Thesis (M.C.P.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, 1990. / Title as it appears in the M.I.T. Graduate List, June 1990: Cantonese immigrant women and job change under industrial restructuring in Boston, 1970-1990. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 118-120). / by Elena Choy. / M.C.P.

Thesis (M.C.P.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, February 2000. / "February 2000." Vita. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 73-79). / In 1910, the Pennsylvania Railroad constructed Pennsylvania Station, its New York City terminal. Built and designed as a "monumental gateway," an important civic structure as well as a transportation hub, the station became an important part of New York's urban fabric. Its success inspired the United States government to construct the adjacent Farley Post Office as an architectural and functional complement to Penn Station. By 1963, changing economic conditions and the evolving nature of passenger transportation prompted the Pennsylvania Railroad to announce plans to sell development rights on the Penn Station site. The station would be demolished and replaced with a new Madison Square Garden complex; the railroad would create a new underground "Penn Station" beneath the Garden. These plans prompted tremendous public and editorial outcry on a scale never before seen, thus beginning the historic-preservation movement in New York City. Although in 1963 the city had no authority to intervene, and Penn Station was indeed demolished as planned, Mayor Robert Wagner in 1965 signed New York City's Landmarks Law, establishing the Landmarks Preservation Commission. The Commission had the power to protect designated landmarks from demolition. By the 1990s, the city's attitude toward historic preservation had come full circle, as vividly illustrated by new plans to renovate a portion of the Farley Post Office as a new Penn Station waiting area and concourse. This thesis uses the example of Penn Station's fall and rise to chronicle and analyze New York's change in attitude toward historic preservation. / by Eric J. Plosky. / M.C.P.

Thesis (M.C.P.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, 1983. / MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND ROTCH. / Includes bibliographical references. / by Elizabeth Laurance March. / M.C.P.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, 2010. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 316-331). / This dissertation is an urban environmental history of the low-lying American slum. Using qualitative research methods, I investigate the historical phenomenon of topographically based, socio-economic segregation in cities, and how urban actors first created these places then remade them. I examine six low-lying urban neighborhoods in the United States: "The Bottoms" in Columbus, Ohio; "Frog Hollow" in Hartford, Connecticut; "The Flats" in Los Angeles, California; "Black Bottom" in Nashville, Tennessee; "Swede Hollow" in St. Paul, Minnesota; and, "Foggy Bottom" in Washington, D.C. The first part of the thesis examines how land and factory owners, real estate developers, and speculators made urban lowlands into residential districts nicknamed bottoms, hollows, and flats beginning in the late nineteenth century. I argue that the deliberately incomplete implementation of urban interventions such as sewerage, water supply, and flood protection created interstitial spaces for stigmatized residence. Considered potentially threatening strangers, foreign immigrants, black migrants, and poor country whites were forced down into the lowlands, which functioned as containment zones within the internal structure of the city. The second part of the thesis details three modes of remaking the lowlands: slum clearance, zoning, and big projects. Late nineteenth century attempts to remove residents and eliminate slums encountered resistance from voters and city officials due to concerns that displaced undesirables would move into their city spaces. By the 1920s, zoning helped to ease middle and upper class fears of invasion by promulgating rules to protect neighborhoods of single-family homes. After 1937, the federal government funded resident removal and physical redevelopment through public housing, highways, and the urban renewal program, erasing the old lowland slums. The history of urban lowlands highlights the low-lying landscape as an urban nexus point, revealing an inherent conflict between urban actors over containment of the poor versus the redevelopment of stigmatized districts. Planners intervene in this conflict, and assist in the repeated remaking of desirable and undesirable city spaces. The thesis draws connections among physical planning, social inequality, natural processes, and urban space in lowlands of unique interest to scholars and practicing planners in an era of renewed interest in the environment of cities. / by Steven Thomas Moga. / Ph.D.

Thesis: M.C.P., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Urban Studies and Planning, 2016. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (pages 95-98). / In Seattle, a city with a robust public process around issues of urban growth, recent rapid redevelopment in low-rise neighborhoods has intensified the public debate over design and density. Conflict over individual development projects has escalated as the city struggles to balance economic and population growth with community needs, leaving many residents anxious about congestion, affordability, and a changing built environment. This thesis examines Seattle's design review, which is the central public piece of the city's development review process, and evaluates its success as a collaborative process in this context of divisive growth. Urban design and regulations such as design review are often regarded as the exclusive realm of design professionals; this thesis argues that design review must embrace its role in a participatory planning process. Research draws on existing models of design review as well as collaborative planning theory to evaluate how Seattle's design review can further employ deliberative strategies to reduce polarization over growth and better address community needs. Analysis suggests that the city's framework for design review, which fosters stakeholder relationships and local knowledge as well as design expertise, could be further enhanced by emphasis on dialogue, training, and alignment with other city departments and neighborhood plans. / by Ellen Corinne Lohe. / M.C.P.

Thesis (M.C.P.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, 1990. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 86-88). / by Debra L. Northrop. / M.C.P.

Thesis (M.C.P.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 68-72). / In 2000, the Beijing Municipal Planning Commission drew up a conservation plan for the 25 historic areas in Beijing's Old City. The main principles for the conservation plan were as follows: 1) To preserve the traditional cityscape and hutongs, 2) To ensure the authenticity of the preserved heritage, 3) To implement preservation using a gradual and measured method, 4) To improve the infrastructure and living conditions of the local residents, and 5) To encourage public participation. The residential district of Nanchizi was one of the 25 designated historic areas. In 2001, the area became the pilot site for the implementation of the conservation plan. In June 2002, demolition crews arrived at Nanchizi ready to destroy the courtyard homes. The resulting transformation of Nanchizi reveals that the plan did not succeed in preserving the historic area. This thesis explains why this initial implementation of the historic conservation plan failed to achieve the principles of the plan and examines the causes of this disparity between the vision and the reality of conservation planning in Beijing. It argues that the cause of the disparity between vision and reality lies in the competing visions of those involved in the planning process and that certain visions are valued over others. This cause stems from the inability of planning institutions and processes to respond to the political and economic transitions of China in the past decade. The thesis concludes that in order to succeed in conservation, the function and process of planning must be reconsidered. In addition, the discourse on conservation should also be reexamined in order to ensure that other designated conservation districts of Beijing do not suffer the same fate as the Nanchizi historic area. / by Beatrice B. Chen. / M.C.P.

Thesis (M.C.P.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, 1988. / Includes bibliographical references. / by Elizabeth Lauren Gotterer. / M.C.P.

Thesis (M.C.P.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references. / Discourses about the construction of identity, the politics of identity, and the role of design in controlling human behavior and expressing power have thus far been confined to separate realms of inquiry. This thesis will examine where these discourses intersect and how their intersection plays out in society as old conceptions of race and identity are challenged by demographic shifts and new immigrant populations. Festivals, as spatial expressions of identity that image city spaces, provide an important perspective on this topic. Philadelphia, as a former capital city that continues to struggle with race and identity in its politics, acts as a compelling backdrop for my case studies. The Mummers Parade and the Odunde Festival are two New Year's celebrations that mediate racial/political and ethnic/cultural identities for the city's white and black populations respectively. This thesis considers both festivals from their historical context and compares their current form in terms of spatial and non-spatial indicators (route, demographics, funding, and organizational structure). From this analytic framework emerges a picture of how political identities are constructed spatially, how the process of identity construction both challenges and reinforces the dominant political structure, and how the process can bridge political differences and maintain them. / by Annis Whitlow. / M.C.P.

Thesis (M.C.P.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 174-177). / Command and control environmental regulation has been under attack from all sides for some time. In Wisconsin, the Department of Natural Resources is experimenting with an alternative form of environmental governance. This new program uses cooperative agreements to provide flexibility to firms in exchange for "superior environmental performance." The program attempts to change norms of adversarial and rule driven regulation, to norms of cooperative and flexible regulation. To maintain democratic accountability, firms that take part in the program are required to create a group of interested community participants. This thesis explores regulatory relationships within this program and under command and control through three case studies. These case studies reveal that flexibility can provide opportunity for greater environmental performance and that bottom up participation can provide a measure of democratic accountability. However, this democratic accountability was compromised by lack of access to expertise among participants, lack of clarity in roles, and difficulty handling conflict. The difficulties faced in this program highlight the need for the state to take a proactive role even when moving away from command and control. Nevertheless, these cases show potential for a shift towards cooperation in regulation through opening spaces for firms, regulators, and communities, to engage in deliberation. / by Matthew Amengual. / M.C.P.