1 volume

A study was made of 801 middle and upper-middle income class urban dwellers, 600 from Richmond and 201 from Roanoke Virginia, to determine the level of their knowledge of and attitude toward chemical pesticides. Certain profile characteristics were delineated and accessed for their relationship to the benchmark data. This sub-study was designed from data obtained from the primary study, "The Effect of a Planned Communication Program on Changes of Attitude and Knowledge of the Urban Dweller Toward Chemicals and Pesticides," Budget Bureau No. 40-6673, Dr. R. H. Gruenhagen, Project Leader. The sample audience scored approximately 70 per cent on the general knowledge questions and approximately 30 per cent on questions pertaining to knowledge of government regulations. This trend followed an evaluation of levels of attitude where general attitude was more favorable than attitude toward government regulations of pesticides and their use. The mean educational level for the population was 12.5 years; mean age was 49. 7 years; three-fifths of the urban dwellers spent their early childhood in metropolitan areas and one-third were members of selected organizations. The majority of urban dwellers participated in certain special interest activities. Urban dwellers from Richmond had a significantly higher level of education than urban dwellers from Roanoke. However, there was no significant difference between the benchmarks for the two groups of urban dwellers. This sub-study indicates that extension educational programs on pesticides should give added emphasis to information on the role of government in regulating their use. Extension educational programs should be tailored to appeal to the high educational level and broad special interest activities of this urban audience. / M.S.

This study includes an examination of the attitudes which have shaped American domestic architecture, and an explanation of how the symbolic language of American suburban areas is important to the design of suburban residential development. A design case study is included, which illustrates how a concern for the preservation of the symbolic content of suburban form can be integrated with a desire to reduce the wasteful land coverage of the typical suburban settlement, in order to produce a new suburban pattern. Selected drawings and tables are used to illustrate the text, and to help explain the rationale behind the design case study. / Master of Architecture

Up to 75 percent of new construction between 2000 and 2030 may â be redirected inward or into more compact, mixed-use suburban developments (Nelson, 2004). If this assertion is even nearly true, and if the goals of the Clean Water Act are to be met in the next generation of American cities, then we must find feasible and effective ways of improving urban watershed health using retrofit and infill development as a primary means. The aim of this study is to evaluate the patterns and approaches of suburban infill developments in order to determine which methods and extents are deemed capable of improving the health, sustainability and natural services of urban streams and watersheds. Water is considered to be foundational to urban and suburban sustainability and is treated as a primary indicator of overall health and sustainability within the context of this study. This thesis presents three pilot studies that examine urban watershed health using a single case as a vehicle. The studies, in the order they are presented, are: 1) Form- analyzing the relationship between landuse patterns and imperviousness, 2) Planning- relating questions of development scale planning and design to natural and cultural systems at the watershed scale and 3) Valuation- illustrating three possibilities for determining the economic value of improving urban watershed health. / Master of Landscape Architecture

Urban homes are vertical. Suburban homes are horizontal. They are two distinct typologies. Both urban and suburban homes relate to their location, vertical like the city, and horizontal like the suburbs. These homes are very recognizable in the American landscape. Suburban homes are 1-2 stories with a garage, a yard, and tree-lined streets. Urban homes are many apartments stacked on top of each other within a single building, each with a small balcony and a parking garage underneath. What about the in between? What happens in the spaces that are not quite urban, and yet not quite suburban? So many people live in these spaces today. They want the excitement and jobs the city offers, but they also want the comfort and space of the suburbs, especially for their families. This building is a response to those spaces, a building that is urban, but is also suburban. / Master of Architecture

The suburban landscape is a landscape of opportunity. Historically, the suburban landscape has been a desirable place for living. Because it demands the use of automobiles, it is also a landscape undesirable for pedestrians. Optimistically, through principles of New Urbanism, walkability, and mass transportation via light rail, there is an opportunity to transform the auto dominated suburban landscape into one that promotes walkability. Located in the suburbs of Alexandria, Virginia, an atypical intersection is analyzed for its characteristics of walkability. This intersection consists of several major roads converging to create a location overly dominated by busy roads and automobiles. Though there are accommodations that signify this intersection is also a place for pedestrians, a walkability checklist and a walkability study prove otherwise. The author investigates transforming this otherwise unwalkable landscape into one that promotes walkability by providing a safe, comfortable, and enjoyable experience for suburban pedestrians. Design intentions are focused on preserving much of the existing land use and not re-developing suburbia into a new urban center. Yet, through using new urbanist principles for walkability, there is the opportunity to create a new suburban center. / Master of Landscape Architecture

The ideals of a democratic society coupled with the vast expansiveness of the American landscape have led to settlement patterns within the urban environment that are distinctively American and non-traditional. The continual tension between principles of collective majority rule and rights of individual equality has led to an identifiable urban form that is neither city, with its collective characteristics, nor country, with its sense of individual freedom, but a vast middle landscape where the majority of Americans live, work, shop, and recreate. The current middle landscape has developed into a place where accommodation of the automobile, providing its sense of autonomous movement, dictates the form and order of the built environment. While investing great efforts toward the development of means of movement between places - the places themselves have been forgotten. The middle landscape, a legitimate urban form rooted in the history, culture, and natural environment of American city development, has become a place that is vastly scaled and oblivious to human existence. The thesis is an examination of this middle landscape with an attempt at the making of place within an otherwise place-less environment. / Master of Architecture

Housing shortages have plagued many large North American cities and urban areas over the last several decades. In many such regions, less affluent areas are rapidly redeveloped and densified to keep up with housing demand. This frenetic development displaces lower income residents and tears apart community networks. Meanwhile, affluent areas resist development, maintaining low densities despite their relative proximities to jobs, schools, transportation networks, and other resources. Consequently, patterns of inequality which have persisted in American Cities for decades, if not centuries, remain in-tact. Furthermore, these low-density areas contribute to sprawl, car culture, habitat destruction, and other harmful social and environmental phenomena. Additionally, many of the low density urban and suburban residential neighborhoods which were developed en masse over the last century–so-called 'cookie-cutter' neighborhoods–fail to readily accommodate the diverse and ever-changing needs and circumstances of the people who currently inhabit them, having been built with outdated and inflexible notions of the 20th century ideal family in mind. This thesis explores the redevelopment of a single family residential neighborhood in Washington, D.C. By exploring the densification of the neighborhood and the addition of new programs to the suburban landscape, the thesis seeks to identify strategies by which we might one day convert massive and sprawling cookie-cutter suburbs into denser, more sustainable, and more diverse neighborhoods which serve a wider array of residents better while contributing additional housing and other resources to the broader population. / Master of Architecture / The American obsession with single-family homeownership in the name of the 'American Dream' has led to the development of an unsustainable landscape characterized by the extreme stratification of land uses, widespread overdependence on the personal vehicle, and the continued issue of equal access to community assets and services, among many other issues. Furthermore, many extant suburban landscapes were designed with outdated and inflexible notions of the ideal family in mind, and thus they fail to meet the needs of families and individuals who don't conform to the typical family model of the 20th century. The thesis takes the stance that the 'American Dream' is an outdated ideal, and that the American suburb is, by extension, an outdated model of living in the 21st century. The thesis investigates the reprogramming of an affluent single family residential neighborhood in Washington, D.C, proposing the densification of the housing stock and exploring new urban forms which aim to build density, diversity, sustainability, and community in an existing suburban-type neighborhood.

This study uses data on the fast-growing peripheral counties located in the 50 largest metropolitan areas to test the null hypothesis that counties located on the metropolitan fringe are demographically homogenous. Using multivariate analysis, the analysis statistically identifies distinct groups of counties in the metropolitan fringe. In contrast to much of the standard literature, the research rejects the null hypothesis and suggests that more than one exurbia exists. This study also explores the varying pressures and demands faced by the different exurban county types in response to massive and compounding growth stresses, recognizing the complexity of managing growth in the fringe and the implications for planners. It is expected that counties identified as "similar" will experience common-responses to different programs and policies addressing growth pressures. Similar counties should therefore use these results to facilitate information exchange concerning successful or unsuccessful strategies. / Master of Urban and Regional Planning

published_or_final_version / Housing Management / Master / Master of Housing Management