ABSTRACT Specific Plans: An Implementation Tool for Downtown Revitalization A Specific Plan Proposal for Downtown Delano, California Emily Suzanne Henderson This study builds off the assumption that downtowns are socially and economically important to cities and the people who live, work, and visit them. For these reasons, many suffering downtowns are pursuing revitalization strategies. The strategies summarized in this paper represent mainstream revitalization techniques currently practiced by cities, planners, and developers. The strategies and techniques presented in this paper are supported by two case study specific plans. The case studies serve as model specific plans that were able to successfully utilize multiple of the proposed revitalization strategies. This paper demonstrates the potential for specific plans to be used as an implementation tool for downtown revitalization. These comprehensive documents are able to combine multiple regulatory processes in order to achieve the overarching goals of a city’s general plan and the detailed community goals generated through public outreach and participation. The case studies exhibit how cities have been able to complete revitalization projects in their downtowns through the use of specific plans. The proposed strategies and case study findings were used in the creation of a Specific Plan Proposal for Downtown Delano, California. In early 2008 the City of Delano underwent a community participation planning process to improve their downtown. The resulting Downtown Delano Concept Plan urged the City of Delano and the Community Development Department to produce a Downtown Specific Plan as soon as possible. The Downtown Delano Specific Plan Proposal contains a summary of the Concept Plan’s findings and recommendations. The plan begins with a vision statement and a set of goals created from community input received during public meetings. The plan includes proposed land uses for the downtown project area. A circulation concept is presented for the major downtown streets and thoroughfares. Form Based Codes include design guidelines for new development and redevelopment projects. The proposal concludes with project cost estimates and suggested financing mechanisms. The attached Downtown Delano Specific Plan Proposal is a guide for the future completion of a Specific Plan for Downtown Delano.

Магистерская диссертация состоит из введения, трех глав, заключения, списка литературы и приложения. Рассматриваются теоретические основы редевелопмента и социальной инфраструктуры, приводятся основные понятия, виды редевелопмента, его преимущества и недостатки, выявлены актуальные практические проблемы, с которыми сталкиваются девелоперские компании при реализации таких проектов, а также рассмотрен отечественный и зарубежный опыт проектов редевелопмента, в частности объектов социальной инфраструктуры. Проводится маркетинговое исследование, которое включает в себя анализ территории размещения объекта, имиджа района, социальной инфраструктуры и транспортной доступности к объекту, а также анализируется конкурентная среда и стратегические направления деятельности. В третьей главе оценивается эффективность проекта создания объекта социальной инфраструктуры с целью создания коммерческого общежития. Представлено технико-экономическое обоснование и расчет показателей эффективности реализации предложенного проекта. / The master's thesis consists of an introduction, three chapters, a conclusion, a list of references and an Appendix. Examines the theoretical framework for redevelopment and social infrastructure provides the basic concepts, types of redevelopment, its advantages and shortcomings identified some practical problems faced by development companies in the implementation of such projects, and also considers domestic and foreign experience of redevelopment projects, particularly social infrastructure. Marketing research is carried out, which includes the analysis of the location of the object, the image of the district, social infrastructure and transport accessibility to the object, as well as analyzes the competitive environment and strategic activities. The third Chapter assesses the effectiveness of the project to create a social infrastructure facility in order to create a commercial hostel. The feasibility study and calculation of performance indicators of the proposed project are presented.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

Thesis (M.C.P.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 72-77). / (cont.) This thesis seeks to answer the following questions: * What organizational features (i.e. types of leadership, structure, etc.) are significant in executing successful urban redevelopment projects? * To what extent does organizational capacity make certain projects successful? Primary research question: What aspects of organizational capacity contribute to the positive or negative outcomes of urban redevelopment projects and in what way? Organizational capacity is defined as how well an agency organizes its human, social, financial, and technical resources. These questions are answered through an in-depth case study of the Community Redevelopment Agency of Los Angeles (CRA) with respect to its redevelopment of the Crenshaw Center, a regional shopping center built in the late 1940s, into the Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza, a mail completed in 1988. The mall is once again the target of new, extensive redevelpment plans. Research was conducted through theoretical and archival research, supplemented by interviews with those involved with the development and execution of the project, as well site observation. What emerges from the fieldwork and empirical research is a strategic understanding of organizational capacity that is useful in diagnosing key features of an organization that pursues urban redevelopment, and in suggesting areas for strengthening the organization's capacity. The key features of organizational capacity for CRA are cultivating internal leadership, concretely defining mission and central tasks, negotiating power-balanced relationships, and managing their network of actors. / by Virginia Flores. / M.C.P.

Gurra is primarily an attempt to both engage and foster appreciation of the locale. The project looks at Gustavsbergsteatern, a theatre and cultural centre located in Gustavsberg,20 km east of Stockholm. The area is undergoing extensive redevelopment, which will include new housing, schools and a cultural centre. Meanwhile, historic buildings in thearea are being privatised and parts of the cultural heritage, that cannot be commercialised, forgotten. To solve this, the foyer and entrance have been redesigned to highlight the building’s historic and cultural importance, as well as its presence in the local community. Through conversation, material research and design, I have deepened my own understanding of the site in both time (its history) and space (present geography and functions), and Gurra attempts to translate this personal connection into an act of material consolidation to strengthen the theatre’s position as an anchor institution and place. Underpinning this intervention is a novel approach to renovation and material, which conceives physical renovation as static performance linked to the site’s cultural heritage. This will result in a new activation of the place, an expansion of its use, and the creation of a space which evolves with its users, therefore encouraging activity and change.

The urban redevelopment of the last fifty years reshaped the entire Southwest quadrant (and much of the adjoining Southeast) of Washington, DC. By using a Modernist tabula rasa approach in their remaking, the architects of the redevelopment obliterated the quadrant's historical context, and left the Southwest without much of a discernible identity, other than a stylistic one. While it may be too late to recreate the neighborhood quality of old in this part of the city, it is possible to give it some sort of iconic structure which will be the first step in establishing a new identity for the area. A grand hotel along the Washington Channel could serve as the catalyst for such a change while providing service to the city. Such a hotel would take advantage of its location by allowing for access to the city by water, essentially serving as a point of arrival to Washington, similar to the way Union Station and National Airport serve travelers. The hotel would also cater to the transitory business and government populations of the city through an innovative room design. The end result would be the turning of a corner as the Southwest would once again redevelop itself, but this time with a more favorable outcome. / Master of Architecture

Natural light phenomena are a wide array of captivating occurrences. From the gentle diffusion of sunlight through clouds to the dramatic interplay of shadows during sunrise and sunset. Different phenomena of light appear daily, and through light and its meeting with materiality, situations and spaces appear, triggering different feelings and bodily experiences. Material and light are two fundamental parts of interior architecture and our bodily experience in a space. This project investigates how the qualities Shadowplay, Sunshine, Fog and a Cloudy sky, can be put into a spatial context, through light and materiality, to create a similar bodily experience of that in nature. This to remind us of genuine daylight in the absence thereof. The project aims to create an abstract recreation of the visual identity of the four different phenomena, together with a recreation of our experiences of it. This has been conducted in a garage space lacking all natural light to bring more emphasis to the created lightscape. This project and subject as a whole is important to bring more knowledge about the weight that light has in a space. Today light is often planned late in the process, even though it affect spaces significantly. Light together with surfaces and materials affects the space in different ways. Weather or Not takes the setting of a restaurant interior. A space where the visitor expects an interesting experience, not only from food, but also by the full environment surrounding it. The restaurant is set in a car garage at Åsögatan at Södermalm in Stockholm. A big underground space belonging to an apartment block, today filled with cars that slowly are pushed out from the city center. In a few years these big spaces will be left empty not serving their original purpose. In a time when discussions of living standards are on the agenda, I want to highlight these big spaces, with exterior qualities and foremost, its evident darkness. To have them serve another purpose. This project is looking into the possibility of working with light in this completely dark environment to remind us of natural light experiences in nature in the midst of the city. Through collecting keywords and descriptive texts, the project has been able to base the work on several people’s experiences of the different phenomena, giving them their own identities to work with onwards. The project has aimed to create an abstract recreation based on people’s experiences of the four phenomena with some visual resemblance. The design of the space was made in parallel with light installations resembling the phenomena. Within the project several different ways of working with space and objects has been tested. Light brings another dimension to the process. One that sometimes is difficult to translate into the different processes with obstacles of wanted light spread etc. Instead, working in full scale gave new realisations and opened up to new problems both with scale and measurements, but also with placement of one’s eye and body in the space. This was not visibly, felt or fully understood in models, sketches or digital visualisations, as well as in the real-life experience. The body is a tool with different measurements in our senses.

No description available.