The Performance Of Urban Public Plazas In Al Ain Downtown In Relation To Physical Characteristics And Social Principles, Merai Ismail Al-Zoubi

Theses

The thesis studies the existing problems of AI Ain Downtown plazas mainly from the physical and social points of view. AI Ain downtown plazas are designed to provide a high level of social life. The main problem of these plazas is that they are used by only a particular social group. This study intends to develop a framework for evaluating and enhancing the urban public spaces in AI Ain city.

The framework is classified into two main dimensions; physical and social. Each dimension has a set of principles that affect the performance of the plaza. A descriptive analysis method is …

Bim Collaboration In Student Architectural Technologist Learning, Malachy Mathews

Articles

This paper is the result of a qualitative case study which investigated the influence of building information modelling (BIM) collaboration on the learning of student architectural technologists based around a studio group project. The purpose of the paper is to disseminate knowledge gained into a new learning environment facilitated by the collaborative properties of a BIM application. A qualitative case study approach has been used to undertake the examination of the learners’ experiences during the project. This approach allowed the author to map the complex interaction between the participants during the stages of the collaborative design project. The paper provides …

Comparative Pedestrian Visibility Under Solid State Led Sources, Dana Younis

Theses

One of the important factors in striving towards sustainable urban living is the safety of pedestrians. This safety is influence by many factors, one of which is the ability of drivers to see pedestrians. During the night, pedestrian visibility becomes more difficult, especially on two-way streets, where headlamps of cars from the opposite direction cause glare to drivers. Newer types of headlamps are using LEDs and Xenon which are glarier than older halogen types.

This study is arranged in two parts. The first part of which examines the effect of oncoming car headlamps on pedestrian night time visibility. Detection distance …

''Get Your Asphalt Off My Ancestors!'': Reclaiming Richmond's African Burial Ground, Mai-Linh Hong

Faculty Journal Articles

By treating spatial conflict as one way communities wrestle with the memory and legacy of slavery, this article unites critical landscape analysis, a tool of legal geography, with legal and cultural analysis and recent scholarship on African American reparations. A slave cemetery lay beneath a parking lot in Shockoe Bottom, a neighborhood of downtown Richmond that was once a major slave-trading hub. In recent years, controversy arose over the site’s use, generating racially charged local debate and two failed lawsuits seeking to preserve the site. This article examines the significance of the African Burial Ground controversy by analyzing its symbolic, …

Community Composition, Demographic Change, And The Impact Of Spatial Proximity To Disadvantage On Violence And Gang Presence In New Jersey Municipalities, Brian Engelmann

Dissertations

Neighborhood composition, change, and disadvantage have been shown to influence crime and gang presence in communities. There is a dearth of research, however, that explores whether spatial proximity to disadvantaged areas affects crime and gang presence in nearby locations. Through maps and spatial analysis, this study investigates how neighborhood demographics may vary and may have changed by community type in New Jersey municipalities. Through quantitative analysis and interviews with school and law enforcement officials, the study then analyzes how such community-based phenomena, coupled with proximity to disadvantaged areas, may affect crime, violence, and gang presence in towns and schools.

Findings …

A Tale Of Two Trusts: A Case Study Of The Consolidation Of Two Community Land Trust Affordable Housing Organizations In Vermont, Isaac I. Wagner

Capstone Collection

Between early 2010 and May 2011 the Windham Housing Trust conducted a feasibility analysis to study the possibility of merging with or acquiring the Rockingham Area Community Land Trust, a similar community land trust organization providing affordable housing in an adjacent county.

This study analyzed the one year feasibility study and merger negotiation process between the two organizations, and explored the complex set of relationships between financial partners, communities, residents, and funding stakeholders. The methodology for this work included reviewing current literature about nonprofit mergers and acquisitions, funder involvement, and community impact of consolidating services. In addition the author interviewed …

Crafting Contingency, Rachel Mccann

Future Directions in Feminist Phenomenology

No abstract provided.

Prairie To Prairie: Ungrowth In American Cities, Catalina Freixas, Pablo I. Moyano Fernandez

Suburban Sustainability

The city of St. Louis has suffered tremendous population loss since the 1950s, and is currently a major shrinking city in America. This sustained population loss and its accompanying economic decline has led to many negative effects, including crime, food deserts and property abandonment. Eco-urbanism, which advocates a shift from conventional planning goals of economic and population growth to environmental sustainability and increased quality of life, holds promise for the city of St. Louis, where opportunities for implementing eco-urbanism strategies are more plentiful due to the abundance of vacant land.

This paper examines the current role eco-urbanism plays in St. …

Long-Term Low Do Enriches And Shifts Nitrifier Community In Activated Sludge, Guoqiang Liu, Jianmin Wang

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

In the activated sludge process, reducing the operational dissolved oxygen (DO) concentration can improve oxygen transfer efficiency, thereby reducing energy use. The low DO, however, may result in incomplete nitrification. This research investigated the long-term effect of low DO on the nitrification performance of activated sludge. Results indicated that, for reactors with 10- and 40-day solids retention times (SRTs), complete nitrification was accomplished after a long-term operation with a DO of 0.37 and 0.16 mg/L, respectively. Under long-term low DO conditions, nitrite oxidizing bacteria (NOB) became a better oxygen competitor than ammonia oxidizing bacteria (AOB) and, as a result, no …

Morningstar, Jane (Hines), 1904-1989 (Sc 2714), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 2714. Correspondence, news clippings, reference letters, and other miscellaneous research material related to prominent architects from Bowling Green, Kentucky, several of whom practiced elsewhere.

Play In Place: The Role Of Site-Specific Playgrounds In Community Space, Allison Nkwocha

Scripps Senior Theses

Playgrounds do not have to be static sites, but safety standards should not be the only force that guides their evolution over time. Just as the ongoing transformation of any city is a product of many interwoven factors, the collection of smaller sites that delineates one city from another should reflect the same holistic influences. This is not an argument for the abandonment of the safety standards that influence playground design. Instead, it is an argument for the adoption of and stronger adherence to community standards that influence city design. This paper argues that a park area (and more generally, …

Dogtrots In New Orleans: An Urban Adaptation To A Rural House Type, Jennifer K. Anderson

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

The dogtrot house type is an important type of vernacular architecture in the American landscape, particularly in rural areas of the southern United States. Little is formally written or known about the dogtrot type houses in New Orleans, which appear to be a unique evolution of the rural dogtrot form specifically adapted for the urban environment. This thesis examines the existing literature regarding the dogtrot house type and analyzes the architectural history of the remaining dogtrot type homes in New Orleans in order to establish that they are correctly classified, and also to investigate any possible links with rural dogtrots. …

Water And The Architect: Architecture As Decentralized Water Management, Daniel A. Williamson

Architecture Masters of Science Program: Theses

Water is the essence of life, a material, a resource, a commodity. It is volatile, fragile, devastating, nourishing and is ultimately spatial. The design of how water spatially inhabits, flows, and interacts with our built life has seen many forms, functions, systems, failures and successes. Over the course of history those who have had the opportunity to define our relationship with water has spread across numerous disciplines, and touched many professions. The architectural relationship with water has seen an unfortunate bifurcation over the past two centuries. It is this separation of architecture from adequately and actively engaging water management, primarily …

Lexiconic: Reading The Edifice, Amanda L. Mejstrik

Architecture Masters of Science Program: Theses

Language has undergone an evolution similar to architecture. Both have been defined through multiple styles which have a tendency to change and reestablish themselves based on popular culture, eventually permeating through society, while subsequently losing momentum and necessity. In the same way that architecture has transitioned through time based on a societal importance of efficiency, economy, and effectiveness, language begins to assume a new oratory standard.

Old English begat Middle English begat Modern English

Victorian Style begat Modernism begat Structural Expressionism

These entities have become representative of our culture throughout the ages and have reached a point of abbreviation so …

Terra[Form], Michael G. Harpster

Architecture Masters of Science Program: Theses

This project generates an alternative model of high-density development for emerging metropolitan areas that increases the intensity of use and overall density of a site while simultaneously producing new types of public open space.

Focused intently on ways in which urban form influences or impacts a city’s consumption of energy and resources, the project can be understood as a formal approach to sustainability in which basic formal or tectonic properties are examined in favor of technological building systems.

Ultimately, the project redefines the relationship between the park and the city, creating a network of public open spaces through the intensification …

The Emergent In-Between, Gregory R. Gettman

Architecture Masters of Science Program: Theses

As walkability becomes a more critical aspect of the organization of urban environments, it is essential that architects engage in the development of the spaces people actually occupy (the ‘in-between’) as well as the relationship between the programs they border. Using walkability as a catalyst, this thesis seeks to design a system for growing new urban tissue. Within that tissue are networks and proximities of activities that define the means and destinations of walking, as well as the spatial condition that makes the condition appealing for walking. Such a system should be able to define and optimize program organizations and …

Drought As A Component Of Local Hazard Mitigation Plans: Are The 100 Fastest Growing Counties Ready?, Jeffrey L. Henson

Community and Regional Planning Program: Theses

Drought is one of the most destructive natural disasters that threatens nearly every environment on earth. Between 1980 and 2011 there were 16 drought events in the United States with impacts that exceeded $1 billion with an average event cost of $12.2 billion according to the National Climate Data Center. While many states have engaged in the creation of drought plans, little research has been done regarding drought planning at the local level. This research examines the local planning efforts in 62 of the 100 fastest growing counties in the United States from 2000 to 2009. It is expected that …

Collective Chord Behavior In Large Flexible Diaphragms, J. W. Lawson, C. N. Yarber

Architectural Engineering

The seismic behavior of large low-rise buildings with rigid walls and flexible diaphragms will be dominated more by the diaphragm’s seismic response than by the very stiff vertical walls. For practitioners, estimating the stiffness of large flexible diaphragms is important for computing building setbacks from property lines and adjacent structures as well as evaluating structural integrity under seismic loads. In addition, researchers attempting to accurately model a building’s dynamic behavior need to assemble an accurate diaphragm stiffness prediction. The traditional diaphragm chord model consists of a single continuous line of axial resistance at the diaphragm boundaries; however, as this paper …