Browsing by Author "Schmitz, Jared"
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Item Making Place: Transit-Oriented Development for Largo, MD(Partnership for Action Learning in Sustainability (PALS), 2019) Ahmed, Mansoor; Combs, William; Lorenza, Dan; Ohakawa, Tochi; Schmitz, Jared; Sparks, Amanda; Walker, Andrew; Winters, Kelsey; Cain, Rachel; Grady, Hannah; Hassup, Collin; Mazer, Andrew; Peters, Taina; Robbs, Amber; Paris, Gojin; Deane, Sim; Townsend, Sim Deane; Urdaneta, Victoria; Bell, Mathew; Guiraldes, Pablo; Calleri, ChristianLargo, MD is a city of 12,000 people at the intersection of the Beltway and the Metropolitan DC Blue Line. It is currently being planned as the future center of the Prince George’s County Government and the home of the new University of Maryland Capital Region Medical Center. The overall site has exceptional access to transit and offers myriad ways to travel but in itself lacks appeal as a “place”. It has developed as a suburban “Edge City” on the outskirts of the District of Columbia, a simple automobile-oriented pit stop in-between the jobs and sights of the national capital and the dwellings of those who work and visit. As part of the Partnership for Action Learning in Sustainability (PALS), The Prince George’s County Department of Planning approached the University of Maryland’s Program in Architecture with a request to investigate the Largo metro site as a more fully realized transit-oriented development hosting a full mix of uses, from the new seat of the county’s government to the new hospital and residential development. The studio focused on questions of place, development, and identity while grappling with the fragmented pattern of development that currently defines Largo. The studio proposals demonstrate the potential of a new identity for the area using transit oriented design principles, restoration of the natural environment, and making Largo a “green jewel of a town” at the heart of Prince George’s County.Item RESPONSE: A CRITICAL APPROACH TO RETHINKING OUR CITIES’ VERNACULAR NEIGHBORHOODS(2021) Schmitz, Jared; Lamprakos, Michele; Architecture; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Traditional architectural and preservation practices largely focus on methods and values attributed to high style architecture of prominence, overlooking elements important to vernacular neighborhoods and the communities that live within them. This fixation on the object rather than the human element does not lend itself to respond to community needs and heritages. This thesis proposes a new, community-based approach to preservation that diverges from traditional methods, instead drawing from human-centered design and values-based preservation. Milwaukee’s Center Peace neighborhood faces long-standing issues of disinvestment, displacement, and inequity. Implementing design strategies and policy recommendations formed from analysis of oral histories, ethnographic research, policy, and human-centered design methodologies, will allow the community to transform the neighborhood’s dilapidated building stock into an opportunity, confronting these issues. These strategies and recommendations will encourage the city, developers, and landlords to become more responsive to residents while giving agency to renters and homeowners at a grassroots level.