Adapting the City

Abstract

The title of this thesis is “Adapting the City Center” and explores the question of how do the long-term effects of rapid housing development at Fargo, North Dakota’s perimeter compare to those of adaptive reuse, interwoven toward the city center. The typology for this design is residential mixed-use housing- adaptable and at the city center. In the end product this design is approximately a 51,400 square foot project located in Fargo, North Dakota. The guiding idea is, “land is perhaps our most important limited resource, and current urban development patterns are clearly consuming the landscape in unsustainable ways (Wheeler, 1998).” The project justification is, rather than continuing this city expansion pattern, evident in the decentralization of housing, the solution is recentralizing residential developments, and in turn maintaining the livability of the city.