Dead End Urban Corridors: Reconnecting Urban Space

This proposal seeks to look at urban renewal through the analysis of main street thoroughfares that weave through the urban fabric connecting neighborhoods and people as vital life-lines within cities. How does history, culture, economics, and existing infrastructure feed these corridors? And what happens when this artery is blocked by development? Specifically, this thesis is focused on exploring a non-urban oriented, dead-end corridor typology that has been forced onto the urban main street resulting in an area that has become blighted, underutilized, and disconnected from the surrounding urban environment. The main argument is aimed at critiquing overlaying typologies onto urban areas with little or no regard to the context in which these areas are sited. While typological precedent and patterns can be the starting point for analysis and investigation into renewal solutions, the application of a type-based approach alone, will not solve the problem. Urban patterns and characteristics vary from location to location, and resultingly each place becomes unique with its own story and evolution. Instead, the intention is to prove that design solutions must be heavily rooted in a holistic understanding and response to the affected site’s history, culture, economics, and existing and future infrastructure. These criteria must be analyzed and evaluated on the varying scales of the urban environment, including: the immediate site, the urban neighborhood, the urban corridor, and the larger city context. This approach is driven by creating the ‘story of place’ and finding solutions that work within these contextual constraints. The goal of this thesis is to prove that by creating a story of place through the holistic understanding of context, the resulting design and architecture can convert these non-urban oriented, dead-end typologies into places that reconnect urban space, people and businesses in ways that are relevant in today’s society and optimal for the future

Gardiner, Montana: Visitor Perceptions, Image and Spending Before & After Development

Gardiner, Montana, the north gate to Yellowstone National Park, underwent infrastructure development before the 2016 centennial celebration of the National Park Service. This study represents a ‘before and after’ analysis of visitors’ images and spending patterns within Gardiner

THE FEASIBILITY AND SIGNIFICANCE OF APPLYING THE MAIN STREET APPROACH TO PRESERVATION BASED ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT IN CONTEMPORARY CHINA

On the basis of an analysis of some important factors which caused the grim situation of China\u27s historic preservation, this thesis points out the necessity to rethink the relationship between economic development and historic preservation in contemporary China and learn successful experience from US preservation based commercial revitalization approach. In the second part, it makes a brief introduction and analysis of current situation of US historic preservation and the history, missions, and achievements of the National Trust Main Street approach in order to make a further explanation of the necessity of learning something in historic preservation field from the United States. The third part answers the question whether it is possible to apply the de-centered and locally based Main Street programs to China\u27s contemporary context, and then it discusses some possible methods to apply the National Trust Main Street four-point approach to China in order to realize China’s preservation based economic development. The last part summarizes the significance of applying this approach to China. This thesis aims to introduce this model to Chinese government officials and common people in order to make them better understand that preservation can be a catalyst for local economic development if appropriate strategies are adopted

Sustainable consumption: towards action and impact. : International scientific conference November 6th-8th 2011, Hamburg - European Green Capital 2011, Germany: abstract volume

This volume contains the abstracts of all oral and poster presentations of the international scientific conference „Sustainable Consumption – Towards Action and Impact“ held in Hamburg (Germany) on November 6th-8th 2011. This unique conference aims to promote a comprehensive academic discourse on issues concerning sustainable consumption and brings together scholars from a wide range of academic disciplines. In modern societies, private consumption is a multifaceted and ambivalent phenomenon: it is a ubiquitous social practice and an economic driving force, yet at the same time, its consequences are in conflict with important social and environmental sustainability goals. Finding paths towards “sustainable consumption” has therefore become a major political issue. In order to properly understand the challenge of “sustainable consumption”, identify unsustainable patterns of consumption and bring forward the necessary innovations, a collaborative effort of researchers from different disciplines is needed

HP Windows Mixed Reality vs Meta 2: Investigating Differences in Workload and Usability for a Ball-sorting Task

Perceived workload and usability are crucial components of human-computer interactions. Currently, there is a gap in research comparing Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) systems for workload and usability. This study attempts to bridge that gap through the comparison of the HP Windows Mixed Reality system and the Meta 2 system for a ball-sorting task. Subjective questionnaires on workload and usability were implemented as comparative measures for three game scenarios of increasing difficulty. Forty-one participants were recruited from the University of Central Florida and its surrounding communities. Results showed significantly lower cumulative total workload and greater usability (for the subscale of ease of use) for the HP Windows Mixed Reality system when compared to the Meta 2 system. There were no statistically significant differences reported for the other usability subscales between the two systems. Also, there were no statistically significant differences in total workload within the three scenarios for both systems. The findings could be attributed to differences in control schemes (i.e., native handheld controllers versus hand gestures), user experience with AR and VR systems, and difficulty of task scenarios

Back to the city: the re-emergence of the urban grocery store in mid-sized cities

This paper investigates how an urban grocery store can be tailored to fit into an urban context and adapt to the urban consumer. In approaching this research, the researcher observed two successful urban grocery stores in medium sized cities in North Carolina and compared the visual evidence to previous research of grocery scholars. The investigation looks at the urban grocery store as an essential feature of a successful revitalized downtown. The stores selected for this research are located in Charlotte and Raleigh, NC. These urban stores have clearly set themselves apart from their competitive suburban grocery stores by tailoring their store circulation, department location, display fixtures, lighting, and overall ambiance of the store. The décor and music of the two urban stores were also examined in the visual analysis process. The researcher conducted a visual study by collecting field notes and used photo-documentation of the two urban stores, then analyzed the grocery stores' exterior and interior architecture. The findings were then compared to what previous grocery scholars outlined as the traits of an urban grocery store. A pattern emerged during the analysis process, which confirmed existing theories. The gaps in the research were filled by looking at the visual evidence of these two urban stores. The researcher found that most of the characteristics that make an urban grocery store successful were implemented in the two urban stores. The stores were similar in their location, target clientele, architecture, and store layout. The two stores are both located on desirable urban sites that are convenient to other downtown amenities. They also target the same customers who are usually high-income singles, young professionals and empty nesters. Both stores blend their exterior architectural features with surrounding buildings, and the store layouts fit with the needs of the community. This thesis has clarified what characteristics are desired of the urban grocery store in order to be accepted in an urban environment and how the store's existence could contribute to downtown revitalization efforts

Spartan Daily, December 3, 1991

Volume 97, Issue 63https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/spartandaily/8200/thumbnail.jp