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Item Expanding Experiential Perception(North Dakota State University, 2011) Denault, AllisonBy understanding the affects of built space on those who have limited physical or mental abilities, we are able to create space that could facilitate their very specific needs. Currently, there are many ways to facilitate those with limited abilities, such as the American Disabilities Act of 1990 regulations and codes. This, however, does not begin to describe the effects of built architecture to the perceived observer with disabilities. Designing for a specific group of people, specifically children with autism, allows for the design to enhance their lives. This could be beneficial for some, and even help “treat” others. This specialized mixed-use housing development would be designed through a series of built artifacts that would bridge the gap between designer and client. It would also allow objects used for therapeutic reasons to be incorporated into the design in an essential way. Located next to the Rochester Autism Center, in Rochester, Minnesota, the program calls for temporary living residences, classrooms, and sensory rooms.Item Urban Stadia: Integrating Stadium Design with Mixed-Use Building Tactics to Rejuvenate an Urban Neighborhood(North Dakota State University, 2016) Borgen, MitchellSporting stadiums impact the socio-economic capabilities in all of the areas in which they exist. Some have a good impact, they are able to fully integrate into the urban environment and benefit the area through areas such as economics, walkability, transportation, etc. But there are many that do not accomplish this. They essentially become enormous concrete structures that are surrounded by thousands of asphalt-laden parking spaces and they only end up serving the community on the days in which the sporting team plays, usually once or twice a week. What if the same tactics we are using to rejuvenate our downtown areas can serve a bigger part in getting one of the most expensive typologies in this world back on track? With this thesis, I look to delve into just what type of impact a stadium will have on an urban environment, when combined with mixed-use building tactics.Item The Shoppes on Main: Developing a Sense of Place(North Dakota State University, 2012) Osten, AlishaThis thesis researches and investigates the effect architectural space brings to a sense of place within an urban environment. Located on Main Avenue and 18th Street in Fargo, The Shoppes on Main: Developing a Sense of Place is a 90,508 sq. ft. mixed use building that the Fargo/Moorhead area community needs and will get use out of. “Cities are becoming meaningless places beyond their citizens’ grasp. We no longer know the origins of the world around us. We rarely know where the materials and products come from, who owns what, who is behind what, what was intended. We live in cities where things happen without warning and without our participation. It is an alien world for most people. It is little surprise that most withdraw from community involvement to enjoy their own private and limited worlds.” (Jacobs & Appleyard, 1987) The idea that an urban environment’s sense of place is influenced by architectural space is cause for deeper consideration; especially in light of particular cities and developments going through stages of growth and change. Through gathering both qualitative and quantitative information and analyzing it, this project’s aim is to find out if there is a way to keep up with rapidly changing technology, building construction, and architectural styles, and still give a thriving city its sense of place in its newest architecture? Can we avoid placelessness by implementing certain architecture within its respective place?Item Architectural Sign Language(North Dakota State University, 2020) Danielson, AnnaAmerican Sign Language is not transparent, one cannot understand it until ones learn is. It takes many years of study and interaction with people who use it to be able to properly learn a language. As a student who studies architecture, I have found the same to be true about the communication of our built environment. This thesis project titled, “Architectural Sign Language” explores the ideas of communication through the built environment. The goal will be to integrate the notion of sign language and architecture into a building that non-verbally communicates to tell a story and can be appreciated by both the deaf and hearing communities.Item Urban "Gumbo": A Mixed-Use Public Corridor in Lafayette, Louisiana(North Dakota State University, 2013) Pickett, CourtneyThis thesis project invited the exploration of the boundaries between indoor and outdoor spaces. In fact, a boundary does not need to exist. To explore the impact of architecture in public spaces and an existing urban context, the typology for this thesis project is a public corridor. When designed properly, the users are no longer faced with a boundary, but a chance to create their own perception of the surrounding environment. This mixed use public space in Lafayette, Lousiana would change the views of designers and the society as a whole. Integrating this type of Urban Design will show users how architecture, nature and the city’s lively culture can coexist.Item Re-imagining RFK: Using DC's Captive Audience as a Revenue-Driven Incentive for a Privately-Funded Stadium(North Dakota State University, 2019) Scott, JacobNFL stadiums are expensive, consume tremendous amounts of land and materials, and oftentimes require a significant amount of taxpayer funding. Additionally, outside of the ten to twelve football games held per year, infrequent concerts, and rarely hosted events like the Super Bowl, an overwhelming majority of sporting and entertainment events don’t require a facility of this size. Although a substantial amount of evidence suggests these facilities are poor financial investments for cities, they continue to be taxpayer funded due to circumstances that have been in place since the 1950s. Because sports are such an integral part of our culture, it is important to provide venues that can host NFL games and other large scale sporting events. To address the issue of publicly-funded stadiums, this thesis will investigate how these venues can be designed to generate year-round revenue as an incentive for privately funded construction.Item A New Generation2: The Improper Appropriation of the Modern Housing Market in Today’s Society, Taking a Look at a New Generation’s Necessities and Ambitions(North Dakota State University, 2020) Vonasek, DaneIn many cities throughout the USA, recent graduates have to deal with increasing rent prices with a very limited income. Standard apartment buildings and other types of dwellings are fairly standard with space and cost. Generally speaking, many residents only use their rental units for <12 hours/day, for the rest of the day that unit sits empty. So why not look at alternative solutions? Recent graduates may not desire a lot of space/ higher rent, and rather save money by living farther from the city center. But why not find an alternative solution and develop a space of co-community living in a more prime location? Rent costs can be cut by lowering the amount of rentable square footage per private unit with an off-balance of increased amenity spaces and shared spaces. And thus, the research was started. During this thesis research, I looked at alternative means of living in order to create a closer sense of community as well as cut down on rent costs. The proposal calls for a mixed use prefabricated residential development in downtown Nashville. By creating more means of mixed use, the site gains use throughout the day, increasing its value despite the lower cost of rent.Item Compressed Agriculture Initiative(North Dakota State University, 2013) Homic, ThomasIncreasingly within urban population growth there is a greater demand on the agricultural resources needed to keep these populations properly fed. As these stresses on the agricultural space and supply chain increase, they can lead to dangerous lapses in feeding growing urban populations. How can architecture respond to urban centers that have an ever increasing need for agricultural space and stabilize food supplies in those communities? This system is an agricultural typology with commercial and educational elements to facilitate the project requirements. This project begins to address the demand for a stable food supply while by bringing nutritious foods right into the hungry population’s very urban fabric and does so while maintaining a very tight footprint. Individuals and groups will work on their own properties and within the urban farm space to refine technologies and methods for improved harvest yields. Urban farm employees will also assist the community through hands on education, seminars, and resources to promote and educate the community on how to best grow food in areas lacking sufficient land for traditional methods. Under developed, vacated, and neglected lands that are almost completely abandoned in parts of the city will be cleaned, tested, analyzed and a phased plan of action will be created for each area of the newly recovered farm lands. There will be a main plot of land utilized by the main urban farm itself, and then smaller parcels of private or public lands will also be designated by their owners to be utilized for agricultural purposes. Compressed urban farming will not only provide food but a community connection to each other and the soil while improving the local air, and water quality. Justification: This system design is needed now more than ever with projected urban population growth each year, and ever decreasing available agricultural lands and increasing distances to those that remain. Depleted and missing farms leave larger and larger urban populations at the mercy of supply disruptions, but can be corrected through improved planning and initiatives such as mentioned in this plan. Currently many European, Asian, and Middle eastern nations with large or growing populations and lacking suitable arable lands to feed these populations, are purchasing land for farming, thousands of miles from where the food will be consumed. This urban farming system however maintains local growth for local use, decreasing labor, fuel, environmental and spatial impact.Item Cultivate: A Vertical Solution(North Dakota State University, 2012) Schuler, JeffreyThis thesis titled “Cultivate: a Vertical Solution” will address the question, “How can architects stop suburban sprawl?” The typology of this project will be a 535,234 sqft high-rise mixed-use vertical farm in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota. This building will use the site vacated by Brookdale Mall after it’s demolition. The theoretical premise explored in this research will be suburban sprawl and hydroponic farming techniques. The project justification is that architects need to create an inviting alternative to sprawl that requires fewer outside resources.Item Exchange Optimized: Utilizing Predictive Paths of Travel to Improve Circulation Efficiency and Urban Infill Patterns, as Applied to Fargo's West Acres Mall(North Dakota State University, 2019) Montoya, CarlosThe rapid expansion of American cities led to historical marketplaces morphing into ubiquitous suburban shopping malls. For the last two decade these shopping malls along with the entire retail sector has experienced a sustained decline. As an effort to revitalize these spaces and curb this declining trend, developers and designers have applied urban infill techniques to declining mall sites. In many cases these techniques have proven to be an insufficient intervention to produce lasting results. This ineffectiveness, raises the need for new archetype in the language methodology of design. The site of shopping malls are largely generic in dimensionality and building footprint, making them ideal candidate for the use of a parametric network analysis software. This thesis will take the site of an existing mall, approximately 100 acres in area, with a 1/2 mile x 1/2 mile perimeter. A parametric network analysis software will be applied on the selected site to generate an optimized circulation network. The resulting network will act as the primary guideline tool, from which the infill redesign of the selected site with be organized. The design synthesis of urban infill principles and parametric network analysis, will yield a new archetypal design model for the retrofit design of declining shopping malls.