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Since the seventies, cities all over the world are rediscovering their rivers. Recreational uses of the urban streams are becoming popular and public access to the waterfronts is being improved. This has led to the construction of a wide variety of public open spaces on the riverfront with different ways of interacting with the river ecosystem. In this research, we elaborate a classification of riverfront parks and walks based on two criteria: the position of the open space within the river corridor and the access possibilities from the open space to the water. To verify the applicability of the classification framework, seven Spanish urban rivers have been studied. Results derived from the classification process show that public recreational riverfronts can be categorized into three classes: floodplain, upland and raised spaces. Within the floodplain spaces, fluvial subclass can be distinguished from riparian subclass in that the former allows greater access to water. The case study confirms the viability of the classification system and it is useful to describe the open space classes. We found that, despite their spatial characteristics, design and use can be almost unlimited, there are patterns associated with each class. The methodology developed and its application (1) allows to know the amount of public spaces in the urban river corridor, (2) gives an organizing framework for understanding river-city recreational interactions and (3) facilitates the assessment of the ecological state of the riverbanks.

The art of theatre has been classified and critiqued as being a mimetic art which is different from architecture. The mimetic arts, such as the performing arts, occur in performance spaces concealed in the physical architecture of a theater building. This fixed location of the theatre has led to the elements of the theatre to be hidden and contained within the box of the architecture. These elements could be referred to as the "troupes of theatre" in the tradition of a group of thespians being considered a troupe. The performing arts have been traditionally confined as temporary entertainment whose lasting value is situated by virtue of existing only while being on stage within the building. Architecture, on the other hand, holds tectonic value by being present as a real, physical addition to the built environment and the world, yet it also performs as a mimetic art. This creates disconnect and discrimination against theatre, as a mimetic art, which is evident through the neglect and concealment of these troupes of theatre within architecture. This is present in contemporary architecture by the location of the portions of theatre's performances spaces being hidden and concealed within. There is a disconnect between the physical theater and the physical architecture of the building that houses it. The question then arises, could these parts of the theatre, the troupes of theatre, participate in the design of the whole building? In this thesis, the troupes of theatre are celebrated and brought into the same light as the rest of the building that normally confines them to be revealed to the world. Those troupes of the theatre that typically are contained within the box of architecture, are expressed to influence the form of the building. This thesis project seeks to reveal these troupes of theatre that are typically hidden. The troupes that are usually concealed are revealed; the stage rigging, the repetition of the level changes of the seating within a proscenium theater, the curvature of the upper levels of seating, the form of the fly space for stage rigging, the form of the house of the theatre, and the support spaces necessarily for a theatre to properly operate. They become visual design features of the building, and directly influence the architecture by being incorporated into the design. Highlighting these troupes of the theatre allow them to provide didactic information to the public through the architecture. The public is allowed to experience these troupes of the theater, regardless if they are fortunate enough to see a performance or not. Typically, contemporary theatre invites the public into the theatre to have a dialogue within and on the stage of the theatre, within the architecture. But through the troupes of theatre being directly incorporated into the design of the architecture, they invite all to participate. Contemporary theatre acts a public space in its urban framework. It invites and welcomes people of all backgrounds to move throughout, congregate, and experience the troupes of theatre in the city. This theatre encourages and welcomes the public to gather and utilize a previously, uninviting and restricted site along the waterfront in Old Town Alexandria, Virginia. This dialogue and direct connection between the theatre and architecture allows for endless variations in the design of a physical theater with interpretation left open intentionally to unrestricted creativity. Rather than, the design of a theatre as a simple, concealing container for the mimetic arts to create and display this dialogue only on the stage and behind closed walls, it is through expressing the troupes of the theater mimetically and tectonically that clearly identifies the typology of the building to the public and encourages all to be included.

Water edge communities are portals to terra firma. Their role as negotiators between land and water is more important now than ever before due to increasing fluctuations in water height from storm surges and sea level rise. To understand the future of these edge conditions, my research looks to the past at a 1967 report entitled; The Potomac: A Report on Its Imperiled Future and a Guide for Its Orderly Development, authored by pioneers Stewart Udall, Ian McHarg and others. The report approached the ecology and culture of the Potomac River basin through the lens of the 1960s, a time of unprecedented growth. Emerging at the semi-centennial of the original report, my thesis is both an homage and critique, challenging its concepts of order and development, and redefining four of the original eleven principles in the report's concept of the ideal region. The thesis investigation also works within a more actionable scale of intervention, a tributary to the Potomac River. The project develops a transferable approach for other tributaries, exploring Quantico Creek and the town of Dumfries, Virginia, a historic seaport in Prince William County, as a case study for design intervention, and analyzes the historic and ecological conditions that led to the marginalization of the community in the wake of siltation and urban sprawl. The resulting proposal reconnects the community with the creek, and fulfills an intention of the original Potomac Report: to spark inspired realities along the river's 400-mile course.

My thesis is regarding the regeneration of identity and a sense of place on the unappealing nature of public open space, in terms of its urban context and architecture. A sense of place is related to the quality and character of making a place unique or special. It could be described as the established atmosphere or character of an individuals relationship with a place.  So a good sense of place becomes a place that people would like to be a part of and enhances a human's positive emotional attachment making people feel connected to a place. So creating a sense of place should be based on understanding the cultural identity, social activity, physical environment and heritage of a place. Shown on the left are two images captured from the movie "Lost in Translation"an American comedy-drama film directed and written by Sofia Coppola in 2003. The film revolves around an aging actor, Bob Harris, and a recent college graduate actress, Charlotte. These two Americans develop empathy after meeting by chance at their hotel bar in Tokyo. The movie explores themes of loneliness, insomnia, existential boredom and culture shock against the surroundings of a modern Japanese city. Both images from the movie show an unbalanced scale of the environment around the actor. These images reminded me of the first impression of disconnected or disappointed that I had of the atmosphere at the end of King Street in Alexandria, Virginia. The place was not comfortable to be in with its own character and the access to the water was hard to be sense visually. The first impression of this place still occupied my mind rather than any other attractive aspects within the area. This unpleasant experience arose from my own individual relationship with the place but later I figured out that it had already been seen as a public issue. These circumstances motivated me to think about how to regenerate a strong local sense of place in the area. The site of the project is an entire block from the Old Dominion Boat Club at the King Street Park to the Waterfront Park on Prince Street along the Potomac River in Old Town, Alexandria, Virginia. The main access to the site is at the end of King Street. King Street has been the dominant connection to the water and the main corridor, carrying most of the entertainments in Old Town. Currently though, it lacks designated routes to the water at the end of the street. This project, an urban park pavilion, is composed of four different programs: the roof park, plaza, community performance Theater and boat taxi terminal which will be treated as equal value by a juxtaposed arrangement and interconnected street grids. My thesis will narrates how to develop a sense of place through the interaction of quality of architecture, infrastructure, cultural identities, social activities and the environment.

Second-tier American cities are the new target for urban transformation and in turn require critical responses in architecture and planning. Time has shown that traditional planning instruments have become tools incapable of directing projects for redevelopment - master plans often derail leaving their results incoherent or irrelevant and the quality struggles to be controlled. Contrary to the use of long-term master plans, accretionary responses to the specific qualities and conditions of urban sites have begun to emerge as a means of acting consciously to the demands of the city. Conditions define how and where a response formulates. As a reaction to the conditions surrounding the development of any city:How can tactical development critically enable sites and in turn impact the territorial scale? A thorough understanding of the site’s context - the consequential significances of the environmental, social, political and economic - is key to responding to this question. Acting tactically to the strategies set forth by the municipality while keeping in tune with the complexities of the everyday promotes a contingent and accretionary approach to urban development. It is crucial to recognize conjunctions between public policy and contemporary society in order to achieve environments of flexibility; ones capable of evolving in non-linear directions and allowing for productive futures. This document acts as a summary to an in-depth study of the intersections of public policy and urban design, of the way in which the city has positioned itself and its subsequent spatial manifestations. It targets Jacksonville, Florida, which has recently been referred to as America’s most average city. The city’s historical identity as a `port city’ frames the contemporary issues of global society and in turn is considered to be a major contributor to evolving the identity of downtown. Encouraged by recent revitalization efforts and intended as an extension of existing programs in the city, the aim of this thesis is to catalyze transformative change on Jacksonville by identifying and exploiting existing networks that promote social, economic and ecological change. Generative, localized events will highlight current systems and introduce future methods that support development of Jacksonville’s local identities and provoke reactivation of downtown at a variety of scales and magnitudes. This thesis probes at the opportunities in singular and small-scale urban development: localized tactics with a territorial impact.

This thesis considers Cleveland, Ohio’s current and historic lakefront planning tradition through the lens of two land creation projects. The first, the Lake Erie International Jetport, was proposed in the late 1960s but never built. The second, the Cleveland Lakefront Nature Preserve, began its life in 1979 as a confined disposal facility for polluted sediments dredged from the Cuyahoga River and Cleveland Harbor. An examination of the motives, techniques, and desires behind these projects reveals that the creation of land from polluted dredged material is Cleveland’s strongest and most consistent waterfront development tradition—one that has emerged from the distinct material economy of Cleveland to offer a future vision of the waterfront that synthesizes the city’s industry, ecology, and culture.

Infrastructure influences both depictions of the ideal city and economic models predicting urban growth. As the common variable, infrastructure investments could promote ideal city values within free market economies. To preserve the countryside and natural lands infrastructure investments must encourage concentrated growth in cities. The city and countryside are codependent. An abstraction between the two zones will lead to the demise of both the city and the countryside. New urban infrastructure should relate to public spaces creating economic, cultural, and social value in dense development. This value is achieved by generating a multiplicity of connections, program, and places within the existing urban fabric. Supporting and facilitating human activity, infrastructure has the ability to create place and suggest future growth. Infrastructure in American cities is often isolated and mono functioning. Constant widening of roadways along with investments in suburban infrastructure increases the supply of land available for development in the periphery of the city. The result is an uncontrolled, unplanned outward growth consuming valuable rural and natural lands. Expanding roadways to accommodate low-density sprawl is like telling a fat man to add another notch to his belt. This money should be used to invest in infrastructure that facilitates growth within the existing urban fabric. To ensure maximum value, this infrastructure should preform multiple uses and relate to public space. A design study preformed in Pensacola, Florida tests the viability of this new infrastructure. As North America’s first European settlement, Pensacola’s growth can be charted from the founding of the centralized historic city to the sprawling metropolitan area that surrounds it today. Implementation of water taxi and ferry systems will encourage dense development around existing harbors within the metropolitan area. A retrofit of Pensacola’s post-industrial waterfront supports this system while simultaneously providing a recreational and cultural amenity for the city.

This thesis is about openness in the architecture. After traveling and experiencing many different cities in Europe, I was intrigued with open spaces in cities, which offer a stage for different public interactions. I discovered that all these public spaces are formed by the surrounding architecture. This made me wonder about how architecture, as it becomes more independent today, could express and embody this openness within itself. I picked up my site at the end of the King Street in Old Town, Alexandria, Virginia, which is currently unappealing to the public. I decided to create a urban plaza for the waterfront in an architectural way by generating a pavilion, which will provide various kinds of information and satisfy needs to the visitors and public. The pavilion has several different services and lies in an area with flood issues. In response to these conditions, I made all the projects suspended between columns and assigned them different heights according to the context of the site and their own functions. The different levels of the projects generate vertical open spaces in order to let the surrounding environment flow seamlessly into the pavilion. The entire project has been organized under a glass structured roof with a central staircase that ascends from King Street to the Potomac River, which has all the accesses to each level. There is a designed channel in the middle bay, placed within the girder to direct rain back into the river.

The revitalization and repurposing of the Domino’s Sugar Plant will foster a vibrant and engaged community for the neighborhood in a distinct way differing from the recent history of growth. Williamsburg is located in a north Brooklyn, New York, community that has been struggling for its identity since the 1970’s. The reprogramming of this abandoned industrial site will include the addition of a new technological research center that will contribute to economic growth and stability for the neighborhood. The new jobs will help bring more people into the neighborhood who will be committed to both live and work there. At present, most of the new residents live there due to the neighborhood’s proximity to Manhattan. This project would activate 1,500 feet of waterfront property on the East River and create a greenway that would be a gateway for this community. The greenway will move residents through the new research center, creating an awareness of the developments taking place there. The research center will support a progressive school that will utilize distinctive architectural design coupled with an innovative educational curriculum. The school will be designed with a digital focus that is on the cutting edge of education reform as competitive schools make a neighborhood attractive to families. By bringing in new jobs, creating greenways, new opportunities in education and encouraging occupancy by residents who have a longer-term commitment to the area, the project will help foster a cohesive community that is invested in the Williamsburg neighborhood.

One of the major challenges of the 21st century is the rapid growth of many citiesand the decline of others.There are many cities like Cleveland which were built to serve a far greater populationthan currently inhabits the city. Infrastructure built for 800,000 now services400,000 leaving creating surplus capacity and derelict spaces; urban voids whichhave fallen into disuse. Manufacturing and shipping industries occupy valuablewaterfront space, highways create rifts and large civic public spaces designedwith the best of intentions create vacuums.Cleveland is not dealing with the issue of growth but with transformation; in itsremaking as a place of mixed communities and neighborhoods. Understandingthe city spatially is the first part of an exploration into devising interventions thatcan utilize existing infrastructure, reclaim and re-purpose spaces to generate newuses and new vitality. This thesis is concerned with identifying an opportunity andproposing a programmatic and spatial transformation.

This thesis is an examination of the significance of time and temporal phenomena in the conception and construction of the built environment. It began as a question regarding the aging and life-span of contemporary buildings, in contrast with those that have at present survived long enough to earn designation as 'historic' buildings. The term'temporal phenomena' is defined here as sensory experiences which make the passage of time accessible and meaningful to those interacting with the built environment. Le Corbusier wrote that an original intent of painting was to record, to create permanent evidence of events and things that passed away with time and were forgotten, or couldn't be seen later. He suggests that the camera is a much better tool for this, and so painting has lost part of its purpose. Buildings and cities have always had the effect of retaining memory and creating cultural meanings. Cultural reliance on continuous improvements in environmental and building technologies have obviated the building's ancient place as a datum through which human beings understand the passage of time. And perhaps it is the loss of that sacred duty that leads to short-lived, disposable buildings, and the proliferation of placeless-ness in contemporary environments. A design for a brewery on the banks of the Potomac River in Alexandria, Virginia became the vehicle to explore strategies for making time meaningful and present through the physical reality of the building, the brewing process, and the interrelated lives of the brewer and the city.

This thesis is about the act of inhabiting the post-industrial landscape: about how a city with the remains of and scars from a previous era can begin to repurpose those remnants--both in a physical, as well as intangible sense.  Proposing an alternative to the patterns of development that created such a landscape, it offers resistance to the entrenched values of privatization, commodification, and consumption. The chosen site--an abandoned grain elevator in Buffalo, New York--sits at a nexus of converging landscapes: the grid of downtown to the north, a former industrial canal to the east, a stretch of barren waterfront land to the south, and the expansive Lake Erie to the west.  This site, existing at the mouth of the now contaminated Buffalo River, possesses both beauty and sublimity in its deterioration; as such, it is uniquely situated to become a charged point of entry to the desolate waterfront beyond, as well as a bridge--literally and figuratively--between the city, its heritage, and its legacy. Drawing on such precedents as the library and the enlightenment-era salon as traditional places of scholarship and colloquy, the project is also influenced by the archetypes of the tavern and the union hall as more informal, although no less vital, places of cultural exchange.  It is the aim of this thesis to bring the residents of Buffalo together in a public platform that would impress and bring into focus the processes that created the current conditions, allow for the meaningful re-inhabitation of this landscape, as well as foster a sense of community, dialogue, exchange, learning, and inquiry, with the desired outcome of participatory change.

What is a periphery? We can think about this word in more than one way. First off, peripheries are places that exist as spatial conditions in cities, They indicate edges and places that have been left behind. Spaces that have lost their meaning. But in this thesis I will use the word in another way as well. What does the periphery mean for us today? What are those parts of our lives that have been marginalized, and how can we begin to reclaim what has been lost? It is the aim of this thesis to address these issues of the individual in a site that exists on the edge of Manhattan--a place physically separated from the city by means of a highway, and in so doing, redeem both a physical space as well as a place within ourselves. One way in which we as a society create this edge condition within ourselves centers around how we structure our time. How do we work? When do we work? And, conversely, when do we rest? An important part of our twenty-first century lives centers around our ability to be in constant communication. Recent advancements in communication technology are fast shaping the way in which we live, and, as a result, we have constructed a world in which productivity and communication are no longer limited by our physical place. For its many benefits, one problem created by this is that of a population simultaneously connected to the world, yet easily disconnected from their physical place. When do we turn off? And, more importantly, what are we missing by being so endlessly connected? In response to this situation, I feel that we as a society need moments of repose to restore balance in our lives. It is during these breaks in our day that we are better able to synthesize information, form memory and maintain balance between engagement and rest. By connecting our minds with our bodies, moments of repose serve as physical and mental experiences that ground us in place.

This thesis is concerned with architecture and its changes through four seasons. It is about drawing new images of a building in different seasons. Like trees change their leaves in seasons and like people change their clothes in seasons, this project is about architecture changing its architectural elements in four seasons. It all began with an imagination of how a building would respond differently in each of the four seasons. The project, located at the waterfront of Old Town, Alexandria, Virginia, is an Aquatic Center with swimming pools, changing areas, saunas, fitness area, and massage areas. The Aquatic Center creates different images to its visitors through surrounding natures and their changes, architectural elements and their movements, visitors and their activities. The goal was to provide people unique and different experiences every time they visit.

In an attempt to address the accessibility of the arts in Washington, D.C. and also to engage the underutilized waterfront, this thesis proposes a cultural center for the arts that at once links the building with the water, but which also becomes a source of excitement for the city. The arts center will act as an atelier that mixes education, production and exhibition of fine arts, theater, dance and music, with the goal being to achieve a space alive with activity and shared energy. Typically, buildings for art education have followed a model that emphasizes interaction by forcing artists of different media to share the same space in a classroom environment. Those same rooms may appear no different than, say, a room intended for an English class or science lab. The District of Columbia Waterfront Atelier (DCWA) aims to offer spaces that are designed for the specific medium and nothing else, thus, elevating the importance of the craft. By separating the arts into singular units, one may wonder if interaction between artists is lost. Interaction, however, may be achieved through different methods rather than, simply, by programmatic ones and the DCWA has become an exploration to discover alternatives to maintain and heighten the universal goal of an art atelier: to become engulfed and energized by the arts in an interactive setting.

The purpose of this thesis is to establish design guidelines that will encourage an intimate relationship between waterfront users and the adjacent waterway through increased immediate physical, visual, and audible access to water. This thesis includes a literature review to build an understanding of: (1) the relationship between people and water; (2) the evolution of urban waterfronts in the United States and how intimacy with water is limited by the siting of buildings, construction of transportation infrastructure, and installation of flood control measures; and (3) three approaches used to create design guidelines for an intimate waterfront design. The established design guidelines are then used to analyze three waterfronts: the Inner Harbor in Baltimore, Maryland; Carroll Creek in Frederick, Maryland; and the Georgetown waterfront in Washington, D.C. This analysis leads to the position that successful urban waterfronts must allow for immediate access to the water to foster an intimate experience for waterfront users. This position is then tested through the anaylsis and design of the Rock River waterfront in Janesville, WI.

The fast growth of the urban population affects city life by degrading natural and social resources. Urban developments modify resources such as forest, land, and water, but also modify the intimate relationship of people with the landscape. Many times, the damage of those resources is irreversible, and provokes dramatic changes in the natural landscape and the uniqueness of the place is missing. Despite the intense discussion that landscape architects and scientists worldwide hold about social and environmental aspects in urban environments, many questions about how to support natural and cultural landscapes, or why to keep them are not answered in the existing waterfronts and re-developments at the water's edge. For this reason, the recovering of urban waterfronts is an opportunity to promote ecologically healthy environments, address sense of place, support human gatherings, and encourage economic revitalization. This thesis and its research analyzes the components of the natural regional landscape in recovering waterfronts in order to avoid the loss of the uniqueness of a place. A section of beachfront in St. Augustine Beach, Florida that has suffered beach erosion and development pressures was chosen for the study. The result is an alternative proposal to costly dredging and beach reclamation that includes a series of tools, interventions, and landscape modifications of this threatened site. This proposal aims to return the site to a balanced and friendly landscape. Waterfronts in cities are an opportunity to reconnect communities with their cultural and geographic landscape.

Cast-in-place concrete can be found on every site of construction today for its economic advantage, durability, and structural capabilities. It is adaptable for use in an array of building elements from foundations and floor slabs to structural frames and interior/exterior wall surfaces. Because concrete has little thermal resistance and is often permeable to moisture, it is rarely left visually exposed in projects. Waterproofing and insulation are usually placed on one side of the concrete element, whether it be interior or exterior. When it is desired to leave concrete visually exposed on all sides, as often specified by architects, there are few options available, not including solid monolithic concrete, that can still achieve some level of insulation and water resistance. The current options are either extremely expensive or marginal in their ability to actually insulate in the average climate. Thus the design and construction of a new concrete composite wall type is needed as a successful solution to the longstanding problem of achieving both insulation and waterproofing while maintaining full visual exposure of the in-situ concrete wall. This concrete composite wall will be tested for its ability to resist thermal migration in scaled mock-up wall panels, then applied in the design project of a surfboard shaping shop and retail space on the southern shore of Lake Erie. This specific location provides the ultimate testing grounds for the success of the composite wall, with strong onshore winds, blowing sand, water spray, ice, and freeze-thaw action. It also attests to its durability in the light industrial uses it will experience within the surfboard manufacturing shop. The composite wall system is utilized for the structure’s walls, maintaining full visual exposure of the concrete throughout the project interior and exterior.

This project is an investigation into issues surrounding the placing of a building into the context of a sloped site. The study manifests itself through the design of a farmer's market, restaurant and retail space on a site defined by a change on volumetric disposition, movement pattern and structural system.

wilderness and urban texture Since the earliest beginnings of civilization, mankind has strived to form urban space by limiting its outlines and bringing a system of order to the wilderness of nature. Thus street and place mark the public space clearly bound by built mass, the enclosure of the more private space. In many modern cities of the United States the urban counterpart of street and place the continuous building mass is largely missing. Colin Rowe describes this phenomena as the unpleasant condition of urban texture of the modern city. If we want to fix that urban wilderness of the American City, we have to redraw its outlines and redefine its spaces.

Landscape issues concerning the marina industry are identified and discussed. Common understanding between investors, developers and the public about the environmental and social factors influencing marina proposals is an essential pre-condition to the successful design of a marina. Important environmental and social factors involved in marina development are examined.

In recent years, downtown revitalization plans in cities located on waterfronts frequently included reclamation of the waterfront as a major element in their renewal. Typically, the waterfront is redeveloped as a major public recreational amenity designed to attract people from throughout the metropolitan area. Waterfront improvements are funded by public program dollars and represent a substantial investment of resources to the reclamation of the waterfront as a vehicle for city renewal. This study examines how redeveloped urban riverfront parks function and, from a systematic evaluation of their use, provides information which can contribute to the improved design of future urban riverfront parks. Specific objectives of the study are: (1) to determine the extent to which design program goals for urban riverfront parks are being met, and to discover the unanticipated uses of the parks; (2) to develop an understanding of the use of places commonly incorporated in the park design (the amphitheater, river's edge, lawn, and vendors area); and (3) to suggest how these findings might contribute to the design of future urban riverfront parks. Riverfront parks in Detroit, Lansing, and Flint, Michigan were selected for this study. Following interviews with park designers, city administrators, and civic leaders, document review, and site visits, park design program goals were identified. The extent to which these goals were achieved was assessed with data collected through interviews with 384 park visitors and behavioral observations during 12 different time periods on event and non-event days. The data analysis indicates that while the parks substantially meet their program objectives, there are areas needing more attention. The use of the amphitheater, the river's edge, lawn, and vendors areas pointed to problems in their location as well as design. Lessons learned are directed to policy-makers as well as designers and apply to overall park design as well as to the four selected places.