This thesis examines the suburban verge’s latent potential as an alternative public space. It is located between the boundaries of private properties and public streets, where territorial boundaries and ownership are unclear. The site for this thesis is the southeast quadrant of the intersection at Jane Street and Finch Avenue West in the former city of North York, now part of Toronto. The intersection reveals a fertile field of public activity that engenders new forms of social engagement and invites a reconsideration of public space in the urban periphery. A product of Modern planning, the suburban verge is a buffer between vehicles and pedestrians. Home to hydro poles, streetlights, small-scale furnishings and the ubiquitous cast-in-place concrete sidewalk, the suburban verge is a definitive element of the suburban landscape that accounts for a substantial amount of neglected public land. The suburban verge’s ambiguity attracts a variety of unsanctioned and informal activities. At Jane and Finch, socio-economic issues, a diverse population and escalating pressure to increase density further intensify this unscripted behaviour. This thesis calls attention to the unrealized potential of the suburban verge. It does not set out to create new public space; rather, it draws upon existing social patterns in order to enrich the suburban public realm. Subtle inflections in the existing terrain, deliberately modest in form and operation, expand the social and ecological capacity of the suburban verge and demonstrate the need to consider the potential of everyday practices as a vehicle for generating dynamic public space.

This research describes a methodology for measuring built form patterns using spatial data and GIS that is amenable to the study of large geographical areas. This methodology was used to investigate the capability of municipal planning to influence residential development. In the early 1990s, the Town of Markham, Ontario, Canada adopted a residential development philosophy inspired by New Urbanism. An adjacent municipality, the City of Vaughan, has employed a conventional development approach. By calculating several built form measures derived from the design prescriptions associated with New Urbanism, this study seeks to discern if Markham's adoption of an unconventional development philosophy has resulted in a residential built form distinct from that in Vaughan. <br /><br /> Built form measures are calculated for both municipalities for two eras. Development from 1981 to 1995 represents the "before" or baseline configuration, while development from 1996 to 2003 is used to characterize built form created when Markham's New Urbanist-inspired approach was in force. Period over period comparisons are carried out for each municipality, as are within-period comparisons between municipalities. <br /><br /> Findings indicate that development patterns are distinct in the two study periods. From the early period to the more recent, street networks take on a more grid-like organization while building lots and blocks become smaller. These changes are accompanied by an overall decline in accessibility to amenities. However, development patterns were found to be quite similar in both municipalities in the recent study period, exhibiting differences in degree, not in kind. The findings appear to indicate that planning's influence over residential built form is limited to moderately accelerating positive trends, and moderately retarding negative trends.

This thesis examines the suburban verge’s latent potential as an alternative public space. It is located between the boundaries of private properties and public streets, where territorial boundaries and ownership are unclear. The site for this thesis is the southeast quadrant of the intersection at Jane Street and Finch Avenue West in the former city of North York, now part of Toronto. The intersection reveals a fertile field of public activity that engenders new forms of social engagement and invites a reconsideration of public space in the urban periphery. A product of Modern planning, the suburban verge is a buffer between vehicles and pedestrians. Home to hydro poles, streetlights, small-scale furnishings and the ubiquitous cast-in-place concrete sidewalk, the suburban verge is a definitive element of the suburban landscape that accounts for a substantial amount of neglected public land. The suburban verge’s ambiguity attracts a variety of unsanctioned and informal activities. At Jane and Finch, socio-economic issues, a diverse population and escalating pressure to increase density further intensify this unscripted behaviour. This thesis calls attention to the unrealized potential of the suburban verge. It does not set out to create new public space; rather, it draws upon existing social patterns in order to enrich the suburban public realm. Subtle inflections in the existing terrain, deliberately modest in form and operation, expand the social and ecological capacity of the suburban verge and demonstrate the need to consider the potential of everyday practices as a vehicle for generating dynamic public space.

Processes of industry and economic exchange have significantly and continually defined the underlying structure and formal characteristics of the American city. Contemporary ‘distributed’ systems of economy and industry rely on the movement of goods produced in distant locations (often overseas) to their eventual point of consumption. This has created a fundamental spatial disconnect between production, manufacturing, and consumption within the city; where local economies often have no relationship with the production or subsequent economic benefit of the goods they consume. As these contemporary systems of industrial production are often reliant on Just-In-Time operational models, the speed and turnover of consumption have become the dominant metrics of economic success. Productive industrial entities and territory, once ingrained in the inhabited city fabric have gradually disappeared; leaving behind smooth, frictionless surfaces of retail, logistics, and service, lacking a social viscosity, and consideration for the public dimension of the city. This thesis argues that Walmart, the archetypal big-box retailer, forms today’s dominant industrial actor; significantly influencing the socio-economic, cultural, and physical configurations of the American city. First, Walmart’s current distributed operational model is analyzed to better understand and contextualize the connections between industry, production, consumption, and urbanization. The next sections speculate upon the long-term social, economic, and environmental sustainability of Walmart’s strategy; while examining the links between social interaction, idea exchange, innovation, and physical proximity within the city. As a result of many factors, including rising energy costs, this project predicts, and then explores a future where distributed operational models are no longer viable. This thesis predicts a subsequent transformation in manufacturing and consumption within the United States; linked to a resurgence in domestic production, by emerging micro-production formats. This scenario, coupled with a stated goal or mandate by Walmart to reduce overall supply chain energy expenditure, presents a unique opportunity for a speculative, opportunistic architecture within the American city. Walmart 2.0 radically reconsiders Walmart’s existing operational model and related built infrastructures, in the creation of a new industrial system that seeks to re-inject systems of consumption, production, and exchange, back into the urban fabric. Walmart becomes an ‘open’, ‘for-hire’ underlying facilitator for the production, consumption, and movement of goods between local nodes of economy, using their existing expertise in logistical, territorial, and data management. As such, Walmart 2.0 acts as a physical and systemic platform for self-organising production and market exchanges that are facilitated, but not controlled by Walmart. A redevelopment of the generic Walmart Supercenter creates a system of participation; where local communities of Walmart 2.0 users both create and consume the content flowing through the Walmart 2.0 system; allowing these communities to engage in the economies of their own locale. Broadly, Walmart 2.0 seeks to provoke the emergence of an urban fabric with an engrained sensitivity towards human interactions in relation to systems of production, consumption and exchange. Further, the project seeks to illustrate a method of operation, through which architects may gain an increased agency within the powerful industrial systems shaping the underlying structure of the contemporary city; a method based on the analysis of existing industrial actors, and speculating upon their future transformations with a heightened social consideration.

This dissertation investigates the impact of metropolitan growth patterns and policies on both intra-regional spatial differentiation and the decline of inner-ring suburbs by identifying a multi-ring metropolitan structure in four metropolitan areas of Atlanta, Cleveland, Philadelphia, and Portland, using longitudinal Census data from 1970 to 2000. The findings of this research confirmed that intra-regional spatial differentiation increased over time and showed that the inner-ring suburbs in the four metropolitan areas were increasingly vulnerable to socioeconomic decline regardless of their growth patterns and policies. In contrast, the downtowns and some parts of the inner city showed gradual recovery from the deterioration patterns of the last several decades. The outer-ring suburbs continued to thrive, drawing most of the new population and housing development. This dissertation also explored the association between metropolitan growth patterns and policies and the extent of spatial differentiation and socioeconomic disparity in the subareas. Analyses found that strong decentralization trends are associated with increases in intra-regional spatial differentiation and socioeconomic disparity, while urban containment policies are associated with their reduction. However, despite its strong urban containment policies, the Portland region exhibited a clear pattern of inner-ring suburban decline, which suggests that the inner-ring suburbs require local initiatives directed toward revitalization. In conclusion, this research has shown that excessive development at the urban fringe is associated with the abandonment of the blighted inner city and more importantly, in the decline of the inner-ring suburbs. The inner-ring suburbs, with their existing valuable assets, should be fertile grounds for smart growth strategies. Moreover, the central city and outer-ring suburbs have a vital mission to save and invigorate the inner-ring suburbs, as they represent the primary link and conduit to all the surrounding areas of a metropolitan region. Only by recognizing the interdependence of all the areas and by applying sound, holistic policies can the decision-making entities of the government ensure the survival and future stability of the metropolitan areas.

The discipline of urban geography as a specialized and integral part of geography has shown strong development only since the end of World Uar II. Very few articles published in this field antedate this period, but since the end of the war a great proliferation of urban studies has been made. This bas been in keeping with the rapid growth of urban areas since that time, in contrast with earlier development. However, even in this short period of twenty years, the approach to urban geography has undergone great changes. [...]

This thesis is presented as a tentative attempt to classify the cities, towns and villages of the Montreal Environs and Eastern Townships Regions and in the light of regional planning principles to verify the adequacy of the resulting regional systems. [...]

This creative project includes 30 images that were selected from a body of work to present to you The Suburbanessence. This study of the suburban housing concentration in and around Fort Wayne, Indiana, (SMSA), illustrates the emphasis placed on the suburban ethic within this region over the last 75 years. The Fort Wayne area was selected due to the median classification on the list of Standard Metropolitan Statistical Areas.The photographic observations of the socioenvironmental application of the suburban ethic is posed to interpret the physical evidence of a chronological growth within these housing tracts, using architectural style classifications as a reference point. The subsequent photographs are not directed to formulate a specific judgment on this type of environment. Photographed over a six month period, several disturbing irregularities are in evidence. Deciding if these irregularities actually exist, or whether an individual's taste just leans in that direction is my challenge.

Processes of industry and economic exchange have significantly and continually defined the underlying structure and formal characteristics of the American city. Contemporary ‘distributed’ systems of economy and industry rely on the movement of goods produced in distant locations (often overseas) to their eventual point of consumption. This has created a fundamental spatial disconnect between production, manufacturing, and consumption within the city; where local economies often have no relationship with the production or subsequent economic benefit of the goods they consume. As these contemporary systems of industrial production are often reliant on Just-In-Time operational models, the speed and turnover of consumption have become the dominant metrics of economic success. Productive industrial entities and territory, once ingrained in the inhabited city fabric have gradually disappeared; leaving behind smooth, frictionless surfaces of retail, logistics, and service, lacking a social viscosity, and consideration for the public dimension of the city. This thesis argues that Walmart, the archetypal big-box retailer, forms today’s dominant industrial actor; significantly influencing the socio-economic, cultural, and physical configurations of the American city. First, Walmart’s current distributed operational model is analyzed to better understand and contextualize the connections between industry, production, consumption, and urbanization. The next sections speculate upon the long-term social, economic, and environmental sustainability of Walmart’s strategy; while examining the links between social interaction, idea exchange, innovation, and physical proximity within the city. As a result of many factors, including rising energy costs, this project predicts, and then explores a future where distributed operational models are no longer viable. This thesis predicts a subsequent transformation in manufacturing and consumption within the United States; linked to a resurgence in domestic production, by emerging micro-production formats. This scenario, coupled with a stated goal or mandate by Walmart to reduce overall supply chain energy expenditure, presents a unique opportunity for a speculative, opportunistic architecture within the American city. Walmart 2.0 radically reconsiders Walmart’s existing operational model and related built infrastructures, in the creation of a new industrial system that seeks to re-inject systems of consumption, production, and exchange, back into the urban fabric. Walmart becomes an ‘open’, ‘for-hire’ underlying facilitator for the production, consumption, and movement of goods between local nodes of economy, using their existing expertise in logistical, territorial, and data management. As such, Walmart 2.0 acts as a physical and systemic platform for self-organising production and market exchanges that are facilitated, but not controlled by Walmart. A redevelopment of the generic Walmart Supercenter creates a system of participation; where local communities of Walmart 2.0 users both create and consume the content flowing through the Walmart 2.0 system; allowing these communities to engage in the economies of their own locale. Broadly, Walmart 2.0 seeks to provoke the emergence of an urban fabric with an engrained sensitivity towards human interactions in relation to systems of production, consumption and exchange. Further, the project seeks to illustrate a method of operation, through which architects may gain an increased agency within the powerful industrial systems shaping the underlying structure of the contemporary city; a method based on the analysis of existing industrial actors, and speculating upon their future transformations with a heightened social consideration.

Thesis (M.Arch.) - Carleton University, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 135-137). Also available in electronic format on the Internet.