During the past 40 years, landscape architects and other designers have used many approaches for economic revitalization of deteriorating commercial centers. Examples of projects designed to revive sluggish downtown economies have shown varied, and often uninspiring, results in stimulating downtown economies. This problem is most pronounced in rural communities. The ineffectiveness of these designs stems, in part, from the failure of landscape architects to apply economic theory to the design of physical space. This study explores the role that business activity diversity plays in the maintenance of economic stability and growth, as a means to find clues to possible revitalization strategies. This analysis of business activity patterns in Virginia cities and counties, indicates that diversity among a community's businesses contributes to that community's economic health and resistance to obsolescence induced by changing economic patterns. Site programming must be conducted to support intended business activities in a way that improves their survivability and growth potential. Through this, and future research, the field of landscape architecture must move toward the design of space that supports diversity in economic activities. Landscape architects must respond with the same sensitivity to economic environments that they have shown toward aesthetic, ecological and social environments in the past. / Master of Landscape Architecture