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Industrial Transparency: Bridging Environments Through Recognition of Industrial Process
(North Dakota State University, 2017) Wentworth, Kristine
Industrial buildings are all too often forgotten in the world of design and urban planning. Pockets of industry buildings break up well design urban neighborhoods with their large, monolithic walls, usually set back from street faces behind huge parking lots. The buildings themselves serve only their industrial, manufacturing, or warehousing functions with the biggest priority being budget, rather than serving the people who work inside of them. This thesis explores solutions to these problems. Through research and design prototypes for an industrial site in St. Paul, Minnesota, new ideas are generated to promote a more sustainable solution to industrial buildings and their integration into an urban setting. The project design will have a focus on the idea of “transparency.” This is more than just the inclusion of glazing systems within the building. The existing industrial buildings create a large separation between what goes on within and the world outside, and there is a divide between industrial workers and the workers who inhabit the beautiful modern and contemporary glass towers only a few miles away. Industrial workers are undervalued within our communities, and isolated from the perks their downtown counterparts have. Creating a “transparent” industrial building will help celebrate industry and help to bridge the gap between these groups. The research behind this thesis project is conducted through a hybrid of three research methods: descriptive research, evaluative research, and design research. The descriptive and evaluative research are primarily done in the predesign phase, through beginning with research into what is meant by sustainable urban design, and ways it can be implemented within existing neighborhoods. This is followed by information on industrial buildings and on public transit within the chosen site. The design research portion helps explore different ways the structure, spaces, materials, and circulation can aid in the success of providing a “transparent” industrial building.
Arcology
(North Dakota State University, 2018) Peterson, Jack
Arcology is an approximately 30,000 square foot transit center located within the Ford Site redevelopment plan in St. Paul, MN. The core concept of the project lies in its incorporation of algae, a diverse group of water-based photosynthetic organisms, into the architectural framework. By exploring the vast potential of algae to provide energy, cleanse water, sequester CO2, and create a quilted mosaic of color, Arcology showcases a vision for the future of architecture that is both functionally, and quite literally, green. In this future, algae along with further research into biological sciences, help develop a symbiotic relationship between architecture and nature. This relationship will allow healthy infrastructure to continually provide for the needs of an ever-changing planet and an evolving society. As the community around Arcology develops per the city plan, and the needs of its people change, the building will work together with a growing ecosystem to meet these needs and evolve with its context. In this vision, the architecture functions self-sufficiently, remaining within the resource limit of the site, and creating a positive impact on both the human, and natural systems with which it interacts.
Transcultural Education: Building Understanding through Architecture
(North Dakota State University, 2020) Mack, Olivia
Architecture has the innate ability to control the environment in which it creates, so it presents itself as a tool for creating desired outcomes. This desired outcome is the change of social climate through Transcultural Understanding. With the use of qualitative observation analyses, methods of influencing cultural perception will be studied and applied to the project. Children’s minds are at a malleable state, so creating an educational center which emphasizes activities and interactions to promote inter-cultural interactions can result in transcultural Understanding as a learned social practice.
Virtual Space in a Physical World
(North Dakota State University, 2013) Krugerud, Devin
A small exposition center for St. Paul, MN. This project explores various design strategies with glass, steel, and suspension. Through the study of video game design techniques architecture can be developed in an entirely different way. Proposed spaces are in need of a stronger method of presentation. Computer generated simulations are that method.
Urban Identity : Frogtown Finds Itself
(North Dakota State University, 2011) Roden, Michael
Our cities are too often disconnected. They are disconnected in the sense of a failure to relate neighborhoods and districts to each other. This is especially true for cities which lack effective public transportation. Isolation is almost always the result of these disconnects. In turn, physical, cultural and economic barriers are created between different neighborhoods and districts of a city. These barriers negatively affect both the advantaged and the disadvantaged alike. This thesis will examine the economic and social consequences of city planning and urban design with an emphasis on change over time. The city of St. Paul, Minnesota is to be used as a study. More specifically, the relationship between the highly residential Frogtown neighborhood and the city’s highly commercial Downtown area is to be explored. Solutions to this specific disconnect will be discovered and designed in order to benefit both areas. Sustainable strategies will be emphasized for cultural, economic, and environmental reasons.
Mississippi River Adventure
(North Dakota State University, 2011) Erickson, Thomas
My project will provide a means of adventure, discovery, and heightened awareness of the cultural, historical, and physical nature of the Mississippi River and surrounding area. The typology will be a “watercraft and terminals along the Mississippi River from Bemidji, MN to New Orleans, LA.” The fundamental goal of this project is to encourage learning through experience. A group of 6-8 youth and 1-2 adults will continuously learn together as they travel down the Mississippi River over one month, spending 1-2 nights at each terminal. My challenge is to design terminals and a watercraft that will help to enrich the adventure.
Within and Without: St. Paul Museum of Architecture
(North Dakota State University, 2018) Abrahamsen, Mitchell
This thesis project revolves around how museums influence our perception of objects and ideas. Through research on museum design and architectural theory, I have come to understand the idea of framing and its importance in how museums and museum exhibits are designed. Framing, in an abstract sense, is the foundation from which our perceptions are built. The same object, space, or idea can be framed in different ways and will therefore be perceived differently. Framing in museums an be very literal, such as a wooden frame around a painting, and it can be more metaphorical, such as the spatial volume of a gallery. A museum has almost absolute control over how the exhibits within are framed, but they have less control over how they frame external elements. When walking through an art exhibit, a person’s ideas of art in general may be challenged, reinforced, or distorted which means the museum is framing something beyond the reaches of its walls. Through this project, I aim to design a building that intentionally frames internal exhibits on architectural theory as well as the external concept of architectural theory.
Ford Park: Creating Hydrologically Sensitive Connections to the Mississippi Riverfront System
(2016) Miller, Mark
The main question this study aims to answer is how can we create an urban space that celebrates the riverfront at all times of the year, while still creating viable flood protection? Other questions considered are, what methods of river flow change will allow for the most efficient water control? What interactive opportunities can we as citizens have with the rivers? With global climate change how large of a future flood event should we be preparing for? The study is being conducted on the Mississippi River utilizing existing knowledge of the highs and lows of the river along with the natural topography of the river’s edge. Water control systems will have been studied to determine the most efficient and aesthetic methods. Case studies from across the world have been researched and there specific elements have been considered to discover what programmatic elements are needed. The last thing needed to be considered is what can we as landscape architects design that will enhance the users experience with the river.
Emerging Connections : developing transit corridors in Minneapolis - St Paul
(North Dakota State University, 2014) Judovsky, Colby; Stottler, Nathan
There is a new era coming to University Avenue on the rails of the new Green Line light rail extension. In position to create an important connection between Minneapolis and St. Paul, and to enhance the already existing urban fabric of the neighboring regions, this avenue seeks to capitalize on the projected transformations that the Green Line transit way may create. Stemming from this envisioned growth and development, our thesis, Emerging Connections, focuses on the prosperity of establishing identity through creating place and by analyzing what it means to create a destination rather than a route. As a collaboration between architecture and landscape architecture, we seek to accomplish this research analysis through the incorporation of a cohesively-designed public square and an 80,800 square foot transit station. In the end, our design will capitalize on the forthcoming transit-oriented development, allowing the University Avenue corridor to generate its own unique places rather than serving as a mere linkage between the two downtown centers of Minneapolis and St. Paul.
Broken Connections: Creating a Partnership of Mankind, Nature and Place Through Transportation
(North Dakota State University, 2016) Warner, Justin
This thesis examines how the revitalization of the passenger rail in America can repair an urban city’s connection with its natural surroundings, its history and its greater regional context. St. Paul, Minnesota is a city that has fallen victim to the Suburban movement of the past, resulting in a city that lacks vitality and life. The city has acknowledged that measures must be taken in order to breathe new life into the urban core of St. Paul. The city has demolished some of its oldest riverfront properties, leaving a major divide between the urban downtown and the city's natural edge created by the Mississippi River. This now vacant site acts as the setting for this thesis exploration of the effects that an interregional high-speed transportation hub can have on St. Paul’s urban core. This thesis looks to create a healthier downtown community by introducing a new transportation hub within the urban core of St. Paul, MN. This in turn will create a constant flow of traffic through the city, re-introduce the city to its natural surroundings and provide the public with a reliable and energy efficient mode of transportation.

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