This thesis explores architecture's role as host and its relationship with guest through the research and design of a new youth hostel for Washington, D.C. The etymological duality of host is confronted in the project's structure, as well as its liminal spaces. This new hostel offers comfort, protection, affordable accommodation, learning opportunities, and moments of camaraderie to young guests of the nation's capital. / Master of Architecture

Between the National Gallery of Art and the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C., the National Museum of Film and Photography design thesis explores issues of architecture at a scale of cultural significance. This thesis is the architectural manifestation of a museum as a research institution, separate from, yet contributing to an educational mission. It is inspired by the thin line between the two worlds, the public museum and the unseen, though often larger, private archive. In this thesis, a home for a treasury of artifacts was designed, so that they might be experienced, and for their intrinsic value. This design thesis explores the role of context, scale, and geometry in a building for the National Mall, as well as the critical requirements and specialized program of a museum. The orthogonal and radial geometry of the city are echoed in the plan. The building program, as well as the physical opportunities of the site, led to the form of the building. The simultaneous cycles of the artifact, the visitor, and the worker, and how they related to the role and amount of natural light also contributed to the form. The thesis is also developed based on the relationship between an object or a film, and a viewer. / Master of Architecture

Nowadays, the world is facing an ocean of social problems and different types of oppressions and systemic inequality from east Asia all the way to North America can be found regarding this issue. With pointing social oppression out, a long list of groups of people is considered including immigrants, religious people, LGBTQ, black society, native Americans, Latinos and etc. as well as the difficulty of relationship between these people with other groups. Many of these problems are the outcomes of the government behavior and written laws in the country's constitution which caused an inequality in society and daily life. Having said that, one of the most important questions is "what is the role of architecture here or what more can architecture do to solve any of those social problems?" In fact, the role of the governments is determinative and some of the social problems should be solved by the government, but architecture, in many different programs, could educate people to learn more about each other which in this case, in society scale, lots of social inequalities would be mitigated. While looking at several studies about social oppression and learning more about different types of groups in society, I decided to narrow down the strata to find an appropriate audience for my thesis project. In my opinion, one of the most interesting group of people in every society all around the world is women. My main focus in this research is to discuss more about women's future in society and argue political issues that women are facing nowadays. According to the rich history of the National Organization for Women (NOW) and the wide range of activities that this organization has done for women's rights, I decided to choose NOW as my case study to re-imagine a new Headquarter at the middle of the Washington D.C in a very fast growing Navy Yard neighborhood at the intersection of the M Street SE which is main corridor of this neighborhood and New Jersey Avenue SE which is a direct way to the U.S. Capitol Building . To sum up, my goal in this project is to bring architecture to help the oldest women's organization in the U.S. in a new decade of politics for women. / Master of Architecture / All around the world people must deal with social problems and systemic inequality issues. Women as the most vulnerable and valuable group of people in the world we live are the main audience for this thesis project. This study focuses on discussing more about the women's future in society regarding political issues that they are facing nowadays, also it emphasizes the role of architecture in solving any of these social problems. This project is about designing a new headquarters for the National Organization for Women (NOW), currently located in Washington D.C, as the main case study to help the oldest women's organization in the U.S. in a new decade of politics for women. The outcome of developing this research is to send a greater symbolic message about the women's future, a symbol that represents efforts and movements. In a way of educating people about future politics or trying to get the people together, hosting some of the most important conferences in the country, and making a platform to identify different cultures, this project is going to be a new landmark of the neighborhood.

The city functions as an Urban Ecosystem. As buildings are primary components of this system, each structure must appropriate its environment for the Urban Ecosystem to thrive. Additionally, each building acts as an individual ecosystem. Each building consumes energy, produces waste, and serves as an environment for life to flourish. This project investigates the study of architecture based on principles of ecology. The building holds a market, culinary school, and restaurants; receiving,transforming, and distributing sustenance to the city's inhabitants while supporting the greater metropolitan area farmers. The building exhibits the ubiquity of nature in the city and helps to revitalize an unhealthy part of Washington, DC's Urban Ecosystem. / Master of Architecture

Cities form from layers of different elements and uses to create an urban fabric. These elements include the location, geography, demography, culture, transportation, and building type. Buildings can be thought of in a similar way. Today, successful urban and building design engages in the idea of mixed-use, not only in the program, but in the diversity of spaces created and users of the space. One lost layer to Alexandria is at the northern edge of Old Town. This area is bookended by the Potomac Electric Power Company's abandoned power plant. The site sits along the Alexandria waterfront and Mount Vernon Trail with views looking toward Washington, DC. The power plant closed its doors in 2012 and there are no plans yet to redevelop the site. To regenerate new life to this neighborhood, a new satellite campus for Virginia Tech']s Schools of Visual and Performing Arts will replace the abandoned plant. This campus aims to integrate a long lost piece of Alexandria's waterfront to the city and community. The signature building of this campus is a two-stage theatre that weaves together the new student body with the existing Alexandrian community. / Master of Architecture / Cities form from layers of different elements and uses to create an urban fabric. These elements include the location, geography, demography, culture, transportation, and building type. One lost layer to Alexandria is at the northern edge of Old Town. This area is bookended by the Potomac Electric Power Company’s abandoned power plant which closed its doors in 2012. There are no plans yet to redevelop the site. To regenerate new life to this neighborhood, a new satellite campus for Virginia Tech’s Schools of Visual and Performing Arts will replace the abandoned plant. This campus aims to integrate a long lost piece of Alexandria’s waterfront to the city and community. The signature building of this campus is a two-stage theatre that weaves together the new student body with the existing Alexandrian community.

The traditional rowhouse form was a result of economical use of available space and materials that provided its occupants a home that fulfilled functional and societal needs. The result was a series of rooms along a travel corridor with a distinct underlining organization. The typology was established by certain characteristics of spatial configuration, constructional methods and ordering systems that kept the building economical. Popular attempts to accommodate modern needs into these buildings have lead to implementing the "open-plan" concept and creating a series of floors verses a series of rooms. This thesis explores the rowhouse within the modern context of Washington D.C. and attempts to redefined the typology for new construction. The desire is to resort back to the historical relevance of the individual room and create a typology appropriate for modern single-family needs. Four empty sites, each with their own context and conditions within the cityscape, are used to create four individual rowhouses that exemplify this new typology. The proposed row houses exhibit architectural structuralism and phenomenology, resulting in four rowhouses that complete the context they are set in, yet emerge with their own identity. / Master of Architecture / The exploration of typology in architecture is a historical and contemporary phenomena that classifies physical characteristics of the built environment into distinct types. An architectural typology instills historical continuity and spatial hierarchy, which guides and develops each design. This thesis explores the historical characteristics that make the typology of a rowhouse distinctive and re-examines it to accommodate the modern needs of a newly built rowhouse. The narrow space enclosed by two parallel walls creates a unique list of challenges for the typology. The need for light and air, the economic use of space, and personal desire drive architectural design decisions and a hierarchical order must be established to achieve this. This exploration ends with four different proposed rowhouse designs located in Washington D.C.

This study focused on a Mexican-American high-school senior student population in a rural agricultural area in the northwest. The purpose was twofold: (1) to examine the characteristics of the seniors that would graduate; (2) to examine the relationship between a set of nationally identified at-risk characteristics and the high- and low-achievers in the sample population. The data from the student survey yields the following profile of a successful Mexican-American student. The distribution of gender was approximately equal. The student lives with both parents in a low socioeconomic status family of approximately five children with both parents working. Both parents and students in these families are highly bilingual/bicultural. The students' families, especially the mother, are highly supportive of the student. The students like school, do well, and are active in extracurricular activities. They have a good self image, have high aspirations, and are goal orientated. Finally, during the school process, the student has been supported by teachers, friends and counselors. When examining the high- and low-achieving students in the study, it was discovered that the low achieving students exhibit many characteristics typical of high risk students. The students with these characteristics are frequently absent from school and have poor grades. They come from a large, single parent family of low socioeconomic status which is non-supportive of the student's school career. Finally, the students in this group have parents with low-educational level and little involvement in school matters. For the sample in general, the study shows the Mexican-American high-school graduate to be a good student with high aspirations. While some of the at-risk characteristics are useful in differentiating between high- and low-achievement there is doubt about their usefulness in predicting that a student will dropout.

No description available.

In November 2006 a Pineapple Express rainstorm moved through the Pacific Northwest generating record precipitation, 22 to 50 cm in the two-day event on Mt. Rainier. Copeland (2009) and Legg (2013) identified debris flows in seven drainages in 2006; Inter Fork, Kautz, Ohanapecosh, Pyramid, Tahoma, Van Trump, and West Fork of the White River. This study identified seven more drainages: Carbon, Fryingpan, Muddy Fork Cowlitz, North Puyallup, South Mowich, South Puyallup, and White Rivers. Twenty-nine characteristics, or attributes, associated with the drainages around the mountain were collected. Thirteen were used in a regression analysis in order to develop a susceptibility map for debris flows on Mt. Rainier: Percent vegetation, percent steep slopes, gradient, Melton's Ruggedness Number, height, area, percent bedrock, percent surficial, percent glacier, stream has direct connection with a glacier, average annual precipitation, event precipitation, and peak precipitation. All variables used in the regression were measured in the upper basin. Two models, both with 91% accuracy, were generated for the mountain. Model 1 determined gradient of the upper basin, upper basin area, and percent bedrock to be the most significant variables. This model predicted 10 drainages with high potential for failure: Carbon, Fryingpan, Kautz, Nisqually, North Mowich, South Mowich, South Puyallup, Tahoma, West Fork of the White, and White Rivers. Of the remaining drainages 5 are moderate, 10 are low, and 9 are very low. Model 2 found MRN (Melton's Ruggedness Number) and percent bedrock to be the most significant. This model predicted 10 drainages with high potential for failure during future similar events: Fryingpan, Kautz, Nisqually, North Mowich, Pyramid, South Mowich, South Puyallup, Tahoma, Van Trump, and White Rivers. Of the remaining drainages, 6 are moderate, 9 are low, and 9 are very low. The two models are very similar. Initiation site elevations range from 1442 m to 2448 m. Six of the thirteen initiation sites are above 2000 m. Proglacial gully erosion initiated debris flows seem to occur at all elevations. Those debris flows initiated partially by landslides occur between 1400 and about 1800 m. The combined regression analysis model for the Mt. Rainier, Mt. St. Helens, Mt. Hood, and Mt. Adams raised the predictive accuracy from 69% (Olson, 2012) to 77%. This model determined that percent glacier/ice and percent vegetation were the most significant.

Thesis. 1974. M.Arch.A.S.--Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Architecture. / MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND ROTCH. / Bibliography : leaf 121. / by Cheryl A. Amisial. / M.Arch.A.S.