Design in Rural America: Preserving the Past by Enhancing the Future, Buffalo, South Dakota

Abstract

Rural America of today is faced with major obstacles in the sense of maintaining active urban communities. Some of the factors the feed this fire are aging populations, and young people or moving away and not coming back. The result of this is that many of these small communities are losing local health care, schools and other economic institutions. With decline in active people and economic activity, these town’s aesthetics begin to decline. The site for this design thesis is Buffalo, South Dakota, which is and has experienced some of these struggles. With a major highway dissecting the town, this area will be of primary focus. This highway runs from Canada to Mexico and is a major route for tourists on their way to the Black Hills. I focus on enhancing the visual appearance of this corridor without losing the small town feel. Through research and design development a graphic solution for this problem will be the end result of this project.