Bogotá is a city that has seen rapid change in the recent years. By the 1990’s the city’s public space was in crisis and its elements were being used in inappropriate ways; some were even been illegally privatized. Inside the city’s multiple ills, a politically driven set of changes began to happen. By the turn of the millennium an urban renaissance of the city originated. Multiple public spaces, libraries, schools, and new transportation systems were built and implemented by different city Mayors. At present, after the initial thrill and polemics developed during the construction of the new public spaces, some of the major changes have settled. This situation makes it a good moment to develop an analysis of the performance of these public spaces today, in order to understand how they have evolved along with Bogotano’s during these years. The Plaza de San Victorino located in the downtown area of the city was one of the major renovation projects that the city underwent around the year 2000. Its analysis is representative of the evolution of Bogota’s public spaces during these years. This MDS makes an assessment from the point of view of the users of the Plaza de San Victorino. By making a Post-occupancy evaluation of this recently constructed public space using participant observations, mappings and surveys, this MDS generates a set of design recommendations for the Plaza and a design proposal for its improvement. / text

This dissertation research examines the political significance of plazas in ancient Maya society from the Late Preclassic period through the Terminal Classic period (ca. 150 B.C.- A.D. 900). I consider plazas not as by-products of temples and palaces, but as political arenas in which different social actors created and transformed social realities and values. My primary question is how power relations and ideologies emerge from people's practices and their engagements with materiality--more specifically, the construction of plazas and ritual performances. I address this question through the combination of various methods including the following: spatial analyses based on GIS, extensive excavations, epigraphic studies, and material analyses through petrographic microscopy and particle-induced X-ray emission (PIXE). Using these methods, I conducted archaeological research at El Palmar, a Maya polity located in southeastern Campeche of Mexico. During the 2007-2014 field seasons, I investigated eleven plazas in total with eight located in the urban core and three in its outlying areas. The results from the urban core suggest that the power relations at El Palmar changed through time. Such changes are reflected in the designs of both public and exclusive plazas and associated ritual events. The results in the north outlying plaza, where a hieroglyphic stairway was built around A.D.726, further suggest that a group of officials negotiated their status and power with rulers. The protagonist of the event was not an El Palmar ruler but an official who emphasized diplomatic relations with foreign rulers, giving the El Palmar ruler only scant reference. Considering inter-regional contexts, however, they were not only engaged in internal power struggles, but also cooperated to negotiate with foreign dynasties. This complex mechanism of power was closely tied to the remodeling of the plaza and ideological symbolism materialized by mortuary practice, fire rituals, and termination rituals. My dissertation concludes that ritual performances in outlying plazas were not merely a reflection of royal ideology promoted by rulers but could have introduced new power and ideological relations in the community, relations that would be difficult to identify solely through the analysis of the main plaza.

Located in the Columbus, Ohio, Graceland typifies all the qualities of a dying urban shopping plaza. High amounts of abandoned retail space, a vast sea of parking and undefined vehicular paths create an uninviting public space, while the lack of pedestrian passages, appropriate amounts of shade and connections to natural features contribute to its acerbic character.This revitalization proposal will apply pedestrian scale design strategies to this urban plaza in an effort to increase its accessibility to both pedestrians and cars, promote an atmosphere of comfort and environmental engagement while allowing opportunities for economic growth and stability. The first design goal is the retrofit of the parking and access to encourage walking while still allowing the convenient passage of the automobile. The second design goal is the creation of a compact, mixed-use region with a transportation stop as its anchor. The third design goal is the provision of plan that allows the car but in a manner that protects the needs of the pedestrian. / Department of Landscape Architecture

Today's planners and designers are working to improve the quality of living areas in cities, as is observable in such urban centers as Chicago, Cincinnati, New York, Atlanta and of course, Indianapolis, just to mention a few. To create or keep those desirable spaces, cityscapes, historical sites, plazas and recreational areas, the use of planning, design and redesign is necessary.This creative project deals with the redesign of the City Market Plaza in Indianapolis. Potentials and possible future concepts are addressed.Today's City Market is not a major place of interest that attracts a large clientele. Places like Union Station, Pan American Plaza, The Indianapolis Circle and the recently approved circle Mall, diminish its importance as an attraction. The large O'Maiia's and other smaller specialty markets detract from its value as a market. But the potentials still are there for tourism, daily shopping and restaurant dining. By adding new locales in the City Market's plazas, with new uses and adjusting a well planned program of activities to these locales, it will help survive and compete successfully against the competition. / Department of Landscape Architecture

Dans le contexte général de la compétitivité économique et territoriale, cette thèse étudie les rapports entre attractivité et identité du territoire urbain en examinant la question : l'attractivité du territoire peut-elle être déterminée par l'identité que ce territoire possède ? Cette question est étudiée du point de vue de l'urbanisme, en interrogeant les stratégies et pratiques de l'action publique dans les projets d'urbanisme développés dans le but de se positionner dans les classements des villes mondiales, en examinant en particulier la prise en compte de la composante identitaire des territoires considérés. Cette question est étudiée à la fois d'un point de vue théorique et pratique : dans un premier temps, l'étude théorique des définitions existantes et des relations proposées entre attractivité et identité permet d'organiser la production abondante mais séparée de ces deux champs, afin de les rendre convergents et de prendre la mesure de leur ampleur. Nous étudions ensuite la transposition de ce débat théorique à la pratique, en explorant ces questionnements au travers de travaux sur l'identité développés au Mexique, qui prennent en compte la culture, et les traditions ancestrales qui sont encore présentes dans l'espace urbain. Le Mexique constitue en effet un territoire qui possède une multiplicité d'identités, en raison de la superposition des cultures parmi lesquelles on peut citer la civilisation précolombienne, la colonisation hispanique, ou encore l'influence actuelle de l'Amérique du nord et du sud. Plus précisément, nous considérons comme champ d'étude le cas de Mexico entre 1977 et 2007. Pour cela, nous analysons les politiques urbaines, par la voie des actualisations et l'évolution du cadre juridique, des documents d'urbanisme et des programmes d'économie. Nous étudions en détail trois situations concrètes d'opérations et projets urbains emblématiques à Mexico : le projet Plaza Mariana, le projet de construction d'un nouvel aéroport et l'opération d'aménagement du quartier d'affaires Santa Fé. La méthode que nous mettons en oeuvre consiste à appliquer une même grille d'analyse à ces trois cas, pour identifier et structurer les composantes d'attractivité et d'identité dans chacun des cas. Ces analyses sont basées sur les caractéristiques géographiques, économiques et historiques du territoire et sur les jeux des principaux acteurs concernés. Nous concentrons notre observation à la fois sur la partie stratégique, par l'analyse de la prise de décision, et sur la partie opérationnelle, qui ont déterminé le succès ou l'échec des projets. Les résultats obtenus illustrent les différentes facettes des relations entre attractivité et identité qui permettent d'apporter des conclusions sous trois points de vue. D'abord, il apparaît que la corrélation entre attractivité et identité peut prendre diverses formes, que nous proposons de nommer complémentaire, conditionnelle et créative. En effet, l'analyse des projets étudiés montre que différentes relations peuvent être observées : l'identité peut être en conflit avec l'attractivité, recréée en faveur de l'attractivité, ou encore, pour un territoire en quête d'identité, construite et obtenue comme résultat de l'attractivité. Ensuite, nous montrons le rôle de la prise en compte des acteurs à différentes échelles, l'importance de leur intégration dans le processus de décision et le rôle des conflits ; nous mettons en évidence la capacité de mobilisation d'une population qui défend, détermine ou reconnaît l'identité de territoire par rapport aux objectifs d'attractivité. Enfin, selon un point de vue de gouvernabilité, nous soulignons le rôle de l'action publique, notamment dans les jeux de pouvoir local sur les décisions politiques et les prises de décision relevant de la dimension politique des données

Thesis (M.A.)--Georgia State University, 2008. / Title from file title page. Leonard Teel, committee chair; Gregory Gullette, Hongmei Li, Jeffrey Bennett, committee members. Electronic text (112 p. : col. ill.) : digital, PDF file. Description based on contents viewed Oct. 1, 2008. Includes bibliographical references (p. 107-112).

In this dissertation I examine the social functions of neighborhood plazas by tracing the development of a Classic Maya (AD 200-900) ritual and residential complex at the ancient city of Xultun, Guatemala. In ancient as in modern times, public open spaces were essential to urban life; yet their functions and meanings could vary within and among societies. Using archaeological and architectural data from three plazas and an adjacent residential complex, I identify a shift towards increased public spaces in the Late Classic period, and link this to the rising importance of displays of power for Xultun's growing population. Located on the northern periphery of Xultun, Los Aves, the focus of the study, is an architectural group consisting of a central residential area with three adjacent plazas to the east, west and northwest. During the Early Classic (AD 250-600) period, only one of the plazas had been built and the layout of the complex was balanced between public and private space. Residents carried out domestic activities within six modest patio groups and used a round platform in the western plaza, Plaza Colibrí, for group rituals. The construction of two new plazas during the Late Classic period (AD 600-900) dramatically changed the composition of Los Aves, tripling the amount of public space. Dominating the neighborhood was a new, larger plaza, Plaza Tecolote, with monumental, ritual architecture that opened to the south towards the city center, easily accessible to those outside of Los Aves. An increase in population at this time necessitated the construction of more domestic structures within the house groups, reducing the amount of proximate patio spaces. Such activities now took place in a new, smaller plaza, Plaza Loro, located in the northwest of the complex, that contained broad steps for seating. In the Early Classic period, Los Aves contained equal parts public and private space, while in the Late Classic period public plazas dominated. I argue that as populations grew, public displays of power became increasingly important, and new, larger plazas were built to accommodate these events. This development broadens our understanding of Classic Maya urbanism.

The effectiveness of modifying a conventional toll plaza for implementation of an open road tolling concept with express ETC lanes was evaluated in this thesis. Speed controlled dedicated ETC lanes were replaced with express ETC lanes at the Orlando-Orange County Expressway Authority (OOCEA) University Mainline Toll Plaza. This evaluation was accomplished by utilizing collected field data and simulated scenarios using Toll Plaza SIMulation (TPSIM) software developed by the University of Central Florida. The speed controlled dedicated ETC lanes were located within toll lanes (contained within a toll plaza canopy) with widths ranging between 10 to 14 ft. These types of lanes required all vehicles to reduce their speed from the highway speed to 35 mph. Express ETC lanes (sometimes referenced as open road tolling or non-stop tolling) allow vehicles to pass through the plaza at high speeds. Open road tolling is a concept that employs high speed toll lanes. A before and after study of the University toll plaza was conducted. Benefits in the form of reduced delays and increased capacities were observed when making the comparison between the before and after studies. Since we expect the capacity of an express ETC lane to be greater than the dedicated ETC lanes (due to an increase in free-flow speed), further analysis using equations and car-following theory proved that if the ETC speed was increased, then the capacity would increase as well. Using equations derived from the Highway Capacity Manual (HCM) and car-following theory, the capacity was increased from 2016 to 2314 vph when the ETC speed increased from 31 mph to 65 mph. This indicated an increase in capacity of 14.8 percent (based on the conversion from dedicated to express ETC lanes). The field data was also used as input for TPSIM (a computer simulation model) in order to perform a sensitivity analysis of the express ETC lanes by varying the type of ETC lane, number of approach lanes, and plaza configurations (the addition of an ACM lane) between scenarios. Results that were observed during the after study were verified using the TPSIM scenarios. Reductions in delays for the entire plaza were observed using the TPSIM model when making similar improvements to the plaza as in the after study. The changes made to the University Mainline Toll Plaza after construction was completed resulted in benefits by reducing delays and increasing the capacity of the toll plaza (by converting dedicated ETC lanes to express ETC lanes and adding an additional A/ETC lane per direction). These benefits were measured using field data and confirmed when performing the TPSIM scenarios. A customer's travel time along the toll facility will be reduced by using the express ETC lanes (since they are not required to decelerate at the toll plaza). In addition, weaving maneuvers downstream of the plaza are no longer required by customers using the express ETC lanes due to the location of the downstream travel lanes in relation to the express ETC lanes. These benefits may have led to changes in the number and percentage of ETC users in each of the toll lanes. Changes in ETC usage in the conventional mixed-use lanes directly impacted the throughput and delays for each of these lanes, since ETC equipped vehicles have a service time of zero seconds. In addition to the operational benefits, other possible benefits for express ETC lanes were identified and recommended for further evaluation and research. The re-distribution of customers at the plaza due to the implementation of open road tolling, in the form of express ETC lanes, was a great benefit to the overall traffic operations for the University Mainline Toll Plaza in Orlando, Florida.

In spite of the most up-to-date investigation of the relevant techniques to analyze the traffic characteristics and traffic operations at a toll plaza, there has not been any note worthy explorations evaluating delay from toll transaction data and using Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) at a toll plaza. This thesis lays an emphasis on the application of ANN techniques to estimate the total vehicular delay according to the lane type at a toll plaza. This is done to avoid the laborious task of extracting data from the video recordings at a toll plaza. Based on the lane type a general methodology was developed to estimate the total vehicular delay at a toll plaza using ANN. Since there is zero delay in an Electronic Toll Collection (ETC) lane, ANN models were developed for estimating the total vehicular delay in a manual lane and automatic coin machine lane. Therefore, there are two ANN models developed in this thesis. These two ANN models were trained with three hours of data and validated with one hour of data from AM and PM peak data. The two ANN models were built with the dependent and independent variables. The dependent variables in the two models were the total vehicular delay for both the manual and automatic coin machine lane. The independent variables are those, which influence delay. A correlation analysis was performed to see if there exists any strong relationship between the dependent (outputs) and independent variables (inputs). These inputs and outputs are fed into the ANN models. The MATLABTB code was written to run the two ANN models. ANN predictions were good at estimating delay in manual lane, and delay in automatic coin machine lane.

No description available.