Growth and Structure of Cities (Bryn Mawr)
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- ItemThe Promise of the Games?: Imagination and the Washington, D.C. 2012 Olympic bid(2001) Guarinello, Elena; McDonogh, Gary W.In this age of global competition, large cities increasingly desire the Olympics as a mega-event because of its promises of local economic development, catalysis of urban development projects, and unparalleled standing on the global stage. These incentives outweigh the risks and significant costs of staging the Games. Not only does staging the modern Olympiad call for huge investments of money, time, effort, and other resources, so too does the mere chance of hosting the Games. Cities interested in hosting the Olympics must participate in a rigorous and intense competitive bid procedure before the International Olympic Committee (IOC) selects a host city. The bid process itself can be just as valuable to a bid city as hosting the actual Games themselves. The Olympic bid process has enormous potential as an imaginative exercise in reimagining the city. However, IOC composition, bid procedure, and common urban power structures all, in varying degrees, place demands upon and threaten this potential. The current Washington D.C. 2012 Olympic bid presents an excellent opportunity for the examination of the city's ability to challenge these limitations. As much about the city of Washington as the Olympic bid process, this thesis uses D.C.'s bid process as a means to display the city's multiplicity. Further, the bid process reveals elite forms of control at the same time that it serves as an important discussion about the future shape of both the city and the region.
- ItemDream space : a study of architecture in Fellini(2001) Toth, Benjamin; Cohen, Jeffrey A., 1952-; McDonogh, Gary W.Beginning with the onset of the industrial revolution, urban spatial issues have become increasingly complex as cities have grown in size and density and technology has changed the way we use and travel through space. In response to those rapidly changing dynamics of architecture and the city, many filmmakers of the twentieth century began to use the modern art of cinema to examine the issues generated by these transitions. A few early silent filmmakers utilized cinematic means to create unprecedented images of architecture and the city. They utilized formal aspects of cinema, such as sets, movement, and composition in order to create new experiences of the space of architecture and the modern city. Films such as The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and Metropolis are well known examples of such films.
- ItemContending with privileged influx : lessons from Boston's Mission Hill(2004) Elton, Jessica; Hein, CarolaGentrification occurs in disinvested urban neighborhoods around the world. Individuals with incomes higher than the majority of the existing population rent or buy property, upgrade the buildings, and attract further investment. City governments may actively encourage gentrification because cities benefit from the increase in expendable income and enhanced tax base. Yet, there are critical negative impacts of gentrification: property values often increase, pricing existing residents out of their homes. While some types of change are necessary for a neighborhood's perpetuation and development, gentrification is often more harmful than helpful to the existing local community. What can neighborhood communities do to minimize the displacement of existing residents while encouraging change that improves quality of life in the neighborhood? This thesis examines strategies employed to such ends by actors in the Mission Hill neighborhood of Boston, where the expansion of nearby universities and hospitals coupled with increased real estate speculation threaten the endurance of a racially diverse, low to moderate-income community. Actors implement a variety of tactics to minimize displacement of existing residents in Mission Hill. Several community groups develop subsidized housing for low to moderate-income people, while another organization takes part in the licensing and permitting processes to challenge development by institutions and real estate speculators that is unwanted by the community. Other groups transcend the physical scale of the neighborhood in their methods by organizing tenants in multi-neighborhood districts so that tenants can negotiate effectively with landlords regarding rent increases and by promoting policies such as section 8 and rent control. Two additional citywide groups engage in initiatives aimed at helping low to moderate-income and minority youth pursue higher education so that they can compete in today's global economy where education is increasingly important as a means to gaining upward economic mobility. The case of Mission Hill suggests that community strategies that contend with gentrification on a local level can stall unwanted trends. Still, policies that compensate for the inability of the market to provide affordable housing are critical to ensuring the longevity of thriving, low to moderate-income urban communities. In addition, approaches that respond to demands of the global economy by emphasizing the value of education offer solutions that are important in terms of long-term, structural change.
- ItemCity of Narrowing Shoulders and Big Ideas: Technology and Politics in Philadelphia(2005) Kingsley, Chris; McDonogh, Gary W.Mayor Street announced on August 25, 2004 that Philadelphia would provide free wireless access to the Internet from all 135 square miles of the city within two years. The press was understandably slow to respond to Mayor Street’s declaration; not only does Philadelphia’s plan defy all conventional wisdom regarding the role of municipalities in providing telecommunications services to citizens, but the decision had come, seemingly, out of nowhere. There had been no lobbying by businesses, no expectation on the part of Philadelphia’s citizens, and no shortage of companies to provide such services for a fee. What prompted the Mayor to spin off his own Internet Service Provider? The subsequent rationale provided by Philadelphia’s Executive Wireless Committee has been inconsistent. No network in America comes close to equaling the size of Philadelphia’s proposed wireless cloud, and it is plausible that by “throwing its hat into the wireless the ring,” the city is aiming for another of the firsts in innovation for which it was once renowned, but lately incapable of providing. Notoriety, then, may be a factor motivating the city’s support of this high-tech public works project. Also, Philadelphia seems to believe that not providing citywide access will retard its already anemic economic growth. A consensus is growing among policy makers that “just as roads, canals and railroads revolutionized 19th century America by connecting industries and people,” broadband networks are critical to urban economic expansion in the 21st century. Philadelphia wishes to be a participant in that transformation, not a spectator to it. Lastly, experience in other American cities has demonstrated that through “e-government” applications, cities can become more efficient, can provide better education, and can extend new and empowering forms of “electronic citizenship” to its residents. E-government cannot function without the Internet being available to the citizens, and without public intervention of the sort promised by the Mayor it seems clear that Philadelphians will remain particularly disconnected.
- ItemHolding Steady : Survival, Migration, and Future Prospects in the Printing and Food Manufacturing Industries in Philadelphia County, Pa.(2005) Koski, BenjaminDespite massive deindustrialization, manufacturing still continues to play a vital role in Philadelphia’s economy. This thesis utilizes case studies in the city’s printing and food manufacturing industries to explore challenges that industry faces in a city attempting to position itself in a global knowledge and service economy. Specifically, this work seeks to explain reasons why some firms survived the process of deindustrialization, while others did not. A variety of indicators are used to construct hypotheses as to why some firms are able to succeed within the city of Philadelphia. These hypotheses are then evaluated and abstracted to provide a set of conclusions and policy recommendations with the intent of helping to retain current city manufacturing operations.
- ItemBombings and Blockades: The Impact of the Maoist Insurgency on the Relationship between Kathmandu and its Hinterland(2005) Marceau, Eileen Aki; Arbona, JuanThis thesis examines the impacts of Maoist insurgency in Nepal on the relationship between Kathmandu and its hinterland. An analysis of this conflict will shed light onto the meaning of space and how spaces are historical products of social, political, and economic processes. This thesis focuses on two urban attacks in August 2004 as a lens through which we can understand the value spatial meaning in a concrete place and time. The relationship between Kathmandu and its hinterland has long been divided. Kathmandu’s status as the nation’s capital makes it home to the Nepali elite and rulers and a nodal site for an international community. Because these parties dictate the distribution of wealth, and their focus lies in the capital, they consequently neglect underrepresented areas outside of Kathmandu. Throughout Nepal’s long history of varying political systems, ranging from a Rana oligarchy to multiple attempts at democracy, this disparity has always existed. Since 1996, the Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist has led a civil war against the government and monarchy combating this disparity. Because the Maoists have gained most of their strength in and from rural, underrepresented areas, the war has become a conflict between the capital and its hinterland. The August 2004 attacks on the capital illustrate the final stages of the Maoists’ strategy to enact full-scale attacks on the capital after gaining prominence in its hinterland. These events represent the Maoists’ attempts to level the inequities between Kathmandu and its hinterland in an urban setting. The thesis concludes that because spaces and structures are tangible manifestations of social, economic, and political processes, it is important to pay attention to the ideas spaces grow to represent. Perhaps one way to address the disparity between Kathmandu and its hinterland is to establishing growth poles and bottom up development throughout the country.
- ItemWho Owns History? The Construction, Deconstruction, and Purpose of the Main Line Myth(2007) Grant, Michael; Stroud, Ellen; Arbona, Juan; Hein, CarolaThis thesis analyzes class duality in suburban Philadelphia between 1870 and 1930. The story below begins with the creation of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company in 1846 and the subsequent construction of a “main line” to Philadelphia. In response to urban industrialization – a push – and the emergence of a suburban pastoral ideal – a pull – social elites fled from Philadelphia during the second half of the nineteenth century and constructed country estates atop the hills overlooking the rail line. The society that the elites mythicized on the Main Line crumbled in the hands of the 1929 Great Depression, marking the end “the Golden Age.” This thesis argues that the Main Line social elites, on account of exclusionary town planning and estate architecture, spawned a myth that masked the existence of a suburban servant underclass, which the elites themselves created and sustained through the maintenance of their country estates. Questions concerning the myth’s definition, makers, and ultimate purpose and societal function frame the argument.
- ItemLandover Regional Shopping Center: The Perceptions and Realities that Caused a Mall to Fall(2007) Leventhal, Alexis; Stroud, EllenBuilt in 1972, the Landover Regional Shopping Center, located Southeast of Washington, D.C. in Prince George’s County, Maryland, was once the archetypal suburban shopping mall for the Washington, D.C. area. With four anchor stores, 1.3 million square feet, and a convenient location directly off the newly completed Capital Beltway, Landover mall was a retail force to be reckoned with. Filled with modern day amenities and high-end retailers, Landover mall was venerated by shoppers and envied by neighboring malls. By the mid-1980s, however, this image of Landover was replaced by a much darker one. Landover had lost much of its appeal as the structure was neglected and its high-end retailers moved out. By 2002, the mall had closed and was demolished a few years later. The transformation of Landover from a boom to a bust seemed to take place almost over night. But how was this possible? And why did it happen? The answer lies in another transformation that was taking place in the mall’s surrounding area: the composition of the county’s population from majority white to majority black. The coinciding of the changing population and the deterioration of Landover mall is no coincidence. This was due to strong, negative perceptions of African Americans and, in turn, the areas in which they live. This perception is one of crime and poverty and is a perception that can affect the economic viability of the area such as the stability of Landover mall. Landover mall fell victim to the unfair and unwarranted perception projected onto it by the surrounding population, despite the reality that the area was otherwise viable and desirable for retailers. Although other factors are at work in generating the mall’s premature decline, namely benefits from tax laws, perception was the major contributor and, more importantly, a factor that should not have contributed to Landover’s failure.
- ItemGermantown Pennsylvania(2007) Scattergood, AbigailGermantown, Pennsylvania is a neighborhood located in the Northwest section of Philadelphia. Once Philadelphia’s original suburb, modern Germantown has undergone many changes, transforming in the 20th Century from a streetcar suburb to a working class, predominately African American area. While the neighborhood demographics have certainly changed, Germantown possesses a distinctiveness which speaks to its historic roots; from Revolutionary War battles to Underground Railroad sites. This paper looks closely at three historic sites in Germantown to analyze their potential as tools for community and economic development; Cliveden, Awbury Arboretum, and the Johnson House. The principal focus of this research is how historical preservation is used in Germantown to promote community and economic development initiatives; whether that be the creation of new business and jobs, the development of community groups, or an increased emphasis on the aesthetics of Germantown Avenue. Ultimately, the analysis of the case studies provides a framework for a larger understanding of historic preservation and community development in Germantown; what the current conditions are and how they should be changed for the future in order to elevate the role of historic sites within the greater Germantown community.
- ItemThe Character of an Art Collection: Isabella Stewart Gardner, Henry Clay Frick, Albert C. Barnes, David Lloyd Kreeger, and the Donor Memorial in the U.S.(2008) Litowitz, Dana D.; Steffensen, IngridDonor memorial museums represent a unique group of American art collections. These museums, created by private art collectors to perpetuate their own legacies, are among the most interesting institutions in the American art world. House museums like the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, the Frick Collection, and the Kreeger Museum are especially intriguing because each iconoclastic collector conceived and implemented a specific vision for how visitors would view the collection. These museums, along with one of the most controversial private art collections in the country, the Barnes Foundation, share many similarities in format and creation. Each is an anomaly in its respective setting and fully projects the force and personality of its creator. The architectural styles of the buildings especially convey the eccentricities of the donors, who chose ostentatious, incongruous architectural vocabularies for 20th century Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Washington, DC. Strong desires and wishes of the collection creators, coupled with virtually iron-clad legal wills, ensure constancy and permanence for these institutions. Although it no longer seems to be the fashion or convention of the wealthy to devote energies and resources to cultivating such private art collections, these institutions remain popular destinations for art lovers. Their continued existence allows us to understand how people of another age created monuments to themselves—museums that still fascinate and attract us today.
- ItemPublic Housing in Chicago, USA: A Focus on Problems and Solutions in Design, Pattern and Practice(2008) Rubin, CharlieEver since the housing shortage in the early part of the 20th century, the United States has faced challenges in providing homes for all of its citizens. Throughout the 1940’s and early 1950’s local housing authorities scrambled to create a prototype for the perfect Public Housing plan. Due to economic and political pressures, most of the designs were finalized as vertical skyscrapers placed in the outskirts of a city, or in an already dilapidated area. Years later we can see that a large part of these projects have become crime-ridden, decrepit, and stigmatized as areas of danger and distaste. Many scholars attribute the architecture and design of these projects for their failure. My paper will examine the validity of this idea and provide evidence for how the architecture and design played only a minor part in the downfall of these projects. Other factors include the basic lack of funding for maintenance of the buildings, the economic climate of the times, the homogeneity of the residents, and most importantly, almost no social outlets for the youth of these projects. To prove these causes, I have analyzed the life, death, and rebirth of two Public Housing projects in Chicago built during the 1950s.
- ItemOf Poets, Paupers and Planes: Tuberculosis in the City(2008) Alexander, Katia; Arbona, JuanTuberculosis has afflicted human populations for thousands of years, but it was not until the nineteenth century that it came to be perceived as an epidemic that posed a serious public health problem. The dramatic rise in the incidence and the salience of tuberculosis, or “consumption,” coincided with the Industrial Revolution and the massive migration of populations to urban areas in Europe and the United States. In bringing unprecedented numbers of people together, industrial cities physically facilitated the spread of infectious diseases like tuberculosis. The transitions to city life and a capitalist industrial economy had great impact on culture and society, and these changes provided new ways of perceiving the intersections of health, illness, and class. Anxieties about the urban industrial lifestyle and the fate of the ever-changing city played out in perceptions of tuberculosis and its causes and possible treatments. Concerns about status and the growing underclass of laborers affected perceptions of consumptive patients and one’s own vulnerabilities to tuberculosis. Within the nineteenth century in Europe and the United States, tuberculosis evolved from being a romanticized disease of bohemian artists and musicians to being a social disease of the poor living in urban slums. In the beginning of the twentieth century, racial tensions in the United States fueled theories about tuberculosis and deviance in the African-American and immigrant populations. By the mid-twentieth century, tuberculosis began to fade from the people’s consciousness, and it was eventually deemed to be “eradicated” in the Western world thanks to advances in antibiotic therapy. In the past twenty years, however, tuberculosis has “returned,” in virulent, multi-drug resistant forms. The HIV/AIDS epidemic has played a role in this comeback, as weakened immune systems are unable to ward off tubercle bacillae. Perceptions of tuberculosis are very different in the current global era and reflect the anxieties about globalization today.
- ItemThe Dynamics of Neighborhood Change in Brewerytown, Philadelphia(2008) Korobkin, RobAlthough it was once a vibrant industrial area, by the end of the twentieth century, the Philadelphia neighborhood of Brewerytown stood ravaged and impoverished by decades of disinvestment and industrial abandonment. In the past few years, however, speculation and development have perked up as the city’s economic center expands into the surrounding working-class neighborhoods. As Brewerytown’s landscape changes, the neighborhood’s residents, politicians and business leaders confront these changes in a variety of ways and justify their actions by telling different kinds of stories about what is happening in their neighborhood. To Westrum Development, Brewerytown is a bad and blighted area of the city, and their effort to build over 400 units of luxury housing in the area is an important step toward improving the neighborhood and making it more livable. Local residents, on the other hand, are split between those who feel that the new developments will offer much-needed economic opportunities and those who feel that many long-time members and institutions of the Brewerytown community are in danger of being gentrified out. Finally, it is the local government that must negotiate among all of these different groups to enable development while, hopefully, displacing as few people as possible. Through extensive interviews with some of the different stakeholders involved in this process, this paper offers a look at the ways in which these people interact with each other and analyzes the different factors that are shaping those interactions and ultimately determining the changing face of Philadelphia.
- ItemOlympics and Housing: A Look into the Treatment of Underserved Populations Before and After the Games(2009) Kapadia, Sarita; Arbona, JuanEvery four years, the world unites for a friendly few weeks of international sports competition, the summer Olympics. A different city is given the honor of hosting this world wide, mega-event each time. Many years of preparation goes into each Olympics, from changes in transportation and technology to building of new housing structures, monuments, and venues. It is the perfect opportunity for cities to renew and revive themselves, both structurally and culturally, and most hope that the costs and changes in which they invest will have a positive, everlasting effect. However, what is often good for the city's population as a whole cripples those on the margins of society even further. These marginalized people include minority groups, low income workers, and the homeless. Often, host cities put so much effort into creating a perfect image of themselves, that they disregard how their actions affect impoverished populations, for example through the displacement of people in building of Olympic venues. My thesis investigates the question, "In regards to housing, do Olympic cities implement positive changes for all of its citizens, or are the needs of the marginalized populations ignored?" To answer the question, I will look at the efforts of three host cities, Barcelona, Atlanta, and Sydney. The question will be analyzed through four different viewpoints of housing; displacement of people in preparing for the games, the Olympic Village and its after use, treatment of homeless populations throughout the Olympic process, and finally affordability of housing in the city in response to the Olympics. My thesis will conclude with a brief look at the preparations going into the 2012 London Olympics, and will make recommendations as to how Olympics might better tackle the issue of housing and marginalized populations in the future.
- ItemMonumental Mixed-use Developments in U.S. Urban Centers: Examining Shared Consumer and Corporate Spaces(2009) Preston, MelanieThe monumental mixed-use structure has become a common building and social type of the urban center over the last century. The delineation between public and private has been redefined with the construction of private developments that offer both private and public spaces and create varying degrees of social interaction. A new dialogue continues about who belongs in spaces with multiple identities. To answer questions of ownership and use, I turn to an historical overview of form and function considering the Wanamaker Building, Rockefeller Center, Time Warner Center, and Liberty Place as case studies.
- ItemAdvancing Digital Social Equity Through the Application of Innovative Digital Literacy Programs: A Review on Bridging the Digital Divide in Two Selected Urban Environments(2010) Kent, Daniel Theodore Ling; McDonogh, Gary W.As more services and business migrates to the Internet, individuals who lack the ability to effectively and efficiently use computers and the Internet are at an increasingly greater risk for missing out on new opportunities that are available only to those who are online. Historical models for remediating those who are digitally excluded have made progress towards digital inclusion but much work remains. This paper surveys the state of digital literacy programs and identifies and analyzes specific population groups that are less digitally empowered. It then examines three digital literacy organizations including the Hong Kong Internet Service Providers Association, the Hong Kong Internet Professional Association, and Net Literacy that seek to engage these traditionally digitally excluded populations. From these findings, this paper makes recommendations on how best to advance digital literacy and digital inclusion going forward.
- ItemEncamping Displaced People: Planning for Today and Tomorrow(2010) Triulzi, Ananda; Arbona, JuanUrbanism emerging in the space of refugee camps is one of the exigent planning themes of our times. This particular urbanism holds an important place in international politics as a space of conflict through which national governments, NGOs, and international agencies exercise power. The camp is subject to the design methodologies of various parties, which attempt to mold it according to their individual policies and aims. Its unique emergent urban qualities and development are therefore of interest to those who would discover the effects of such policies on the camp. As well, the space of the camp is critical to the discourse of refugee and displaced person advocates. Many studies of encampments for displaced people have been made, yet few have set out to address the planning methods used to build camps. This thesis attempts to address that deficit by examining the physical planning methods and camp forms espoused by the UNHCR, the Norwegian Refugee Council and the U.S. Air Force. The study is conducted through examining the agencies’ planning texts, respectively, Handbook for Emergencies, Camp Management Toolkit, and Air Force Handbook 10-222, Vol. 22: Refugee Camp Planning and Construction Handbook. The documents set forward methods of planning, using qualitative argument that conceive of the space’s role as formative in reconstructing the lives of displaced residents. As well the texts are respectful of international law and the needs of aid agencies within the camp. Ultimately, deferring to too many perspectives, the planning documents struggle to take a meaningful position on encampments. Rather they remain caught between their humanitarian goals and the recognition that larger forces politically overpower them with policies that are not concerned primarily with the well being of displaced people.
- ItemMega-Casinos: Worth the Gamble?(2011) Restrepo, DavidThis thesis will analyze the effects of mega-casinos on their surroundings and the significance of the regional planning culture on the creation and functioning of a mega-casino. Economic decline as a result of unemployment and decreased tourism and consumer consumption has caused governmental agencies to transform the planning culture in order to legalize gambling and permit the construction of a casino. The likelihood of a beneficial venture is enhanced when the casinos include not only a gambling floor, but also an entertainment complex that houses a multitude of recreational activities. An examination of the development and regional planning cultures of the Crown Casino and Entertainment Complex in Melbourne, Australia and Foxwoods Resort Casino in Mashantucket, Connecticut demonstrates how each mega-casino has drastically influenced the economic and cultural growth of the surrounding region. Ultimately, this paper will establish that the planning culture of a given area will change in order to facilitate the construction of a mega-casino in the face of an economic downturn. Furthermore, the allocation of revenue from each mega-casino complex will aid in exhibiting how the implementation of a mega-casino results in the bolstering of the local and state economy.
- ItemProjected Stability: The Sociopolitical Impetus and Semiology of the Roman Triumphal Arch and its American Transformation(2011) Griffith, Steven D.; Ponti, Gianni; Hein, CarolaThe triumphal arch is an architectural form with deep associationism to Roman antiquity. Due to its powerful semantics, its imposition into the built environment has spread broadly throughout time and space. What is this form? Why is it constructed? What is its purpose? From its Imperial origination to its contemporary American transformation, the triumphal arch has retained its iconographical identity and more importantly, has continued its capacity toward the fabricated projection of sociopolitical stability. Using the Washington Square Arch (New York, NY) and the Gateway Arch (St. Louis, MO) as case studies, this thesis discovers the arch as a communicative political mechanism toward the forced perception of strength.
- ItemClosing the Gap: A Design for the Expansion of the Manhattan Waterfront Greenway(2012) Caughey, Willa; Voith, Daniela HoltThe borough of New York City seeks to expand the Manhattan Waterfront Greenway to create a continuous 32-mile alternative transportation route and network of parks around the island. One of the remaining gaps in the Greenway is the area between East 38th and East 60th Streets. My design addresses a half-mile portion of this gap, from East 38th-48th Streets. My design integrates with the existing infrastructure of the Greenway, provides a diverse array of passive and active recreational and educational spaces to the East Side, and reduces the demand on the municipal stormwater management system by treating stormwater runoff locally through the use of constructed wetlands.