MARCH, University of Cincinnati, 2005, Design, Architecture, Art and Planning : Architecture (Master of)

The planning and growth of a community often transpires without thinking about the long-term effects it can produce from an economical, environmental, and societal standpoint. More specifically, what areas feel the consequences of these effects? Designers need to be more aware of current land patterns and where positive growth should occur. Many cities' marginal areas are underused due to issues of urban sprawl, such as unfavorable job matches, development patterns, middle-class flight, and people's way of life. This leaves behind many usable vacant spaces, taking away from the strength of downtown fabric. What results is an uneven balance of underutilized areas downtown and overburdened, congested areas in suburban communities. This thesis will investigate urban sprawl and how it has excluded areas on the margin. This analysis will lead to the design of an urban infill prototype that will integrate evaluated marginal strategies to reclaim once forgotten space, spurring the rebirth of an area. Historically, society has the attitude that if you move away from a problem, things will get better, when in reality problems are simply moved to a new location. The solution is to fix the problem from the center, instead of letting it get worse. This research will provide an effective strategy for positive urban growth, re-integrating the fabric of community.

Committee: Jeffrey Tilman (Advisor) Subjects: Architecture

MARCH, University of Cincinnati, 2005, Design, Architecture, Art and Planning : Architecture (Master of)

Thriving downtowns are a thing of the past. Non-descript shopping districts in mega-suburban developments have supplanted the role of the traditional city center in the American culture and landscape. Downtowns used to be the primary centers of business, commerce, and entertainment. We used to live, work, and play downtown. Now, we might only still work there. With the inevitable rise and appeal of suburbia, these functions have moved further and further from the city center, thereby resulting in a dwindling population and economic base. As a result, American cities are suffering. With the exception of a few cities – Portland, New York, and Chicago – cities like Baltimore, Milwaukee, Cleveland, and Cincinnati are experiencing significant population decline, yet rapid, often uncontrolled, land area growth and consumption. But there are signs of change. A national trend toward urban living is on the rise. Loft apartments continue to gain widespread appeal. Downtown residents are trading two-car garages, McMansions, and a large yard for the conveniences of urban living. These commonly include the ability to walk just about anywhere, a reduced reliance on the automobile, close proximity to cultural institutions like museums, live theaters, and libraries, and aesthetically pleasing architecture – resulting in an array of living options. Nevertheless, downtowns continue to struggle with an array of issues. Some cities have met these challenges head on and are experiencing urban revitalization and a generally renewed interest. Others have continued to look the other way, hoping the problems resolve themselves. Unfortunately, inactivity often results in a never-ending slow decline. The truth is: urban renewal is hard work. It requires the dedication and support of a vast network of people. City departments play a role. Police play a role. Community action groups play a role. The individual citizen must play a role. Successful strategies for renewal are often complex, multi- (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Jeffrey Tilman (Advisor) Subjects: Architecture

MDes, University of Cincinnati, 2005, Design, Architecture, Art and Planning : Design

My thesis deals with both the sociological and environmental aspects of living things. Animals have been around for millions and billions of years and they occupy a spot in the “web of life”. If a species should vanish or decline, the web is disrupted and other species, including humans are jeopardized. Animals have the basic right to coexist with us with as little obstruction as possible. They are our neighbors on this planet and have the same rights as we do to land, air, water, and all things needed to survive. All animals have a purpose in this world so what divine right do humans have to pick and choose who lives and who dies? We are the most intelligent species on Earth and also the most destructive. We should use our abilities to protect the wildlife instead of vanquishing it. Keeping animals in zoos is a way that people have used to recover the deprivation of wildlife. Although well intentioned, animals are kept in captivity and denied their true environment which they are inherently entitled to. However, another way that people have begun saving these precious creatures is through wildlife rehabilitation. They tend to injured wild animals with the goal of reentering them back in to their natural habitat.

Committee: Tony Kawanari (Advisor) Subjects:

MARCH, University of Cincinnati, 2004, Design, Art, Architecture, and Planning: Architecture (Master of)

It is well known that rapid transportation systems today, including their stations, are designed for the efficient moving of passengers, with environmental benefits that far exceed any other mode of Transportation. The much-deserved credit is given to transportation engineers, who over the years have perfected the system, as far as technical considerations and standardized criteria are concerned. As the result of countless calculations, measurements, and analyses, stations function more smoothly and efficiently than ever before. But with this extreme emphasis on efficiency and numbers, the development of station architecture and urban design has not advanced much beyond the basic elements of providing shelter and being able to quickly move riders from one point to another. It is difficult to differentiate one station from the next because of rigid standards of image, and there is often a lack of urban design interaction between the station and the surrounding community. This thesis is a study of how a transit station can have a “personality” appropriate to its context while still maintaining standardized design criteria and an identifiable system image. It focuses on the design of a San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) station in the suburban community of Irvington. The thesis research and design project articulates a question and propose a solution that requires sensitivity to the role of the station in its context to establish a community organizational structure that is transit-supportive and provides the physical and social context to adopt the transit station into its daily operations and social vitality.

Committee: Gordon Simmons (Advisor) Subjects:

MARCH, University of Cincinnati, 2003, Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning : Architecture

In the past century public policy, public opinion, and design trends have left many U.S. cities "donuts." These donut cities are characterized by destructive edge growth and a decaying center; contributing to socio-political, economic, and environmental ills. Pubic policy and public opinion are slowly changing to address the situation; yet, designers have little direct control over these underlying forces. However, designers can re-evaluate, re-conceive and re-envision the city in regards to a paradigm appropriate to cities of the new millennium. The paradigm calls for design and development that recognizes new economic possibilities for the city, conceives of the city in terms of its culture, and provides a vision. Using design metaphors of collage and text help to fill the "empty" hole by telling the story of the city and of the culture it contains. In particular, this thesis is explored through the design of a youth recreation park located in the "empty" center of the donut city of today's Cincinnati.

Committee: Dr. Barry Stedman (Advisor) Subjects: Architecture

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2008, Geography

An urban growth model is conceptualized as a metropolitan change model consisting of multiple scales: global, regional and local. The baseline model operates in a free trade environment, in a space initially without consideration of the regulatory and redistributive forces of national and state governmental levels. Space in this study is abstracted as a metropolitan envelope, which is defined to start at the beginning of the twentieth century with the emergence of the New York, London and Tokyo metropolitan systems, and expanded one hundred years later into a system of four hundred major central cities and their associated commuter hinterlands. The expectation is that this system will continue to expand in the twenty-first century, as the primary engine of global economic diffusion and development. The purpose of this research is to model economic spatial interactions that generate investment flows that in turn convert into economic activity after the construction and placement of private and public infrastructure. The global model provides a set of allocated investment flows to regions, and the regional model provides employment and residential allocations to the local model, which displays land use changes. One major goal is to test the systems ability (or not) to achieve partial convergence of per capita incomes across the set of metropolitan spaces over multiple scales. For a variety of tested scenarios, temporal convergence and rank-size rule metrics can be evaluated at multiple spatial scales.

Committee: Morton O'Kelly (Advisor); Mei-Po Kwan (Committee Member); Darla Munroe (Committee Member) Subjects: Geography

MARCH, University of Cincinnati, 2022, Design, Architecture, Art and Planning: Architecture

The introduction and emphasis of the automobile in the early 20th century changed the course of the development of American cities. It gave rise to suburbia and the American Dream. The infrastructure that supported the automobile shaped and defined the extents of the city. The automobile allows for the extents of urban environments to grow outwards threating agricultural lands that support the nation. Emerging social trends and advancements in transportation could be the next step toward a healthier and more sustainable urban environment. As nations all over the world discuss and debate the means and methods for achieving sustainable futures, society's dependence on an outdated machine designed for consumption seems counterintuitive and hypocritical. It's time to reconsider American cities and infrastructure.

Committee: Michael McInturf M.Arch. (Committee Member); Elizabeth Riorden M.Arch. (Committee Member) Subjects: Architecture

MARCH, University of Cincinnati, 2021, Design, Architecture, Art and Planning: Architecture

An exurb is a district beyond the suburbs and well beyond the city center that can be characterized as a transitional zone from the urban fringe to the rural pastoral, fitting somewhere in between. The American exurbs originally emerged as growth centers that were the outcome of decades of suburban sprawl and the shift towards the aesthetic of the pastoral as people and corporations moved to the urban fringes. Exurbia displays settlement patterns and landscapes that at first glance seem very much a part of the city, but in actuality exist entirely car dependent and devoid of any central business district, making them distinct from their urban predecessors. Exurbia generally consists of architecture that is placeless, lacking any significant markers that make it specific to its site, location, or landscape. This placeless architecture that could exist anywhere in the U.S. is reflective of the global age of consumerism, seen in cookie cutter housing developments, big box retail stores, strip malls, warehouses, condo-block developments and more. Few building typologies have had as much of an impact on the American exurban landscape and American mind than the big box store. The big box typology first emerged in the early 1970s, and when it did advocates of postmodernism saw the confluence of signage set against the facade as an opportunity to challenge its signifying potential. Through deformation, this thesis seeks to push back against the monotony of form, materiality and organization of the big box store as a provocation of exurbia. The project seeks to challenge the existing form of the big box and present it as a productive element through its deformation and interaction with its surrounding topography to present a novel reading of its possible architectural expression of a non-place.

Committee: Joss Kiely Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Vincent Sansalone M.Arch. (Committee Member) Subjects: Architecture

MARCH, University of Cincinnati, 2019, Design, Architecture, Art and Planning: Architecture

Urban sprawl is an often-unloved urban condition that can be found in nearly every city and town within the United States. Crafted out of many of the ideals espoused by some of the brightest minds of the post-war period of the late 1940's to the 1960's, the modern American city was designed and built around the automobile, and with it came millions of acres of roads, highways, parking lots. New and fashionable typologies emerged such as the indoor shopping mall, and outlet strip mall. For much of the last sixty years, these programs have defined and shaped the American urban landscape, but new emerging technologies such as online shopping and delivery have challenged this status quo. Now shopping malls across the country are on their way out, but their large footprints remain. Large superblocks of pavement and abandoned retail space that is going completely underused, often within urban areas with increasing prices of real estate. These sites have fallen from grace, and are generally abhorred by the public. Their immense size also makes them difficult to redevelop or parcel into smaller lots or zones, which leads to many of these sites sitting vacant for a decade or more, and their ubiquity means they can be found almost anywhere in the country. In a time where costs of living and housing continue to increase in most US cities, it seems wasteful to use so much of our land in cities for purposes such as surface parking lots. People today demand a more holistic approach to their communities and their urban policy. Things such as increased walkability and public green space are a much higher priority than they were even twenty years ago. Much of what people despise about these sites, may be an advantage moving forward. Being generally unloved areas of our cities makes them great candidates for significant change. Very few would protest the redevelopment of a suburban mall parking lot or abandoned mall. Rather than replacing these existing conditions with somethi (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Aarati Kanekar Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Michael McInturf M.Arch. (Committee Member) Subjects: Architecture

PhD, University of Cincinnati, 2017, Arts and Sciences: Geography

Suburbanization that has occurred across the U.S. since the middle of last century (Garreau 1991). With this continued growth come sustainability concerns associated with low density development. The concern that receives the most media attention is the increase in greenhouse gases associated with increased automobile use. However there are other concerns about the impact of these development patterns on environmental, social, and economic sustainability. Examples of these concerns include access to goods and services, the distribution of employment opportunities, how public transit might better serve residents. Transportation, particularly private auto use, matters immensely in each of the aforementioned aspects of sustainability, whether research is focused on getting particular people out of cars to curb greenhouse gas emissions, facilitating access to more job opportunities for low-income people, or measuring all of the economic activity related to either. In measuring the sustainability of an area, the journey to work reveals important insights about typical transportation patterns of residents. For example, how much farther minority residents are forced to travel to work (Kain 1968), the effectiveness of diversity and design on public transit use (Cervero and Kockelman 1997), and whether people self select into neighborhoods where they do not have to drive (Schwanen and Mokhtarian 2005). Journey to work data and the excess commuting framework have been used to quantify the effects of land-use on commuting patterns in cities and metro regions for over 30 years (Kanaroglou, Higgins and Chowdhury 2015, Ma and Banister 2006). Much research has gone into improving the applicability of the framework by making it more representative of reality. Insights from studies using this framework can inform planners and policy makers by quantitatively assessing the layout of cities across time and/or space. These studies serve to illustrate some of the more unsustainable aspe (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Changjoo Kim (Committee Chair); Michael Niedzielski| A. (Committee Member); Robert South (Committee Member); Tomasz Stepinski| (Committee Member); Michael Widener (Committee Member) Subjects: Geography

MARCH, University of Cincinnati, 2012, Design, Architecture, Art and Planning: Architecture

The suburban development pattern has displaced urbanism in the United States resulting in sprawl and a number of negative environmental, financial, health and social consequences; however, an emerging restructuring of the national demographic and economic profile suggest the need for a return to urbanism. In architectural discourse, urbanists have thoroughly documented the consequences of the suburban present and envisioned an urban future. This urban future is largely based on the analysis of precedent, i.e. historic urban neighborhoods; yet, less than adequate attention has been devoted to the design of appropriate dwellings for this urban future. This thesis identifies the attributes and characteristics of certain archetypal urban dwellings useful to the design of new urban dwellings, such as the private gardens of ancient courtyard houses and the built-in furnishings of early American homes. These design principles are then applied to the design of an apartment building to be located on the site of the recently demolished Schiel School in Corryville, Cincinnati. The design seeks to fulfill an emerging market demand for compact and dense residential rental properties in vibrant urban districts. This demand originates with the young professionals and active retirees whose lifestyle is no longer compatible with the suburban paradigm.

Committee: John Eliot Hancock MARCH (Committee Chair); Jeffrey Tilman PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Architecture

MARCH, University of Cincinnati, 2010, Design, Architecture, Art and Planning : Architecture (Master of)

Suburban sprawl is frequently criticized as unsustainable. In most of the academic world, the urban character is celebrated for being more socially, financially, and environmentally sustainable. City living requires less reliance on private transportation methods and incorporates more efficient, high-density development practices. Many people, however, prefer the suburban lifestyle with less congestion, more green space, and the traditional symbols of an American home. Whether initially having either an urban or suburban preference, a majority of the population eventually ends up in a more suburban context. Growing families and obligations force both middle-income and move-up buyers into the suburbs in search of cheaper or larger properties to accommodate children and pets. Suburban living also offers additional spaces including private yards, garages, basements, and other functional areas that urban housing fails to match. In the evolving world, a new type of housing must emerge that satisfies the needs of the entire population combining high-density city residences with the sought after amenities of suburban living. Just as an urban dweller would be miserable in a suburban environment, we cannot feasibly expect suburbanites to completely change their way of life and conform to urban residential standards. Combining the draw of the suburbs with the efficiency of urban housing can help to bridge the gap of social segregation and environmental harm caused by our current suburban model. By successfully regenerating inner-ring suburbs located close to the city , we can create affordable high-density housing that combines all of these needs and attracts a new demographic to the city. This, in turn, will generate more income for the city and transition new development to a more sustainable model for the future.

Committee: Elizabeth Riorden MARCH (Committee Chair); Aarati Kanekar PhD (Committee Chair) Subjects: Architecture

MARCH, University of Cincinnati, 2005, Design, Architecture, Art and Planning : Architecture (Master of)

The project focuses on the urban and societal conditions of today and realigning our environs more effectively to the manner in which we live. The neighborhood was hypothesized to become the cellular structure for a metropolitan region, replacing cities as the base unit. Rather, it is within the local neighborhood in which people identify with and utilize nearby parks, grocery stores, and churches. Design methodology for the neighborhood was derived from various urban design literature through the last 100 years, comparing overlapping principles, and implementing them into a neighborhood designed to withstand degradation. The first focus involved concentrating on public transportation systems and obtaining a means to integrate a system the fast paced American culture. The second phase involved the design of the idealized template, devoid of existing structures. Finally, the process was tested in Blue Ash, a first-ring suburb in the Cincinnati MSA, situated in the midst of rapid growth that will soon connect Cincinnati and Dayton, Ohio.

Committee: Udo Greinacher (Advisor) Subjects:

MCP, University of Cincinnati, 2004, Design, Architecture, Art and Planning : Community Planning

Urban sprawl' is a term used to define the patterns of uncontrolled and haphazard development that characterizes the American landscape as of today. Economically, socially and environmentally, sprawl is creating some of the costliest problems that the United States now faces. The ‘Smart Growth' movement has emerged out of the realization that we need to rethink the way we grow. This thesis is an outcome of the need for documented evidence of the current status of smart growth in the state of Ohio. The research attempts to establish the conflicts and constraints in the context of smart growth in Ohio as well as in its two key sub-regions – Cleveland metropolitan area in Northeast and Cincinnati metropolitan area in Southwest Ohio. The methodology uses a case study analysis approach to document and analyze the macro and micro level dynamics of the two regions and the state of Ohio as a whole. The critical components of the study were the establishment of a smart growth prescription with nine overarching principles and their sub elements followed by a chronological evolution of smart growth in the state and in its two sub-regions and finally a matrix composition and analysis framework that was used to establish the relative status of smart growth in the two respective central cities, suburbs and metropolitan regions.

Committee: Carla Chifos (Advisor) Subjects: Urban and Regional Planning

Master of Science, Miami University, 2003, Botany

Goldenseal, Hydrastis canadensis L., is a slow-growing perennial herb that is harvested for the medicinal properties of its rhizome. It has become increasingly rare throughout its range, and in Ohio, the core of its range, it is believed to be declining. Voucher specimens from eight herbaria in Ohio were examined to determine what proportion of sites that historically supported goldenseal populations still support them today. Out of 269 voucher specimens reviewed, 71 had sufficient detail for the collection site to be relocated. Of these sites, 13% were deforested and no longer supported populations. The remaining sites were visited and goldenseal was found on 65% of these forested sites. This study revealed that nearly half of documented goldenseal populations have become extinct, suggesting an overall decline in the number of goldenseal populations in Ohio. Most of this population loss appears due to overharvest, rather than habitat loss or deer herbivory.

Committee: David Gorchov (Advisor) Subjects: Biology, Botany

PHD, Kent State University, 2007, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of Geography

Urban sprawl often leads to rapid expansion and sometimes haphazard developments of low density residential land uses that are often spatially disjoined. Occupants of these new developments are expected to contribute to increased traffic volumes as induced by the increased home-work journeys. To better plan for the future of local communities, it is necessary to pay attention to the locations of such developments. Since changes of land use patterns and residential developments are long term processes and, in almost all cases, irreversible, modeling their future trends with computer simulations is one of few feasible approaches to better understand how they evolve and to better plan for their future courses. This dissertation presents the design philosophy and implementation of the VERTUS (Vehicle Emissions Related to Urban Sprawl) model. This operational model was constructed using Visual Basics programming langue to perform high level customization of GIS (Geographic Information System) software. The model is specific towards estimating the amount of home-work journeys generated by a given level and area of urban sprawl. Consideration was given to examining ways in which different geographic variations may affect the outcomes of resulting home-work journeys. This model has been developed to assess how the number of home-work journeys impacts the environment in terms of vehicle emissions using projected housing increases for 2020 in Geauga County, Ohio as a case study.

Committee: Jay Lee (Advisor) Subjects:

Master of Urban Planning, Design and Development, Cleveland State University, 2011, Maxine Goodman Levin College of Urban Affairs

This paper examines the effect of poor school quality on neighborhood revitalization efforts in four Cleveland neighborhoods: Ohio City, Detroit Shoreway, Tremont and Downtown. The report employs survey research and real estate data analysis to examine the extent to which failing public schools encourage residents to leave the city for the suburbs, undermining efforts at revitalization. The research was particularly concerned with examining the effect on middle-class residents, or “residents of choice,” who chose to live in Cleveland although other options are available to them financially. Original research bore out common assumptions about the impact of poorly performing local schools on middle-class tenure in the city. A survey of 271 Near West and Downtown Cleveland residents revealed an overwhelmingly negative perception of the Cleveland Metropolitan School District. Prospective parents almost universally reported they do not perceive the urban school district to be a viable option for their future children. Only 9 percent reported they would remain in the city and send their children to a public school, given the opportunity. This attitude was reflected as well in the neighborhood's parents, a clear majority of which (65 percent) reported their children are enrolled in private schools. It is easy to see how this negative perception of the public school system could hinder residential and neighborhood stability. About 72 percent of those surveyed said they either “had not reached the stage in their life for children,” or had children that have not reached school age. A total of 62 percent of this population said they would move to a suburban district when the time came, or that they “weren't sure” whether they would move or stay. A supporting real estate analysis, although limited in scope, showed that 66 percent of neighborhood residents who sold homes valued at $100,000 or more relocated to a suburban municipality. These results have important implications (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Brian Mikelbank PhD (Advisor); Edward Hill PhD (Committee Member); Dennis Keating PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Urban Planning