The Piedras Blancas Motel is a 1950’s era roadside motel comprised of 11 lodging units, plus a cafe, laundry room, manager’s apartment, and adjacent storage area. It is located seven miles north of San Simeon and nine miles south of the San Luis Obispo/Monterey County line. In 2005, the property was purchased using State, Federal, and private funds, and then transferred to the California Department of Parks and Recreation (State Parks). Although it has been closed to the public since 2005, the Site offers day-use parking and convenient beach access. This professional project, under contract with the California Coastal Conservancy, provides information necessary for the future redevelopment of the Piedras Blancas Motel. It demonstrates the feasibility of a preferred development alternative through several analyses including: a structural analysis of the existing building(s), a constraints analysis, an evaluation of regulatory requirements, and an assessment of redevelopment options based on preliminary market research and financial analysis. The primary objective of the Coastal Conservancy and State Parks is to provide low-cost overnight lodging and visitor services along the Big Sur Coast. The Motel would serve as an alternative to existing expensive lodges or resorts as well as existing tent or RV camping that may not serve as an option for some visitors.

This thesis begins by investigating the evolution of traditional Chinese markets to Chinese supermarkets in North America. By charting the trends of these structures in shop floor layouts and site approaches, a hybridized architecture is uncovered. Then, through the design of a contemporary Chinese supermarket in Philadelphia, PA, the thesis demonstrates how values of identity and cultural awareness can be brought into dialogue with architectural trends.

Comparative approaches in historic preservation usually involve two or more different buildings. The old Berkshire Athenaeum in Pittsfield, Massachusetts allows for a comparative approach with the same building, but in two different eras: one where the clamor to replace the library building came close to resulting in its destruction (1960s); the other, 35 years later, where the question of the building’s survival was never in doubt, never even raised (2000s). From its earliest days, serious design and workmanship flaws have plagued the structural integrity of the monumental Victorian Gothic building that stands in the center of Pittsfield. Its grand space proved inadequate for the functioning of a public library. Yet it continues to survive, and in 2014, another major preservation project is underway to address the bulging of the masonry on the front façade. A narrative of the history of this building reveals broader trends in public attitudes towards the preservation of our cultural heritage, and insights into the contributing elements that provide justification for preservation as well as into the role of the public historian in connecting preservation with the community.

The preservation of cultural landscapes takes an understanding of a region’s shared history, their sense of place, and the sensory and spatial behavior of their appropriated spaces. That being said preserving cultural landscapes in urban areas can be especially challenging. They are constantly growing and evolving which requires special considerations to avoid suffocation of the space and the inhabitants’ spatial behavior. The practice of preserving cultural landscapes on an urban scale has been relatively lacking in the United States. The same preservation strategies are used for various types of cultural landscapes that have their own characteristics and stories. Different tactics and mentalities for varying cultural landscapes hasn’t been thoroughly investigated or acknowledged. That being said, the underdeveloped strategies provided a challenging and yet free interpretation of what preservation of cultural landscapes may look like. This paper discusses the key components that were used as a guide to prepare a plan and design a contemporary intervention for promoting a cultural landscape in a city located in the lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas. Harlingen, Texas is a unique border town with its varying layers of settlement and inhabitancy has created a particular assemblage of people from a diverse set of backgrounds and heritages. It holds a distinctive location in the southern portion of Texas as it sits closely to the Mexican border as well as the coast of the Gulf of Mexico which has created a distinctive dynamic between nature and culture. If one were to observe Harlingen in all its qualities a question arises: How can we celebrate Harlingen as a unique culture and historic resource while allowing the small urban setting in South Texas to continue developing and growing. With the understanding of Harlingen’s unique character, history, and sense of place this paper works to implement the components of preserving a ‘living cultural landscape’ where consideration of preserving the physical aspects as well as Harlingen’s daily life are the main priority.

Tucked within Pomona College’s campus in Claremont, California, sits Frary Hall, the home of Mexican muralist Jose Clemente Orozco’s first work in the United States. The mural, titled Prometheus (1930), has been subjected to many instances of vandalism over the years. Thus, in 1980, a protective coating was applied. Today, the coating, a highly-reflective varnish, has been noted as a hindrance of the fresco’s original matte surface. Using case studies and art historical analysis, this thesis examines the importance of the mural within the history of Mexican muralism and the pros and cons of removing the protective coating. In addition, this research looks at the potential of art conservation as a means of reactivating the mural and promoting discussions across campus about the preservation of this cultural landmark. The thesis is culminated by a detailed proposal for the continued conservation of the mural, using Prometheus as a starting point for further discussions about aesthetics and ethics within the discourses of art history, art conservation and art restoration.

The dogtrot house type is an important type of vernacular architecture in the American landscape, particularly in rural areas of the southern United States. Little is formally written or known about the dogtrot type houses in New Orleans, which appear to be a unique evolution of the rural dogtrot form specifically adapted for the urban environment. This thesis examines the existing literature regarding the dogtrot house type and analyzes the architectural history of the remaining dogtrot type homes in New Orleans in order to establish that they are correctly classified, and also to investigate any possible links with rural dogtrots. The findings promotes awareness of the dogtrot house type in the urban setting, and contribute to the larger picture of vernacular architectural adaptation in the United States. Further, this thesis lays the foundation for landmarking the 16 remaining dogtrots in New Orleans.

Abstract Strip development eases communities’ economic troubles by providing jobs and cheap goods at the expense of a sense of place and social fabric. Four factors are critical to the dissolution of place in strip development: mobility, standardization, specialization, and technology. (Randolph Hester) Mobility gives people the freedom to move over distances with little constraint; a consequence of this is a produced sense of rootlessness within many communities. Standardization creates placelessness in communities by the repetition of form and function. Specialization diminishes comprehensive knowledge of place and complex social and ecological thinking. Technology may divorce people from their natural environments. I want to test these four place indicated principles within LaFollette, Tn. Through methods of mapping, observation, structured interviews, and photographic and archival research I will show how strip development has negatively altered the social and economic development of the city of LaFollette. I will identify elements that currently and historically give the city of LaFollette a sense of place, and encourage social interaction and investment. Strip development can drastically alter the dynamics of communities, both physically and socially. How can communities grow and develop while maintaining this connection to “place”, and how can the social dynamic of a community be encouraged in light of a changing, and growing community?

The conversion of industrial waste sites, also known as brownfields, into sustainable green space can impact the surrounding community in a number of ways. This thesis is a compilation of three case studies in low-income areas of Los Angeles which have all experienced a brownfield to green space conversion. All three projects are dictated by various stakeholders and are located at the intersection of economic and environmental issues. I examine how the stakeholders of these projects affect the process and design and in turn how the process and design affects the community surrounding the site. Additionally this thesis sheds light on how the social, environment and economic implications of these projects change depending on the structural paradigms behind them.

Transportation is a discussion of the utmost concern in Los Angeles. The automobile poses great detriment to the environment, people’s economic stability, and the health and safety of the community. A conversation that has, however, been absent from the discussion on transportation is the particular cultural and historical significance and value of the automobile to Los Angeles; it has been seldom discussed that the automobile has been extremely influential to the physical character of the city deems it an object worth preserving. Unlike the literature that exists, this thesis specifies and details ways in which the automobile has influenced and continues to influence the urban context and architecture of Los Angeles. Simultaneously, this thesis discusses the means by which the automobile can be preserved and repurposed into an object contributory to the city’s plans for a sustainable future. By the reevaluation and reinterpretation of the car and car culture, the city would be in effect capable of reclaiming its title as the model future city, a title it achieved and also eventually lost during the 20th century in large part because of the automobile. This thesis further contributes to the greater comprehension of the context of Los Angeles and revives a conversation about the city’s potential to be a precedent for other cities.

Our current system of research and production is no longer suitable for solving the problems we face today. As climate change threatens our cities and livelihoods, the global economic system preys on the weak. A more responsive, equitable, and resilient system needs to be implemented. Our post industrial cities are both products and victims of the boom-bust economies employed for the last few centuries. While some communities have survived by converting to retail and services based economies, others have not been so fortunate and have become run-down husks of their former bustling selves. The key to revitalizing these cities is to create new industries that empower people, unlike the service economies that deride and devalue them. Peer to Peer (P2P) development models like open source software communities create platforms for people to collaborate on projects and share resources. On the scale of cities, the goal is to stimulate the growth of closed loop, local, micro-economies that are inherently more stable than traditional, centralized economic models.Commons Based Peer Production (CBPP) is a term coined by Professor Yochai Benkler at Harvard Law School. It describes a new model of socio-economic production in which the labor of large numbers of people is coordinated (usually with the aid of the Internet) mostly without traditional hierarchical organization. It is based on low thresholds for participation, freely available modular tasks, and community verification of quality (peer governance). CBPP usually only applies to intellectual output, from software to libraries of quantitative data to human-readable documents (manuals, books, encyclopedias, reviews, blogs, periodicals, and more); however, this system can be adapted for physical manufacturing. A P2P system of development for material goods must be explored through the production of a common resource. Mycelium is the “roots” of fungi. It can be grown anywhere with agricultural refuse as a substrate. It has properties that make it ideal for building insulation and it is environmentally innocuous. It is Cradle to Cradle certified, and it requires little specialized equipment to produce. As a consumer product, it has had trouble gaining traction in a notoriously stubborn market dominated by hydrocarbon based market leaders like extruded polystyrene (XPS). Mycelium products are ripe for development as a regenerative building material. The goal is to increase the R-value of the material, decrease the cost of manufacturing, and carve out a market for this extraordinary product. The purpose of applying a CBPP approach is to increase the speed of development and aid in market penetration. The strategy is to decentralize manufacturing of and experimentation with the product. This requires a robust network of production nodes. Essentially, this involves setting up franchises in select markets (like the Pioneer Valley), where there is a strong interest in local, sustainable products. The nodes would be small cooperative businesses that are licensed to produce the material as well as collect data on the manufacturing and performance of mycelium insulation. The data will then be used to improve the production process. The bulk of the thesis is in designing one such node in Greenfield, MA, located adjacent to the new John W. Olver Transit Center on Bank Row St.