If the Montrose district's most salient character is cultural diversity, then the restrictions set forth by the City of Houston Planning Department's 'Chapter 42' have proven insufficient, in fact counterproductive to achieving the first publicly stated goal of those amendments: maintainence of neighborhood character.1 Ironically, what allowed the recent climax in diversity to accidentally emerge was the deterioration and subsequent inconsistent levels of maintainence/restoration of what began in the 1920's as a pristine monoculture of middle class bungalows. But as the low-density, single family home has become an inadequate response to Montrose's recent increase in market desireability, Chapter 42 and its resultant "townhouse" model threaten the district with yet a new promise of economic/cultural singularity. However, while embracing Houston's strategy of dwelling-type-as-market-product, it appears possible to write in to the code the previously-accidental ingredient for neigborhoods like Montrose: community emergence through propagation of difference. Thus, Houston's near-town neigborhoods could incrementally densify through means sensitive to local conditions, and simultaneously subvert the ever-present gentrification-oriented threat of monotony. 1Marlene Gaffrick of City of Houston Planning Dept. Goals of Chapter 42 as stated in telephone interview.

In this era of "experience economy," urban areas face increasing pressure to distinguish themselves in a world dominated by globalization. At the same time these same metropolitan areas struggle to cope with the imbalance of urban and natural systems that have resulted in the degradation of natural resources and an increase in pollution. The metropolitan area of Houston covers 8,778 square miles, an area slightly smaller than the state of Massachusetts. Within the same area, eight different ecosystems converge in one of the most ecologically diverse landscapes in North America. The rises in pollution and destructive flooding within Houston are some of the many indicators of the imbalances within the urban ecology. A new interrelationship between both organizational systems must be addressed. Eco-metropolis is the touristic investigation of strategies using both urban and natural systems of organization to create a unique territory of cohesive balance within the urban ecology of Houston.

Detroit has steadily declined as a city since the height of its greatness in the 1950s. Deindustrialization, suburbanization, divisive racism, and disenfranchisement have taken a toll on a city that once stood for the American Dream. Democracy and urbanization have been marginalized in favor of a pursuit that is no longer possible. Any plan for Detroit must address its vacancies, both political (and communal), and physical. These aspects deserve their own attentions, under the dire circumstances they face. However, any solution to the problems facing Detroit must also adhere to a larger vision - history tells us this is Detroit's way. Detroit has lost more than money and housing - It has lost people, optimism, and will. Once built on an idea. Detroit must present itself once again as more than just a city. It must reassert its symbolism as a promised land for a new version of the American Dream.

Phenomenal readings are used to identify the distance between the apprehension of place and place as a repository of design intents, to test a thesis that modern urban developments manifest meaning as a built language containing all the processes of understanding integral with an orchestration of perceptive sense. The usage of the phenomenal reading as a method in operation should place facets of the positivistic model of architecture into question.

Tel Aviv's architecture and urban fabric were shaped by the forces of the nationalist movement of Hebrew Revivalism and the progressivist modern movements. A series of local circumstances including the Arab-Israeli conflict and the clash of values and memories introduced by different immigrant groups have also played an important role in Tel Aviv's identity. The search for a suitable architectural language capable of representing the New Hebrew collective identity entered a new phase when Modernism was adopted as the National Style. Tel Aviv's urban and architectural transformations mirror the changes in the collective identity of its residents as it rapidly evolved from its role as the locus of the Hebrew national revivalists to a cosmopolitan outward looking urban center. Progressivist obsessions brought about periods of amnesia during which the city failed to recognized some of its own "permanences" and as a result became self destructive. Whether these dynamics relate back to the Hebraic concepts of Space-Time is left open as a subject for speculation.

Architecture can be defined as the manifold of space, movements, and events. This project, located in the City, utilizes movement as the primary ordering device for the production of space and the encounter of events. Movement, both determined and aleatory, can be understood to have spatial consequences which locate and materialize the architectural project. The repertoire and methodology of this thesis utilizes analytic portraits of observed movements within an urban context to determine the location, extent, density, and program of the architectural project. This thesis posits that form and space which is produced in this manner will be primarily conditioned by the local contexts and has the potential to proliferate relationships with those contexts.

I analyse a two period model of urban development in which a non-neutral land value tax accelerates city growth by encouraging the development of vacant land in the first period and decreases the size of the city in the second period. In contrast, a wage tax decreases the size of the city in both periods by increasing the cost of labor. At the level of an individual city a non-neutral land value tax results in a smaller dead weight loss relative to a wage tax of equal yield. However, this result is not generally true when we study the relative efficiency of a land value tax and a wage tax in a system of identical cities. For this case a wage tax is relatively more efficient under a set of plausible restrictions. This analysis demonstrates the danger of making national policy prescriptions on the basis of results for an individual city.

A major determinant of energy conservation is the physical form of an urban area. Different forms and structures offer inherently different possibilities for conserving energy. This is particularly evident in the transportation sector where the conjunction of population density, employment opportunity, transportation system, and service characteristics largely determine the levels of savings that can be attained. With development and redevelopment, urban form and its structure change, sometimes making transitions to radically different "states". Thus, the problem confronting policy makers, interested in saving energy, might be seen as one of appropriately guiding development in the direction of various urban forms, or morphological "states", offering further opportunities for energy savings. This problem is complicated by the necessity of sustaining acceptable levels of social benefits, variously expressed by attributes such as mobility, development density and public expenditure. Furthermore, political pressure often constrains policy-making within a relatively short time-frame, yielding immediate gains that do not maximize longer term benefits. Data are developed, using a sequence of computer models, describing salient formal and performance characteristics of a number of theoretical urban forms, or morphological structures. These data are further related within an overall structure of transportation supply and demand (and the identified domains within the framework) within which maximum energy benefits are to be found. Estimations are then made of costs associated with moving from one morphological state to another. These estimations are portrayed as gradients, or surfaces, within a computer-generated three-space, where measures of "level of effort" (cost), morphological type and energy performance form the independent axes. Movement along the surfaces, occasioned by policy initiatives, are then dynamically represented by interchanging surfaces, depending upon the position within the three-space. As a policy-making objective, the aim might be to traverse the surfaces in order to attain higher levels of energy performance with minimum cost. The features of the surfaces also suggest sectors in which achievement of such an objective may be prohibitive. The results of the study suggest a planning approach towards managing dynamics rather than the achievement of some arbitrary end conditions. This issue represents a different view of planning, which may be regarded as a radical departure from traditional orthodox practices.

Telecommunications liberalisation in India was embarked with the dual goals of promoting efficiency, through competition and establishment world class telecommunications networks, and maximise universal access to telecommunications services as a developmental goal. Interconnection norms are crucial to the success of the liberalisation policy and the thesis aims to analyse the factors that should be considered in designing an interconnection regime and, the role of the regulatory authority with respect to interconnection agreements and disputes in India. The thesis focuses on how interconnection norms could contribute to the above stated dual goals of India's telecom policy. The thesis also includes a detailed analysis of the liberalisation process and legal framework governing telecommunications in India.

The main aim of the study is to assess the success in performance of the KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) Provincial Governmentâs strategic management of integrated development planning as was expected by the Constitution and subsequent developmental policies, legislation, programmes and projects from 1994 to 2006. The literature review indicated that strategic management consists of three phases, namely planning, implementation and control, each phase with its own sub-steps. These elements formed the basis for the development of a Strategic Management Model represented by the following âKeyâ: KEY TO STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT MODEL Phase Step Activity and Evaluation Criteria 1 Initiate and agree on strategic management process 2 Clarify organisational mandates 3 Identify strategic issues facing the organisation 4 Formulate vision and goals 5 Undertake SWOT analysis: determine internal strengths and weaknesses, external opportunities and threats Planning 6 Formulate and adopt strategies to address strategic issues 7 Planning of plan Implementation implementation 8 Phased implementation 9 Monitoring 10 Evaluation Control 11 Review The Model is then applied to evaluate the strategic management of two KZN Provincial wide programmes, namely the KZN Provincial Growth and Development Strategy (PGDS) from 1994 to 2000, and KZN municipal integrated development planning from 2000 to 2006, both of which aim to substantiate the following four hypotheses: (1) The KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Governmentâs execution of the strategic management of integrated development planning in KZN to advance development in KZN was successful; (2) The KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Government undertook successfully an initiative to improve alignment and capacitating of Provincial Departments and Local Government for them to be able to undertake integrated development planning in a sustainable manner; (3) The Strategic Management Model for the management of integrated development planning set out in the study is a handy tool could be presented in a narrative format and/or in a matrix or table format, depending on the particular situation or management preferences; and (4) The application of the Strategic Management Model in KZN confirms issues and trends highlighted in the literature review of the strategic management of integrated development planning. The advancement of international theoretical thought on strategic management is also addressed. Several lessons learnt from the strategic management of integrated development planning in KZN are discussed. The study concluded by making several recommendations to improve KZNâs performance in the field of the strategic management of integrated development planning.