Growth and Structure of Cities (Bryn Mawr)
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- ItemA Tale of Two Edge(less) Cities: Morristown, Princeton, and the Dynamics of Wealth, Sprawl, and Centralization in Suburban New Jersey(2014) Wohl, Benjamin David; McDonogh, Gary W.With more than half of Americans now living and working in the suburbs, we must better understand the national and local forces behind metropolitan development and change. This thesis focuses on more accurately modeling the histories and realities of the clusters of suburban commercial office and retail spaces known as edge or edgeless cities. Building on significant research on the general trends leading to the creation of edge(less) cities, I ask how the historic built forms and local elite institutions that predate job suburbanization have shaped the creation of these edge(less) spaces. Therefore, my thesis analyzes commercial real estate reports, histories, planning documents, and journalistic sources in order to examine the intersection of national transportation, economic, and social shifts and existing elite built forms in the historical narratives of Morristown and Princeton, New Jersey. My thesis concludes that overlapping economic, social and transportation trends have shaped New Jersey suburbanization patterns and New Jersey's historic towns and local elites have responded to these larger trends in order to locally structure this suburban growth into a particular sense of place.
- ItemAccidental Follies: The Historical Structures of New York City’s Parks and the Stories They Tell(2017) Trebach, Steven; McDonogh, Gary W.A large portion of New York City consists of parkland, and as such, the narratives contained within these parks affect the city as a whole. The historical structure is one narrative vector that can be found in many different parks. In addition to preserving knowledge of the location’s functionality prior to its becoming a park, these structures can often be fit into larger social narratives. I argue that through the selective preservation of vestigial structures, New York City park designers have preserved and by extension normalized a narrative of social, technological, and military progress and achievement, while erasing any aberration or challenge to said account. Using a theoretical framework developed from the works historical, social, aesthetic, and urban writers such as David E. Nye, William Cronon, Ellen Stroud, Galen Cranz, and Luke Morgan, I analyze historical structures in several different parks and unpack their visual and historical qualities. The second and third chapters will be devoted to developing the analytical framework for the paper as well as providing some background information. The fourth, fifth, and sixth chapters will focus on case studies. I draw the conclusion that the narratives support a hegemony that legitimizes the balance of power in New York society.
- 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.
- ItemAffordable Housing and the Impact Fee in Pennsylvania: Policy Goals, Financing Mechanisms, and Distorted Outcomes(2018) Marshall, JustinIn 2012, Pennsylvania passed Act 13, a law that imposed an impact fee upon drillers of wells for the extraction of natural gas through hydraulic fracturing. The law allocated a portion of the receipts from the impact fee to fund affordable housing. However, that funding is only available in the counties in which drilling takes place. Although Act 13 provides just a small portion of Pennsylvania’s affordable housing funding, its geographic restriction has disrupted the state’s larger system for allocating those funds: the Low Income Housing Tax Credit program. This paper makes two central claims about the results of Act 13. First, Act 13 has enabled a substantial shift in the geographic distribution of affordable housing funding in Pennsylvania, above and beyond the funds that the act itself allocates towards affordable housing. And second, this shift has come at the expense of regions of the state that are most in need of affordable housing.
- ItemAFTER THE CARNIVAL, BACK TO THE HOOD RE-INSERTION OF OLYMPIC PHYSICAL LEGACY USING NEW URBANIST DESIGN(2020) Wang, Claire Chenyu; Restrepo, Lauren Hansen; Hurley, JenniferNew Urbanism is often used to tackle urban sprawl and the decline of downtown by looking back to the traditional town and pursuing a set of "best practices". However, in the process of re-inserting Olympic venues into the urban fabric and evaluating post-game integration, legacy planners have already, albeit implicitly, engaged some New Urbanist principles. One such case that has achieved considerable post-game success is the London Olympic Park. This project seeks to develop an evaluation scheme based on New Urbanism through close reading of the Charter and other literature. The spatial organization of different Olympic models is analyzed with regard to the ease of implementation of New-Urbanism-led integration. London Olympic Park is evaluated to illustrate the strength of New Urbanism in the integration of mega-event venues.
- ItemAnchorage in an Arts Community in Transition: A Design Proposal for Affordable Artist Housing in Provincetown, MA(2017) Morales, Rio; Morton, Thomas J.Provincetown, MA, is home to a nationally renowned, century-old artist colony. As the resort town undergoes a process of gentrification through which rising costs are pushing out historic communities of old-timers, this thesis puts forward a design intervention that aims to anchor the artist community within a municipally-funded, affordable-rate artist live-work complex. The project looks outward to notable examples of municipalities’ attempts at anchorage while turning inward to situate the artist in a town history that is remarkably heterogeneous for such a small, remote New England town. What might such a complex look like, given Provincetown’s diverse heritages and uncertain futures? This thesis proposes a facility grounded in the social and aesthetic strengths of Provincetown’s past and present while anchoring and enriching the town’s arts community into the future.
- 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.
- ItemBuilding Information Modeling in the Residential Construction Industry(2018) Hutchison, Malcolm C.Building Information Modeling refers to a computer programs that allow for the three dimensional modeling of the building components and the addition of informational data of said components. This technology is seeing greater use in larger, complex projects in the construction industry due to its integrative qualities. But whether or not the same can be said for the construction of single-family homes has yet to be seen as it has not been widely adopted. This thesis examines what areas of that industry BIM software is being utilized in, where it is seen as being effective and ineffective, and the attitudes towards its adoption.
- ItemCarbon, Climate, Capitalism: Two Applications of the Transition Model(2014) Thatcher, Alice H. S.; Hein, CarolaThe Transition movement advocates for relocalising social and economic interactions as a solution to the increasing threats of climate change, carbon-reliance and capitalism. Building off a framework grounded in resilience theory and degrowth, this paper examines the contributions of the Transition movement to current environmental discourses. Founded in Totnes, England, Transition draws on the strengths, weaknesses and unusual character of the town, which makes the successful replication of the model a source of uncertainty. In this paper, I examine what the Transition model looks like in a very different context: Media, an affluent suburb of Philadelphia. While Transition Town Totnes has accomplish much in a very short time, Transition Town Media's changes are less evident, indicating that cultural context and local character are instrumental in determining the success of a Transition Town. Drawing on a strand of resilience theory that stresses constant systematic change, I propose that, going forward, Transition's success depends less on its ability to replicate the successes of Transition Totnes and more on a Town's ability to shape its own pathways and adapt to its unique local environment.
- 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.
- 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.
- ItemCompetition and Cooperation among Declining Regional Cities: The Survival of Aging Japan(2019) Noda, Moeka; Restrepo, Lauren HansenThe population is aging in virtually every country in the world, and population decline and aging have already become the most central challenge for cities in some developed countries. This project reviews the recent attempt of national and local governments to tackle the crisis of population decline and aging in Japan, the most aging country in the world. In Japan, although population aging is a nationwide phenomenon, the situation is more dire in regional cities. Thus, national-local cooperation is crucial to revitalize regional cities. This work explores the relationship between national and local endeavors of regional revitalization in Japan. I compare the national government’s recent strategies and programs for regional revitalization and Toyama City’s Compact City Strategy. The comparison shows that while the local government’s effort achieves improvement in the quality of life in a regional city, the national government views local efforts as part of a “zero-sum” game that it plays among cities.
- 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.
- ItemCreating Community: Italian and Southeast Asian Placemaking in South Philadelphia(2024) Mabrouk, Tasneem; McDonogh, Gary W.My thesis explores how the Italian and Southeast Asian communities in South Philadelphia utilized physical spaces to create a meaningful identity and sense of belonging for themselves in a new city. Given the significance of ethnic enclaves to immigrant communities, I wanted to explore what hindered immigrant placemaking efforts and how these issues could be remediated. My research synthesized scholarly work, field visits, and personal narratives from community members to gain insight into the histories and meanings engrained in ethnic enclaves in South Philadelphia, and to then identify the threats they were facing, such as gentrification and predatory development. By comparing the more established Italian Market to the newer Southeast Asian spaces that the community is still fighting to create, my research sheds light on how the city’s cultural and political landscape has shifted over the last century, further marginalizing its immigrant communities and making it more difficult for them to carve a place for themselves.Through these insights, I highlight the continued importance of physical space to urban immigrants, serving as a platform through which they can assert themselves as active citizens, find joy in community, and create sites that cater to their needs and reflect their identities.
- ItemCreating Green in the City: the Intersection of “Nature” and Urban Planning in the Metropolitan Region of Valparaíso(2016) McAlear, Zoë; McDonogh, Gary W.Relationships between nature and the built environment of our cities often end up simplified and neglected, with urban planning focused on preserving park spaces, but not concerned with the city as a complete ecosystem. Using a metropolitan region within Chile as an example, this paper examines various social meanings and constructions of nature and their inclusion or exclusion in the discourse and practice of urban planning. Drawing on interviews with a range of participants, as well as a careful study of urban planning documents from the region, these studies analyze how these conceptualizations of nature affect urban environmental planning and environmental management in the coastal Chilean cities of Valparaíso, Viña del Mar, and Concón. It becomes clear that nature is still primarily viewed as separate and excluded from cities and that, when included, there exists a lack of systematic planning prioritizing its complex interrelationship with the built environment. These questions of nature’s inclusion in planning processes manifest themselves most strongly in urban environmental conflicts in the port of Valparaíso and the sand dunes of Concón, which are featured in this research as key examples of contested environmental management in the region. Through its analysis, this paper offers an alternative future path in which a reevaluation of Chilean conceptualizations of nature could help to diversify their strategies of environmental planning and management, and ensure a sustainable relationship between the urban and natural components of their cities.
- ItemDefining the City: Contested Borders, Fences, and Walls in Urban Centers(2018) Albertson, JuliaBorder walls have long been viewed as a legitimate and rational security strategy for cities, nation states, and private landowners alike. They are employed to safeguard those on the inside, to deter any would-be invaders, and to regulate crossings from one side to the other. The increasingly normalized trend of building walls through the middle of a single urban center raises questions of utility, intent, and legality in the modern day. Examining a range of evidence, from transcripts of official correspondence and conversations to public declarations and international court decisions, this thesis seeks to compare and contrast the urban walls within Belfast, Berlin, and Jerusalem in an attempt to understand why walls built within cities continue to be a legal or effective form of managing intra-urban disagreement and violence.
- ItemDesign Proposal: The Navy Yard Terminal for the Extension of the Broad Street Subway Line(2014) Voith, Nina Tatiana; Cohen, Jeffrey A., 1952-In this thesis, a design proposal for the Navy Yard terminal for the extension of the Broad Street Subway Line will be presented. The thesis will explore five areas for discussion: 1. the importance of transit oriented development (TOD) keeping in mind the context Philadelphia and the trend to reclaim its water fronts from long abandoned industrial use; 2. the history and importance of the Navy Yard and the master plans for its redevelopment as an example both of reclamation of waterfront from industrial past and a potential transit oriented development site; 3. a specific look at transit hubs to analyze what makes them successful and finally; 4. a presentation of the design proposal.
- ItemDesign Proposal: Vietnamese Community Center in South Philadelphia, Pennsylvania(2021) Tran, Duong Joanna; Lee, Min Kyung; Olshin, SamPlacemaking plays an important role for Vietnamese and Vietnamese-American living in the US. In particular, the process of placemaking fosters the social dynamics and community resilience to sustain the livelihood of the diasporic Vietnamese population living in South Philadelphia. However, gentrification and threats of displacement took away a major social center, the Hoa Binh Plaza, from the Southeast Asian community despite their activism against development. This design proposal aims to 1) depict the immigrant's journey to the US, 2) memorialize the fights and conflicts of the Vietnamese people to protect their community, and 3) to encourage curiosity and interactions with the Vietnamese culture and history.
- 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.
- ItemElite Suburbs and their Social Reproduction: Transportation, Education and Association in the Philadelphia Main Line and the Chicago North Shore(2016) Kondelis, Peter Nicholas; McDonogh, Gary W.In the mid-19th century, the spread of commuter rail service converged with growing demand for single-family homes amid open space and bucolic surroundings. By the late 19th century, a national class of elite inner railroad suburbs had emerged outside major cities including Bronxville (New York, NY), Brookline (Boston, MA), Bryn Mawr and the Main Line (Philadelphia, PA) and Winnetka and the North Shore (Chicago, IL). These shared features of distance, cost of land, and architecture and social ties that made them exclusive. Some of these remain among the most elite suburban addresses of the country. However, even those who interact daily with today’s re-creations of these suburbs’ origin mythologies rarely wonder why and how they have held onto such exclusive statuses. In this thesis, I ask both how these suburbs’ residents have recreated their elite statuses for over a century despite national social, economic, and cultural changes and the shifting composition of elites nationally and within these communities. To answer, I analyze social theories, primary documents, and suburban histories as well as sociocultural theories of two cases: the Philadelphia Main Line’s Lower Merion Township and the Chicago North Shore’s New Trier Township. I conclude that early speculative developers, the design of elites’ country estates and early luxury developments, transportation networks, and distinctive social and well-funded educational institutions established this elite status that also became part of a myth of eliteness. Over subsequent decades, civic adaptations to transportation networks and educational and social institutions have perpetuated this status in spite of the rise of the automobile, changes to the American elite, the growth of affluent outer suburbs and exurbs, and the diversifying composition of elite suburbs. While, as Bourdieu (1984) suggests, classifiers have the power of classification, this thesis shows that maintaining this status has been a complex and continuous action involving multiple agents, institutions, and representations.