Voter turnout in the United States began to decline at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th centuries, and since then, turnout has not returned to the high percentages that were commonplace in the 1860s and 1870s. Numerous scholars point to the late 1800s and early 1900s as the era when significant changes in voting, turnout, and political party competition took place. Many of these same scholars contend that the consequences of these changes, such as continuing low voter turnout, can be seen today. Yet, scholars have made very few efforts to connect what happened in the past to what is happening today. In this thesis I attempt to examine the root causes of declining voter turnout in the United States at the turn of the 20th century. The significance of this examination rests with the thought that if we can understand why voter turnout began to fall we may then have a clearer sense of why low voter turnout persists today. Specifically, this study tests two competing theoretical models, one by V.O. Key and Walter Dean Burnham and the other by Richard Cloward and Frances Fox Piven, that claim to explain how and why turnout began to fall in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Both models use the same variables -- voting statutes, political party competition, and voter turnout -- to explain this fall, but the models place these variables in different time sequences.. This thesis tests the models by examining dynamics found in a single city -- Richmond, Virginia. Richmond affords an opportunity to inspect dynamics of voter turnout at the turn of the 20th century in a geographic area of the country that neither model used as a basis for its theoretical propositions. / Master of Arts

The regional landscape of Appalachian was a testing ground for a method to define cultural landscape. Landscape Architects and land planners can learn from the existing landscape about the aesthetics and environmental constraints of an area to design and plan in such a way as to complement and strengthen regional character. This document describes in seven chapters the study undertaken to identify patterns in the cultural landscape along the New River. Chapter one introduces the study. Chapter Two explains the physical setting of the four physiographic provinces through which the New River flows. Chapter Three briefly gives an overview of the historical social context of the New River Corridor. Chapter Four describes the eleven sites surveyed as part of this research. The methods of the study are described in Chapter Five. The results of the research survey and statistical analysis are reported in Chapter Six. Lastly, Chapter Seven describes the current land uses within the four provinces, identifies the similarities between the landscape of the Blue Ridge and Great Valley Provinces and the dissimilarity of the Ridge and Valley and Allegheny Plateau Provinces. This chapter discusses how land planning profession could work to strengthen the Appalachian region along the New River and other regions with a unique cultural landscape. / Master of Landscape Architecture

This study draws on the theory and methodology of many fields to propose an alternative way of conceptualizing and conducting inquiry into the issues of daycare center design. The application of this approach is then illustrated using the collected data to design an actual childcare facility. Qualitative interviews were conducted with directors and selected staff members of two different childcare centers, as well as with the parents of children currently attending each center. Analysis of the data collected reveals that there are many factors which shape and affect daycare center design options, including site size, finances, geographic location, number of children to be cared for and staff size. The objective of this study was to design a prototypical proprietary daycare center in Christiansburg, Virginia for a client whose requirements were for a single building to accommodate three groups of users: 1. approximately 122 children from the ages of 6 weeks to 12 years, 2. the adults needed to staff the center, and 3. The parents of the children attending the center. Design features that were found to be advantageous to the development of a daycare center in the course of field study (i.e., full height walls for sound control, ample storage, easily reconfigured furnishings, natural interior lighting, staff break room) were incorporated into the proposed structure. This research contributes to a more complete understanding of daycare center design problems which affect the adults who interact with the center, as well as the children who attend the center. / Master of Science

We studied piping plovers (Charadrius melodus Ord) on Assateague Island National Seashore, Maryland, during the 1988-1990 breeding seasons. The estimated breeding population declined from 25 pairs in 1988 to 14 pairs in 1990. Nest predation by red foxes (Vulpes vulpes) was high. Predator exclosures constructed around individual nests did not increase nest survival. Chick survival was higher in bay beach and island interior brood-rearing habitats than on the ocean beach. Our evidence supports the hypothesis that the availability of adequate food is driving the differences in survival observed among brood-rearing habitats. Chicks raised on the bay beach or island interior weighed more, had higher foraging rates, and spent a greater proportion of their time foraging than chicks reared on the ocean beach. Indices of invertebrate prey abundance indicated that insects were more abundant on the bay beach and island interior than on the ocean beach. Disturbance did not differ among brood-rearing habitats. Human disturbance was higher in 1990 than in previous years. Overall productivity was 0.71 chicks fledged/breeding pair, well below our estimate of the productivity needed to deter a population decline. Management efforts should focus on reducing nest predation and maintaining overwash access paths to high quality brood-rearing habitat. / Master of Science

The design of a mixed-use market, three axes of influence was studied on a site at the end of King Street in Alexandria, VA. A semicircular form was developed that terminated the main circulation axis down King Street, continued the free form edge of the Potomac, and acted as a visual beginning to the "new world" of Washington, DC across the river. While the marketplace still remains as an enduring and appealing image of the city, it has diminished in recent years. Climate controlled indoor malls and shopping centers sprawl across the . country, and many of the real marketplaces have fallen into disrepair, physically and symbolically losing their traditional role as a forum for the people. There has, however, been a resurgence of interest in the markets in the past decade. As people grow tired of impersonal service, the poor quality of goods and produce, and the often nondescript atmosphere, many of the older markets are being re-inhabited by farmers, artists and others seeking to sell their products. Around many urban centers, people are rediscovering the simple premise of the market which serves as a canvas for the explosion of colors, sights, sounds and smells it contains. / Master of Architecture

The possible development of a private school/community recreation complex on a specific site in Christiansburg, Virginia was proposed. Thorough architectural programming (including interaction with the school’s administration) and site analysis preceded the generation of design proposals for the project. A phased structure built of concrete masonry with aluminum-framed atria was proposed, responding primarily to the administration’s desire for a low cost, low maintenance structure which provided a maximum of natural illumination. Although the building would have a distinct presence within the existing neighborhood, care was taken not to cause the new complex to overpower the surrounding residential and commercial buildings. A description of the complete design process is presented in addition to graphic representations of the proposed facility. / Master of Architecture

The prosperity of the human species is based upon the existence of communal behavior. Some individuals provide food, while others are freed from the search for food to do other things: to chip flint arrowheads, to make pottery, to write symphonies. In large cities, individuals may be vaguely conscious of their larger social community, but often they recognize few of the faces of the other individuals who belong to the same large community. In an urban setting, the social behavior of individuals is defined by the built environment. The built environment has a responsibility to encourage the formation of communities of individuals, as well as to recognize and strengthen the wider community of mankind, in order that the species may flourish and prosper. A Food Market for Alexandria is a proposition for a place in Old Town Alexandria Virginia, where the growth of responsible communities may occur in an architectural setting which is a responsive member of the collection of buildings that house the human city. / Master of Architecture

The investigation of the Spirit of a historic place, Alexandria, Virginia to acquire an understanding of it’s identity; the unique patterns, language, structure, rhythm, and character, which has led to its development as a meaningful place. To respect the Spirit of this place through the design of a place to dwell within Alexandria which is sensitive to, and evolves from, this living tradition. An architecture which achieves meaning through its relation to, and reinterpretation, transformation, and revelation of the inherent qualities of the historic artifact. / Master of Architecture

Building no. 10 of the old Torpedo Factory complex occupies a pivotal position in the redevelopment of the Alexandria waterfront. This design study explored the critical issues surrounding the renovation and re-use of this now vacant warehouse- issues which involved the conceptualization of the waterfront itself as a place and its integration into the existing urban fabric. An architecture of assimilation is proposed, rather than an architecture of contrast or duplication. Thus, the historic setting is neither ignored or duplicated. Instead it is viewed as a living context with living principles capable of generating new ideas of form and space without losing its essential character or identity. / Master of Architecture

Throughout history, art has succeeded in creating systems of meaning capable of constructing a coherent world image for its respective societies. This is especially true of so-called primitive works of art, which, in their coming into being, make use of a mythical mode of thinking that sees the world in terms of analogy, the identification or establishment of relations between concrete particulars of things otherwise considered unlike. Rather than assuming that contemporary culture has overcome this savage characteristic, this book is an investigation into the theoretical foundations and implications of analogical thought involved in acts of making and the design of architectural projects relevant to our time. Of all disciplines concerned with production, perhaps architecture, in particular, finds itself amid the most complex set of various forces and constraints, all vying for preeminence - and formal expression. A corresponding architectural complexity is achieved, not in positivist fashion through direct, additive responses to this plurality of influences, but through the ordering of relations of opposition inherent in specific situations. These oppositions align with their built counterforms to produce a richly articulated structural framework. Yet, instead of grounding architectural decisions on an pposition of willful contradiction, this thesis seeks an inclusive architecture grounded in the mutual reciprocity of opposites or contraries. Analogies with structural linguistics and anthropology, Aristotle's theory of contrariety, and the literature of James Joyce are used to elucidate universal principles common to any productive art / Master of Architecture