Urban catalysts are new redevelopment strategies comprised of a series of projects that drive and guide urban development. Redevelopment efforts in the past, such as urban renewal and large-scale redevelopment projects, have often jeopardized the vitality of downtowns. The difference between the urban catalyst and these redevelopment strategies is that catalytic redevelopment is a holistic approach, not a clean-slate approach, to revitalizing the urban fabric. Many cities have considered urban catalysts as a means for revitalization. Among the most noted catalytic projects are sports stadiums and arenas: however not all catalytic projects have to be designed at such a grand scale, nor do all cities possess a threshold of support to successfully sustain such developments. This thesis design project examines the significance of the urban catalyst as a means of urban revitalization. The urban catalyst theory says design can be linked to place through the study of contextual factors in urban design. These factors include: morphological, social, functional, perceptual, visual, and temporal. For the urban catalyst to respond to its setting it also must possess a strong sense of place and authenticity. Each component of my research supports my position that each city has unique attributes that can serve as basic models or seeds for urban redevelopment. These components are used as a basis for developing a design framework that is applied to two sites in Memphis, Tennessee. This position is tested through the contextual analysis and design of two projects that are of major significance to Downtown Memphis, Tennessee. The first demonstrates the role that Court Square plays as a critical social and spatial element in the revitalization of the center city. The second is the revitalization of the South Side Neighborhood, an area full of history and character. / Master of Landscape Architecture

Overall goal: “The overarching aim of the Programme is to promote a sense of dignity in the public real, targeting the poorest and most disadvantaged parts of the city, by providing each local area with a place where individual circumstances of poverty are not starkly visible, where people can meet and gather or just sit in a place that is as attractive and comfortable as any other well-made, positive place in the city.” [Southworth, 2003:125] Problem identification: The form and structure of the city is driven by the urban legend that almost all users will move through the city by car, bus or taxi. This produced a low-density, disorganized expansion which forces users to commute between spread out facilities. Public space in the city has largely been neglected, with green areas fenced of [e.g. the Union buildings green space] and existing squares and arcades taken over by commercial interests. The perception is created that these vital areas are extravagant squander of money both to create and maintain. This resulted in neglected and derelict spaces scattered around the city, often only used as parking. The focus of designers has largely been on individual buildings only, neglecting their impact on their neighbours, the street and their interaction on public space. Project aims and objectives: Explore and analyse the interconnected systems inherent in the city. In order to obtain a comprehensive understanding of some of the systems and processes that are active in the city, analysis needs to be done on several levels.Regional scale: The city systems as part of the larger Tswane Megacity. City scale: Explore the interaction of these processes within the CBD. Local scale: Placing the study area within the north-eastern quarter of the CBD to create a master program for the area. Create a master program for the north-eastern quarter of the city incorporating these systems and processes. Study the workings of the north-eastern quarter to develop guidelines for its improvement. Place an urban catalyst within the study area to promote regeneration on social, economic and urban levels. Design an architectural response to the new urban catalyst. Approach: The creation of a public space, linking isolated city blocks. To use buildings to fill gaps in the existing street edges, as well as defining the new public space. This will lead to economic and social regeneration of the area. Develop guidelines for function selection of building linked to the street and public space. Design an architectural response to the new public space. / Dissertation (MArch(Prof))--University of Pretoria, 2008. / Architecture / unrestricted

Master of Landscape Architecture / Department of Landscape Architecture/Regional and Community Planning / Melanie F. Klein / The trend of urbanization is escalating on a global scale, in many cases sprawling outward at the expense of decaying urban centers, post industrial infrastructure, and other neglected landscapes. There is a critical need for intelligent, responsive, and resilient urban planning and design. The Smoky Hill River’s neglected cutoff channel running through the heart of Salina, Kansas, is exemplary of these phenomena. Although the historic channel operates as an important landscape infrastructural system for stormwater conveyance, it remains largely inactive in terms of its connections to adjacent neighborhoods, cultural significance, and economic driving potential. Landscape Urbanism, a relatively new realignment in urbanism theory, involves the concept of engaging dynamic urban processes and facilitating or enhancing relationships through design, providing potential remediation to many urban dilemmas. While still speculative and experimental, its application in metropolitan environments has garnered acknowledgment in the design community. Landscape Urbanism’s relevance toward micropolitan and small metropolitan cities, however, remains largely unexplored. The relationship between the revitalization of the historic Smoky Hill cutoff and Salina, facilitated by local advocates the Friends of the River, explores the application of Landscape Urbanism theory in smaller urban environs. Through the analysis of precedents exhibiting Landscape Urbanism strategies, the careful inventory of characteristics unique to specific sites along the historic channel, and synthesizing the Friends of the River goals and objectives, applicable strategies that influence design methodology by engaging key urban systems are found and applied. The design of these sites act to “catalyze” adjacent areas through connectivity and enhancing the cultural, environmental, and economic health of the district. Design implementation at a strategic site catalyzes immediately adjacent districts, followed by the catalysis of the entire channel. In its final state, the historic channel becomes re-integrated into the City of Salina as a vital system, engaging and enhancing the urban field as a whole.

Master of Regional and Community Planning / Department of Landscape Architecture/Regional and Community Planning / Huston Gibson / In many urban redevelopment discussions, people often refer to a catalyst as the impetus for redevelopment. Unfortunately, no standard definition of an urban redevelopment catalyst exists, so liberal use of the term catalyst persists. As distinguished in Dr. Timothy Chapin’s dissertation, Urban Revitalization Tools: Assessing the Impacts of Sports Stadia at the Microarea Level, the impacts of sports stadia (widely considered catalysts) are often overstated. In order to have valuable arguments over the impacts of presupposed catalytic activities, we need to understand the defining characteristics of an urban redevelopment catalyst and utilize a consistent process for examining them. This study identifies these characteristics and develops a methodology from which others may study catalysts. Included in the study are both narrative and tangible evidence from which researchers may decipher catalytic characteristics and events. In order to explore this analytic method, a case study was necessary. The revitalization of Washington Avenue (in downtown St. Louis, Missouri) provided an excellent opportunity to implement and test the process. Washington Avenue went from decrepit in the early 1980s to receiving the honor of being a Great Street by the American Planning Association in 2011. By delving into the developmental history of Washington Avenue, the process verified urban redevelopment catalytic characteristics, the methodology and the presence of small-scale urban redevelopment catalysts. From these findings, (coupled with a preexisting, dominant discussion focused large-scale catalysts) we see the value of small, organic development. The study prompts further exploration of urban redevelopment catalysts, especially in regards to smaller catalysts. It also suggests a new line of thinking for urban redevelopment dynamics, thus guiding future research to focus on understanding the processes of urban redevelopment.

A new nomad society is colonizing the desert landscape of the American Southwest. It is a leaderless seasonal swarm, dispersed but densely connected socially, able to form and disband agile urban communities the size of large American cities. It consists of highway bound leisure hunters driving extremely wasteful vehicles that while parked are able form a dense and resilient pioneer society. They are predominantly retired and constructing a new American dream, an informal utopia created from potlucks, social media, satellite dishes and mobile homes. This frontier society of urban flexibilization, decentralization and total urbanization is a product of the complexity and uncertainties of cities being amplified by technological and social disruption, climate change and economic crises. In a mobile future, informal and temporary uses will be important drivers of development and the urban periphery a breeding ground for new forms of urbanism. How do we govern, plan for and understand this development? The nomad cities are poorly documented and understood, especially in academia. With this thesis I aim to change that. I have conducted extensive field studies, including both quantitative mapping and semi-structured qualitative interviews. The data has been analyzed using a theoretical framework consisting of network theory of Castells, spatial analysis ideas of Lefebvre, Venturi, Friedman, Deleuze and Guattari, and social theories of Bourdieu, Foucault and Standing among others. The basic building block of the nomad city are recreational vehicles (RVs); trailers, motorhomes and camper vans. The RV is in itself a hybrid phenomenon that embodies conflicting ideals of the American society: total freedom of movement, the reinvention of the self on the frontier and the American dream. It is both individualistic and community based, and it’s urban forms are highly adaptable to societal changes, mirroring society’s development as well as the changing landscape it inhabits. It recreates itself and revises its citizens’ common habitus with every iteration. The RV world contains multiple layers of meaning for our increasingly urbanized society. It is a frontier for the expansion of exurbia and a physical manifestations of the network society. It creates small initiatives that create ripple effects and thereby a transformation of the urban fabric. To encourage these practices the role of planning needs to be revised. It should not primarily be to decide what is built but to enable the emerging practices that are there. Instead of presenting a grand plan we should allow a multitude of bottom up processes to lead development. In the words of Cedric Price: “The primary aim of planning is not to specify an ideal state but to open up to new possibilities”.