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Item Sustainable Convenience(North Dakota State University, 2020) Harter, JessicaGlobally, society is on the cusp of substantial environmental changes. These changes start with insight into the current state of the environment, mindset changes that need to be made, then to the necessary lifestyle changes. Accordingly, this research began with asking why communities haven’t been able to start making these changes, questioning what is it that is holding them back? Convenience. Communities have drilled in the concept of “convenience for the consumer” whereas now, there’s a dire need to switch to “convenience for the environment”. The question then becomes: What is it about convenience that is holding people back from these changes, and how can architecture jump-start a community to become more conscious about everyday environmental impacts? The easiest, or in this context, the most convenient place to start changes are at the grocery store, where the bulk of consumerism happens. The most convenient change for the environment is producing less waste and focusing on a plant-based diet. These combined, have the possibility of creating convenience in a society for both the consumer and the environment. The research starts with gathering numerous case studies exhibiting the use of zero-waste shopping, then looks into the possibility of creating winterized greenhouses in accordance to the harsh North Dakotan winters.Item An Immersive Sensory Experience: Revitalizing Touchmark Senior Living Community(North Dakota State University, 2021) Minette, MorganThis thesis project focuses on providing a unique sensory expereince for residents, employees, and visitors at Touchmark at Harwood Groves, a local senior living community. This is a large complex that houses independent and assisted living, as well as a memory care unit. The full site is approximately 14 acres but this project will focus on a 2 acre portion that is currently open for developement. There is a growing need for accessible outdoor spaces within senior living communities. Many of these facilities lack proper outdoor amenities for active ageing and healing. The aging population is consistantly growing, but accessable and engaging outdoor accomodations for them are falling behind in growth. The goal for this project is to create an outdoor space that encourages residents to spend more time outside and to lead a healthy avtice lifestyle surroudned by nature. This setting also promotes visitation by family and friends. By reimagining the vacant space at Touchmark, a large interactive sensory garden will enhance the experience of residents at touchmark.Item Hospital Gardens & Therapeutic Spaces(North Dakota State University, 2020) Yokom, AliciaThe Great Plains Region in the United States has over 3,000 hospitals and clinics. Many lacking the outdoor amenities useful to individuals year-round. This study will focus on placing those amenities at the Sanford Medical Center in Fargo ND, newly constructed in 2017. Healing Gardens and Therapeutic Spaces are elements that help promote health yet are rarely built in the upper Midwest because of seasonal interest. From May to September, the weather is ideal but from October to April the cold temperatures, strong winds, flooding, and snow become an issue. An opportunity within constraint arises when designing for seasonal interest year-round through research-based design.“ Visibility, accessibility, familiarity, quietness, comfort, and unambiguously positive art” are the guiding principles put forward by Clare Cooper Marcus in Healing Gardens in Hospitals for generating successful healing gardens and therapeutic spaces. With those guidelines, I can ask: What are the central needs and concerns for the outdoor environment in a medical setting? What is desired by staff, patients, and visitors in a healing garden space? Why has this not been further explored and promoted in the Fargo area? The Sanford Medical Center serves as a medical hub for a population about 200,000, that includes the City of Fargo, West Fargo, Horace, plus the smaller surrounding towns. Being a level one adult trauma/emergency center, specializing in family birth, children’s hospital, brain and spinal surgery, heart surgery, interventional cardiology, and general surgery, gives more than enough reason to implement a place of de-stressing and quietness to the property. To obtain the highest priority elements for a healing garden and therapeutic space, a user-preference survey was provided to staff and visitors on the topics of rooftop gardens, open lawn space, types of vegetation, path usage, gardening opportunities, and more. The whole design concept for this project is so that the users have a place they want to go to, because they had a say in every aspect of it, which helps take off some of the stress, gives distraction from illness, and provides comfort through familiarity. In addition, the survey helped provide measurability to the research conducted. The project site visit will show the measurable opportunities for desired elements. Case studies, books, articles, and previous thesis proposals are influential in showing how, why, where, and when this has been done in the past. The successes and guidance of the topics mentioned in those literatures is key.Item Living Streets within Downtown Fargo: A Living Street that Focuses on the Pedestrian, Environmental, and Social Design Elements in Downtown Cores(North Dakota State University, 2021) Keller, MatthewWith downtown Fargo continuing to change with new multi-use buildings and parking garages, the focus should now be on the streets. Over the past couple years there has been multiple parking garages built within a mile of downtown Broadway. The question then came to me, was the street parking necessary and what could the street scape look like if the parking were removed. This thesis is to create a potential model for a living street scape in dense downtown city bodies. The design focuses on pedestrian, social, environment aspects of the street. These design aspects will provide opportunities for the community to be part of as well as the businesses located along the street to shape the landscape in front of them. This done through including multiple sidewalk zones, permeable elements, and modular components to create a dynamic landscape. The experience of downtown Fargo will be alive and growing alongside the thriving architecture.Item Redesign to Protect: Constructed Wetlands for Flood Mitigation, Education, and Wildlife Habitat along the Red River(North Dakota State University, 2021) Kotte, AlexandraThe Red River runs north through the hearts of two densely populated urban cores in North Dakota, Fargo and Grand Forks. In 1997 and 2011, the Red River hit the 50-year floodplain and in 2009 reached the 100-year floodplain. The neighboring cities of Fargo, ND and Moorhead, Minnesota, bordered by the Red River, have currently implemented flood control and protection through dike, levee and wall construction, but has led to a large displacement of residential and agricultural properties within proximity to flood infrastructure. The controversial proposal of the FM diversion has been the only analyzed solution to the inevitable flooding within the FM Red River Valley to date. Under terms of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), study of future impacts must be thoroughly analyzed to mitigate potential damage to the natural environment and human welfare. The FM Diversion Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) received an award for the fastest ever written, submitting a three-year document in just under six months. Red flags had been raised within the public and private sectors by lack of public input periods and inadequate impact and displacement studies. As of October 2020 push back submerged, lawsuits settled which solidified the project’s approval and future construction. USACE’s disregard of other viable alternatives and potential negative impacts of the diversion project brings opportunity to the profession of landscape architecture. Due to the invasiveness of the proposed diversion, the environment’s plant, animal and natural resources will inevitably suffer. The field of landscape architecture can play a vital role in creating a viable alternative while addressing concerns of flood mitigation, ecosystem services and human welfare. The goal of this study will utilize GIS suitability and water retention analysis to reveal feasible site locations within the FM Red River Valley for constructed wetlands to be implemented. Examining preceding case studies and existing GIS datasets such as elevation, peak flow, surface tension, rainfall response, and vegetation will provide set criteria that will be utilized to pinpoint suitable locations for constructed wetlands to assist in flooding mitigation for large seasonal flooding events. Improvement of water quality, wildlife habitat, and reduction of erosion and storm damage, are important topics that can be mimicked within the Red River Valley. Constructed wetlands will provide a natural and more cost-effective ecosystem in contrast to the creation of an eight billion dollar, half-mile wide, 30-foot deep diversion on privatized farmland taken by eminent domain. Diverting water systems around the city associates fear within the power of the Red River and negatively impacts wildlife that rely on its resources and biome. Implementation of constructed wetlands will serve as the driving flood mitigation mechanism by striving to keep existing Red River biomes, providing new wetland ecosystems and embracing the river’s beauty and its recreational opportunities. The overarching result will reveal suitable constructed wetland locations to fabricate a viable alternative to the FM diversion plan as a more environmentally resilient, natural and cost-effective method.Item Fargo: Growing Upward: A Neon Living Wall(North Dakota State University, 2020) Kumpula, BenjaminThere is an emotional connection humans have with plants and the aesthetics of natural elements that can directly influence our mood, productivity, and overall happiness. Emotional factors can directly impact and change a person’s attitude, direct our perspective of the world, and can affect the people around us. The aesthetics of plants have an emotional impact that is amplified in the built environment and can be used to develop a solution to improve current methods of introducing living walls. Living walls have been a way to introduce natural elements into urban settings that would otherwise have limitations by environmental factors, where solutions such as green space, plants, or trees are otherwise not possible. When plants are introduced into urban environments, the emotional effects and factors have rarely been completely understood and utilized to the fullest. This thesis project is going to explore the emotional affects and connections humans have with nature, through understanding the basic composition of natural forms and the study of existing living walls; developing a design model for living walls that can mimic natural aesthetics and emotional characteristics that natural forms have, for the integration into the built environment.Item Designing for Play in Island Park(North Dakota State University, 2021) Bartlett, Halley‘Planning for Play in Island Park’ is a design thesis based meant to identify a realistic and multifaceted response to the removal of Ash Trees (Fraxinus pennsylvanica) from Fargo North Dakota’s downtown Island Park. Within evaluating the site a clear need for playground redevelopment and expansion was identified due to it’s context within the community. Development and design of the project is rooted in providing opportunity for play to occur. Types of play are referenced from developmental psychology research and organized within the site with consideration of age. Designing for Play exists on multiple layers within the project. Directly designing for play for ages 2-5 and ages 6-12 and indirectly presenting areas for play within a proposed sculpture garden that serves as event space for the Fargo Moorhead Community Theatre that currently exists within the site.