Beginning from the premise that there is a positive correlation between form and process, this study undertakes to uncover patterns of office location in the Vancouver CBD. It is hypothesized that intra-CBD location of offices reflect the functional or interactive relationships that exist between offices. It is possible to infer the existence of linkages by identifying groups or sets of office types which are typically found in close physical proximity. Two main statistical techniques are utilized in the case study: principal components analysis and grouping analysis. The former is used to identify groups of office types which exhibit tendencies to locate in close proximity; the latter to identify sub-areas in the CBD where the clustering of interrelated office types is most conspicuous. The results, although generally consistent with the hypothesis, cannot be regarded as conclusive as direct confirmation of the hypothesis is not possible. The results are, however, encouraging and indicate the need for additional research in this important, but often neglected, area of urban location theory / Applied Science, Faculty of / Community and Regional Planning (SCARP), School of / Graduate

Due to the introduction of modern computing technology to planning, it is anticipated that the techniques for quantitative analysis in planning will be changed radically; the expanding use of model and the increasing importance of inter-city data collection may have an effect in redefining the process of planning itself. In this thesis, ah effort has been made to investigate the current problems of building and using models in planning so that a methodology, combining several multivariate statistical methods and the modern computation algorithms, is developed for planning analysis and prediction from the comparative point of view. It is hypothesized that simple prediction models can be improved by the use of these comparative techniques. As a testing mechanism of the proposed methodology,a simple regression model for CBD floor space prediction is devised, and the result shows that the comparative analysis is effective for better prediction. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Community and Regional Planning (SCARP), School of / Graduate

Downtown areas across Canada have been deteriorating physically and economically due to a number of factors such as age, suburban growth, and shopping centre development. Downtown revitalization programs were created in response to this deterioration. In the last decade millions of dollars have been spent, by all levels of government and the private sector in an attempt to achieve revitalization. More than five hundred revitalization projects have been undertaken. However, few project evaluations have been completed. Project evaluation is necessary to determine which program components are effective, to clarify goals and to provide accountability. The purpose of this thesis is to develop improvements in downtown revitalization project evaluation concepts and tools. Interviews with administrators from five downtown revitalization programs revealed that most projects cannot be evaluated at present because the majority of administrators have yet to identify performance measures. The few evaluations that do exist were not adequately controlled and do not provide compelling evidence that any economic changes that occurred can be attributed to the revitalization project. This thesis focuses on two research objectives. The first is to identify performance measures and methods of data collection. This in turn, requires an examination of program goals and components. The methods exployed to collect this information included: a review of academic literature on downtown revitalization and evaluation methodology; a review of agency literature and current evaluations for five Canadian revitalization programs; interviews with program administrators; and a survey o-f program clients and administrators. The second objective o-f this thesis responds to the need -for assessing the effectiveness o-f program components. Municipal officials and business representatives in one hundred and eleven Canadian communities which undertook revitalization projects were surveyed in order to determine current revitalization practices and client perspectives on which program components are effective. Their opinions and recommendations provide an interim answer, to be revised as more evaluations are undertaken. The survey findings indicate that the typical approach to downtown revitalization has broadened beyond physical improvements to include promotional activities and organizational development. However, respondents identified the need for further assistance in the initial planning process and the development of marketing plans. Recommendations for improvements to the revitalization programs in this study are proposed in order to address these needs. In addition, the survey results reveal how program administrators and clients prioritize goals and which performance measures they prefer. Finally, the input from the surveys, the literature review, the interviews and the author's experience in the field are used to determine a descriptive framework for downtown revitalization project evaluation. Performance measures, data sources, and collection methods are specified. The importance of using a systematic approach to evaluation, as well as collecting data for control groups is stressed. This evaluation framework is intended to assist program administrators and community groups interested in evaluating downtown revitalization projects. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Community and Regional Planning (SCARP), School of / Graduate

Transition areas located at the fringes of Central Business Districts are, in most cities, one of the important residential location options for the lowest income groups. The dynamics of city growth result in a process of abandonment of those areas by the high income groups and occupation by the poor; most neighborhoods in those areas have a low level of housing maintenance and low rental values. Some housing programs, such as NIP, RRAP, attempt to improve the housing conditions of the poor by upgrading the housing stock in those areas. It is felt that, by subsidizing housing repairs and neighbohood improvement programs, two objectives can be achieved: better housing for the poor and neighborhood stability. At the same time, there is evidence in some North American cities of a reversal of the suburbanization process: some medium-to-high income groups which traditionally tend to locate in suburban areas, now are locating in old-central neighborhoods. The houses are extensively renovated, and some of these areas are gradually becoming new middle-to-high class residential districts. This trend raises some concern with respect to the effects of this process on low-income residential options. Although there is some evidence that the gentrification process may produce dislocation problems for the poor, there seems to be little agreement as to the significance of this problem and the type of housing policies that would be more appropriate to ensure adequate housing for the poor in areas undergoing gentrification. This research has four major objectives: 1) To identify the role of transition areas on low-income residential location. 2) To identify those variables that can explain the gentrification process in central neighborhoods. 3) To assess the effects of gentrification, particularly on low-income residential location options. 4) To assess the effects of housing and neighborhood improvement subsidies on low-income location in gentrifying areas. The method chosen was that of theoretical research. A review of different bodies of location theory was used to derive a conceptual location model which combines economic, socio-ecologic and dynamic components of residential location. The model, in turn, was applied to analyze the four research areas listed in the objectives. As a general conclusion drawn from the analysis, it is suggested that the gentrification process defines a planning situation characterized by conflicting goals and long-term uncertainty. The analysis provided some insight as to the type of uncertainty involved, the nature of the goals conflict, and some indicators that can be useful for housing policy in gentrifying areas. Since the gentrification process appears to be very recent in Canada, most of the evidence presented- in this research is based on US literature. However, the approach taken has attempted to focus on those variables that would appear to be more applicable to the Canadian scene. The model presented in this research can be used for a number of planning purposes, one of which is measuring and understanding the occurrence and significance of gentrification in Canadian cities. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Community and Regional Planning (SCARP), School of / Graduate

No description available.

Thesis. 1976. M.Arch.--Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Architecture. / Microfiche copy available in Archives and Rotch. / Bibliography: leaves 38-39. / M.Arch.

(M. Arch.)--University of Hong Kong, 1997. / Includes special report entitled: Special study on the design of a shopping centre. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2003. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 221-244).

(M.Arch.)--University of Hong Kong, 1997. / Includes special report entitled : Special study on the design of a shopping centre. Includes bibliographical references. Also available in print.

Suburban centres policies in Greater Vancouver, metropolitan Melbourne, and Bellevue, Washington are examined to derive general lessons toward the improvement of this type of policy. It is found that two attempts to pursue the development of a regional system of suburban centres have been unsuccessful, while a municipally-based policy has achieved some success in terms of the physical design of a suburban downtown. Patterns of private sector development are found to have been very little affected by any of the case study policies. Further, several assumptions concerning the linkages between public transit and land use in suburban centres are found to require further careful examination before they should be used as a basis for future policy development.