LIGHT IN COMMUNITY: a study in the adaptive reuse of sacred space

ABSTRACT MOTIVATION American life is increasingly fragmented, leading to a sense of restlessness and disconnection. Much of that fragmentation can be traced to our pattern of architectural and sociological development, namely, the rise of the automobile suburbs in the 1950s and 60s and the abandonment of densely populated, human- scaled environments like that of the small town or city center (Oldenberg, 1999). PROBLEM Large numbers of architecturally significant buildings have fallen into disrepair over the years following the “white flight” of the 1960s and 70s, during which significant segments of investment dollars left city centers and followed to the suburbs (Kunstler, 1994). Specifically, older church buildings have fallen victim to a dilemma of sociological change. Many of the congregations that inhabit historic church buildings do not have the vitality, vision, and sometimes funds to maintain their buildings. While there are many newer congregations that do have the vision and vitality to maintain an older building, they often do not have the funds to do so. As a result, an increasing number of community treasures, buildings built at a dense urban and human scale, are being lost to neglect and misuse. METHODS In order to gain a clearer and more specific understanding of the issues involved in revitalizing and maintaining historic sacred spaces for the benefit of their communities, a course of study was undertaken which included readings of books and articles on urban revitalization such as “The Past and Future City” by Stephanie Meeks, those on third place like Ray Oldenberg’s classic, “The Great Good Place”, and some on the integration of the arts in community centers and shared space. Case studies of successful adaptive reuse projects of church and synagogue buildings, such as Maison de la Littérature in Quebec City and those undertaken by Partners for Sacred Places in Philadelphia, were investigated. Interviews were conducted with leaders from both older and newer urban congregations, and with directors of local community centers and for-profit businesses. RESULTS According to studies completed by The National Trust, historic buildings help a city to maintain its urban vitality, and maintaining stock of old buildings must be an important component of any serious conversation about sustainability in the built environment (Meeks, 2016). At the same time, many historic and architecturally significant buildings which were constructed at a time when church attendance was a larger part of the American cultural experience are falling into disrepair because the congregations that inhabit them are often unable to generate the energy, vitality, and funding that is necessary to maintain them. REFLECTIONS/CONCLUSIONS This project will explore the development of a community center for education and the performing arts in an historic church building. The program will include a small cafe, rentable studio space, a library/ reading room, a performance venue, and event space. Research will support development of a third place model, successful adaptive reuse of sacred space, and will explore options for cost-effective renovation of an historic space

Exploiting sets of independent moves in VRP

Most heuristic methods for VRP and its variants are based on the partial exploration of large neighborhoods, typically by means of single, simple moves applied to the current solution. In this paper we define an extended concept of independent moves and show how even a very standard heuristic method can significantly improve when considering the simultaneous application of carefully chosen sets of moves. We show in particular that, when choosing a set such that the total cost variation is equal to the sum of the variations induced by each single move, the quality of solutions obtained is in general very high. When compared with numerical results obtained by some of the best available heuristics on challenging, large scale, problems, our simple algorithm equipped with the application of optimally chosen independent moves displayed very good quality

Building a Districtwide Small Schools Movement

Presents a case study of community organizing for school reform by Oakland Community Organizations: how parent and community engagement in a campaign for small schools shaped leadership development, district policy, school capacity, and student outcomes

Race and the New Policing

Several observers credit nearly 25 years of declining crime rates to the “New Policing” and its emphasis on advanced statistical metrics, new forms of organizational accountability, and aggressive tactical enforcement of minor crimes. This model has been adopted in large and small cities, and has been institutionalized in everyday police-citizen interactions, especially among residents of poorer, often minority, and higher crime areas. Citizens exposed to these regimes have frequent contact with police through investigative stops, arrests for minor misdemeanors, and non-custody citations or summons for code violations or vehicle infractions. Two case studies show surprising and troubling similarities in the racial disparities in the new policing in vastly different areas, including more frequent police contact and new forms of monetary punishment. Low-level “public order” crimes and misdemeanors are the starting point for legal proceedings that over time evolve into punishments leading to criminal records with lasting consequences. In these regimes, warrants provide the entry point for processes that move from civil fines to criminal punishment. The chapter concludes with a menu of reforms to disincentivize the new policing while creating new forms of accountability to mitigate its harms

A Northeast Safe and Thriving for All

Final Report to NOAA Climate Program Office Climate Adaptation Partnerships Planning Gran

Matheuristics: using mathematics for heuristic design

Matheuristics are heuristic algorithms based on mathematical tools such as the ones provided by mathematical programming, that are structurally general enough to be applied to different problems with little adaptations to their abstract structure. The result can be metaheuristic hybrids having components derived from the mathematical model of the problems of interest, but the mathematical techniques themselves can define general heuristic solution frameworks. In this paper, we focus our attention on mathematical programming and its contributions to developing effective heuristics. We briefly describe the mathematical tools available and then some matheuristic approaches, reporting some representative examples from the literature. We also take the opportunity to provide some ideas for possible future development

Rethinking Redevelopment: Neoliberalism, New Urbanism and Sustainable Urban Design in Cleveland, Ohio

This article explores unintended consequences of recent urban design initiatives in Cleveland, Ohio. Historically rife with environmental injustice issues, Cleveland’s built environment continues to exhibit issues of distributive justice across racialized spaces. In this research project, I first investigate whether and how New Urbanist aesthetics are geared towards a white spatial imaginary and subsequently deconstructing its whiteness. I seek to answer: is New Urbanism inherently racist? I then explore how New Urbanism in the U.S. has spread into circles of sustainable urban design, pushing space and place towards a homogenized normativity. Third, I examine the history of racial prejudice in urban planning in Cleveland. Lastly, I analyze census data surrounding neighborhoods in which sustainable urban design initiatives have been implemented or are underway. In analyzing how these neighborhoods are changing as a result of these initiatives, I look for the presence of New Urbanist aesthetics or the realization of some their principles and theory. I hope to uncover some of the indirect effects of projects deemed sustainable. The purpose of this project is to look critically at initiatives that are gauged as sustainable, widening the discussion of sustainability in planning and architecture to purposefully encompass factors related to social equity and justice, beyond the ones related to environmental sustainability

The Revitalization of the American Downtown: A Network of Public Squares in Richmond, Virginia

In Europe, public squares are outdoor living rooms where people experience vibrant urban life in community with others. Well defined streets and squares work together to create a rich spatial experience for people moving through cities. American cities often lack this strong tradition of public space and experienced serious decline during the mid-20th century. Now as urban populations are increasing, it is time to re-invigorate the public realm of our urban areas. This thesis proposes an enhanced network of public squares in the downtown of Richmond, VA, a typical mid-sized city whose downtown is experiencing a resurgence. Using extensive precedent analysis, the investigation will apply design principles and typological characteristics to three proposed public squares in Richmond. The goals are to create catalysts for new development in the downtown and to encourage a renewed pedestrian experience of the city

Public Spaces/Private Money: The Triumphs and Pitfalls of Urban Park Conservancies

This study explores city park conservancies -- private organizations that utilize donations to rebuild, refurbish, and even maintain some of their most iconic parks. The study uses examples and experiences from 41 organizations across the country that have a collective experience record of nearly 750 years

Vital data : writing and circulating data in non-profits.

This dissertation presents the results of an ethnographically-informed workplace observation study of a single non-profit referred to throughout as “the Metro Data Coalition” (MDC). It begins with an overview of the organization, its institutional history, the technical and technological scenes of composing, and the demands placed on the writing process by each of these variables. It considers usability studies, activity theory, and rhetorical ecologies in coming to terms with how MDC writers shape the numerical data they work with daily. The latter half of the dissertation considers how MDC writers approach their work as “storytellers,” a self-concept that is threaded throughout their writing process, and the ways in which MDC team members and those of their parent non-profit—the City-Community Partnership—shape a circulation process in a bid to measure the MDC’s rhetorical “impact.” The dissertation is divided into six parts. The introduction and Chapter 1 serve to set the scene of the MDC, their organization, their purpose, and their writing processes. I argue here that their organizational ethos is imposed by a range of structural and historical forces, and ultimately runs into conflict with their mission statement. In Chapter 2, I zoom in on the technologically-mediated data visual composing process and make a case for a vision of distributed creativity that suits technical writing scholarship. In Chapter 3, I focus on the organization’s and individual team members’ approaches to “story” and “storytelling,” and argue that “storytelling” is itself an action that is distributed across a perceived ecology of MDC work and circulation, and that the goal is a sense of “stickiness” that is ultimately fraught in our present, hyper-digitized and ecological age. Chapter 4 takes up the issue of “mission impact,” and the ways in which ecologies of work are shaped and re-shaped in a bid to prove rhetorical success of MDC work. Here, I argue that a story’s “stickiness” cannot be read by one-to-one uptake of arguments, but instead by evidence of re-telling in other organizations. In the conclusion, I emphasize external organizations and the way MDC data has been approached, ultimately suggesting that the technical, quantitative writing the organization engages with is unsuited to the rapidity with which quantitative information can be shaped and re-shaped to align with previously-held, culturally infused “stories.” Ultimately, this project is designed to provide a set of workable heuristics for understanding how quantitative information can be shaped and deployed in technical and professional writing scenarios. It is a study of the “life” of data and the many mutations that happen within that “lifecycle.” To get there, however, it is necessary to engage with real-world writers doing heavily quantitatively-informed work, and to come to terms with the non-numerical, “subjective” forces that shape how we approach “data” in the 21st Century