Urban, Community and Regional Planning Commons^™

Nature-Ization Nyc, Sarah Collins

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

Manhattan once was a beautiful landscape of rolling hills, forests, boulders, farms, and spaced-out homes. Over the years Manhattan has been built up and there is a sense of absence in New York City. New Yorkers walking through the city are confronted with excessive pedestrian traffic, and do not have the luxury of experiencing the sounds, smells, and natural landscape that exists a few miles outside of the densely populated city. I am proposing a series of typologies that bring a new nature to the city and change the way one walks through the city. Pathways or hiking trails will …

Progress For Whom, Toward What? Progressive Politics And New York City’S Mandatory Inclusionary Housing, Samuel Stein

Publications and Research

In both its historical Progressive Era roots and its contemporary manifestations, U.S. urban progressivism has evinced a contradictory tendency toward promoting the interests of capital and property while ostensibly protecting labor and tenants, thus producing policies that undermine its central claims. This article interrogates past and present appeals to urban progressive politics, particularly around housing and planning, and offers an in-depth case study of one of the most highly touted examples of the new urban progressivism: New York City’s recently adopted Mandatory Inclusionary Housing program. This case serves to identify the ways in which progressive rhetoric can disguise neoliberal policies. …

Aug City: The Cyber-Spatial Impacts Of Augmented Reality On The Field Of Urban Planning, Colton Berck

Community and Regional Planning Program: Theses

In the summer of 2016 a technology revolution swept the world from an unsuspecting place, a mobile game called Pokémon: Go. Almost immediately upon release, this application reached white-hot growth with a user-base spanning the globe, sparking new methods of interacting with communities. Behind the app, a driving force of the popularity, is the technology known as augmented reality (AR). This innovative medium, which intersects the “real-world” with the “digital-world,” is set to impact many aspects of life. As planning professionals are closely involved with the development and growth of communities, this thesis serves as a tool to determine how …

Adaptive Reuse Of Warehouses In Relation To Neighborhood Cohesion And Identity: A Case Study Of New Orleans, Oklahoma City, And Minneapolis, Sarah Tappe

Architecture Undergraduate Honors Theses

Historical industrial warehouse districts in American cities have a unique and interesting history because of their rapid development and, in most cases, a subsequent neglect. However, because of its historical significance, its usual central location within the city, and architectural features, the warehouse district has become a focus for revitalization. Warehouse districts already have a historic identity and a cohesiveness in urban fabric and building typologies, but what are the effects of adaptive reuse in relation to the identity of the buildings and the district? In this thesis, three cities (New Orleans, Minneapolis, and Oklahoma City) with established and revitalized …

A Simulation-Assisted Workflow For Outdoor Thermal Comfort Design In Downtown Syracuse, Pouya Zhand

Architecture Senior Theses

Cities are not just about the buildings and skylines. Cities are also about the space be­tween buildings (the ground in figure-ground). More importantly and fundamentally cities are about people and the life that happens between buildings. Simulation tools can inform the design of attractive public spaces by pro­viding insight about the environmental conditions.

Learning From The Informal: Designing A New Housing Typology For Informal Development In Cairo, Cherif Farid

Architecture Senior Theses

This thesis examines what to design when designing for the informal and questions the role of the architect. The project combines the inherent qualities of the informal; self-built, incremental construction, and flexibility of spatial uses, with alternative urban design strategies.

The design strategy is to control the ground plane and roof scape, while leaving an open frame in between to be incrementally filled with housing. This frame allows residents to voice their identity by physically constructing their homes. It introduces an urban system that is composed of blocks that consist of an aggregation of identical units. The blocks are connected …

Voices Of Cully: A Case Study Of The Living Cully Weatherization And Home Repair Project 2.0, Lucy J.T. Cultrera

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

The Cully neighborhood is situated in the Northeast quadrant of Portland, Oregon. It is 2.75 square mile plot of land and home to roughly 13,000 people. In addition to being one of the most diverse neighborhoods in Portland, it is the most densely populated, with the smallest amount of parkland per capita. Over the last two decades, home value has increased 203% in Cully, compared to a 90% citywide increase. Amidst these development trends are stories of incredible resilience, resistance and activism from the affected community. My project is a case study of one anti-displacement initiative, which was developed and …

Avila Beach: From Funky To Fabulous, Amanda Ross

Focus

Among California’s coastal communities, Avila beach may be the one most defined by its history. Amanda Ross discusses the unique planning and redevelopment process there, starting with the cleanup of a decades-long crude oil spill that had contaminated the soil and led to the reconstruction of its beach and the entire historic downtown. This article reflects part of the activities for Professor Paul Wack’s Plan Implementation graduate class in 2015.

John Gilderbloom’S Thought-Provoking Strategies About Regeneration And The Language Of Planning, Jana E. Schwartz

Focus

Planning is a 'jargon�-y' field with terminology that oftens distract from the purpose of a project or idea. During a luncheon seminar at Cal Poly, Dr. John I. Gilderbloom, a professor at the University of Louisville, Kentucky, addressed this challenge through his own work, case studies and personal antidotes. He discussed the intricacies of planning and the role played by language in the implementation of projects and community understanding.

Policy Mobilities And West Dallas Dream: Considering Transactive And Communicative Policy Ideas Tested In Vancouver And Assembled In Dallas, Wayne Mitchell Beggs

Planning Dissertations - Archive

This dissertation considers contemporary urban development and urban change as framed by emerging forces of neoliberalism and globalization and applies critical theory lenses to discuss how policy approaches developed in Vancouver, BC are mobilized in Dallas, Texas.

Community-Engaged Public Health Research To Inform Hospital Campus Planning In A Low Socioeconomic Status Urban Neighborhood, Jeri Brittin, Sheila Elijah-Barnwell, Yunwoo Nam, Ozgur Araz, Bethany Friedow, Andrew Jameton, Wayne Drummond, Terry T.-K. Huang

Architecture Program: Faculty Scholarly and Creative Activity

Objective: To compare sociodemographic and motivational factors for healthcare use and identify desirable health-promoting resources among groups in a low socioeconomic status (SES) community in Chicago, IL. Background: Disparities in health services and outcomes are well established in low SES urban neighborhoods in the United States and many factors beyond service availability and quality impact community health. Yet there is no clear process for engaging communities in building resources to improve population-level health in such locales. Methods: A hospital building project led to a partnership of public health researchers, architects, and planners who conducted community-engaged research. We collected resident data …

Feasibility Analysis And Strategic Measures For Promoting Viable New Urban Development, Elizabeth J. Farr

CMC Senior Theses

This thesis demonstrates that New Urbanism is both an advisable and feasible method for reducing carbon emissions to mitigate global climate change. New Urban areas commonly generate lower carbon emissions compared to conventional suburban development due to lower car use and higher levels of walking and use of other forms of transportation. Economic and political feasibility of New Urban development is determined by analyzing case studies, housing price premia, financing, and fiscal impact. The many contexts and perspectives involved in the planning process are analyzed to determine if New Urbanism is advisable in the larger setting in which developers, advocates, …

Non-Structural Program To Limit E. Coli Within Antelope Creek Lincoln, Nebraska, Jeffrey Polkowski

Community and Regional Planning Program: Professional Projects

Beginning in 2008, The City of Lincoln, Nebraska set forth efforts to reduce pollutant loads within Antelope Creek below U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) criteria with the goal of eventually having segments of the stream removed from the Clean Water Act 303(d) list of impaired waters. Early efforts focus on channel improvements made as part of the Antelope Valley Project to increase the flood carrying capacity of the Creek. However, additional funding is being provided through an intergovernmental agreement between the Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality and the City of Lincoln (Grant Number: 56-1283) to allow the City of Lincoln’s …

No Parking But Parks: Sustainable Urban Planning Of Open Space In New York City, Jenny Kun

2014 Student Theses

Parks are keys to create a sustainable urban living environment. They are particularly important today as they ameliorate of one of the most urgent problem—global climate change. Parks has been New Yorkers’ most cherished public infrastructure. This thesis takes a close look on New York City and examines how open space planning affect the development of a metropolis. To investigate the topic, I applied three disciplines in environmental policy: environmental planning and design, history, and politics. These disciplines are intertwined. This thesis first digs in to the history of how the city’s iconic Central Park is created and evaluates how …

The Urban Ecotone: A Connecting District In Downtown Memphis, Richard Stowe

Architecture Undergraduate Honors Theses

Memphis is a shrinking city. As more people move out to the suburbs, the downtown area falls into a greater decline. With fewer people to support the businesses and attractions of downtown Memphis, more and more vacant lots start to show up. Breaks in what was once a vibrant city fabric have led to the decay of the downtown area. While the downtown area offers amenities that cannot be found in the suburbs such as attractions like Fed Ex Forum, Beale Street, and the Orpheum Theater, as well as specialty shops, and a riverfront. The suburbs offer a quality of …

Revitalizing Woonsocket: A Main St. Implementation Plan, Nina Caruso, Alison Fredericks, Caitlin Merritt, Shannon Pitt, Kathleen Wilson, Arnold Robinson

Historic Preservation

GuideStar, an online service that provides information on nonprofit organizations in the United States, was used to identify all the nonprofit organizations in downtown Woonsocket, as well as who the executive directors are and the names of people on the board of directors. Internet research was also utilized to access the websites where the students could gather contact information. The names and contact information that were collected were listed in the reference document. The list, to the students’ best abilities, is a comprehensive cross sections of business owners, non-profit leaders, and political leaders.

Building Healthy Communities: Integrating Walkability Concepts Into Local Land Use Planning, Jenna Danelle Muhlbach

Community and Regional Planning Program: Theses

In recent years, American communities have been diagnosed with several chronic health diseases such as diabetes, heart disease and obesity. Several researchers attribute sedentary lifestyles as one of the contributing factors to chronic diseases. The lack of physical exercise can be blamed by the auto-dependent suburbia lifestyle that many generations have become accustomed to. Poor land use developments have roads and freeways dominating the use of space, with the intent of having an automobile get from one place to another as efficiently as possible. This has allowed places to be much further apart therefore it has had a negative impact …

Revitalized Streets Of San Francisco: A Study Of Redevelopment And Gentrification In Soma And The Mission, Lucy K. Phillips

Scripps Senior Theses

San Francisco's South of Market (SoMa) neighborhood and the Mission District are facing new forms of redevelopment. The deindustrialization of SoMa has posed an opportunity for a 'new model' of gentrification to create a mixed-use, mixed-income neighborhood from an area previously occupied by abandoned warehouses and vacant lots. In the Mission, awareness of the threats of gentrification and increased community participation are fighting to preserve the neighborhood and eliminate displacement. The innovative approaches to urban revitalization in these two neighborhoods demonstrate how redevelopment may occur without gentrification.

Washington Park Main Street Plan, Benjamin Bergenholtz, Derek Dandurand, Valerie Fram, Tracy Jonsson, Kimberly Lindner, Carolyn Reid, D.J. Sevigny, Alexandra Skerry, Timothy Guimond, Brooke Kourafas, Elise Murphy, Matt Berry, Erik Butler, Kayla Nerone, Arnold Robinson, Jeremy Wells, Julie Coon, Joel Cooper

Historic Preservation

There is an immense variety of privately owned businesses. They will be stakeholders because their businesses are located there, but they will also be assets in themselves in drawing people to the area. There is basically everything anyone could possible want or need in this area. There are two gas stations, a Family Dollar, a liquor store, a few sit down restaurants, numerous places where one can get a quick bite to eat, a frame shop, a clothing store, a pawn shop, a store with fresh produce (which is hard to find in urban areas), a store that sells sports …

Public Space Planning As A Catalyst For Dweller Initiated Slum Upgrading: Ahmedabad, India, Christopher Bystedt

Master's Theses

This research observes how public space planning can improve slum upgrading projects, focusing on two case study slums in Ahmedabad, India.

The inclusion of formal public space planning into slum upgrading schemes can act as a catalyst for dweller-initiated housing improvements. While municipalities that choose to upgrade their slums are primarily concerned with supplying bare necessity infrastructure—such as water, sewage, and paving—most upgrading schemes ignore the reality that slum communities are complex, integral components of the urbanization process. These settlements deserve and necessitate comprehensive design and planning services which will integrate the community into the larger urban fabric.

This thesis …

Managing Stormwater Runoff With Green Infrastructure: Exploring Practical Strategies To Overcome Barriers In Citywide Implementation, Shaojing Tian

Community and Regional Planning Program: Theses

Cities in the United States are facing the challenges of protecting water resources, drinking water and public health with a rapid pace of population growth and urban sprawl. Large quantities of stormwater runoff arising from increased imperviousness on urbanizing watershed will cause municipal sewer system overflow and discharge of untreated runoff into waterways, and as a result, pollute local water bodies and affect the quality of drinking water in the long run. It has been increasingly acknowledged that Green Infrastructure (GI) and Low Impact Development (LID) can be used as an effective tool to capture and retain stormwater on site …

Smart Growth: From Rhetoric To Reality In Irish Urban Planning 1997-2007, Dorothy Stewart

Doctoral

This research examines ‘Smart Growth’, a planning and governance concept with an alternative philosophical and methodological approach towards urban planning. The concept calls for greater integration between the economic, environmental and social aspects of planning and development. The principles of smart growth must be viewed as long-term objectives that take into account the well being of both present and future generations. Current planning policy and strategy in Ireland implicitly if not explicitly supports the concept of smart growth. The principal research question asks: Within the context of Irish planning policy and strategy: how can Ireland move from rhetoric to reality …

Planning For Climate Change Mitigation And Adaptation In North Central Texas: A Roundtable Discussion, Jeff Howard, Kent Hurst

School of Urban and Public Affairs Publications - Archive

On July 16, 2009, the School of Urban and Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Arlington hosted a daylong roundtable on how “climate leader” municipalities of North Central Texas—and urban planners in those communities—are responding to the looming challenge of climate change. The organizers invited the planning directors in selected North Central Texas communities to send staff members to participate. The targeted municipalities were those who are members of Cities for Climate Protection (ICLEI Local Governments for Sustainability) or whose mayors have signed the Climate Protection Agreement (U.S. Conference of Mayors). Of the 17 such communities in the …

Dublin At The Crossroads: Exploring The Future Of The Dublin City Region, Elzbieta Krawczyk, Paolo Ronchetti

Reports

No abstract provided.

Fragmented City: The Intersection Of Surrealism And Urban Reality, Lauren Hackett

Architecture Senior Theses

"The concept of the experience becomes relevant in the surrealist view of the city. It is one that has been embraced by the situationists in their concept of the derive. The psychological understanding of urban space can supersede the retinal understanding of rationalized space. The search for truth within the city is what guides a civilization toward absolutism.

In treating the city as a field for discovert and the formulation of ideaas and pure thought, urban space enters a realm of surreality."

The Competitive Global City 2030: A Futures Approach, Ruth Kelly, John Ratcliffe, Julie Gannon

Articles

In an increasingly globalising and competitive world, cities are facing unparalleled challenges relating to such forces as economic restructuring and fiscal stress, national security, institutional relationships and the changing role of governance, environmental degradation, social and cultural transformation and rising exclusion. In May 2005, The Futures Academy, Technological University Dublin, in collaboration with the Urban Land Institute (ULI), embarked on a joint initiative to stimulate thinking and encourage informed discussions concerning the future trajectory and sustainable development of the competitive ‘global city’. As part of this study, The Academy undertook in-depth background research including a comprehensive questionnaire survey; an interactive …

Futures Thinking In City Planning Processes: The Case Of Dublin, Elzbieta Krawczyk

Doctoral

This research examines the scope for the application of future methodologies in urban planning processes. As contemporary cities undergo rapid changes resulting from technological and cultural transformations, expanding globalisation and new economic trends, the traditional ways in which cities were planned and managed become less effective, especially in times of accelerating change and growing complexities This research addresses an increasingly recognised need for a major shift in the way of thinking and acting about the future of cities, a shift from the traditional planning mind-set to a more imaginative, innovative and inclusive approach. The main aims of the study were …

Smart Growth: A Buffer Zone Between Decentrist And Centrist Theory?, Dorothy Stewart, Lorcan Sirr, Ruth Kelly

Articles

The context for planning at the turn of the 19th century, in a newly industrialized world, was based on the need to find solutions to overcrowding and dire urban conditions. Planning decisions made in the post-World War II period were primarily motivated by the desire to reconstruct war torn cities. The forces of influence for planning and development in modern advanced capitalist societies are arguably set within the context of sustainable development. Many developed countries have witnessed a dramatic change in their territorial structures. Urban centres are extending into rural areas and surrounding hinterland, where large tracts of land are …

Imagine Ahead, Plan Backwards: Prospective Methodology In Urban And Regional Planning, Elzbieta Krawczyk, John Ratcliffe

Articles

No abstract provided.

Predict And Provide Vs Explore, Envision And Plan: Transforming The Urban Planning Approach Towards The Future, Elzbieta Krawczyk, John Ratcliffe

Articles

Thinking about the future of humanity cannot be separated from thinking about the future of cities. Today, half of the world’s population lives in cities and the number of urban dwellers is constantly growing. On one hand, cities play a key role in generating economic growth; they are cores of human activity and frontiers of technological and cultural progress. On the other, urban areas are a source of a broad range of social and environmental problems and are especially vulnerable to the threats posed by factors such as climate change, terrorism, pandemic, social and cultural clashes. Considering the role and …