Architecture Commons^™

Landscape, Kitchen, Table: Compressing The Food Axis To Serve A Food Desert, Shannon Brooke Elliott

Masters Theses

In the past, cities and their food system were spatially interwoven. However, rapid urbanization and the creation of industrialized agriculture have physically isolated and psychologically disconnected urban residents from the landscape that sustains them. Cities can no longer feed themselves and must rely on a global hinterland. Vital growing, preserving, and cooking knowledge has been lost, while negative health, economic, and environmental effects continue to develop from this separation. Low-income neighborhoods have significantly been affected where a lack of income and mobility pose barriers to adequate food access. Architects have addressed food issues individually, but have yet to take an …

(Re)Discovering Civitas: The L.A.Gora, Douglas Russ Newby

Masters Theses

The purpose of this study was the development of an architectural methodology capable of re-establishing polycentric civitas in the City of Los Angeles. To establish a new civic design framework for the city of Los Angeles, research and analysis was conducted in many fields using several different methods. A review of literature pertaining to the historic establishment of civitas serves an analysis of the different forms of public space in Western civilization. An analysis of urbanism in Los Angeles was conducted using existing literature related to the topic, while an analysis of the neighborhood chosen as the site for the …

Maywood A-Bridged: A Thesis About Engagement, Leslie Joanne Worthey

Masters Theses

This is a thesis based on the idea that things in our environment, through neglect or ignorance, become invisible, despite an essence of virtue. The idea stems from the literary work of Fyoder Dostoevsky, particularly his depictions of fallen women. In stories such as “Notes from the Underground,” Liza, the prostitute, is his most virtuous character. My exploration of this idea culminates in the design of an advocacy center for the community of Maywood, California and the Los Angeles River, including a gathering center in which residents of the community and environmentalists may come together on equal social footing.

Transformation Of Industrial Space, Xin Jia

Masters Theses

By the 1970s the international markets had begun to change and the region’s industries were becoming less competitive. Mines began to close. Factories that had operated night and day fell silent. Their gates closed and they became “brownfield” sites in need of restoration.

For the over past 20 years, city planners regenerated these derelict industrial lands in different ways especially focus on renaturalizing them. Less attention is being paid to them as active and strategic roles in contemporary affairs. Today, people’s thinking about this issue demands more the character of sentimental stimulus- for either the re-creation or preservation of past …

An Architecture Of Amelioration, Geoffrey Russell Plagemann

Masters Theses

Scar: A lingering sign of damage or injury, either mental or physical.

Technological advancement scars the landscape. It has been our practice to ignore, or worse, hide these marks that have been made as society continues to advance. Industries past left us relics and ruins of bygone eras of promise and production. The time we live in has recognized the untenable failures of past generations, however there are methods of industry that continue to injure the landscape. We will leave our scars.

In this time we must rethink the scar, define it, and recognize its beauty. The first step of …