This paper investigates the feasibility of the construction of a sustainable mixed-use development from a 1950's commercial plaza. The specific commercial plaza under investigation was University Plaza in Dundas, Ontario. Incorporating sustainable building techniques, such as higher density housing, clean energy generating technologies, energy efficiency, and water conservation, a more sustainable design for the plaza was accomplished. To become more pedestrian friendly, pedestrian areas were incorporated into the design, as well as a rapid transit terminal. Using rough construction estimates, it was determined that redevelopment would cost $67.9 million± 20% with a simple payback period of 7.8 years. Using the time value of money, a discounted payback period between 9.6 and 16.0 years was determined. As a result, the re-development project was deemed economically feasible to a reasonable degree. / Thesis / Master of Engineering (MEngr)

Coastal erosion, population decline, and economic deterioration, in the rural coastal community of Sydney Mines, Cape Breton, are concerns upon which the provincial government is focused. This thesis explores how ideas of permanence, adaptation, and sacrifice can engage the prevailing erosion of both the coastline and community, in terms of the physical cliff face, population, and economy. Articulating methods of responding to the various conditions of erosion enables an evolving and didactic architecture, which can become a catalyst to stimulate the economy and create stability for the town. Strategies of site placement, as well as technologies of geological formation, historic mining practices, and adaptation approaches, explored in this thesis, provide examples of how prototypical architecture and programmatic insertions can create a viable solution to erosion in this coastal town.

Doctor of Philosophy / Environmental Design and Planning Program / John W. Keller / Public-private partnerships (PPPs) have become a vehicle to deliver products and services internationally. It is a favored strategy widely adopted for implementing complex urban developments in the United States. However, the complex nature of such partnerships raises serious concerns about meaningful community engagement. Meaningful community engagement is a result of the presence and quality of transparency and public participation elements that are strongly correlated. The following research describes how the community was involved and contributed to an urban development PPP project in Manhattan, Kansas. The research goal is to understand the mechanism of the community engagement in a PPP project and to evaluate the quality of the process at the local level from a planning perspective. With an in-depth case study and an understanding of meaningful community engagement processes, this research will contribute to the body of knowledge in the area of PPPs and meaningful community engagement at the local level and evaluate local PPP policies and practices. The first objective is to evaluate the participation opportunities with a developed Community Engagement Attribute Evaluation System (CEAES) based on the recognized metrics of quality practices. Attributes are drawn from the identified characteristics of quality transparency and quality public participation of meaningful practices. The second goal is to interview the key stakeholders of the project from the public sector, the private sector, and the community and add depth to the findings that complements the overall evaluation. Through both technical evaluation and open-ended personal interview, this study attempts to describe the design and the process of public participation practices. Analysis will show whether or not the community was meaningfully engaged and if the technical aspects of a quality community engagement practice were present. Finally, this study aims to inform future similar planning practices. The result serves two local purposes of planning governance and policy. For the former, it will help those with no record of PPP to better design and implement the engagement process; and for the ones with PPPs’ experience, it will contribute to the quality of the future partnerships. For the latter, it will guide the local governments and policy makers to better address PPPs’ ongoing issue of community engagement.

Housing in prosperous American cities is becoming increasingly expensive, forcing many municipal governments to re-evaluate how they will continue to serve lower-income residents and ensure equitable access to housing and resources. In the City of Alexandria, the Alexandria Re-Development and Housing Authority (ARHA) has worked in recent years to partner with private developers to convert its existing stock of low-density, designated-affordable housing into more dense, mixed-income communities. This is possible because many of its existing communities sit on land in now-prime locations where the City currently allows the most density, as well as bonus density through a variety of mechanisms. While these projects have succeeded to some extent, the City is unfortunately still seeing a rapid rise in rents accompanied by a rapid decrease in available affordable housing of all types, in both privately-developed and publicly-subsidized communities. Increasing income disparity is also simultaneously driving lower-income to middle-class residents to suburban and exurban sites where limited access to municipal resources and public transportation can be highly detrimental to quality of life. While additional density is the knee-jerk response to many of affordability's challenges, often the resulting built solutions seem incomplete – achieving the basic goal of housing more residents, but failing to build thriving and diverse communities that connect people the way previous communities may have. After all, the pragmatics of building generally point towards maximizing square footage, monetary return, and speed of delivery by using conventional and commonly-accepted solutions, with less energy given to resident outcomes, and how people might be affected by the change to their living environments and communities. As Jan Gehl and Jane Jacobs examined in Cities for People and The Death and Life of Great American Cities respectively, simple pragmatics do not make for livable environments. A truly humanist approach to design for living in cities requires not only good policy, practice, and engagement, but also architectural strategies that respond to how humans relate to each other and their surroundings. Convergence explores how designers can contribute to making urban housing better for everyone by addressing housing affordability, person-to-person interaction, and community engagement in increasingly-dense environments. Its primary objectives are: • Encouraging neighborliness by increasing chance encounters as well as reducing the sharp threshold between private and public space often found in apartment-style buildings. • Increasing the visibility of human activity to the street in a multi-floor, multi-family project. • Using new mass timber methods and modularity to improve initial building construction and cost while also incorporating sustainable practices to reduce resource use and operating cost. • Anticipating that modification and reconfiguration will be required in the future, and offering defined parameters to simplify that process. • Creating a variety of unit sizes while also offering future flexibility to respond to changing community needs. • Combining the familiar with the novel to connect the new community to its surroundings, bridge experiences, and manage change. / Master of Architecture / In the City of Alexandria, the Alexandria Re-Development and Housing Authority (ARHA) owns several affordable housing sites in desirable locations that it has been working to convert into more dense, mixed-income housing in partnership with private developers. While these projects have succeeded to some extent, housing in the City continues to become increasingly expensive, and wages for low-income and lower-middle class residents are not keeping pace with the increase in cost of living. This phenomenon is pushing many long-time and/or lower-wage residents to the suburbs and exurbs, limiting access to municipal resources and public transportation, and reducing quality of life. As a result, communities and families with long histories in the City are breaking apart and dispersing. Many advocates, policymakers, designers, and developers have turned to additional density as the most immediate response to these concerns. However, additional density isn’t enough; new buildings may house more people, but fail to address the other aspects of building thriving and diverse communities that connect people the way previous communities may have. Good housing and good communities need more than square footage, so it is time to look beyond conventional solutions. New approaches are needed to respond to how people are affected by changes to their living environments and communities, and create the kinds of positive outcomes that should be part of any new housing project. Therefore, if we want to design for living in cities, we have to have good policies, practices, and engagement, but we also need architectural strategies that respond to how humans relate to each other and their surroundings. Convergence explores how designers can contribute to making urban housing better for everyone by addressing housing affordability, person-to-person interaction, and community engagement in increasingly-dense environments. Its primary objectives are: • Encouraging neighborliness by increasing chance encounters as well as reducing the sharp threshold between private and public space often found in apartment-style buildings. • Increasing the visibility of human activity to the street in a multi-floor, multi-family project. • Using new mass timber methods and modularity to improve initial building construction and cost while also incorporating sustainable practices to reduce resource use and operating cost. • Anticipating that modification and reconfiguration will be required in the future, and offering defined parameters to simplify that process. • Creating a variety of unit sizes while also offering future flexibility to respond to changing community needs. • Combining the familiar with the novel to connect the new community to its surroundings, bridge experiences, and manage change.