Architecture Commons^™

Fitness Anxiety: Redesigning The University Of Arkansas’ Health, Physical Education, And Recreation Building To Reduce Intimidation In The Fitness Centers, William Tack

Architecture Undergraduate Honors Theses

The goal of the capstone was to redesign Health, Physical Education, and Recreation (from here on out referred to as the H.P.E.R.) building on the University of Arkansas Campus to make the space more friendly to new users. This redesign consisted of a reworked site plan for the overall building and some significant shifts in the program to accommodate more gym space. The redesign work was based on the following: prior academic research regarding what causes intimidation in gym settings, student opinions shared via questionnaires, spatial/ programmatic standards from the National Intramural and Recreational Sports Association, a photographic journal documenting …

Better Leveraging Of Processies And Internal Procedures For Public Forms Used By Planning Departments, William J. Munson

City and Regional Planning

A survey was sent to 517 planning and community development departments across California inquiring about how they use interactive PDF files for forms and applications. 139 cities and counties responded, providing invaluable feedback, with 98% stating that their online forms and applications are in PDF format, 62% confirmed that some or all their PDF's are interactive, and over 72% retype the information in the completed PDF forms they receive in a database or spreadsheet program. Why retype data that has already been typed into an interactive PDF in order to enter it into their tracking systems?

Based on the survey …

Hydration Of High-Alumina Calcium Aluminate Cements With Carbonate And Sulfate Additives, Jonathan Lapeyre, Sai Akshay Ponduru, Monday Uchenna Okoronkwo, Hongyan Ma, Aditya Kumar

Chemical and Biochemical Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

This study investigated the influence of limestone (LS) and calcium sulfate (C$) mineral additives on the hydration kinetics of high-α-Al₂O₃ calcium aluminate cement (CAC) utilizing experimental techniques and thermodynamic simulations. Increasing the replacement level of limestone or calcium sulfate increased the cumulative heat of the hydration reaction. The limestone exhibited limited acceleratory effects to the CAC hydration kinetics due to the coarseness of the powder. The coarse particle size distribution limited any heterogenous nucleation that would have occurred with a finer particle size as well as the intrinsic insolubility kinetically limits the formation of monocarboaluminate phases. Conversely, …

Anthropomorphism In Architecture: An Investigation Into Anthropomorphism Through Ancient Greco-Roman Religious Structures, Emily Wilcox

Architecture Undergraduate Honors Theses

This paper will outline and detail an investigation into religious Greco-Roman structures of antiquity through the lens of anthropomorphism. Through defining anthropomorphism, three lenses of thought have presented themselves as means of inquiry: metaphor, scale and proportion, and ergonomics. Previous research into these structures and cultures has shown that there was indeed consideration for the human body in designing in construction; this project hopes to solidify these claims and present new supporting information regarding specific relationships to the body using anthropomorphism. Many contemporary buildings approach the relationship to the human body as a mask or an afterthought, disregarding what reflecting …

The Future Of Urban Technology: Exploring Smart Cities And Transportation Through Game Theory And Scenario Planning, Matthew Wilson

Architecture Undergraduate Honors Theses

Technological innovation is occurring at a rapid pace in the world of personal devices. This trend of change has not been able to occur as fast in the city infrastructure. Consumers are curious about the next generation of technology and the integration of artificially intelligent technology in transportation and the urban fabric. In this project, I study the motivations and values of a set of characters involved in the integration and innovation of Smart City Technology. These characters create potential future scenarios of the city from their actions and reactions to specific decisions.

This body of work can provide a …

"Folk" Home-Lore: Storytelling And The Architecture Of The Home, Madeleine Pollara

Masters in Architecture Program: Theses

I have observed that architecture is not sufficiently understood. This problem is largely due to the fact that the language used to describe architecture is broad and convoluted. This language is also divided into two categories which describe the denotative and connotative nature of architecture. It is easier to understand the denotative nature of architecture than it is to understand the connotative nature. As a response to this issue, my project aims to explore the connotative nature of architecture through telling stories about the home from the architecture’s point of view. The purpose of my thesis is to explore the …

Restoring Lost Heritage, Lewis Culliver

Masters in Architecture Program: Theses

One of the best streets to explore in Omaha is N. 24th Street. Many buildings showcase larger than life, vibrant murals that express the creative nature and spirit of this part of historic North Omaha. The murals represent a healing element for the community; many murals cover structures that are in various states of disrepair. Community gardens have risen to fill voids left by traumatic development practices, such as the implementation of the north freeway.

Despite having lost a large part of its heritage, including hundreds of homes and businesses that were destroyed to make way for the north freeway, …

"A Beauty In The Kitchen": The Introduction Of The Cookstove As A Mechanism Of Change In Charleston's Historic Kitchens, Maria Short

All Theses

While Charleston’s historic houses have long captivated visitors, scholars, and preservationists, the architecture of these properties’ kitchens and the ways people cooked in these historic spaces have long been overlooked, in part because their historic fabric has often been obscured by later alterations or demolition. While interpretation of these historic spaces in certain house museums, such as the Nathaniel Russell House or Heyward-Washington House, now include information on the lives of the enslaved who cooked in these kitchens, the understanding of cooking technology, specifically the transition from hearth cooking to cooking on cookstoves, in Charleston remains largely unstudied. In the …

Material Contentions; Negotiating The Image Of Civic Space, Emmei Gootnick, Coumba Kante

Architecture Senior Theses

This thesis sounds the alarm on what protest has turned into today, and brings to light the misappropation of architectural objects in civic spaces. Through a meticulous collection and analysis of objects that have been appropriated for protest, we can establish the methods that led to appropriation in the first place , and subsequently re-appropriate in order to fabricate a new architectural environment. The fabrication of a new and morphed space can provide an environment where there is no need for physical extremes, instead providing a reconstructed atmosphere of contemporary protest that fosters true engagement, interaction, and expression.

Debrisia, Alice Rong, Jing Ying Chin, Tanya Tungkaserawong

Architecture Senior Theses

The project aims to explore the potential of enhancing vacant lots to the benefit of the community and achieve net zero waste by introducing a self-sustaining system. Debrisia acts as a prototype that addresses local needs and adapts to different scales of community. There are five networks supporting each other: energy, water, agriculture, livestock and recycling workshops. The locals will generate electricity collected by motion, manage the livestock, produce fertilizer for vegetation, and create products from their food waste. Emphasis is placed on participation from the residents, and such, the residents will get to receive back what they help produce …

A Performance Evaluation Of Architectural Coatings To Preserve Aerosol Paint On Concrete, Riley Morris

All Theses

The growing movement of assigning cultural and heritage value to graffiti and street art is one without a preservation solution to ensure the longevity of these works in-situ in an outdoor environment. The goal of this thesis was to provide a comprehensive evaluation of six architectural topcoats’ performance when applied as a conservation treatment to outdoor aerosol graffiti and street art on concrete substrate. An artist’s quality, durable, color-fast spray-paint was applied to twenty-eight concrete test panels to mimic the application of graffiti or street art. Six topcoats, Prosoco SC-1, Prosoco Gloss n’ Guard WB, Keim Faceal Oleo HD®, Keim …

Economic Revitalization Through Preservation: A Study Of The Effects Of Preservation And Economic Initiatives In Five Small Cities In Virginia, Isabella Rae Gordineer

All Theses

Some preservation and economic based initiatives in small cities strive to be the driving force behind revitalization and economic growth. Small cities, especially those distant from major cities, experience periods of shrinkage. These places often struggle to stabilize and grow. Interventions from the local, state, and national levels can assist revitalization efforts with help from planners and redevelopment specialists. These interventions include initiatives with both preservation and economic objectives. Preservation initiatives include revolving funds, tax credits, foundations and advocacy organizations, historic districts, architectural review boards, ordinances, and the Main Street Program. Economic initiatives that include preservation principles and practices include …

The Old Harbor: A Diachronic Study Of Charleston's Cooper River Waterfront, 1884-1990, Branden Gunn

All Theses

For the better part of three centuries, Charleston’s Cooper River waterfront functioned as an important commercial seaport complete with wharves, warehouses, offices, workshops, and other related buildings. These resources defined the area for nearly three centuries, yet today, most connections to the maritime past have been severed. Revitalization efforts and modern developments have redefined the area and filled voids created by the waterfront’s steady decline throughout the 20th century. With an aim to better understand the Cooper River waterfront’s developmental history, this thesis utilized historic Sanborn Fire Insurance maps to track the harbor’s physical and spatial changes from 1884 to …

The Social Network Of Early American Architecture: A Network Analysis Of Early Architectural Training In And Out Of The Lowcountry, James Mcenerney

All Theses

The contents of this thesis contain research conducted over a 9-month span surrounding the nature of architectural education in the late American Colonial Period, progressing into the Early Republic. Themes such as early European influences, 17^th and 18^th century art and architecture schools of Dublin, Ireland and Paris, France, and early American drafting schools/apprenticeship societies are analyzed. This paper, first, seeks to document the scholarly dialogue surrounding the ways in which early American architectural practitioners were educated, and in what ways this training was manifest in their physical designs. With a timeframe of approximately 1770 to 1830, 23 …

Stepping Into The Past: A Spatial And Temporal Analysis Of Charleston’S Streetscape Through Imagery, Travis Galli

All Theses

The tradition of preservation has long focused on the built environment of historic buildings, while ignoring the very environment they reside in, specifically streetscapes. This thesis seeks to identify the spatial and temporal changes in streetscapes occurring on King Street and Chalmers Street from 1700 until 1971 and provide guidelines for the preservation and restoration of streetscapes to their periods of historic significance between ca. 1750-1971. By collecting and analyzing images of the streetscape at different period in time, specific features and materials were identified. Imagery included historic photos, paintings, and sketches. Broken into specific periods, this study tracks changes …

The Influence Of Classroom Design On Problem Behaviors And Educational Growth Indicators For Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder (Asd), Anthony D. Asher

All Theses

This qualitative comparative case study reports on findings from a pre-and post-occupancy evaluation using multiple data collection methods to explore how classroom design features contribute to behavioral outcomes for children with ASD. Ten children, ages three to five years older with ASD, were observed over four months as they transitioned from their current classrooms into their newly built classrooms based on evidence-based design for children with ASD. For a two-month period in each setting, environmental conditions were tracked continuously in both classrooms. In addition, interviews were conducted with the special education teachers in both settings to gain insight into the …

Partner In Historic Preservation: Local Intervention And The Retention Of Integrity In National Register Historic Districts In South Carolina, Jessica Chunat

All Theses

The National Register of Historic Places is an inventory established by the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 that identifies architectural and archaeological sites significant to American history. The intention of the National Register is to encourage the documentation, evaluation, and protection of America’s historic and archaeological resources. Between its inception in 1966 to 2021, over 96,000 historic properties, sites, and structures were listed on the National Register, over 17,000 of them historic districts. Despite the important role the National Register has played in national historic preservation policy, its efficacy has never been measured. This thesis assessed the integrity of …

Co-Habitation And Migration: Urban Design For Bird Migratory Pathways, Steve C. Kurtz

All Theses

Urban landscapes are intricate systems interacting throughout the globe. Over the past decades, urban development has widely sprawled and fragmented flyway systems and corridors. This has led to many changes in species composition and has even caused the extinction of some animals (Marzluff 1997). Recent studies have indicated that there exists a protective or restorative design to create stepping-stone connectivity in urban areas. This study looks to understanding potential benefits in urban biodiversity, animal species protection, and urban benefits of green roof designs.

The Hot Springs Creekway & The Rediscovery Of The Water That Made Hot Springs Famous, Zane Colvin

Landscape Architecture Undergraduate Honors Theses

Arkansas’s Hot Springs National Park was the first natural reservation in the United States and is the oldest park in the National Park System. In Hot Springs, 47 springs release almost a million gallons of potable 143° water every day - the problem is, almost all of this water is hidden from sight, funneled directly into an 1884-constructed tunnel underground, where no person (or other life) can experience it.

Hot Springs Creek should be daylighted and connected with the surrounding National Park, creating thermal 'pools' for public use, and restoring its banks to pre-settlement ecologically rich conditions. My plan to …

Cladding By Another Name: A Comparative Analysis Of The Environmental And Economic Costs Of Traditional Wood Clapboards, Composite Fiber-Cement Siding, And Vinyl Siding, Nicole Larochelle

All Theses

Using the tools provides by the scientific community, namely the products of lifecycle cost assessments (LCA) – which are synthesized in environmental product declarations (EPD) – and life cycle cost assessments (LCCA), the overall environmental and economic impacts of historic, traditional, and simulated materials are established and compared. This informs the historic preservation community of the quantifiable sustainability of historic materials in relation to alternatives. Through these two different methods of environmental and economic life cycle costing, this research demonstrates that retaining in-situ siding incurs the least impact on the environment and is the second most economic option. While the …

Annexation For Good: An Equity Approach For Social And Environmental Justice With Municipal Annexation, Russell H. Stall

All Theses

Municipal annexation is a powerful tool for improving communities. United States cities historically use municipal annexation to increase tax revenues, grow populations, and increase land areas. However, attitudes about annexation are changing, and there is emerging interest in broadening annexation practices to advance a broader range of social and environmental benefits. For example, annexation can be used to improve blighted areas, control overdevelopment, protect environmentally sensitive areas and open spaces, and improve the lives of residents. It is not clear if cities support using annexation in this way, and if so, when those uses are possible.

Despite restrictive laws and …

Built Environment, Land Use, And Crime: A Las Vegas Study, Stacey Lynn Clouse

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This study examined land use and crime against persons and crime against property in Las Vegas, Nevada at varying spatial levels of analysis. Using crime data provided by the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department and the Clark County Assessor’s office, results at the macro-level of analysis reveal that property crime rates concentrated on commercial, transportation, communication and utilities, and industrial land use, whereas violent crime concentrated at commercial, multi-residential, and civic, institutional, and recreational land use. Upon examining the subtypes of land use that generate or radiate more crime, property crime concentrated on transportation land use, class 1 resorts, and …

New Mathematical Models For Acoustic Insertion Loss Of Fiberglass Lining In Hvac Duct, Michael Anthony Schwob

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The design objectives for HVAC air distribution systems are thermal comfort, good indoor air quality, energy efficiency, low construction cost, and appropriate indoor noise levels. The last objective requires that the designer can predict the attenuation of sound transmitted through an air duct. One form of attenuation commonly introduced to an air distribution system to achieve interior noise criteria is fiberglass liner. Past research has been conducted to obtain reliable and accurate insertion loss (IL) data for duct with fiberglass liner. Empirical efforts have relied on limited data sets. Computational efforts have produced numerical models that are not practical for …

Development Of A Model For Affordable Senior Living Community, Nyx Wenlin Zhu

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Objective

An affordable senior living community model must be developed to support the needs of our growing elderly population. Health, safety, and wellbeing depend on equal physical health, social health, and mental or psychological health provisions. As we look at each of these aspects, we must filter physical, social, and mental health based on the abilities of the older population.

Background

The aging population in western societies is one of the biggest challenges of the 21st century and has multiple implications for society, the economy, and other aspects of the community. Aging people who lack family support often require the …

Postmarked 2022, Students Of Risd, Risd Archives

All Student Newspapers

Postmarked was a publication started during the COVID-19 pandemic by three RISD architecture students. The first issue has the theme of "sonder" and contains student writing and artwork on postcards that deal with this theme.

Culture In Disney Films: A Comparative Analysis Of Color, Composition And Rhythm, Megan Paul

Interior Design Undergraduate Honors Theses

As a student of design, I take inspiration from everything around me. The media I consume, the places I visit, and the people I meet.By choice or not, I and my generation are subject to the various forms of pop culture, film is one of them. Film is one of few art forms which combines several methods and elements of design to produce a cohesive result, as opposed to a singular medium. This forms the connection to design thinking and is the foundation for the study.

Another critical component to pop culture is the ability to reach the masses. Due …

Design For A Spectrum, Brooke Warden

Interior Design Undergraduate Honors Theses

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a growing disorder across the world. ASD affects around 1 in every 68 children in the United States (Block, 2018). This disorder results in significant social, intellectual, and behavioral changes within a child, and create challenges for a child with ASD to learn and develop like children without ASD. No two cases of ASD are alike which is why it is called a spectrum disorder. This adds an extra challenge to designing spaces for children with ASD to inhabit and thrive. These children frequently suffer from sensory processing deficits in which they have a hard …

An Analysis Of Charging Practices And Their Impact On Battery Degradation In North American Electric Vehicles Built Between 2010-2020, Douglas William Edward Ferrier

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Electric vehicles (EVs) are emerging as a component of the global solution to combat climate change. However, in North America, particularly in the United States and Canada, the transition away from internal combustion engines (ICE) has been slow. North America faces unique challenges due to its geographical size and population in comparison to other continents. The good news is that EV adoption is increasing within North America. Along with increased EV adoption, governments and public companies are constructing charging infrastructure to support increased consumer EV purchases. Despite increased adoption, many future and current owners throughout North American society have concerns …

Preoperative Predictors For 30-Day Postoperative Emergency Department Visit After A Bariatric Surgery, Pawan Bhandari

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

One of US hospitals' widely used critical performance or quality outcome measures is the 30-day emergency department (ED) visit after a surgical procedure. Such ED visits add millions of dollars each year as a cost burden to US healthcare. This study aimed to identify key predictors known before the patient's surgery, contributing to undesirable ED visits within 30 days of a bariatric surgical procedure. The study was conducted in three phases. The first phase of the study engaged a panel of experts to narrow down important preoperative factors for patients undergoing bariatric surgery in the form of a Delphi study. …

Intelligibility Of Medically Related Sentences In Quiet, Speech-Shaped Noise, And Hospital Noise, Tessa Bent, Melissa Baese-Berk, Erica E. Ryherd, Sidney Perry

Durham School of Architectural Engineering and Construction: Faculty Publications

Noise in healthcare settings, such as hospitals, often exceeds levels recommended by health organizations. Although researchers and medical professionals have raised concerns about the effect of these noise levels on spoken communication, objective measures of behavioral intelligibility in hospital noise are lacking. Further, no studies of intelligibility in hospital noise used medically relevant terminology, which may differentially impact intelligibility compared to standard terminology in speech perception research and is essential for ensuring ecological validity. Here, intelligibility was measured using online testing for 69 young adult listeners in three listening conditions (i.e., quiet, speech-shaped noise, and hospital noise: 23 listeners per …