ABSTRACT WHITEWATER PARK DESIGN PRINCIPLES: AN INTEGRATED APPROACH FOR MULTIPLE USER GROUPS Byron Lester Advisor: University of Guelph, 2012 Professor Sean Kelly Existing whitewater courses have several design issues relating to their ability to balance expert, novice recreational, and commercial use. The goal of this study is to establish a better understanding of whitewater park design that incorporates the needs of multiple user groups in one integrated approach. Through elite interviewing whitewater park design was investigated and the data was analyzed identifying seven design principles and thirty seven detailed design recommendations. These design principles and recommendations were applied to create a preliminary conceptual design of a whitewater park. The design recommendations and conceptual design were evaluated by a professional whitewater course designer. The evaluation revealed that adaptability is an important principle in whitewater park design and that design recommendations must be flexible to allow for client input and site constraints. This research expands our knowledge of multifunctional design of whitewater parks that resolves user conflicts and important functional relationships.

As cultural diversity continues to increase in U.S. urban centers, and indeed throughout the country, it becomes increasingly important to promote interaction between people of different backgrounds. Many forms of interaction, from simply seeing, to intimate conversation can increase our familiarity and acceptance of cultural differences. In addition, a greater understanding of these differences can lead to communities with a strong sense of togetherness and a vibrancy of local place. As a means of achieving this outcome, this thesis identifies ways in which urban park spaces can promote social interaction between different cultural groups and how these methods can then be used to develop a community gathering place that is welcoming to all. This thesis has developed a unique Social Space Organizational Model based on literature review findings relative to multi-cultural urban park and social space development. The model serves as a foundational framework for the creation of a collection of social spaces that function to accommodate the diverse ways in which different cultural groups use urban park spaces, as well as to provide opportunities for shared experiences that encourage community gathering and interaction between groups. Additionally, the model suggests an interconnectivity of various park spaces that promote a unified social experience throughout the park. Case studies of urban parks designed for use as social gathering places were analyzed against the model. Literature review findings on character qualities associated with social spaces as valued by multiple cultural groups were also explored in the case studies to identify design elements that encourage social interaction and foster positive experiences. Ultimately, these findings led to the creation of a neighborhood social gathering place that is welcoming to many different cultural groups and encouraging of community gathering and togetherness. The design engages multiple community groups by creating a park that is accomodative to a range of needs and uses as valued by different groups. Additionally, the design incorporates a diverse range of social opportunities and experiences that maintain flexibility in their ability to provide for individual as well as community based social experiences. / Master of Landscape Architecture

Rapid urbanization of cities includes common characteristics of high-density populations and large number of impervious surfaces. The high percentages of impervious surfaces like rooftops, roads and parking lots in dense cities would block the natural hydrological infiltration process and increasing flooding threats. The goal of this study is finding solutions for meeting the nonpotable water use demand by applying water harvesting while also creating open green spaces for residents in urban communities. The design thesis explored the level of benefits that can be achieved by harvesting water from impervious surfaces like rooftops to fulfill the need for water consumption, purification and green open spaces for social activities in residential high-rise condominiums (multi-family residences) in Wuhan, China. The study has compared hydrological and social benefits from 3 different design scenarios in the selected urban community: 1) the existing site design with underground parking, 2) a new design without underground parking which expands water harvesting options, and 3) a new design with underground parking which limits the application of some BMPs (Best Management Practices). This study used open space design and water harvesting as a strategy to meet 94% of non-potable water consumption by harvesting water from residential rooftops as well as to decrease and purify surface runoff to reduce the flooding threat from ground surfaces in the selected community. The proposed open space design also achieved social benefits of providing places for social interactions, supporting various recreational activities, educating children about environmental issues while having in outdoor activities, experiencing nature and keeping or improving the physical and mental well-being of people in the selected urban community. / Master of Landscape Architecture / Dense cities have the characteristics of having high-density impervious surfaces roads, bridges, rooftops as well as a large amount of population. Since a large amount of increasing population in dense cities would result in high demands for water consumption, the water shortage problem, as a global issue, has challenged the distribution of water resources in dense cities. The massive number of impervious surfaces, as a result of rapid urbanization, have blocked the process of hydrological circulation by making natural infiltration impossible. Therefore, many dense cities are facing the challenges of waterlogging or flooding threat and the decreasing amount of water resources. This study focuses on using open space design and water harvesting as a strategy to relieve the stress of limited water resources and waterlogging or flooding threat in dense cities. This thesis has chosen an urban community in Wuhan, China for making open space design and bring the hydrologic and social benefits to the selected urban community by combing the practices of water treatment into the design. The new open design in the selected community not only has the hydrological benefits of decreasing and purifying surface runoff to reduce flooding threat, but also has many social benefits such as providing places for social interactions, supporting various of recreational activities, educating children about environmental issues while participating in outdoor activities, experience nature and keeping or improving the physical and mental well-being of people.

Master of Landscape Architecture / Department of Landscape Architecture/Regional and Community Planning / Howard Hahn / Public parks provide essential green space for people to congregate, exercise, and respite from the city. Urban public parks in the United States began with Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux’s Central Park in the mid-1800s (Cranz & Boland, 2004). Since then, planners and designers continue to design urban parks to best serve residents. Therefore, understanding user recreation patterns and preferences is critical for urban park design. Several factors influence leisure styles, including ethnicity, that need to be considered by planners and designers. This study examines parks in South Omaha, Nebraska. Residents living in this area make up over ten different ethnic groups. Notably, Omaha’s largest Hispanic community concentration resides in South Omaha. Through quantitative and qualitative research including site analysis, a literature search, precedent studies, and community interviews, important design considerations emerged. This project presents design considerations and a conceptual redesign for two urban parks in South Omaha: Lynch Park and Spring Lake Park. The designs incorporated the leisure preferences and recreation patterns as revealed through interviews of the majority Hispanic community as well as European, Asian, and African minority ethnic groups. Precedent studies and literature research further informed redesign decisions by providing background knowledge on leisure research, design form, and demographic trends. Nevertheless, urban parks should ultimately respond to the users, regardless of cultural backgrounds, to meet the needs and requirements of all South Omaha residents.

Master of Landscape Architecture / Department of Landscape Architecture and Regional and Community Planning / Jessica Canfield / As urban populations continue to grow, parks will become a critical component to creating and sustaining healthy cities. A review of literature related to landscape performance and 21st century parks reveals a paradigm shift in the ways we engage our built landscapes. No longer is it environmentally or fiscally responsible to implement and maintain resource consumptive city parks that are exclusively concerned with fulfilling social needs. To create environmentally, socially, and economically beneficial spaces, 21st century parks must include design elements and best management practices that ensure long-term sustainability. In Manhattan, Kansas, most of the city’s parks are recreation centric and primarily focused on fulfilling social needs. However, Fairmont Park has yet to be fully realized, and therefore presents the city an opportunity to implement its first sustainable park. Using the Sustainable Sites Initiative’s 2009 Guidelines and Performance Benchmarks as a guide, a series of sustainability evaluations were conducted on Fairmont Park’s existing conditions in order to reveal its current level of sustainability. To understand how the park was originally envisioned to perform, the same analysis was conducted on Fairmont Park’s 1998 Master Plan. Findings from this process revealed an opportunity to update the park’s current master plan, in order to achieve enhanced environmental, social, and economic benefits. Guided by 21st century park design, implementation, and management strategies, the redesign of Fairmont Park will not only help Riley County fulfill its goal of becoming a State leader in sustainable design, but it will provide the Manhattan community with a state-of-the-art productive park, which promotes environmental education and stewardship, physical activity, local food production and composting, and stormwater management practices.

Master of Regional and Community Planning / Department of Landscape Architecture/Regional and Community Planning / Jason Brody / Kessler’s 1893 parks and boulevards system was established to spur investment. The 1893 Report shaped the present city pattern and form of Downtown Kansas City by encouraging decentralized city and metropolitan growth. Today’s system discourages pedestrian mobility and accessibility through the design and context of the public spaces. Since walkability contributes to successful public spaces, walking for transportation to encourage active use could improve today’s open-space system. To address the present condition facing the system, the report analyzes the morphology of Kessler’s parks and boulevards system within the 2010 Greater Downtown Area Plan boundary. For methods, stakeholder notes and professional interviews explain the planning process behind the 2011-2012 KCDC project to revitalize public space. The stakeholder notes and professional interviews assess the context of the Kansas City Design Center’s vision to revitalize Kessler’s parks and boulevards system. Using the StreetSmartTM walkability model, the design and context of public space can help revitalize Kessler’s 1893 system and today’s park system. The model can be used to measure and prioritize investment by assessesing the pedestrian mobility and accessibility of public spaces. The implication of the report is that if the design and context of public spaces addresses the public interest and walkability, public spaces will become connected, diverse, market-competitive, and actively used. Short-term pedestrian amenities and long-term infrastructure improvements provide different ways to prioritize pedestrian mobility and accessibility to create a walkable downtown, one of the goals of the Greater Downtown Area Plan.

There has been a notable interest in landscape design in the recent years. Growing environmental consciousness and the deindustrialization process in cities have resulted in the new park design projects which have been created through recovery of waste lands. The thesis examines a number of selected park projects with two frameworks which are the reclamation methods and the design strategies. The reclamation methods constitute the ways of recovering wastelands / while, the design strategies constitute the design approaches and methods used in these projects at urban scale. The contemporary approaches to park design are studied in the thesis, in three parts which are &#039 / &#039 / the strategic design&#039 / &#039 / , &#039 / &#039 / the place-based design&#039 / &#039 / and &#039 / &#039 / the ecological design&#039 / &#039 / . Two proposals of the Parc de la Villette competition, Parc Andr&eacute / Citro&euml / n, Bercy, Invaliden, Downsview, Fresh Kills and High Line parks are the cases studied. A categorization of the approaches was done according to the design concepts of the projects. Strategic design comprises the projects conceived in a way that would adapt to future conditions / place-based design covers the projects designed by referring to the meanings derived from their sites with the aim to maintain or create a sense of place / and finally ecological design cover projects which were designed to sustain and diversify the ecological values of their sites. The examination of three types of park design approaches does not propose a strict categorization / but rather it displays continuities in the evolution of park designs. The design concepts, strategies and tools, besides the working principles and innovative aspects of these approaches are studied in a comparative way. The thesis is concluded with an evaluation of the new significances of landscape design.

Darbe pateikiama informacija apie mini parkus ir jų projektavimą. Pateikiamas mini parko apibrėžimas, jų charakteringi bruožai. Pateikiama mini parko kūrimo, Telšių mieste, koncepcija ir projektiniai pasiūlymai. / This work object is to create a pocket park in Telsiai city project. Work objectives: Gather information about pocket parks, to analyze and summarize. Present pocket park definition. Present the pocket park's concept and design concepts.

Many researches have shown that urban parks can enhance the quality of life, which is a key factor of building a sustainable city. Hong Kong, as one of the most densely populated financial city in the world, has severely low urban park density. Instead, a large number of small public urban open spaces (SPUOS) are scattered within the city fabrics. This paper therefore aims to study the design and functions of these SPUOS. It is also hoped that find out whether a network of connected small open spaces can compensate for a large urban park. After reviewing the history of urban parks in Hong Kong. It is believed that the multitude of SPUOS is the result of poor urban planning and imperfect urban renewal schemes during the early occupation by the British Government. These SPUOS are usually around 1000 to 1500 m2 large in size and can be abundantly found along adjacent streets. For the design of the SPUOS, benches are usually the only facility installed and the vegetation is of poor quality. The connectivity of SPUOS located within the study area in the Yau Tsim Mong District is investigated with the use of graph theory and connectivity indices. The result has shown that these SPUOS in the study area have a high degree of connectivity. They are further compared with a larger urban park located nearby. Based on the comparisons and other prior researches, a conclusion has been drawn that size of a park is not the major concern of park users but rather its facilities and design. It is believed that a network of connected SPUOS might serve the local community better due to their locations. However, they should not be able to entirely replace large urban parks since they have fewer amenities provided. The SPUOS are found to have rather different functions to the society than what urban parks are commonly expected. Their environment and economic functions are constrained mainly by the poor design and the locations. An interview with the representative of a non-government organization has been made to further understand their social functions. The interviewee believes that SPUOS now mainly act as social hubs and living rooms for senior citizens. This statement is then verified by the result of a prior survey and some other researches. This is due to the combination of aging population structure, exploding population growth, and expanding poverty gap. Lastly, a comparative study has been made on the small public urban green spaces (SPUGS) in Copenhagen. The SPUGS can attract visitors of different age group from other far neighborhoods. Despite than fact that there is cultural difference and citizens from these two cities have different lifestyles, a better design of the pocket park might be the reason of why it becomes an attractive natural meeting point in the central Copenhagen for all age-groups visitors. Based on all the investigations and findings, suggestions have been made to improve the quality of SPUOS in Hong Kong.

Master of Landscape Architecture / Department of Landscape Architecture/Regional and Community Planning / Mary Catherine (Katie) Kingery-Page / Recent development and adoption of Common Core State Standards has shifted academic emphasis within public and accredited schools. Consistent, national educational goals have standardized education and have resulted in a challenge to educators to assist all students in achieving maximum test scores. The curricular subjects of math, science, and literacy are the primary emphasis of instruction and achievement. Standardized testing is the dominant means to determine whether students are reaching acceptable achievement. “Integrated Common Core Curriculum: Environmental Education Through Landscape Architecture” explores the potential of incorporating basic landscape architectural knowledge into a fourth-grade curriculum while striving to achieve learning standards as determined by the Common Core and the Iowa Core Curriculum. Exploring the application of current educational criteria, the researcher developed an educational unit that utilizes the process of park design as a simplified version of a landscape architect’s approach in order to emphasize math, literature, science, creative thinking, and teamwork. Implementing environmental education through place-based education theory enhances unit strength by providing enhanced emotional, mental, and physical health benefits to children. Created during this study, an instructional unit was evaluated by a convenience sample of educators. Through the use of an open-ended questionnaire, preliminary review results indicate a strong potential for the unit to successfully demonstrate the basic process of landscape architecture design through the use of the local place simultaneously achieving academic standards. Review results identify a variety of limitations and challenges the unit would encounter for implementation including a current subject focused instructional philosophy within the school district verse the thematic focus of the unit. Additionally, ever-evolving standards would require regular unit updates, although school districts face perennial budget challenges and educators are limited on time. As a student of landscape architecture, I recognize that the profession offers a unique opportunity to model place-based, multi-subject practices realized in the practice of landscape architecture. Promoting the profession of landscape architecture through a curricular unit provides an environmental education tool and provides the opportunity for students to explore a career option within the classroom setting.