Dissertations & Theses
http://hdl.handle.net/10106/9725
2024-03-26T21:30:13ZDesigning for Best Use of the Downtown I-345 Corridor in Dallas, TX: Stakeholder Perspectives
http://hdl.handle.net/10106/31026
Designing for Best Use of the Downtown I-345 Corridor in Dallas, TX: Stakeholder Perspectives
What is a city? It’s more than a location where many people live and work. It is a conglomeration of shared experience over generations. One generation informs the next, which informs how each subsequent generation adds to the development of their shared home. This is what gives each city its own unique form, character, and identity. But what happens if a city repeatedly outgrows itself, disconnects its communities, and demolishes the physical memory of its own cultural history? Dallas, Texas is one such city confronting these issues and is perceived as one without significant place memory or culture (if not history).
The downtown-adjacent neighborhood of Deep Ellum, in particular, has regularly found itself at the heart of this conflict, much of it having been bulldozed in 1969 to make room for I-345, a raised highway that serves as a connection to several major Dallas highways (Maxwell 2020. Like most modern cities, Dallas has largely been designed and planned to accommodate the automobile at the expense of the pedestrian, with I-345 being one of the largest offenders. Deep Ellum and Downtown see some of the city’s heaviest foot traffic but without pedestrian networks, streetscapes, and open spaces that support such activity. Pedestrian pathways between the neighborhoods are few while derelict buildings and parking lots are many.
The purpose of this thesis is to study stakeholders’ spatial preferences and needs, and to design an appropriate replacement for I-345 in Dallas, TX that respect the culture and history of the Deep Ellum neighborhood, improves the connection between Deep Ellum and Downtown, and enhances the identity and economy of the city.
This design master thesis follows a four-step process using qualitative methods (Creswell 2008) to assess stakeholders’ spatial preferences and needs, and to redesign the I-345 corridor in Downtown Dallas, TX for its best use for the future. First, the histories of urban highways and their removal, as well as Deep Ellum and Downtown, are reviewed and documented. Next, four case studies of similarly affected cities are likewise reviewed and documented. One-on-one in-depth interviews are then conducted with seven people who live and work in Deep Ellum and local design and/or community experts. Finally, the spatial qualities of the area are documented using passive site observation, photography, and GIS mapping techniques. The findings from these steps are then used to produce a design vision for the segment of I-345 corridor that resides between Deep Ellum and Downtown Dallas.
The findings illustrate that the best use for this area based on stakeholders’ preferences and needs includes, but is not limited to, uses such as a walkable mixed-use neighborhood, communal green space, promotion of history and culture through public art, and affordable housing. Furthermore, the study concludes a necessity for a depressed highway (I-345) covered with a deck park which connects Downtown and Deep Ellum. As more cities try to correct the design and planning mistakes of the past, landscape architects are uniquely poised to help create new urban connections and green spaces that strengthen their communities. The space occupied by I-345 has the potential to become a new transitional neighborhood that connects Deep Ellum to Downtown, while simultaneously improving the city’s walkability and spotlighting what remains of the rich arts culture of Deep Ellum. Such scrupulous design also has the potential to preserve the culture and history of the Deep Ellum neighborhood, improve the connection between southern Dallas and Downtown, and enhance the identity and economy of the city as a whole.
2022-12-12T00:00:00ZCreative Collaboration in Rural Texas Communities
http://hdl.handle.net/10106/31024
Creative Collaboration in Rural Texas Communities
The body of research investigating collaboration has grown exponentially in recent years with the realization of its potential in generating innovative solutions to complex problems. Even though an abundance of literature on collaboration exists, scholars have fallen short of understanding how collaboration works towards creativity. Lack of consensus on understanding how this critical construct functions has not only made furthering theory on the matter challenging for researchers, but also made recognizing, utilizing, and realizing the full benefit of collaboration difficult for practitioners. Until the ways collaboration can result in creative outcomes are better understood, practitioners will not be able to include it in their toolbox for handling the overwhelming problems that come with an increasingly interconnected and rapidly evolving world.
This study begins with a theoretical analysis of collaboration as a multidimensional construct and takes a multidisciplinary approach to unravel the complexities and misunderstandings of the collaboration process, especially with respect to creativity. Since modeling constructs is a useful way for scholars to begin to parse complicated, unwieldy concepts like collaboration, exploration begins with consideration of an established model of collaboration, suggesting that it addresses collaboration at a lower level—a solution for combining resources and solving simple problems. The enhanced model illustrates creative abrasion interacting with the dimensions of collaboration to result in a higher level of collaboration, which is labeled creative collaboration. In the proposed model, creative abrasion mediates the relationship between conflict and diversity.
2022-12-12T00:00:00ZResearching Appointment Robbery: Voices from the Street
http://hdl.handle.net/10106/30982
Researching Appointment Robbery: Voices from the Street
This dissertation is composed of three papers that will examine three topics related to the main research project of examining whether or not CPTED strategies have an effect on the decision to participate in appointment robbery. The first paper examines the difficulties in gaining access with the hard-to-reach population of active offenders. The second paper will provide examples of ethical dilemmas that the qualitative researcher faced while in the field. The third paper will explore whether or not criminals were deterred from deciding to engage in criminal activity due to an implementation of a CPTED strategy. These three papers together will help illustrate the stages in an in-depth qualitative research project.
2022-08-15T00:00:00ZDesigning Cemeteries for Personal Expressions in the San Francisco Bay Area
http://hdl.handle.net/10106/30978
Designing Cemeteries for Personal Expressions in the San Francisco Bay Area
Our country’s largest cities have become more racially and ethnically diverse than they were in 2010 (US News, 2020). Differences are present and yet, our cemeteries, originally catering to a predominantly Caucasian market (Sloane, 1991), remain Eurocentric in design (Jones, 2011). The purpose of this master’s design thesis is to determine the design principles and elements necessary for a cemetery that is transformed by the personal expressions exhibited by visitors after the day of burial. The study focuses specifically on cemeteries in the San Francisco Bay Area. The findings were used to develop a new kind of cemetery typology that aims to have cemetery design be led by behavior, activities, rituals, and traditions of its users rather than being led solely by the personal and business preferences of cemetery designers and professionals.
This study utilizes qualitative research methods (Sommer & Sommer, 2002) beginning with a literature review to see what issues may be addressed by this study and to gain insight on how to improve cemetery design (Sommer & Sommer, 2002). Data collection began with initial site visits to cemeteries that included notes derived from photo documentation and casual observation (Sommer & Sommer, 2002). Case study sites were then selected from these initial visits to conduct systematic observations in using tally sheets and ethnograms/observation sheets (Sommer & Sommer, 2002).
Adopting the case study pattern used by Marcus and Francis in their book, People Places (Marcus & Francis, 1998), the gathered data was analyzed and synthesized to reveal insights on the successful and unsuccessful features in cemetery design as it relates to personal expressions, sufficiently informing the researcher in developing the final non-sectarian cemetery design (Simonds & Starke, 2006) adapted for the city of Oakland.
The design concludes the study and addresses the findings on the design features and elements that conflict with personal expressions such as lack of delineation, missing features and elements for a gathering space, conflicting rules, and inaccessibility. The design also reflects the design features and elements that encourage personal expression such as the gravestones designed as and for personal expression, vertical elements, and personal maintenance.
The knowledge produced from this research contributes to the field as it aids landscape architects in creating inclusive cemeteries that encourage personal expression of its users. These landscapes have the potential of not just ameliorating the pain of death, but also providing the opportunity for cultural preservation and meaning.
2022-08-15T00:00:00Z