Thesis (M.C.P.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, 1982. / MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND ROTCH. / Bibliography: leaves 162-164. / by Donna Margaret Ducharme. / M.C.P.

This thesis was a study of the effectiveness of a growth management system in a growth corridor community. The problem addressed was whether or not a growth management system was effective in aiding the community. of Schaumburg, Illinois, to shape its growth and development to meet its particular purposes and needs. Growth management was defined as the utilization by government of a variety of traditional and evolving plans, tools, techniques, and activities to purposefully guide local patterns of growth, including the manner, location, rate and nature of development. The basic research methods used in the thesis were the case study and the comparative study. A case study of Schaumburg, a community which grew from a small village to a well-planned regional center, was designed to establish the use of growth management system by a growth corridor community, and then to measure its effectiveness in reaching the community's goals. A comparative study of other growth corridor communities was designed to determine if Shaumburg's growth management system was influential in shaping the community's development, or if similar development outcomes would have occurred without this governmental intervention. Both the case study and the comparative study were primarily concerned with describing the system, its effectiveness (or ineffectiveness), and the underlying reasons, rather than with establishing statistical proof. The conclusions reached were that Schaumburg's growth was unique among the communities in the growth corridor, as was its growth management system, and that this growth management system was effective in shaping the total development of the community. The thesis provides local government decision makers with information on specific actions which might be effective in managing development in growth corridor communities. In addition, it provides generalizations on the usefulness of planning -if implemented -- for any community trying to influence its own development. / Department of Urban Planning

Thesis. 1977. M.Arch.A.S.--Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Architecture. / MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND ROTCH. / Bibliography : leaves 188-196. / Dalya G. S. Hakimi. / M.Arch.A.S.

The study describes urban morphology and design strategies in the form of thoughts, imagination, and reality. It is a visual and verbal narrative that uses the metaphor of a Vertical Island as a viable tool. The criteria investigated relate to American cities, yet also to the city in general. The final design is the precise architectural translation of my first narrative For Elise and Forever / Repeating Islands: a Typology of a Living City, the story of a girl on a journey into her world of thoughts, fancying a city built at a right angle. The following work studies and reflects the urban qualities that are not only unique to European but also to American and, yet common to all cities. It represents a touchable and visible proposal of a healthy union of advantages and a living system where patterns repeat across time and scales. Participating in the world as a trade center, The Vertical Island PRAGMATOPIA: a Story of Translations, Real Dreams, and Other Cities brings a piece of the European city to the United States as well as a bit of the American city to Europe. / Department of Architecture

The largest focus of redevelopment in Rockford, Illinois is downtown, which it should be. However, without the successful redevelopment of surrounding business districts, the neighborhoods surrounding downtown cannot redevelop, ultimately hindering the successful redevelopment of downtown itself. Probably the most important of these districts to the overall health of the City and downtown Rockford is the 7th Street Business District. The 7th Street Business District is adjacent to downtown and one of the largest business districts in the City. This project is the creation of a business district plan for the 7th Street business district in Rockford, Illinois. It is intended to be a real world exercise and the end result will be a usable plan. This creative project will look at programs and documents such as Main Street USA, Smart Growth, neighborhood plans and local resources to create a unique neighborhood planning process that will work best for the business district. / Department of Urban Planning

No description available.

This thesis develops a creative Project, the "Urban Observatory", situated on a traffic island in the center of Chicago on Wacker Drive and Wabash Avenue along the Chicago River. The aim of the building is to inspire and motivate people to experience the city from a different standpoint and to raise the inhabitant of the city to a different level of perception.The purpose of this study was to explore everyday circumstances and observations of an individual place, the American City and the search for its true genius loci. The main intention is to explore and visualize issues about culturally based differences in behavior and perception of people living in place of 'super scale' and 'high technology' on one side and abandonment and destruction on the other side. The study of the American City and its inhabitants results in an experimental design for an Urban Observatory, an architectural formulation standing in opposition to an architecture of change and fragmentation, an architecture of lost and senseless space. Furthermore the study researches the urban American fabric in practice as well as in theory. The intensive study of the writings of Malcolm Quantrill, Richard Sennett, Toni Hiss and others were the base for developing ideas about how people perceive and react consciously and unconsciously to a specific environment.This helped to identify the frame of the architectural exploration, in order to focus on ideas about: what is architecture of observation in the urban context, and what is the idea of perception in its spatial form?A journal of the design process (sketches, writings), models of varying scale and detail, drawings, photographs, etc. are the working tools to shape the idea of a building and fusing all aspects in a final project. / Department of Architecture

Over the past few decades, the physical forms of the Village of Addison and its neighboring communities have blended together into a series of commercial corridors serving an automobile population. The result is a loss of individual character for Addison and its neighbors. The most visible way for a municipality to obtain character is through establishing or rehabilitating its downtown. This project attempts to create a unique physical identity for the Village of Addison allowing it to stand out from typical suburban development. Since a downtown does not exist in the Village of Addison, this creative project attempts to provide one. / Department of Architecture