Architecture exists through human experience. As the product of the relationship between a building and a person, architecture gains meaning when it is viewed and contemplated by an individual moving throughout a building. Architecture simultaneously engages the body and mind of one who experiences it, and its intentions become visible through a continuous weaving of motion through situations that constitute a place. My thesis examines the interplay between architecture and human action. Manifest in the following thesis are explorations of the institution of the museum. From its earliest forms to its present day forms, the museum has undergone many changes due to a number of influences. In this thesis I will look at the cultural dynamics that shape museums. Specifically, my critique will be through the lens of its cultural history, my own culturally based observations, and through a design: the demonstration. One objective of this thesis is to revive the idea of the museum as a place of the muses, where the muses inspire those people who experience the place. I have selected Charleston and its historic setting for the project location of a Museum. This is a place where one might participate in a journey of initiation, education, and cultivation. Through design, I demonstrate a museum, which aims to initiate and encourage self-cultivation by one's experience of the objects in the museum and the space that surrounds the objects. It is perhaps through a perusal of objects contained without authoritative concepts applied that one may acquire knowledge and become inspired. / Master of Architecture

First-hand reports on the 1886 Charleston earthquake contain numerous accounts for the widespread occurrence of liquefaction related features in and near the meizoseismal zone. Recent geologic studies have found evidence for the repeated liquefaction of sandy soils in the Charleston area due to recurring large seismic events. In the course of this investigation 24 mini-cone penetration tests were performed at seven sites in or near the meizoseismal zone of the 1886 earthquake to determine the factors influencing ground failures due to liquefaction. These tests were supplemented with soil borings, sieve tests and a limited number of standard penetration tests to aid in characterization of the sandy soils. Additionally, soil boring records in Charleston were obtained which provided in-situ testing data in an area with documented historical damage. The range of sites at which testing was done, or information was available, represent locations experiencing various levels of liquefaction and distances from the zone of seismic energy release. Penetration data were used to evaluate resistance of the sandy soil to cyclic loading and fonned the basis for assessing the effects that the lateral extent and distribution of loose sand layers has on the surficial manifestation of liquefaction. With the absence of cementation and extensive soil development, soils as old as late Pleistocene age have been found to be very susceptible to liquefaction. At several sites these soils have undergone at least three episodes of liquefaction and presently exhibit low penetration resistances, indicating that the progressive densification of a liquefiable soil layer can be minor unless it is in very close proximity to a large venting feature. The size and density of occurrence of vents and sand blows has been found to be primarily dependent on the extent of both the liquefiable layer and any overlying resistant layers. Layered system relations utilized with field performance data, and historical and geologic evidence for the occurrence of liquefaction features to suggest that the near surface peak horizontal accelerations induced by the 1886 earthquake were approximately O.3g in the meizoseismal zone and O.2g in the city of Charleston. This is in contrast with previous estimates of seismic shaking all of which point toward values in the range of 0.5 to O.6g. The reason for the different acceleration estimates is not clear at this time, and will be further studied in future extension of this work. / Master of Science

This thesis deals primarily with the importance of the arts to society and a means by which the arts might be used to develop our culture. First it was necessary to investigate the effects of the arts on society and the relationship between the arts and everyday life in America. From the findings of this investigation evolved a means by which our culture might be advanced through the arts. This means takes the form of art centers on a community scale. Charleston, West Virginia was selected by the author as an appropriate location for such an art center because of the interest displayed in the arts by many of its local organizations and because of its lack of facilities to house the functions of these organizations. The basic concept of the Creative Arts Center to serve this community not merely as a place for exhibition and presentation of the arts, but as a workshop where music, the dance, architecture, sculpture, painting , and literature will play a great part in the public's daily lives, was of paramount consideration. / Master of Science

The phenomenon of a single line An architect’s approach to the dissolution of Form and Meaning / Master of Architecture

Thesis (M.C.P.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, 1980. / MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND ROTCH. / Includes bibliographical references. / by Howard Wilson Davis. / M.C.P.

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I am investigating the significance of historic events of flight through image making; particularly incidents that captured the collective imagination and became part of our cultural memory. These events have surpassed mere entries in historical texts and become mythic. In the terms of Jungian psychology, they have become symbolic. In terms of Semiotics, they have become signs. Through photographs and installation, I seek to understand their presence in my, and our, unconscious mind.

The Charleston Uplift (CU), a 30-km-long by 7-km-wide, N46°E-oriented subsurface geologic anomaly in the northern Mississippi embayment near Charleston, Missouri, exhibits up to 36 m of vertical relief across the Paleogene/Quaternary unconformity. Subsurface structural relief, along with the CU’s coincident boundary alignment with contemporary microseismicity and the New Madrid North Fault (NMNF), suggest a structural origin. Subsequent seismic soundings indicate vertical structural relief is present in Cretaceous and Paleozoic horizons, supporting the fault-controlled origin. The southern boundary (CU-s) had not been investigated, nor had any direct fault images been acquired. Integrated microgravity and seismic-reflection methods across the inferred CU-s establish the first image of this fault. Forward modeling indicated that the vertical variation of strata across the CU-s would induce a microgravity anomaly of 1.6 mGal. The observed microgravity anomaly survey across the southern boundary is 1.616 ± .004 mGal, and is consistent with the tectonic interpretation. A subsequently acquired seismic-reflection profile corroborates this interpretation. The imaged fault shows approximately 60, 35, and 35 meters of vertical down-to-the-south throw across the tops of Paleozoic, Cretaceous, and Tertiary horizons, respectively. This confirms the CU is not an erosional feature, but a structurally controlled extension of the NMNF.

Zircon (U-Th)/He (zircon He) dating has become a widely used thermochronologic method in the geosciences. Practitioners have traditionally interpreted (U-Th)/He dates from zircons across a broad spectrum of chemical compositions with a single set of ⁴He diffusion kinetics derived from only a handful of crystals (Reiners et al., 2004). However, it has become increasingly clear that a "one-size-fits-all" approach to these kinetics is inadequate, leading to erroneous conclusions and incongruent data. This dissertation develops a more grain-specific approach by showing the fundamental role that intracrystalline radiation damage plays in determining the He diffusivity in a given zircon. I present three appendices that seek to quantify the radiation damage effect on He diffusion in zircon, explain how this effect manifests in zircon He dates, and show how to exploit such manifestations to better constrain sample thermal histories. Of particular importance, this dissertation represents the first comprehensive study to concentrate on the entire damage spectrum found in natural zircon and also the first to show that two different mechanisms affect He diffusion in zircon in different ways across this spectrum. In the first appendix, I and my fellow co-authors describe results from a series of step-heating experiments that show how the alpha dose of a given zircon, which we interpret to be correlated with accumulated radiation damage, influences its He diffusivity. From 1.2 × 10¹⁶ α/g to 1.4 × 10¹⁸ α/g, He diffusivity at a given temperature decreases by three orders of magnitude, but as alpha dose increases from ~2 × 10¹⁸ α/g to 8.2 × 10¹⁸ α/g, He diffusivity then increases by about nine orders of magnitude. We parameterize both the initial decrease and eventual increase in diffusivity with alpha dose with a function that describes these changes in terms of increasing abundance and size of intracrystalline radiation damage zones and resulting effects on the tortuosity of He migration pathways and dual-domain behavior. This is combined with another equation that describes damage annealing in zircon. The end result is a new model that constrains the coevolution of damage, He diffusivity, and He date in zircon as a function of its actinide content and thermal history. The second and third appendices use this new model to decipher zircon He datasets comprising many single grain dates that are correlated with effective uranium (eU, a proxy for the relative degree of radiation damage among grains from the same sample). The model is critical for proper interpretation of results from igneous settings that show date-eU correlations and were once considered spurious (appendix B). When applied to partially reset sedimentary rocks, other sources of date variability, such as damage and He inheritance, have to be considered as well (appendix C).

Thesis (D. Min.)--Erskine Theological Seminary, 1999. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 123-128).