Yonge Street is a unique urban resource for the City of Toronto. It acts as the central nervous system uniting local, suburban and out-of-town populations with both surface and underground networks. It has transformed to adapt to fluctuating cultural, social climates and urban development projects. Many fragments can be found both within this major thoroughfare’s physical streetscape and in the hearts of many Torontonians. The largely generic street fabric found in the stretch between Queen and Bloor may lack in architectural integrity, but offers a spectrum of establishments that exhibit the diversity found in Toronto. The tension between these assorted venues is what gives the street both value and complexity despite their individual architectural modesty. It is a casual place in the city that speaks to the everyday citizen. It’s eclectic and sometimes tawdry charm raises mixed reviews by locals and often confuses city bureaucrats. Many development strategies have been initiated in order to give the street a homogenized image and a public face. However, it is in its informal candidness where its value rests. This thesis claims that Yonge Street is a democratic urban platform built upon complex layers. The diverse, overlapping and kinetic happenings felt on the street are both its strength and weakness. The rich experience is difficult to articulate using traditional urban design analysis. This thesis offers a new version of portraiture that seeks to illustrate the spirit of Yonge Street. Using unconventional mapping methods and visualisations, it will render qualities often difficult to express. Five portraits of Yonge Street are presented, inspired by five buildings: the Yonge-Bloor Subway Station, Sam the Record Man, Zanzibar Tavern, the Yonge Street Mission and Yonge-Dundas Square. Each describes one of Yonge Street’s many faces using a collection of subjective mapping exercises to portray a different character present on the street. Urban developments that add to Yonge Street, or allow it to evolve as an eclectic social condenser can only be created when the existing phenomena embedded in its fabric is understood. In order to provoke a new interpretation of Yonge Street, the thesis synthesizes the findings of these mappings into a collection of street art proposals. The interventions presented act as agents directed towards a new engagement and understanding of Yonge Street, framing it as an irreplaceable resource for the citizens Toronto.

The objective of this thesis is to explore the relationship between street patterns and floodplains. Although some researchers have written about the relationship between land use and floodplains in The Woodlands, few have discussed how the city form was designed around the hydrological system. This thesis will focus on one aspect of the city form, the street pattern, to determine the effectiveness of street designs' response to floodplains. Unlike the grid-like pattern advocated by the New Urbanists, street patterns in The Woodlands are loops and cul-de-sacs -- a typical suburban pattern at the time it was developed; however, street patterns adapt to the boundaries of floodplains and protect them very well. Using a GIS tool to overlay 100-year floodplains on the street layer, it is clear to see that there are low percentages of streets in the 100-year floodplains. Thus, The Woodlands employed nonstructural techniques to mitigate flood hazard, which minimize the development in floodplains. Flood control in The Woodlands is much better than other places in the Houston area. From flood control and the protection of the natural environment standpoints, the nonstructural techniques are advocated more than structural techniques for floodplains in the development management. Therefore, the design of street patterns in an area is determined by both the aim of convenient transportation and the aim of hazard mitigation.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2009. / Title from title screen (site viewed January 5, 2010). PDF text: vi, 107 p. ; 613 K. UMI publication number: AAT 3369394. Includes bibliographical references. Also available in microfilm and microfiche formats.

Thesis (M.A.)--Ohio State University, 1970. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 79). Available online via OhioLINK's ETD Center

Thesis (M. Arch.)--University of Hong Kong, 1998. / Includes special study report entitled: Towards new urban street space. Includes bibliographical references.

The problem of street children in Namibia corresponds with that seen in other Third World countries where the economic and socioeconomic climate favours unemployment and poverty, resulting in cultural degeneration and desperate antisocial behavioural patterns. An example of this phenomenon is the growing numbers of street children who are not an integral part of a family, supportive neighbourhood or healthy surroundings. A recovery plan based on the concrete particulars of the everyday realities of these children is urgently required to reverse the situation. It demands a clear understanding of the problem within the specific context of Namibia. This article describes the general characteristics, behavioural patterns and causes of the phenomenon in order to enable the government to prevent, manage and provide an efficient service to households in Namibia so as to defuse and respond to those factors contributing to children living on the streets.

Yonge Street is a unique urban resource for the City of Toronto. It acts as the central nervous system uniting local, suburban and out-of-town populations with both surface and underground networks. It has transformed to adapt to fluctuating cultural, social climates and urban development projects. Many fragments can be found both within this major thoroughfare’s physical streetscape and in the hearts of many Torontonians. The largely generic street fabric found in the stretch between Queen and Bloor may lack in architectural integrity, but offers a spectrum of establishments that exhibit the diversity found in Toronto. The tension between these assorted venues is what gives the street both value and complexity despite their individual architectural modesty. It is a casual place in the city that speaks to the everyday citizen. It’s eclectic and sometimes tawdry charm raises mixed reviews by locals and often confuses city bureaucrats. Many development strategies have been initiated in order to give the street a homogenized image and a public face. However, it is in its informal candidness where its value rests. This thesis claims that Yonge Street is a democratic urban platform built upon complex layers. The diverse, overlapping and kinetic happenings felt on the street are both its strength and weakness. The rich experience is difficult to articulate using traditional urban design analysis. This thesis offers a new version of portraiture that seeks to illustrate the spirit of Yonge Street. Using unconventional mapping methods and visualisations, it will render qualities often difficult to express. Five portraits of Yonge Street are presented, inspired by five buildings: the Yonge-Bloor Subway Station, Sam the Record Man, Zanzibar Tavern, the Yonge Street Mission and Yonge-Dundas Square. Each describes one of Yonge Street’s many faces using a collection of subjective mapping exercises to portray a different character present on the street. Urban developments that add to Yonge Street, or allow it to evolve as an eclectic social condenser can only be created when the existing phenomena embedded in its fabric is understood. In order to provoke a new interpretation of Yonge Street, the thesis synthesizes the findings of these mappings into a collection of street art proposals. The interventions presented act as agents directed towards a new engagement and understanding of Yonge Street, framing it as an irreplaceable resource for the citizens Toronto.

Urban streets should be functional as both “path” and “place”, but “street as place” has been overlooked in urban design. The purpose of this thesis is to develop design guidelines for improving pedestrians’ experience on urban streets in Toronto. The study site is Gould Street in downtown Toronto. A preliminary study revealed thermal comfort, safety, social interaction and visual experience as key factors influencing pedestrians’ experience on urban streets. Design guidelines were formulated from literature review to address these key factors on Gould Street. These factors also form the framework for site inventories and analyses. The design concept, “Regenerating the river of life of the city”, is implemented by applying the guidelines to three design solutions. These alternatives were compared to identify their strengths and weaknesses related to the guidelines. Conclusions are drawn regarding the applicability of the guidelines, the limitations of the research and possibilities for future studies.

There is no abstract available for this dissertation.

No description available.