UMD Theses and Dissertations

Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/3

New submissions to the thesis/dissertation collections are added automatically as they are received from the Graduate School. Currently, the Graduate School deposits all theses and dissertations from a given semester after the official graduation date. This means that there may be up to a 4 month delay in the appearance of a given thesis/dissertation in DRUM.

More information is available at Theses and Dissertations at University of Maryland Libraries.

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2009 - 20102

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    Public / Private Development in San Jose, Costa Rica
    (2010) Brodeur, Brian; Bennett, Ralph; Architecture; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    This thesis will attempt to redevelop the area surround The Pacific Rail Station, Estacion Ferrocarril al Pacifico, in San José, Costa Rica in order to better use the land and create a real place within the historic fabric of the city. Embedded with in this goal is the need to create a unique destination with the centerpiece of development being a national assembly building for Costa Rica. This will be achieved by exploring the nature of public / private development and how it may be used to create change and development in the developing world. This idea of partnership between the public and private sectors has been used extensively here in the United States, but still has not gained as much ground in the developing world. By examining the realities of design and development a model for this type of development can be established. This directly challenges the current development models in San José. This new model of development should work to capture the value added by government investment and work to attract private capitol. Together this will work to revitalize a portion of the city that is currently under developed.
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    water & architecture
    (2009) Cho, Ray Allen; Noonan, Peter; Architecture; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    Water is an element that is both essential to life and life threatening. The dual force within water "represents the essence of Yin and Yang where good cannot exist without evil." (Toy, 7) This thesis research will question the current proposed water protection plan in the historic neighborhood of Czech village in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Instead of focusing on preventing the destructive nature of water as the only generator for the protection plan, the research will investigate and explore options where the protection methods could also create opportunities in which the water becomes an amenity; hence the development of the protection system in itself embody the dual force of water. Perhaps the problem lies within our notion of natural disaster itself. Instead of viewing flood as a disaster that needs to be overcome, we should look at it as a constant natural occurrence that we need to account for and live in harmony with and further celebrate. The investigation will manifest in three different scales; city scale, neighborhood scale, and building scale. By critically examining current master plan and introducing opportunities where the built environment can work with water and use it as an amenity rather than fight against it, I intend to explore new ways of developing floodplain protection.