Urban, Community and Regional Planning Commons^™

Feasibility Report On Water Recycling And The Housing Crisis, Tally A. Perry

City and Regional Planning

The western United States is experiencing increasing population, a housing shortage, and a drought. These challenges demand creative and unprecedented changes to development. Water recycling is slowly emerging as a viable solution for developers, home owners, and cities as a way to continue much-needed housing development while mitigating unnecessary water depletion. With all change, policy, feasibility, and awareness can be the largest influencers. Drought-ridden western-American states require additional and revised regulatory requirements to promote recycled water in new development. Currently, water reuse is largely used for agricultural and industrial purposes. To motivate and encourage housing development, water recycling needs to …

Shellter Beer Garden: The Redevelopment Of An Abandoned Parcel Into A Community Gathering Space, Madison Leonard, Lainie Kastner

City and Regional Planning

The Shell Beach neighborhood of Pismo Beach serves a quiet, active community in need of an enjoyable, outdoor community gathering space. While the current main street, Shell Beach Road, has undergone major streetscape improvements, there are still vacant parcels in need of refurbishments. A vacant lot on the corner of Shell Beach Road and Cuyama Avenue that previously served the community as a drive-thru restaurant, now provides a desirable site for business. At the location of 1901 Shell Beach Road, a community beer garden built out of shipping containers will provide an ideal space for the Shell Beach community to …

Cal Poly Campus Safety: Policy Proposal, Alan Cazares, Phung (Karen) Bich La, Junhyun Kim

City and Regional Planning

As described in this project, the California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo is in need of improving the campus’s sense of safety and safety features. With an increasing student population and increasing dangers, the importance of safety for all is becoming evident. The COVID-19 pandemic has taught us that it is essential to have proper safety features and preventative measures in place to keep the student and faculty population safe. The project’s goal is to produce safety recommendations that could be used to amend the existing 2035 Campus Master Plan. Currently, safety is not a topic extensively covered in …

Spheres Development Package, Nate R. Antepenko, Dan Benaroch, Dominic Ferrari

City and Regional Planning

The Spheres, live work play development concept is located adjacent to Higuera St, along an arterial road that primarily contains industrial and commercial land uses. The proposed development site is intended to enhance the city of San Luis Obispo by addressing the necessities of the surrounding community.

The development proposal adopts the Urban Design principle, Smart Growth Planning, designed to direct development into areas that have adequate utility capacity and transportation networks and to encourage walkable communities. The Spheres development site fosters fluid spaces, where residents live in a walkable radius to work, eliminating long commutes, in order to eliminate …

Cityengine As A Tool For Visualizing Neighborhood Change: An Initial Study, Zach Noyes

City and Regional Planning

Urban planning is reliant upon genuine public engagement to ensure that planning and policy decisions reflect the ideas shared by the public. Because planning is a profession largely focused on the physical and built implications of more abstract planning concepts, effective graphic communication is critical to securing public support and understanding of policy decisions. ESRI's CityEngine uses procedural modeling technology to render personally-tailored scenes to non-planner members of the public, and shows potential to positively change the way that planners generate graphic representations of physical impacts of policy changes. This initial study establishes a methodology for determining the efficacy of …

An Analysis And Application Of Pedestrian Streets, Ellie Krantz, Austin Lucero

City and Regional Planning

The goal of this project is to closely examine the conversion of traditional roads into pedestrian streets. By studying two examples, we will create an understanding of why cities do this, how they implement pedestrian streets, what results pedestrian streets bring, and what makes a successful conversion project.

The second part of this project is to implement the key takeaways of the research phase into a conceptual design of a similar project for San Luis Obispo. This design based phase will consider the entire scope of the project, detailing project location selection, implementation, and recommendations.

A Redevelopment Plan For Santa Rosa Plaza, Abraham Miranda Roldan, Benjamin K. Ip

City and Regional Planning

The purpose of this document is to hypothesize a successful and innovative plan for the redevelopment of the Santa Rosa Plaza Mall (Downtown Mall) in Santa Rosa, California. This project proposal seeks to address the Plaza Mall’s challenges and provide an alternative solution to develop a unique character that promotes a sense of place, foster vibrant civic spaces, and meets the City’s housing and job needs.

Shopping malls in the United States are dying and are becoming less popular among the new generation, which means malls must adapt to fulfill the role of “third place” that many people need. This …

Building The Revolution: Ideology, Affect And Gender In Bolivarian Caracas, Andreina I. Torres A.

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

“Building the Revolution: Ideology, Affect and Gender in Bolivarian Caracas,” examines the Bolivarian Revolution (1998-present) as a heterogenous shifting political process, and terrain of struggle in which a multiplicity of actors disputed the meanings and direction of socialism in Venezuela. During three years of ethnographic and archival research in Caracas (between 2014 and 2017) I researched one of the many Campamentos de Pioneros (Pioneer Camps) that was part of the Movimiento de Pobladores y Pobladoras de Venezuela (Venezuela’s Settlers’ Movement). The pioneers sought to “rescue” and occupy centrally located land in the national capital in order to build housing for …

The Beehive, The Favela, The Castle, And The Ministry: Race And Modern Architecture In Rio De Janeiro, 1811–1945, Luisa Valle

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation deploys a multidisciplinary and decolonial framework to investigate the architecture of cortiços, the Favela Hill, the Castelo Hill, and the Ministry of Education and Public Health (MES) building as constitutive of the history of modernization and modernity in the Centro (city center) of Rio de Janeiro, 1811-1945. The first three chapters investigate the distinct geographies, formal and material qualities, and populations of cortiços, the Favela Hill, and the Castelo Hill, as well as their racialization and essentialization by the “unsanitary” and “degenerate” labels bestowed upon these landscapes by the state. Traditional narratives and practices of modern architecture and …

Rethinking Human-Local Wildlife Relations, Yin Chan

Critical and Creative Thinking Capstones Collection

The plight of suburban wildlife receives considerably less attention than that of exotic or endangered species despite facing similar threats due to the decline of their natural habitats as humans expand upon them. From the perspective of a reflective practitioner, this paper provides new avenues to rethink current views on human-local wildlife relations and answer some of the difficult questions surrounding the topic. The methodology of Action Research is employed to explore concepts relevant to human-local wildlife relations. A synthesized practical framework integrating Action Research with Permaculture Design is proposed to create models for mutually beneficial coexistence between local wildlife …

Affordable Housing On Community Land Held In Trust: An Essential Component Of Sustainable Development, Kevin S. Tellez Ramos

Master's Projects and Capstones

This project summarizes an assessment of affordable housing development in Sonoma County - centered in an analysis of sustainability. The language of sustainability requires a new vocabulary for conversation on a broad topic. The sustainable development goals can be directed for the benefit of organizations that contribute to solutions that lack insight towards greater longevity for the at-risk members of the community (i.e., greenwashing, net-zero emissions, etc.). More recent sustainable development literature from the United Nations reveals new priorities: social, economic, and environmental sustainability. (This applies to developing nations of which the researcher believes Sonoma County, California and the United …

Our Streets: Increasing Equity In Active Transportation Planning Through Community Outreach, Jordan Hoy

Master's Projects and Capstones

ABSTRACT Significant research has demonstrated that active transportation infrastructure is essential for the growth and livability of San Francisco: it increases access to economic opportunities, promotes overall improved public health, encourages mobility without contributing to roadway congestion, prevents traffic injuries and fatalities, and supports the sustainability goals of the city. Despite the fact that communities of color will benefit the most from active transportation infrastructure development, historical disenfranchisement in tandem with a lack of diverse representation within public participation contributes to an inequitable distribution of walking and biking investments throughout the city of San Francisco. While research shows that Black …

The Cost Of Urbanization: A Look Into The Transformation Of Mao Era Reforms, Tieren A. Dokes

Master's Projects and Capstones

Mao Zedong has played an influential role in Chinese society, whether for better or for worse. His policies have caused ripples throughout contemporary Chinese society, but nothing stronger than his desire for urbanization and economic land reform. Utilizing Mao’s drive for urbanization and economic reform as essential historical context, this paper connects how the contemporary governmental push for urbanization has been unyielding, and, in some ways, counterproductive as decade-old Mao-era institutions reverberate in an echo chamber with cracks that allow darker forces to seep in. Real estate and urban development companies and local governments are given monetary incentive to redevelop …

The Heat Is On: The Collaborations, Capacities, And Management Style Required For The Establishment And Sustainability Of Community-Owned Renewable Energy District Heating Systems In Austria, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Wales, And Scotland, Gerard Doyle

Articles

International reviews of countries’ progress at tackling climate change show that Ireland is making small levels of progress on tackling issues associated with climate change. This paper will highlight the pivotal role the State performs, both at national and local level, in creating the conditions essential for the establishment of community-owned renewable energy district heating systems. In particular, the State can provide funding for these initiatives to acquire the management and technical expertise essential for their establishment and maintenance. This paper will also examine a theoretical framework, referred to as capacity analysis, to explain the capacities that need to be …

Urban Air Mobility: Envisioning Uam As An Integrated Form Of Future Transport - A Las Vegas Case Study, Osarodion Victory Igbinobaro

Hospitality Design Graduate Student Capstones

Rapid urbanization has resulted in more people moving to cities to live and work. By 2030, an estimated 5 billion people will live in urban areas representing about 60% of the world's population. This increase in population growth brings forth new mobility challenges and opportunities for city planners, importantly, the challenge of transporting people and goods to their destinations in the most efficient, safe, quick and sustainable manner.

Traffic congestion, greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles, the cost of maintaining existing and building new transportation infrastructure are among several reasons why many cities seek sustainable alternatives to compliment their existing transport …

Biophilic Escapism: Designing The Hotel Mojave, Mark Kua

Hospitality Design Graduate Student Capstones

Many places in urban destinations such as Las Vegas (and abroad) are lacking in natural elements, and therefore, are disconnected from nature. The lack of biophilic design principles in the built environment can create places and spaces that are conducive to stress and tension in users. By improving the human connection to nature, we can reduce ill health, improve productivity, and create spaces and environments that are more comfortable and appealing. Tying this to hospitality, we can utilize natural materials with a strong connection to nature; incorporate biophilic focal points; utilize plant life and water features deliberately and thoughtfully; create …

A New Look Into Old-Design As A Re-Purposed & Upscaled Integration, Jorge Medina

Hospitality Design Graduate Student Capstones

Instead of creating trash, upscale and repurpose materials to determine a new design aesthetic.

According to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, Las Vegas had 32,230,600 visitors in 2021. That's approximately 88,303 visitors per day, all of which created trash. If we consider, each of those visitors disposing of one can of soda, one bottle of beer, or one bottle of water, we can easily reach 88,303 empty containers per day. Thought, it may be more realistic that visitors consume more than one bottle of liquid a day.

According to PBS Terra, Americans create 4.9 pounds of trash a …

Overcrowded Street: Entertainment-Design-Driven Approach To Urban Design, Jairo Fajardo

Hospitality Design Graduate Student Capstones

Cable cars have evolved over the years, both in technology and in their uses. In the beginning, they were used mainly to transport materials and supply troops in times of war; after the First World War, these cable cars began their transformation, orienting them as economic transport and tourist attractions with a low impact on the landscape, allowing us to travel through areas that are difficult to access or where the construction of roads is not justified.

For this project, a proposal will be made to implement a cable car system to decongest the overcrowded sidewalks and as a tourist …

Performance Canopy For Hospitality Design: Performative Design For M/Hotel Operators, Carlos Reynoso

Hospitality Design Graduate Student Capstones

The project proposes a solar-array canopy with rainwater retention system to address an existing structure's operational weaknesses.

Alternative Current: A Las Vegas Solution To Ev Charging Design, Jason Saccoliti

Hospitality Design Graduate Student Capstones

Altnerate Current examines trends in the gas station industry, lessons learned from Las Vegas, and current Electric Vehicle charging stations to create the Ultimate Charging Experience.