While the utilization of energy efficiency has grown in recent years, it has not been distributed evenly across the country. In some states, over 2% of a utility’s budget is spent on energy efficiency; in other states that number is 0. Much of the growth in energy efficiency has been due to state policies and the development utility-level energy efficiency programs. Yet, all utility programs are not created equal. Because they are often exempt from state regulation (and therefore state energy efficiency policy), publicly-owned utilities have traditionally lagged behind IOUs when it comes to EE programs. This research quantifies energy efficiency programs in four Midwestern states: Iowa, Indiana, Michigan and Wisconsin. The first part of the thesis evaluates 474 electric utilities as to whether they had an energy efficiency program in 2010. The second part of the thesis evaluates each utility’s EE program spending in terms of energy and utility specific factors, as well as socio-economic, housing stock and political variables. Through descriptive statistical analysis and the creation of a predictable linear regression model, this thesis identifies relationships between the dependent variable (EE program spending as a % of a utility’s total revenue) and commonly cited barriers to EE program development. Through the analysis, this study finds widespread EE program coverage in Iowa, Michigan and Wisconsin. Also, it finds states are the greatest predictor of utility energy efficiency program spending. A utility’s ownership type and the share of homes that heat with electricity are also significant predictors of program spending.

Sustainable development practices and historic preservation efforts are imbued with contradictions, overlappings and shortcomings. Adaptive reuse is a tool for the sustainable preservation of existing building stock that bridges these approaches and more appropriately addresses the values of time, energy, place and community with respect to the built environment. Destruction of both material and abstract qualities can be circumvented by actively engaging a site, landscape or context through revealing and crossbreeding complex patterns, traces and perspectives. The value of a datascape is optimized when such a re-contextualization consists of both additive and subtractive manipulations and is flexible, continuous and regenerative. To avoid demolition and severing connections to the past and to extend the potential success of the development of the former Belchertown State School for the Feeble Minded in Belchertown, Massachusetts, I investigated ways by which the existing Auditorium Building and its relationship to the site could be re-contextualized. Since 1992, this defunct state-operated facility has been closed, transferred to the town and considered for economic development. Within the one hundred fifty-five-acre parcel that remains to be developed there are approximately sixty acres of forested areas and wetlands, a freshwater pond, and numerous abandoned school buildings in poor condition. The Auditorium Building, centrally located within the buildable area of the state school parcel, acted as a gateway into the campus and historically served as a gathering, performing and learning space for both school and Belchertown residents. In conjunction with precedent and programmatic research, I mapped patterns of State School site data which included not only existing, visible data but that which is historical, potential and invisible. The interpretation of these vectors, connections and boundaries served as a framework for re-contextualization and aimed to identify contextual attributes that require preservation, accretion or removal. The grafting of this data to the Auditorium Building and its surroundings exposed and affected various patterns of behavior that ultimately impacted its form, program and relationship to the landscape.

In recent years there have been many advances in the measurement of urban form. However, there is often a gap between the quantitative and qualitative approach, which can prevent useful policy application- scholars and policy makers often do not speak a similar language. This thesis seeks to answer whether LEED for Neighborhood Development can bridge the gap between the quantitative and qualitative and therefore serve as a useful policy metric for assessing urban form. Does it accurately capture an areas spatial structure and more importantly, is it policy relevant?

There is a lack of emphasis in the planning world, both academically and in the field, on preventing crime. Defensible Space and Crime Prevention through Environmental Design (CPTED) has been the two main approaches taken by planners and criminal justice officials that is design-based and that has brought some level of collaboration between the two professions. This study will analyze the built environment of select crime hotspots in the city of Boston from a design-based crime prevention perspective in order to draw correlations between high crime areas and elements of design-based theories. Using GIS, a kernel density analysis is conducted in 8 of the 13 neighborhoods in the city of Boston. Pictures taken during field observations of the hotspots are used to compare strong and weak examples of design-based crime prevention theories. A CPTED matrix is also used to provide a weighted score to Roxbury, a neighborhood that ranks high in both property and violent crime. Overall, the kernel density results reveal that the hotspots in Roxbury tend to be higher in quantity but less dense and smaller in size than other Boston neighborhoods. This study reveals that for poorer neighborhoods the condition of land uses seems to be a more prevalent factor of the physical environment than the land-use mix that are exhibited in middle and upper class sections of the city. Urban planners play a key role in bringing together and maintaining land uses that will be less conducive to crime given a neighborhood’s or greater geographic area’s history and current socioeconomic and crime context.

The development of the downtown business district of Provo, Utah has closely followed the orderly growth envisioned by its founders. However, one early change in the city's layout had a profound effect on the direction of Provo's development. In 1852, Brigham Young moved the site of the Provo tabernacle from its original location in the designated public square to a location on the fringes of the earliest city boundaries. The result of this action was a sometimes heated controversy among residents regarding the city's true public center. As commercial development reached a peak between 1896 and 1915, the controversy erupted into a rivalry between east-side and west-side residents. Jesse Knight and Thomas Nicholls Taylor, two of the city's most prominent citizens and businessmen, became opponents in advocating opposite sides of the city for development. The strong emotions generated by the rivalry reached a peak with the election to decide the location of Provo's Union Passenger Depot in 1909.Throughout the period of their rivalry, the opposing efforts of Knight and Taylor to establish a commercial center in Provo played a key role in the location and style of the city's most important commercial and residential buildings. These structures are an important focus of study since they represent the playing pieces in a competition that was almost single-handedly responsible for the growth and composition of central Provo. This thesis evaluates the effect of the Knight-Taylor rivalry on architecture in Provo between 1896 and 1915, and examines some of the buildings that resulted from the controversy within the context of contemporary architectural trends.

The Latter-day Saint settlements in southeastern Utah, namely Bluff, Monticello and Blanding, were impacted by the physical and cultural geography of the area. These geographic elements hindered, and in some cases prevented, the Latter-day Saint colonizers from fulfilling the seven basic principles of Latter-day Saint expansion and colonization in the Great Basin. The impacts of physical geography were the geology, the climate, the soil and the rivers and streams. The impacts of cultural geography were the Navajo Indian Tribe, the Paiute Indian Tribe, and the criminal element. This thesis discusses the geographic elements of the area, how they impacted the settlements of Bluff, Monticello and Blanding, how the Mormons reacted to the situation, and how the impacts were eventually dealt with and solved.

In times of crisis, what tools do planners and designers have to inspire a sense of well-being? How can we heal community through dialogue, recognizing the ongoing need for connection with or without a crisis? Are there ways to uncover unknown concerns and values in a community? The engagement approaches many planners and designers rely on do not typically aim to access these deeper questions in society. Surveys, public meetings and focus groups seek tangible results that target specific issues. They are often conducted out of context, taking the public out of the environment at issue to answer questions on a defined topic. What tools do professionals designing our urban environments have for discovering unknown issues in a more spontaneous and practice-based way in places where community exists? Through the Eudaimonic Tree Pilot I explored these questions, using the framework of eudaimonia to guide my process. The objective of my study began with my desire to inspire a sense of well-being, eudaimonia, in my community during a time of great loneliness and mental health decline due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. This historic moment left many people feeling disconnected and hopeless, exacerbating a national trend that started well before COVID (Ammar et al., 2021). In response, I produced three installations using trees in the landscape to offer the public a means of expression. Each tree housed a different prompt rooted in eudaimonic sentiments and blank note cards for public response. Their messages hung from tree limbs and became an embodiment of the collective consciousness. This study of public engagement through participatory art unearthed profound implications for the planning and design fields. Some of the primary takeaways suggest that participatory art can catalyze community dialogue; spontaneity heightens co-creation; and highly co-created initiatives are likely to generate a eudaimonic effect. This process was led by results as they emerged, highlighting previously unknown resolutions and considerations. This heuristic, emergent methodology could be used more often by planning and design professionals as a means to perform design research that embraces the ephemeral and eudaimonic aspects of communities.

The processes to develop community plans share certain standard activities and stages while remaining distinctive and without pre-scripted procedures. This study documents the process that yielded the South Broad Street Corridor Plan June 2012 draft. The objective is to present the decision-making processes and their connections to the final plan document along with the plan document itself.

Los Angeles is experiencing a loss of inventory with Industrial land due to adaptive reuse and property conversion. The primary factors behind the conversions are inconsistent land use regulations and a strong market demand for residential property. In an effort to streamline land use regulation, the city will create a new zoning code. In conjunction with the zoning update, the purpose of this project will be to develop a form-based code for the Los Angeles Arts District. The new land use regulation will explore methods to preserve job producing industrial space and accommodate the growing residential market in the area. Data for this study was collected and presented as a site analysis. The study also includes a literature review that examines the history of land use regulation in Europe and the United States. The site analysis for the Arts District includes an investigation of circulation patterns, economic factors, development profile, community input, and review of planning documents. Research includes a chronological investigation of the Arts District’s history, land use policies, and regulations. The study indicates that the Arts District, though primarily industrial, contains multiple residential nodes. Additionally, it reveals that industrial jobs and building stock are at risk from new development. The purpose of The Arts District Form-Based Code, as the new land use regulation, is to create a predicable development pattern that improves the quality of the built environment.

An important component of Planning Information Systems for municipal planning agencies is a comprehensive land use inventory that provides information on the location, distribution, and intensity of land uses throughout a community. This data is a necessary prerequisite for the informed creation of planning documents such as General Plans, Specific Plans, Housing Inventories, and Climate Action Plans. Beyond location, distribution and intensity of land uses, planners may also wish to incorporate additional information at the parcel level, such as the number of housing or commercial units, building condition, and/or access and connectivity to adjacent streets. Because some of this information is best observed in the field, agencies require methods of collecting this data that will ensure data precision, accuracy, and consistency, while minimizing data collection and processing time. Electronic data collection tools that are compatible with Geographic Information Systems provide a potential solution that can facilitate these desired data collection parameters. This research illustrates the development of an electronic data collection tool that planning agencies may utilize within various planning efforts, and compares the efficiency of the tool to traditional ‘pen-and-paper’ data collection methods in terms of time savings. It is recommended that planning agencies widely adopt and implement electronic tools for land use data collection, for the demonstrated benefits related to data consistency and reduced data collection time in the field.