RESEARCH PROJECTS
masters thesis (in Progress)
Dead Space Interventions to Address the Pedestrian Environment
Urban dead space diminishes the quality and identity of an environment. Dead Space Interventions: Addressing the Pedestrian Environment uses Lincoln, Nebraska as a case study to understand dead spaces and implement low-cost, yet high quality design strategies to avoid their creation in future developments.
Current dead space categorizations by author Nainoa DJ Cravalho included non-places, interstitial spaces, and urban crack. (Cravalho, 2015) Thorough research and site analysis of Lincoln’s downtown core prompted the creation of a list of urban dead space conditions. Some conditions did not fit into the categories previously defined, meaning new categorizations were necessary.
Dead space is categorized and ranked in six categories, from least problematic to most they include: deterrents, non-place, interstitial space, slice, absence, and urban crack. Isolation of conditions that may be remedied through design led to the creation of design probes.
With the goal of creating high-quality spaces through urban design, it is necessary to understand the most important principles of urban quality and the physical principles that relate to them. These are found in “Quality of an urban environment” and include qualities such as fit, sense of place, warmth, interest, and awareness. Physical principles that create these positive qualities include outdoor
amenities, seating, landscaping, barrier-free, and preservation of nature and culture. These principles were used when improving spatial qualities in the design probes.
The four design probes focus on different urban condition, evaluating each one in six steps- identification, site analysis, listing qualities, precedent research, evaluation, and implementation. The purpose of the probes is to conduct a qualitative analysis of the existing space and add or subtract elements that will improve spatial quality based on the synergies between elements. The result of the design probes is the improvement of existing conditions; however, the methods can be used to improve future development to avoid the creation of dead spaces.
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TO BE CONTINUED FOR FUTURE RESEARCH..
Vacant Storefront (Before)
Vacant Storefront (After)
Solid Facade (Before)
Solid Facade (After)
Independent study
Measuring Success of the Downtown Plan
Assessing Comparable Cities and Recommending Improvements for Lincoln, Nebraska
The purpose of this study is to utilize data and literature for urban development recommendations for Lincoln, Nebraska’s downtown sector. The study looks to understand how Lincoln can track and measure success based on comparable cities. First, a literature review was conducted to establish grounds for guiding the research.
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Next, a series of data collection methods and analysis was used to find cities most like Lincoln. The results of this step found similar cities to be Anchorage, Alaska, Ann Arbor, Michigan, Lawrence, Kansas, and Bloomington, Indiana. During this stage, it became pertinent to explore the differences between a “College Town” or “towns with colleges.” Finally, a thorough investigation of each city’s downtown plan was conducted to find goals, implementation measures, and metrics for tracking success.
Results show that Lincoln is more similar economically to “towns with colleges” and relates culturally to “College Towns.” The most common goals among the cities involve housing, economy, and transportation/accessibility. Lincoln can benefit from including goals involving sustainability and historic preservation. Implementation measures are in line with the like cities. Measures for success in Lincoln’s plan are well explained, however, no baselines are set. Lincoln can follow in Bloomington’s footsteps and publish their success tracking for public viewing.
Lincoln is on par with similar cities, however, there are steps the City of Lincoln can take to further improve, guide development, and measure success in their downtown sector.
