Architecture Commons^™

Buffalo Outer Harbor Quays, Ryan Decker

Architecture Theses and Projects

Buffalo, a once prominent American city hit by hard times, has the opportunity to rebuild. It has industrial resources and transport options. It has a booming education system and medical business. Its technology sector is rapidly expanding. The city has a chance right now to create new glory days. This project is about transforming a forgotten piece of land, a large swath of man-made waterfront that since the fall of Bethlehem Steel has been nothing more than equipment storage, on arguably the best portion of the city’s waterfront. Combining heavy industry, shipping, living, working, and waterfront recreation into one new …

Blending Architecture With Nature: The Old Man In The Mountain, Rick Hamme

Architecture Theses and Projects

The project is centered on the blending of tectonics, social context and nature in order to create a piece of architecture that becomes part of nature and part of the social fabric of the area. The site is located at the base of the Old Man in the mountain in Franconia notch, NH. It is nestled in a valley within the White Mountain National Forest. The Old Man fell off the cliff face in 2003 but for the purposes of the project I will assume that a proposed design for a replacement made of steel and glass will be built. …

A Spiritual Journey: Redefining The 21st Century Catholic Church, Kevin R. Correia

Architecture Theses and Projects

With an increasing Catholic population and diminishing vocations to the priesthood, Catholic parish communities are rethinking their church buildings, as they are forced to combine with other communities. The design of a Catholic Church and parish center that respects the tradition of the past and embraces the contemporary religious, architectural, and social needs is the vision for the 21st century Catholic Church. Catholic churches must respond to the Second Vatican Council’s amendment to have a greater participation of the laity in the liturgy. The design focuses on the procession, moments of use, and light that guide the spiritual journey throughout …

Valuing Historic Places: Traditional And Contemporary Approaches, Jeremy C. Wells

Architecture, Art, and Historic Preservation Faculty Publications

Decisions about which older buildings, structures, and places should be conserved are fundamental to the practice of architectural conservation. Conservation professionals use the interrelated concepts of integrity, authenticity, and historical value to determine which historic places are worthy of importance. Traditionally, these concepts are predicated on preserving the object rather than conserving the meaning and values associated with the object. In other works, the goal is to benefit the object and not the people who value the object. This method, which has roots in antiquated nineteenth-century Western scientific traditions, deprecates the importance of people, processes, and meanings in how places …

Homeless Rehabilitation Center At Lasalette Shrine In Attleboro, Ma, Reid Evan Ennis

Architecture Theses and Projects

Architecture has the power to help alleviate problems in society. However, it is not enough to simply design and build a structure and assume the problem will be solved. The people who use the building must be committed to solving the problem and must actively use the building to the full potential it was designed for. Homelessness is, without a doubt, one of the most important and obstinate social issues of our time. There are many continuing attempts to end homelessness which have been met with varying degrees of success. I feel it is critical to promote dignity and self-worth …

Pmr, Psychosocial Multicultural Rehabilitation: A Place Of Peace And Compassion For Child Soldiers Of Post War Trauma, Alyssa Keating

Architecture Theses and Projects

There are an estimated 300,000 child soldiers around the world. Many children are recruited forcibly; their abduction is a pernicious form of displacement that dramatically affects those stolen and the communities from which they were taken.

The architectural design focuses on the rehabilitation of boy soldiers, integrating many different cultures and beliefs away from the terrors of war, to find peace within themselves and living with caring people. The main focus of the design is to reflect the stages of post conflict trauma to assist the boys to regain a sense of worth and normality. This is done through the …

Accessible Architecture: Creating Possibilities For Adults With Cerebral Palsy, Caitlin M. Mayo

Architecture Theses and Projects

This project is an assisted residence and day facility for adult with cerebral palsy. It includes facilities for education, recreation, dining, community activities, administration and housing. The design was created with wheelchair bound in mind.

Sky-Field: A Vertical Farming Solution For Urban New York, Justin White

Architecture Theses and Projects

Farming has not changed significantly in thousands of years. We still go about blanketing the ground with acres and acres of crops far away from the people who eat it. “We now have to talk and bring the green movement into our food supply. We will find a place in NY to do this,” states Scott Stringer, Manhattan Borough President. The concept is to design a vertical farm tower which will feed thousands of local residents, allowing them cheaper, organic, disease-free crops. The supply structure of the agricultural industry needs a big change. It is no longer becoming economical due …

Tune In: Berklee College Of Music, Center For Music Technology, Boston, Massachusetts, Nicholas Proto

Architecture Theses and Projects

The design proposal is a center for music technology for the Berklee College of Music. The technology of music will blend with the technology of design to create a new, different place. The concept is to develop generative proposals that break the norms of “everyday life” through the creation of digital tools and processes. The ability to “disrupt someone’s lifestyle” is not done out of negative intentions, but to inspire one to break out and experience something new and exciting. Digital technologies enhance the process to provide key information in order to design and construct.

The Ocular Orientation Center: Using The Built Environment As A Means Of Wayfinding, Kara Lane Smolca

Architecture Theses and Projects

WAYFINDING encompasses all of the ways in which people orient themselves in a physical space and navigating from place to place. The idea that the built environment can provide a means to WAYFIND suggests that architecture must be more than an iconic image. It must be enhance all of the senses in order to lead the way for those needing direction. The OOC provides a place for the Blind and visually impaired to learn about eye care as well as interact with those experiencing the same difficulties and life changes. The center concentrates the shared experiences and places where socialization …

Re-Active Architecture: Exploring The Japanese Educational Experience, John J. Baker

Architecture Theses and Projects

This design seeks to transform the Japanese educational experience through the use of architecture. The aim is to provide an alternative school that breaks from the uniformity of the current system and provides an educational environment that places an emphasis on interaction, community, and learning. The school would serve as a junior high school combined with a small community library. The school would accommodate 250-300 children. Ultimately, this school could serve as a model for future educational buildings within the Japanese educational system.

Boston Modern: Spirit Of Reinvention, Christine Madrid French, Elaine B. Stiles

Architecture, Art, and Historic Preservation Faculty Publications

The National Trust for Historic Preservation, with the Boston Preservation Alliance, Boston Landmarks Commission, Boston Society of Architects, Common Boston, DOCOMOMO US/New England, Historic New England, and Preservation Massachusetts hosted the 2-day Boston Modern Module on June 29 and June 30, 2010. The Module included production of a full-color booklet highlighting significant modern and recent past resources in and around the city of Boston.

50 Years Reconsidered, Elaine B. Stiles

Architecture, Art, and Historic Preservation Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Mind The Gap Ii: Notes On The In-Between, Edgar Adams

Architecture, Art, and Historic Preservation Faculty Publications

This is an extension of research that looks at Transit Oriented Development as a means of examining the role of transit infrastructure and the public realm within the marginalized urban sites of the urban "in-between".

Los Angeles Modern: City Of Tomorrow, Christine Madrid French, Elaine B. Stiles

Architecture, Art, and Historic Preservation Faculty Publications

The National Trust for Historic Preservation (NTHP) and the Los Angeles Conservancy (LAC) hosted the two-day inaugural Modern Module in Los Angeles on September 30 and October 1, 2009. This full-color booklet highlights Modern and recent past resources in greater Los Angeles Area.

Adaptive Housing: Transformation And Growth In The Urban Environment, Kevin Mowatt

Architecture Theses and Projects

The proposal for an adaptive housing project and its chosen location arose from two obstacles that all modern cities and the world as a whole, face. The urban environment is revered for its cultural amalgam of people and wide range of demographics; however with this density and diversity comes a shortage of one type or another of commodious housing. Additionally and consequentially, the city must expand and build new buildings, leaving older, unsuitable building vacant. An adaptive architecture would allow families to grow and demographics to shift within the established community, all the while reinvigorating that second obstacle the city …

Creating Community: Mixed Use Development In New Bedford, Ma, Matthew J.B. Cate

Architecture Theses and Projects

In creating a new type of community for New Bedford, MA, there was an awareness of both the existing community, context, and people, while realizing a need for change. The design uses the concept of adapting the existing density into two modes. First, merging the existing residential fabric and merging it with a public program including both commercial and retail development. Second, focusing that new typology into a smaller more refi ned space, while creating new public areas for communal enjoyment and development. Creating such an idea of living takes the existing unused exterior spaces allotted to the typical housing …

Community Infrastructure: A Transformation Of The New Orleans Industrial Canal, Nicholas Thornton

Architecture Theses and Projects

The city of New Orleans is in need of a symbol of stability and hope. The design proposal is for a New Orleans Water Treatment Facility that focuses on purification, reclamation and desalination processes. The facility will create a pure water supply that will be distributed into public circulation as well as be made readily available during natural disasters. A public works building such as this is important to the growth of the ever rebuilding city. In 2005, New Orleans was hit by Hurricane Katrina causing flooding and destruction to a great majority of the city. Once the hurricane subsided …

Rising Architecture, Erica M. Wiggin

Architecture Theses and Projects

Many cities have experienced shrinkage in their city centers, leaving behind abandoned lots and buildings throughout the city streets. The historic city of Providence was split after the construction of I-95, leaving the west side of the city separated and in some cases abandoned from downtown. Creating a couple living communities that work together to live sustainably by producing necessities such as electricity, clean water, food and medicine will be contributing to the quality of the city as well as improving their lives by learning, developing and teaching new means of living to the rest of the community in their …

Redefining The Rural Experience: Change For The People Of The Appalachian Mountains, Magoffin County Crafts, Social, And Health Services Center Gifford, Kentucky, Katelyn Chapin

Architecture Theses and Projects

As an introductory attempt to develop improvements within economically challenged Magoffin County, Kentucky, and explore the relationship of program to an individual’s life, craft, social, and health initiatives would be introduced to the residents. A community would evolve where locals could receive education, have access to daycare, purchase food at discount prices, engage in indigenous craft making, and visit professional doctors in the health clinic and urgent care center. Done in order to facilitate individual advancement and community growth, this design will support social integration by allowing people to share the resources needed to end the problem of generational and …

Contradiction And Duality Within The City: The House Of Arts And Culture, Andrei Sdrula

Architecture Theses and Projects

This project aims to apply the concepts of contradiction and duality as described in the manifesto to reinvigorate and reconnect a portion of the city Bucharest: the capital of Romania. This city has a long history of architectural achievements and disasters, and this intervention gets to the heart of that legacy when it confronts the House of Parliament: a massive megalomaniacal building constructed under the Ceausescu regime in the 1980s. The project addresses the parliament, sector, city, country, and people with first: a master plan, and then a civic building within that master plan that is located in front of …

Urban [Boxscape], Brad W. Bolte

Architecture Theses and Projects

Urban [BOXSCAPE] is a method of developing upon the existing Big Box Landscape in order to synthesize commercial, environmental, and social components of civic life into an integrated solution. This urban concept is demonstrated through a design vision for a Big Box Center in Seekonk, Massachusetts. However, the guidelines and options used in this exercise are meant to exceed this site’s immediate relevance and provide a model approach for similar sites across the nation.

Density: An Additive Process, Oscar Sam Boyko

Architecture Theses and Projects

This project is about embracing the global transition from primarily rural life to primarily urban life. The project is looking for a way to organize the inevitable vertical growth that will need to occur in major cities such as New York.

Living In The Spectrum: Autistic Children Center, Jennifer Villegas

Architecture Theses and Projects

Throughout this project, I became aware of how the life of an autistic child differs from others. They view the world around them as something new and exciting. The goal was to create an environment to help children with autism and make them comfortable within their daily lifestyle. I used architecture to construct a realm in which these students could explore an environment which benefited their development.

Integrating Infrastructures: Redefining Ecological + Man-Made Systems, Bio-Remediation Facility, Woonsocket, Rhode Island, Nicole C. Arvanites

Architecture Theses and Projects

The bioremediation training facility consists ofaseries ofeducational bUildings including laboratories , libraries, an auditorium, classrooms, greenhouses and garden social spaces for students to learn about ecological systems. The facility runs adjacent to aseries ofold built infrastructures, like the Blackstone River Dam, drawing aparrallel to how people use these systems with the function of the ecological ones within the bUilding. The parrallels between these two types ofsystems will bring new definitions to one's environmental conditions in the city.

Redefining Branding In Architecture: Case Study, Westside Railyards Development New York City, Usa, Andrew Vuono

Architecture Theses and Projects

I am proposing a master plan of a 26 acre (1.4 million aq. ft.) development on top of the West Side Rail Yards near Midtown Manhattan. Midtown Manhattan in and of itself has a brand and I would like to design within it. The goal is to create a series of towers that specifically focus on anchoring the Highline as a destination all while enhancing the “New York Experience” of the surrounding context. The brand will be re-identifying the unused rail yards, due to its proximity to the highline, Javits Center, Pennsylvania Station, Madison Square Garden, the Hudson River, and …

Fort Point Channel: Maglev Transit Hub And South Station Expansion Master Plan, Steven Seminelli

Architecture Theses and Projects

This project entails the design of a Magnetic Levitation (or ‘maglev’) transportation hub that interacts with the urban environment of Boston, becoming a modern terminal for this new form of travel as well as a threshold into the heart of the city. Included is the focus on the junction of many scales of transportation (i.e., maglev, train, metro, bus, pedestrian…) currently present at South Station, while stimulating a community with many levels of commercial development and social interventions.

Reuniting A Community: The Stephen Kaplanis Ymca, Michael R. Kozlowski

Architecture Theses and Projects

The goal of this thesis was to create a center that brings all teenagers of Danbury, CT together, especially the young generation to keep them active and growing.

The Right Ascension Children's Center: Orphaned Refugee Rehabilitation, Newton, Ma, Jonathan Fox

Architecture Theses and Projects

An all encompassing facility placing an emphasis on safety and protection for rescued refugee children. Large open spaces are critical to the success of the children’s recovery, creating a healthy therapeutic environment. The flexibility of the building allows each child to experience the transitional functionality of living and cohabitating at the center. As the children progress through the rehabilitation process, a greater emphasis is placed on integration and community, allowing them another chance at a healthy, successful life.

National Culture And Entertainment Center: Iconographic Architecture, Hung Quoc Le

Architecture Theses and Projects

The building I design will be an icon, a landmark to publicize my hometown, (a now thriving Ho Chi Minh City, formerly called Saigon), to celebrate friendly Vietnamese people and the country of Vietnam in general. The reality of Vietnam and Vietnamese life is quite different now from the image of Vietnam in the past. This new image of the Vietnamese culture will be publicized through a series of projections in spaces, on surfaces, in the transformation into form, or by more conventional displayed photos of different periods of time.