Urban, Community and Regional Planning Commons^™

Bike And Pedestrian Safety Planning: Excelsior/Outer Mission District, Alexandra Lee-Gardner

City and Regional Planning

San Francisco’s Outer Mission and Excelsior districts host a vibrant community of small business owners and residents from a variety of backgrounds and cultures. The neighborhood is known for its diversity and sense of community. However, lack of adequate infrastructure and high-speed roadways has created great safety concerns within the community. In the last five years, the Excelsior/Outer Mission area had 828 collisions, nine of which were fatal (Transbase, n.d.). San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) has identified nearly 14 miles of streets in the project area that are on the City’s high injury network, meaning collisions there are highly …

Walkability Of Suburban Retrofits Of The Washington Dc Area: Immersion Into Qualitative Constructs, David Sweere

Architecture Undergraduate Honors Theses

The majority of the United States population is living in the suburbs, and yet the suburban built fabric has developed with spatial conditions that have failed to prove their efficacy on environmental, social or economic terms. Most contemporary architectural and urban theorists agree that the suburban condition is inherently problematic. In a 2010 Ted Talk, architect and urban designer Ellen Dunham-Jones discusses the problematic state of the suburban built condition, citing dependence on the vehicle, sparseness of built form, environmental costs, transportation costs, and even increased obesity rates (Dunham-Jones 2010). Because the suburbs comprise the majority of our “urbanized” areas …

The Yamanote Loop: Unifying Rail Transportation And Disaster Resilience In Tokyo, Mackenzie Wade

Architecture Undergraduate Honors Theses

As climate change and population growth persist, and as the world rapidly urbanizes, major cities across the globe will face unprecedented strains. The risk of devastating impact from natural disasters increases in areas with a growing concentration of people. Megacities in Asia are the most at-risk of natural disasters, given their geographic location and high population density. With the highest projected population growth in the world, Asian cities must quickly expand and adapt their existing infrastructure to accommodate the transforming global conditions.

A remarkable anomaly amongst Asian megacities, Tokyo, Japan is effectively adapting to its earthquake-prone environment. Within the last …

A Functional Escape, Zachary Spero

Architecture Undergraduate Honors Theses

Over the past two decades, the tree house has outgrown its more recent traditional role as a child’s place to play and has served many new functions. I intend to conduct research that questions how the tree house has evolved over the last twenty years based upon changes in program, technology, and relation to the tree itself. As a result of this research, I will deliver a clear understanding of tree house design best practices in the form of a manual.

The Social Lot: Reimagining The Future Of Surface Parking Lots In Kansas City, Missouri, Lauren Davis

Architecture Undergraduate Honors Theses

Currently, the world is experiencing a resurgence of the urban lifestyle as humanity undergoes its third great wave of human history, the metropolitan tide. Humanity’s advancement in the past few decades has made cities the largest technology possible. In 1952, only thirty percent of the population lived in cities, and by the end of the twenty-first century, eighty-five percent of the world’s population will be urban. With this influx of population in the urban landscape, it is pertinent now more than ever for cities to redesign the city for the pedestrian.

In the 1950s, there was a predominant reorganization of …

From Displaced To Our Place: Educational Environments Can Promote A Community’S Health And Well-Being, Morgan Frederick

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

Thomasville heights is a displacement neighborhood for people pushed out by Atlanta’s Urban Renewal projects. Thomasville Heights remains a casualty of a system of economic segregation. Under this system of segregation these neighborhoods are left in detrimental states. It is in places like Thomasville Heights where the phrase “place matters” becomes a call to action. A town of 6000 residents and only one elementary school, Thomasville heights is bordered by multiple freight yards, a cemetery, landfills, and Atlanta’s US penitentiary, just a 5-minute walk from that one elementary school. There remains a vast difference between that of low-income urban, and …

The City Aetherus An Urban Design Methodology For Energy Use, Anthony Yan, Ermal Shpuza Phd

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

In the last few decades, there has been a growing awareness about the relationship between building design and energy use, environmental impact, and sustainability in general. Now, environmental design is a well-established field of architectural studies and practices. By contrast, it is only recently that the relationship between urban design and energy use has started to get due attention by the designer and planning communities. Due to our increasing energy needs and imminent global urbanization, humanity needs a solution to tackle the largest energy consumer: the city. This thesis is situated within the newly emerging discourse on the relationship between …

A Second Life: The Adaptation Of Dying Italian Towns To Accommodate Immigrants And Refugees, Rachel Rubis

Architecture Undergraduate Honors Theses

Despite its efforts in historic preservation, there is an abundance of culturally significant Italian vernacular towns dying due to dilapidation and depopulation. Simultaneously, Italy has faced an ongoing stream of immigrants and refugees seeking work, housing, and asylum within its borders—a crisis that has resulted in Italian fear and animosity aside immigrant maltreatment and hardship. My research, which is supplemented by first-hand experience in Italy, qualitative analysis, and text sources, proposes interventions into dying Italian towns to aid in the resettlement of immigrants and refugees—an effort meant to be mutually beneficial to both the town and the immigrant. In my …

Demolition In Rural Nebraska: Revitalizing Fairbury’S Vacant Sites, Mohammad S. Qutbaldeen

Architecture Masters of Science Program: Theses

Small communities are the most affected by the population decline. This decline results in an increase in the number of abandoned buildings. Those buildings, if left uncared for, will disintegrate and pose an environmental threat to the communities that they are in. In rural areas, demolition without repurposing or redevelopment plans is the dominant solution for unoccupied buildings. Data from the U.S. Census and the Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality shows that the rural town in Nebraska with the highest rate of vacant sites in a rural town has occurred in Fairbury. Vacant sites are an inevitable result of a …

Migratory Patterns And How They Affect The Relocation Of The Age Cohort 20 To 40 Into Nonmetropolitan Communities Of Nebraska, Mariah Tobin

Masters in Architecture Program: Theses

Nebraska’s nonmetropolitan communities have been rapidly declining in population. However, recent research has shown an uncharacteristic increase in the population of those age 20 to 40. The survival of nonmetropolitan communities is crucial to the societal ecosystem of America. The people moving into these nonmetropolitan areas believe in rural; they are “Rural by Choice”.

If Nebraska is to keep this way of life alive and thriving, small towns must re-evaluate their communities and strive to meet the demands of today’s globally connected world and the expectations of these younger generations. People are moving into nonmetropolitan areas in search of communities …

The Model Holistic : The Application Of The Adaptive Cycle To Rust-Belt Cities, Marysia Larosa

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

For too long, the relationship between the natural and built environment have been ignored, resulting in a disconnect between humanity, nature, and architecture. Can enforcing this relationship change the way we think about urban design and resiliency? Like ecology, cities act much like an ecosystem, going through four phases; exploitation, conservation, release, and reorganization. Over a slow period, these resources are conserved and protected rather than used for innovation. In the case of a disturbance, the vulnerability of the system at this point leads to eventual collapse and release of resources. Finally, as a result of this release, the system …

Which Activities Do Those With Long Commutes Forego, And Should We Care?, Eric A. Morris, Dick Ettema, Ying Zhou

Publications

Commuting imposes opportunity costs on travelers since those with long commutes have less time to participate in other activities. This paper examines how commute duration is associated with activity patterns. It utilizes a two-day time use survey administered in the United Kingdom in 2014 and 2015. Focusing on full-time employees and controlling for socio-demographic characteristics, we regress time spent engaging in 22 different activities on commute duration using OLS and Cragg two-part hurdle modeling. We separately test the effects of commute duration on activity participation for men versus women and for single persons versus persons in couples. We also report …

Eco-Hub, Diego Vazquez De Santos

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

Since the dawn of civilization, humans have generated waste. With the age of industrialization came urbanization, and as a result, large populations quickly multiplied within cities. In 1842, a report entitled The Sanitary Condition of the Laboring Population, Edwin Chadwick argued for the need for proper removal and management facilities of waste. This report played an important role in securing the first law addressing waste collection. Today, only 26% of the estimated 75% of recyclable goods get recycled. This problem is more eminent within New York city which currently is the topmost wasteful city. New York City residents throw out …

A Qualitative Study Of Information Technology Project Portfolio Management In Higher Education, L. Andy Miller

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study was conducted to understand the variables, processes, organizational structures, and governance structures that are important and/or that support higher education decision makers in their selection and prioritization of information technology (IT) projects into their universities’ portfolios. IT project portfolio management (PPM) is comprised of many different activities, and the selection and prioritization of projects are just two interconnected activities amongst many. Research has suggested that these PPM activities are both important and beneficial; but there is a dearth of research on the subject specifically within higher education IT environments, and some higher education organizations struggle in this area. …

Pitching Change: Micro-Community Of Higher Learning, Christopher Chaphe

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

Being around sports growing up has given me some experiences that have shaped who I am today. Playing and watching sports is a common activity amongst my friends and family. These events spark engagement and camaraderie between us. The stadium in which these sports are played within are a key component to this engagement. They bring people together to enjoy and root on your favorite teams along side thousands of other fans.

Stadiums today are becoming a remarkable instrument to generate communal spirit besides marketing, recruiting and hosting games for universities. The iconic design of these stadiums has become more …

Exploring Park Quality In Urban Setting With Environmental Justice, Alternative Measurements, And Social Interaction, Shuolei Chen

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

With rapid urbanization, urban green resources, such as parks have become important assets for quality of life in urban settings. Parks provide urban residents with both physical and psychological health benefits through various mechanisms such as physical activity and social interaction. Quality is an important non-spatial dimension of urban parks and has started to gain attention among researchers. To better understand park quality in an urban setting, additional knowledge should be explored. This dissertation studies the quality of urban parks from three different perspectives: 1) the equal distribution of park quality resources and its relationship to environmental justice issues, 2) …

Catalog Of Speculative Suburban Futures, Tara Grebe, Geneva Sinkula, Austin Riggins, Zachary T. Porter

UCARE: Research Products

This joint creative project examines ordinary suburban architecture through a neutral lens. American suburbs are often a source of vibrant debate in architectural discourse. The goal of this research was not to contribute to the endorsement or condemnation of suburbia, but to instead study the composition of these common place typologies. The three typologies studied in this project were shopping malls, big box stores, and gas stations; each of these has a distinct organization and set of characteristics that separates it from the others. After studying the basic components, interventions were made to transform each building in unique ways. This …

Analyzation Of Sandpit Lakes In Grand Island, Nebraska, Olena Yarmolyuk, Morgan Davis

Architecture Program: Student Creative Activity

The oxford dictionary defines “dichotomy” as, “noun: a division or contrast between two things that are or are represented as being opposed or entirely different.” In the context of Grand Island, Nebraska, a dichotomy exists in the development of housing. In the 1900s, sand quarrying began along the railroad in Grand Island. When the sand was dredged up from these quarries, the floodplain began to fill in holes over 5 feet deep, creating man-made lakes. As these lakes grew the sand could no longer be quarried, recreation and housing began to develop on their shores. The housing developments, in particular, …

Placekeeping And Equitable Development In The Embudo Valley, Felicity Fonseca

Public Administration ETDs

Embudo Valley Library is planning to build a permanent stage and improve their grounds to become a public park. In what ways can this project stimulate a creative placemaking community development strategy for Dixon, NM? The research goals are to learn how this project can contribute to revitalization, equity, and creating a cohesive community that retains its historic and cultural essence. The research includes an overview of the community context, a literature review about creative placemaking and community development strategies, and three surveys, the results of which will inform the project. Conclusions are that human centered design and equitable development …

El Quijote En Alcalá De Henares: Graffiti, Arte Urbano Y Autorrepresentación, Juan Fernandez Cantero

Vernacular: New Connections in Language, Literature, & Culture

En el presente trabajo se realizará un estudio de los procesos culturales existentes en la ciudad de Alcalá de Henares en la actualidad a través del arte urbano. Concretamente, se analizarán las representaciones del Quijote, personaje universal de Miguel de Cervantes, en el casco antiguo y en los barrios periféricos de la urbe. Se demostrará cómo la figura del Quijote es un medio para la autorrepresentación de la ciudad. Más allá de las decisiones políticas sobre el arte urbano en el centro histórico de la ciudad, se verá cómo la iconografía del Quijote se consolida como un elemento cohesivo para …