Urban, Community and Regional Planning Commons^™

An Analytical Framework For Quantifying Urban And Community Resilience To Natural Hazards From Cell-Phone Gps-Location And Traffic-Flow Data, Georgios Chatzikyriakidis

Civil and Environmental Engineering Theses and Dissertations

Urban areas are increasingly exposed to natural hazards while accommodating a growing share of the global population, yet a consistent science-based framework for quantifying urban and community resilience remains lacking. This dissertation develops a physics-based analytical framework grounded in statistical mechanics and the quantitative theory of Brownian motion. A city is conceptualized as a complex medium in which citizens move analogously to Brownian particles within a viscoelastic environment, influenced by socioeconomic interactions and infrastructure functionality.

A central premise is that urban resilience, interpreted as engineering resilience (an outcome), can be quantified through a single metric: the mean-square displacement MSD=⟨r²(t)⟩, of …

Remaking Buford Highway: Immigration And The Struggle For Walkable Suburbia, Amit Kamma

Harvey M. Applebaum ’59 Award

Constructed according to a car-centric vision typical of American suburbs, one segment of Buford Highway outside Atlanta has become a corridor defined by immigrants who often walk and use public transit. These behaviors conflict with the existing car-focused infrastructure, compelling government actors to make the Highway more multimodal. Progress towards that goal is ongoing and precarious, demonstrating wider systemic challenges in U.S. planning and local governance.

A Vision For S.P.A.M. — Smart Planning For Accessibility In Micro-Communities, Alexis Myra Castillo Tamayo

Hospitality Design Graduate Student Capstones

The selection of a capstone topic is therefore deliberate. It requires engaging with issues that are not only architecturally relevant, but personally meaningful and socially significant. In this project, that focus returns to my hometown of Lāhainā, Maui—a place deeply rooted in history, culture, and community. In recent years, and especially following the events of 2023, the need to reconsider how design can support resilience, safety, and connection has become increasingly urgent. These conditions reveal that rebuilding is not solely about replacing what was lost, but about rethinking systems that shape everyday life. This capstone is grounded in that premise. …

Tracing The Mirage: Designing For The Unseen Community, Yasmine Bannoura

Hospitality Design Graduate Student Capstones

Tracing the Mirage: Designing for the Unseen Community explores how the temporary urbanism of Burning Man can inform more human-centered, experiential, and community-driven approaches to architecture and urban design in Las Vegas. Through research, interviews, surveys, and speculative gateway designs, the project reimagines arrival, identity, and connection within the desert landscape.

Sunrise To Sunset Walk, Mariana Clara Servin

Hospitality Design Graduate Student Capstones

Sunrise Manor, known as the East Side, is often overlooked and avoided. It carries a negative reputation, with locals frequently advising tourists to stay away, a pattern common in neighborhoods where marginalized communities reside. Despite its vibrancy, the area lacks parks, public amenities, and entertainment, leaving residents underserved. Sunrise Manor is predominantly Hispanic, and its cultural presence is embedded in everyday street life, where vendors sell fruit, food, flowers, and goods on neighborhood corners. This identity has also shaped destinations like Broadacres Marketplace, the largest outdoor swap meet in Las Vegas. However, recent immigration policies and rising fears within the …

Artful Architecture: Making Moments Around The Las Vegas Valley, Rachel Chinen

Hospitality Design Graduate Student Capstones

Artful Architecture: Making Moments Around the Las Vegas Valley investigates the spatial and cultural disconnect between the highly thematic, immersive environments of the Las Vegas Strip and the surrounding auto-oriented, utilitarian suburban sprawl. This research explores the integration of public art with everyday civic infrastructure to cultivate a stronger sense of place and local community identity.

Queerscape: Transcending Urban Division, Alex Blake

Hospitality Design Graduate Student Capstones

The project seeks to demonstrate how infrastructure can act as a symbolic anchor, offering a framework for queer urban design that simultaneously addresses safety and cultural visibility. While site-specific, the methodology is intended to inform future interventions in districts for queer and other marginalized communities.

After The Final Whistle: Designing The Future Of Stadiums, Alan Zabdyel Garcia

Hospitality Design Graduate Student Capstones

After the Final Whistle: Designing the Future of Stadiums explores how the lifespan of aging and abandoned stadiums can be extended through adaptive reuse and community-centered design. As billions of dollars continue to be invested into sports infrastructure, many stadiums face obsolescence after only a few decades, often leaving behind urban voids and environmental waste. This design capstone develops a framework for evaluating stadium transformation through multiple lenses including adaptability, economics, urban planning, history, environmental impact, politics, sporting needs, and community engagement. Using case studies such as Sam Boyd Stadium and Cashman Field in Las Vegas, the research explores how …

Anti-Gang Architecture: Youth, Labor, And Spatial Agency In Mexico, Arturo Resendiz

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

Anti-Gang Architecture: Youth Labor, & Spatial Agency in Mexico

In many parts of the world, teenagers face environments shaped by violence, drug abuse, and limited opportunity. The absence of inclusive communities deepens youth disconnection, leaving them vulnerable to harmful influences. This research explores how architectural qualities can create spaces that protect, inspire, and connect with Mexican youth, specifically in cities like Matamoros, Tamaulipas, where public space has lost its capacity to support safe youth development.

The central question guiding this research is: How can architecture create environments that inspire youth identity, develop creativity, and offer alternatives to violence and drug …

Comparing Carbon Emissions Across Transportation Mode For A 5-Mile Urban Trip In Spokane, Washington, Christian Agyei

2026 Symposium

Transportation plays a significant role in shaping local greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, particularly in mid-sized cities where automobile use remains dominant. This project examines how carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions differ across transportation modes for a standardized five-mile urban trip in Spokane, Washington. Using emission factors from the U.S Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the study estimates grams of CO₂ per passenger-mile and total CO₂ emissions per trip for four transportation modes, including single-occupancy vehicles, public transit, cycling, and walking. Commute pattern data from American Community Survey (ACS) provided local context on travel behavior in Spokane. This analysis …

Placemaking On Peachtree: Breathing Life In To Downtown Atlanta’S Outdoor Environment Through Wellbeing-Centric Design, Rachel Pickert

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

Why do outdoor public spaces in Atlanta not prioritize pedestrian well-being by providing comfort, safety, and service to their daily life? The built environment is a key determinant of overall well-being through the opportunity for social interaction, stimulation, safety, comfort, and a sense of belonging. The vehicular-centric design of Downtown Atlanta has resulted in pedestrians seeking comfort away from the ground level using viaducts, subterrain transit, and sky bridges. This historic removal of pedestrians from the streets of Atlanta has resulted in un-activated outdoor public spaces which do not fulfill the basic needs for pedestrian wellbeing. This thesis uses existing …

Spaces Of Our Own: Reclaiming Community In Jaipur's Informal Settlements, Daisy Bhambhani

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

India’s rapid urbanization has resulted in fragmented urban fabrics, where women and children remain in vulnerable positions. They face systemic barriers in education, health, and social belonging due to under resourced environments. Despite the nation’s commitments to gender equality and the right to education, slum environments continue to lack adequate infrastructure that supports learning and collective well being. Architecture has the potential to combat these challenges by creating spaces that promote social inclusivity.

While architects and planners have recognized the increasing need for inclusive spaces, most projects do not explore how a built form itself can create empowerment within marginalized …

In-Tsira Healing: Integrating Trauma-Informed Design And Sustainable Design Into Wellness Centers For Survivors Of Gender Based Violence, Eniola Ololade Esther Akinyemi

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

Survivors of gender-based violence in Northern Nigeria face layered barriers to recovery, including trauma, stigma, displacement, and loss of livelihood. Yet the built environments intended to support them remain largely unresponsive. This thesis proposes a trauma-informed, climate-responsive wellness campus in Maiduguri, Borno State, grounded in cultural and environmental context.

The research asks how trauma-informed and sustainable design strategies can be implemented in healing centers to reduce re-traumatization, foster safety, and support reintegration through self-supportive, educational, and communal spaces?

How can trauma informed and sustainable design strategies be implemented in wellness centers to foster safety and healing while reducing re-traumatization, and …

Learned Resilience, Rebeca Ortiz

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

Haiti faces a complex web of environmental and social pressures, from deforestation and soil erosion to climate instability and strained institutional support. While regenerative farming and community-led development are often discussed in the context of sustainability, architecture is frequently relegated to the background, treated as a secondary or isolated fix rather than a primary driver of change. My work challenges this by positioning architecture as the central, regenerative framework that weaves together food production, collective learning, and civic life. I see the built environment not just as shelter, but as an active agent for resilience and a sense of belonging. …

Assessing Transit-Oriented Development And Mixed-Use Urban Planning Strategies In Taipei, Taiwan, Eliza Mccoole

CISLA Senior Integrative Projects

No abstract provided.

Virtual Matter: Architecture As A Critical Turning Point, Aden Sterchi

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

The materialization of AI infrastructure has outpaced all regulatory frameworks, allowing data centers to proliferate with limited oversight despite their growing environmental and social impacts. Through a review of artificial intelligence’s technological development, the rise of big tech, and contemporary data center expansion, this thesis situates AI infrastructure within a broader pattern of deregulation, delayed accountability, and market-driven governance. Using a qualitative mixed-method approach combining historical analysis, policy critique, regional case studies, and research-through-design, the study examines how existing land use, utility, and environmental frameworks have failed to keep pace with the scale of data center sprawl; The study also …

The Patina Of Care, Jose Alejandro Carpio

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

This thesis aims to address the urgent need for adaptable, socially responsive housing in Sapporo, Hokkaido. The area currently faces a crisis in rapidly aging populations, youth out-migration, housing insecurity, and high rates of domestic violence. These problems are intensified by economic strain, harsh winter conditions, and periods when cultural stigma limits access to safety and community support. As it stands, current housing systems cannot evolve with the rapidly shifting demographics and social needs of the city.

Confront these challenges. The thesis proposes a megastructure-framework grounded in the metabolism movement and the works of Metabolist architects such as Fumihiko Maki, …

Interweaving Cairo's Urban Fabric: The Formal, The Informal And The Contemporary, Hagar Ahmed

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

Architecture is a negotiation between memory and change, preservation and erasure. In Cairo, a city layered with history, rapid development threatens historic areas and informal settlements (AlSayyad, 2011). While monumental heritage preservation is institutionalized, informal urban fabrics are often excluded from heritage discussions and planning. This research explores Mansheyet Nasser, or Garbage City, an informal settlement between Islamic Cairo and the Mokattam plateau. Over the past fifty years, Zabbaleen residents have built a communal waste collection and recycling system that processes up to 80% of materials, outperforming many regulated cities (Fahmi and Sutton, 2010; Didero, 2011). This infrastructure is both …

The Legacy Of Lead: Lead Exposure's Harmful Effects And Its Concentration In Poc Communities, Layla Sophronia Barber

Student Theses 2015-Present

This thesis examines the disproportionate burden of lead exposure carried by low income, POC communities. The systemic nature of this problem is a symptom of a longstanding legacy of environmental injustice in the United States. Decades of federal neglect are reflected in the higher statistics of lead exposure and poisoning in predominantly black communities. While it is understood that lead exposure poses a serious threat to physical health and early cognitive development, there is a discouraging lack of urgency to remove the toxin from non-wealthy communities. The material covered by this thesis aims to identify and correct the discriminatory social …

What’S In A Map?: Evaluating Mapping Techniques And Measures Of Culture To Inform Equitable Cultural Planning In Dallas, Texas, Kena Nicol

Planning Masters Professional Reports

The City of Dallas developed a neighborhood typology map to assess cultural resource distribution as part of its 2018 Cultural Plan, representing a relatively new approach that remains underexplored in academic literature. In the same plan, stakeholders identified equity as a central value, highlighting the need for tools that better support equitable cultural planning. This study evaluates the outcomes of two mapping techniques–cultural asset mapping and opportunity mapping – to examine how each represents cultural resource distribution across Dallas and supports equity-oriented analysis. Cultural asset mapping, the standard approach in cultural planning, identifies the spatial distribution of physical cultural infrastructure. …

“The St. Louis Flat:” A Typological Study Of The Characteristics And Distribution Of Four-Family Flats In Greater St. Louis, Camden Maggard

St. Louis Publications

The four-family flat is a multi-family housing type that consists of four residential units in a double-stacked arrangement. These buildings are one of the most common multi-family housing types in the United States. While the four-family building type is present in multiple cities, these buildings are uniquely characteristic of the St. Louis region. In a 1920 report on housing, the St. Louis City Plan Commission wrote that “slightly less than 50 per cent of the housing” in the city consisted of two- and four-family buildings by the late 1910s, building types that were “popularly known in other cities as ‘The …

Adaptability From Tv & Film Into Theatre | The Subversion Inspiration In Celia’S Identity Versatility Throughout William Shakespeare’S As You Like It, Emani White

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores the inspiration of adaptability skills, pivoting from television and film into theatre, and the potential of unconventional pathways as a catalyst for reconciling anti-traditionalism within the mediums. It offers insight into the obstacles, segues, and adversities faced during the journey of a former athlete turned television and film actor, and into a theatre actor. It illuminates agency as a subversive identity (the disguise), the sacrifice of status, and the need for an emotional anchor of resilience—acknowledging the systemic transitional barriers in performance, career, and education. The paper also discusses the understandings gained from my journey as an …

Open Space Management Planning: A Framework And Case Study From Eagle Mountain City, Utah, Nathan K. Shumway

All Graduate Reports and Creative Projects, Fall 2023 to Present

Open Space Management Plans (OSMPs) are increasingly used by municipalities to guide the long-term stewardship of natural lands; however, little formal guidance exists regarding how these plans are structured, developed, or organized in practice. While numerous OSMPs are publicly available, their compositional logic, procedural workflows, and thematic priorities remain largely undocumented within academic literature. This study addresses that gap through a qualitative document analysis of fifteen publicly accessible OSMPs from the western United States, published between 2015 and 2024.

Using manual matrix-based coding in Microsoft Excel, each plan was analyzed through three lenses: structural composition, procedural development, and thematic content. …

How Do Community Gardens Contribute To A Thriving National Park City: A Case Study Of Chattanooga, Tennessee, Ansley B. Barry

Honors Theses

On April 3, 2025, Chattanooga, Tennessee became the first National Park City (NPC) in North America. With a long, industrial history, Chattanooga has made quite the pivot from being widely renowned for its low air quality and particulate pollution to being recognized as the Best Outdoor City in the US by Outdoor magazine. The goals emphasized by the National Park City campaign are creating a city-wide common interest of community-led sustainability efforts. While the initiative highlights many important initiatives to make the city more sustainable and resilient, community gardens are noticeably left out of the conversation. This paper argues that …

Measuring Urban Space: A Spatial Framework For Transit Stop Siting, Michael R. Leiting

Architecture Masters of Science Program: Theses

Urban investment projects, particularly those related to transit infrastructure, are often evaluated through quantitative metrics that emphasize economic output, proximity, and development potential. While these measures provide useful benchmarks, they offer limited insight into the spatial conditions that shape how environments are structured, navigated, and occupied at the human scale. As a result, sites that appear comparable through conventional metrics may produce fundamentally different spatial experiences.

This thesis develops a drawing-based framework for evaluating spatial conditions across multiple urban sites. Four primary conditions, Urban Form, Threshold, Mobility, and Public Realm, are analyzed through standardized drawings and translated into corresponding indices. …

City, Janina Butz

Theses and Dissertations

Janina Butz observes the improvised support structures holding New York City together at its edges. Looking at the found, cheap materials, spray painted, rusty, drilled, sawed, and haphazardly welded together on the sidewalk. The hard clashes of cheap material and expensive real estate lead Butz to draw a bigger picture of the fraud seams our society is tied together with.

An Appalachian Approach To Urban Flooding In South Carolina, North Carolina, And Kentucky, Boyce A. Clardy Iii

All Theses

Urban flooding poses an ever-growing threat to the built environment worldwide, as it is the leading natural hazard contributing to fatalities globally. Planners stand in a unique position to produce plans and policies that reflect and combat this threat, yet the capacity and obligation to do so varies considerably depending on where a community sits within the broader legislative and institutional landscape. This thesis focuses on the Southeastern subregion of Appalachia, a part of the United States characterized by mountainous terrain, steep foothills, and narrow valley communities. This region was chosen as much attention in the broader literature is focused …

A Qualitative Analysis Of Ramp Metering Implementation: Lessons Learned From The West Coast Of The United States, Sydney Ford

All Theses

This study evaluates how ramp meters, traffic lights installed on highway on-ramps, are used to reduce traffic on the West Coast of the United States, specifically in California, Oregon, and Washington. This research was conducted to better understand how ramp meters are planned and implemented, and to help government agencies manage traffic effectively without adding new highway lanes.

This study reviewed 129 public documents from federal, state, and local agencies to evaluate public involvement in ramp metering planning, concerns about the meters, costs and funding for the meters, and the meters’ design and implementation.

Demolition By Intent: Evaluating Charleston's Red X Placard Procedures, Enforcement Practices, And Communication Methods In The Loss Of Historic Structures, Jessica Stech

All Theses

This thesis examines whether the procedures, enforcement practices, and communication methods associated with the placement of Red X placards in Charleston, South Carolina, contribute to the demolition-by-intent of historic structures. Red X placards, also known as unsafe placards, are placed on the front façade of structurally unsafe structures by the Charleston Fire Department to inform first responders in the event of a fire or other emergency. Although these placards serve as a life-safety tool, they may influence how vacant structures are perceived by family or developer owners and the public.

Through using a qualitative approach, this thesis analyzes the outcomes …

The Dam Plan Matters: Proactive Policy And Nature-Based Solutions For Deliberate Dam Removal, Leah Kaisner

All Theses

Throughout the United States, the dam infrastructure is aging out of their lifespan. This increases risk of loss of life and property, particularly with dam failure. Dam aging necessitates proactive planning methods is needed to prepare communities for dam removal effects rather than responding to failure disasters. This thesis studies how city planners and local officials can use nature-based solutions, river restoration, and resilient policy tools to prepare for upstream dam removal. I created a Dam Removal Preparedness (DRP) Framework for integrating nature-based solutions, resilient policy, and restoration methods and used it as a scoring system to assess community plans’ …