I think of a book as an act of human generosity. In its offerings are the treasures of a mind. The architecture of a library should celebrate the presentation of the book. In celebrating its presence, the library becomes a museum of books. IN THE ORDER OF THE CIRCLE GEOMETRY WARM GARDEN COLD GARDEN GREEN GARDEN STONE GARDEN IN THE NATURE OE THE WALL HOW TO FINISH THE LAND AT THE WATER’S EDGE / Master of Architecture

The work involves an architectural design for a facility located on The Mall in Washington, District of Columbia. The Museum of American Immigrants is a proposed facility for housing the exhibits regarding immigration sequences and their development that make up the United States of America. The ethnographic nature of the work, its artifacts, their collection, exhibition, preservation, and mutations is seen as a means to nurture our better understanding of the on-going struggle with the experiment called America. With reference to current theories of museum architecture, examples of other similar museum buildings, site constraints, and programming, the work strives towards the integration of architecture and purpose. The building is expected to provide layers of experience in both spatial and ethnic terms. The precise geometry defines the spaces and voids, while the way the exhibits are organized defines the building as a framework of displays. The design method used in developing the building called The Museum of American Immigrants has involved a personal understanding in working with the contemporary design Vocabulary and programmatic concerns to create a learning environment for the Visitors while making every effort to achieve contextual balance and harmony required by the surroundings. / Master of Architecture

The fresh new approach taken by today's children's museums offers great potential for an equally fresh approach to the architecture which houses these special places. Just as the "exhibits" at the children's museums invite a new relationship between the visitor and the museum collection, so too should the architecture encourage a new interaction between the individual and the built structure, between the institution and the urban environment. The new Children's Discovery Museum proposed for Washington, D.C. takes the theme of interaction as its basis. The design aims to promote a new level of participation between the people, the building, and the city. In this way, the attitude which is central in making children's museums so special was adapted to form an architectural framework: that all children -- regardless of age -- might discover a more meaningful connectedness to the built world around them. / Master of Architecture

On the following pages are images of an architecture which pushes the limits of design. Conceived as an amalgamation of semiautonomous fragments, the thesis project strives to decompose into complete disarray. At the verge of structural (compositional) collapse, the building asks the question 'where does structure break down, and chaos begin?'. A table I have designed and built is an experiment in spontaneity, and questions the validity of traditional ways of building furniture. Building analysis drawings I have included at the end of the book are compositional exercises and have, from a graphic perspective, some of the density and formal complexity of the images of the thesis. While I have relied upon Deconstructionist terminology to describe the building represented, I must admit that the building is not truly Deconstructed. It is fragmented. Some visual continuity between design elements remains. If I were to produce a deconstructed building, I would have to go beyond playing formal games and question what forms signify. Then, perhaps, I could find alternative significations; I might also be able to make a new link between the signifier and the signified. I think I would be searching for a new conception of form, one free of convention, of precondition. / Master of Architecture

The title of this thesis is more a convenience than a description. It is borrowed from some recent housing projects in Berlin, which, like the project presented here, are urban structures which contain more than one residence, though seldom more than six. The project here contains four. The residences are of different sizes and spatial configurations. It is intended to be a place for individuals as well as families. It is an attempt to gather, to shelter - to provide and enrich. / Master of Architecture

In the past two decades the increase in passengers and frequency of flights has caused commercial air transportation to suffer. The system in current use was designed to satisfy different needs than the contemporary ones. Airports have failed to keep up with increased demands. Movement of passengers and aircraft have not kept pace with advances in technology. Many aircraft arriving and departing simultaneously create unnecessary delays and monetary loss to commercial airlines. The present solutions were based on new additions to existing airports as well as the creation of new airports so that metropolitan flights could arrive to different locations, e.g. JFK, La Guardia and Newark in the New York area; National and Dulles in the Washington D.C. area. The concept of the traditional airport is obsolete and needs to be completely rethought, not modified. / Master of Architecture

This project consisted of the design and presentation of a monastery in Rock Creek Park, Washington, D.C. The scheme developed consisted of a church, library, refectory(kitchen and dining space), campanile(bell tower), four chapels, individual cells and gardens, and exterior connecting spaces including a central and sub-plaza. The monastery design was developed in terms of the circulation of the monks from their individual cells to the various communal centers at the top of the hill. Both visual and topographical means were examined in this development. This volume includes the completed monastery as well as some of the stages reached in the development of the finished design. / Master of Architecture

All material in nature, the mountains and the streams and the air and we, are made of Light which has been spent, and this crumpled mass called material casts a shadow, and the shadow belongs to Light. Louis I. Kahn¹ I like complexity and contradiction in architecture. I do not like the incoherence or arbitrariness of incompetent architecture nor the precious intricacies of picturesqueness or expressionism. Instead, I speak of a complex and contradictory architecture based on the richness and ambiguity of modern experience, including that experience which is inherent in art. Robert Venturi² / Master of Architecture

Coal-fired power plants constitute a significant source of energy production for the United States, and are projected to do so for decades to come. Most of the scrutiny coal-fired power plants receive is in the form of environmental concerns regarding green house gas emissions of carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, and others. It is known that coal fly ash released through the stacks of coal power plants contains concentrated levels of naturally-occurring radiation, such as Radium-226. However, since the source of radiation is natural and the activity levels are low, there are no nuclear regulatory requirements imposed on coal plants. The focus of this study was to use the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s (NRC) facility release criteria to determine whether the concentration of naturally occurring Radium-226 present in soil surrounding the Centralia Power Plant is elevated relative to soil collected 80 kilometers away. The non-parametric Wilcoxon Rank Sum test was used to compare twenty-eight soil samples collected within 3.4 kilometers of the Centralia Power Plant stacks against an equal number of reference samples collected in Port Orchard, Washington. It was determined that the average concentration of Radium-226 in soil near the power plant was 1.59 pCi/g, while the average concentration in reference soil was 0.59 pCi/g. The study suggests that the area around the power plant would fail to pass the release criteria of a NRC Multi-Agency Radiation Survey and Site Investigation (MARSSIM) Class 3 survey unit. If it is true that coal fired power plants increase background radiation levels measurably, but not at a level sufficient to cause alarm, it may be sensible to revise the strict emissions standards for nuclear facilities or increase requirements for utilities other than nuclear. / Graduation date: 2012

Master of Agribusiness / Department of Agricultural Economics / Mykel Taylor / Choosing a viable long-run crop investment can be risky and time consuming for farmers. The high establishment costs and risk for perennial tree crops like cherries require producers to conduct careful analysis prior to investing. Farmers must not only look to prices today but to the long term price trends that are likely affect the investment profitability. This thesis is an investment analysis on planting twenty-five acres of Sweetheart cherries in Washington State. The purpose is to calculate the total net present value over the commercially productive life of the cherry trees. Prices received by growers for sweet cherry production can fluctuate. Sweet cherries are also susceptible to yield volatility. Therefore, a sensitivity analysis was calculated that shows the changes in price and yield and its effect on net present value. Sweet cherry production for fresh market is also labor intensive. Changes in labor supply and minimum wage can affect a farmers profit margins. This thesis evaluates the risk of a wage shock to the total net present value of the investment. The net present value calculated was found to be positive, making planting Sweetheart cherries a viable option for Hillslide Orchards. The internal rate of return was favorable at 12.30% return. Yield risk was relatively low in this model showing positive net present values at 60% over base yield and still positive at 40% below base yields. The price risk was found to be slightly higher with negative net present values below $1.00 or 20% below the base price. It is important to note that this model represents planting a block of Sweetheart cherries within an existing operation. There are additional costs that would be incurred for other farm operations, not modeled here that could decrease the overall profitability under alternative planting scenarios.