Theses and Dissertations from UMD
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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 give thesis/dissertation in DRUM
More information is available at Theses and Dissertations at University of Maryland Libraries.
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Item DESIGNING WITH NARRATIVE: AN ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN GUIDE FOR HERITAGE BUILDINGS AND PLACES(2024) Tannir, Joseph; Williams, Joseph C.; Architecture; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)While the idea of what constitutes a historic site or place and how it should be treated by designers at both the building and urban scale and how different histories may be told side by side may seem obvious, closer inspection reveals a diversity of ideas that may contradict each other. This thesis seeks to explore the relationship between narrative and form of historic places by breaking this relationship into a series of interrelated component elements that can be manipulated with intention. This thesis does this by identifying core principles in the preservation field, comparing curation theories of historic buildings and places, and, finally, by examining these treatments through relevant theories of space and urbanism. This framework is illustrated and applied through the design and narrative example of the Baltimore region during World War II.Item REFRAME: CREATING A NEW PERSPECTIVE ON HISTOTRIC PRESERVATION THROUGH A CENTER FOR LOCAL PRESERVATION CRAFT(2023) Bernstein, Ben; Gharipour, Mohammad; Architecture; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The Hampden Neighborhood of Baltimore developed and prospered as a mill town in the mid-nineteenth century. While the neighborhood declined socially and economically in the twentieth century as industry left the area it was able to regain a level of stability in the twenty-first century as new people entered the neighborhood and started to redevelop its character. These new residents are moving into housing stock that largely dates to the nineteenth century and early twentieth century. These domestic structures were built with historic techniques and have acquired architectural elements local to the Baltimore area. It is important that Baltimore’s architectural heritage is preserved in the renovations and repairs of domestic structures. The creation of a center for the teaching of local construction craft through adaptive reuse will prove instrumental for the preservation of the historic character of Hampden.Item FROM HARM TO HOPE: REIMAGINING AN ABANDONED ASYLUM AS A SPACE OF REFLECTION, REJUVENATION, AND REJOICE(2023) Reise, Matthew; Sullivan, Jack; Plant Science and Landscape Architecture (PSLA); Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The Crownsville State Hospital opened in 1913 as the first and only mental institution in the state of Maryland to serve the Black community. After 91 years of operation rife with neglect, abuse, exploitation, and other acts of inhumanity, the hospital closed and has laid virtually abandoned since. In this thesis, I will propose ways of reactivating Crownsville’s historic campus through acknowledging the property’s horrific past, by providing support and amenities to the region’s most vulnerable individuals, and by creating space to celebrate the identity of communities who were historically persecuted on the grounds. I will explore the Crownsville campus through the lens of a cultural landscape, and attempt to balance the preservation of existing assets with the development of new community features.Item A Safe Space: Designing a LGBTQ+ Youth Resource Center(2022) Fuller, Sarah N; Noonan, Peter; Architecture; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)In the continuing struggle to combat youth homelessness it in necessary to evaluate the effectiveness of existing services and infrastructure. Somewhere between 1.6 and 2.8 million youth identify as homeless in the United States. 47% of homeless youth identify as LGBTQ+ in Washington DC, while only accounting for 7% of the population. Faced with a myriad of challenges, LGBTQ+ youth find themselves facing homelessness without access to services to meet their complex needs. Washington DC has a rich LGBTQ+ history and community that is connected through people and the built environment. Throughout its history and today the LGBTQ+ community has created safe spaces for its members to come and be together. Through the exploration of the adaptive reuse and addition of a historic building, this thesis seeks to create a LGBTQ+ youth resource center to aid in the development of supportive services and housing for at risk LGBTQ+ youth.Item Sustainability Through Adaptation: Reimagining Existing Spaces with Mass Timber Construction(2020) Robbs, Amber; Kelly, Brian; Architecture; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)In a period when it is becoming more and more apparent how we, as humans, have been negatively impacting our planet, it is important for us, as designers, to take a step back and evaluate how new methods of sustainable design can be incorporated into the existing built environment to leave a positive impression on our climate. We have discussed sustainability through design, building typologies, construction materials, and building systems but we can also explore the sustainable method of reusing the existing built environment. This thesis explores how adaptively reusing existing buildings can be a sustainable source of architecture. Buildings that have fallen into neglect and/or ruin can be revitalized through the construction method of mass timber to produce less greenhouse gas emissions during the structure’s life cycle while leaving a larger, healthier impact on our climate. This thesis explores the benefits of mass timber as a sustainable construction method and demonstrates how mass timber can be used as an alternative to steel frame construction on the site of a 1919 US Navy industrial building. The existing masonry and steel-framed structure stands as a neglected building that can be adapted through sustainable methods. By respecting the structure’s heritage and original purpose, this thesis proposes a secondary building and revitalization of the existing structure through reusing existing structures with recycled material, like mass timber. The thesis looks at opening the site to the evolving community of the Washington D.C. Navy Yard. Maintaining the site as a community gathering space, this thesis proposes a food hall program, building off the weekly farmers' markets that take place in the structure’s adjacent plaza, and aims to fill the community's need for a public civic space in the adjoining community library program. The program of this thesis aims to draw people in to explore the built environment of alternative and sustainable construction methods.Item Assessing User Understanding of Heritage in the Environment: Preservation Strategies for the Use of Place(2019) Semmer, Johnna; Linebaugh, Donald W; Urban and Regional Planning and Design; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)While places often derive associations with heritage from distinctive land uses or patterns of activity, the historic preservation planning tools commonly available in the U.S. are limited in their ability to sustain those associations. The active and evolving aspects of a location’s character are challenging to reflect in the point-in-time historic property documentation that typically serves as the basis for preservation planning decisions. This study explored methods to illuminate the qualities residents and users associate with a community’s distinctive local character, or sense of place, and how those qualities relate to local history and heritage. Two case studies in Nashville, Tennessee, the urban Music Row neighborhood and rural Bells Bend community, were examined through mixed research methods, including document-based research, field observation, online survey, and interviews, to achieve a more holistic understanding of sense of place and to ascertain which features and qualities meaningful to members of the community align with place characteristics that can be regulated by local planning tools. Older and historic places were among those associated with the sense of place of both cases. Continuity of locally-distinctive uses emerged as important, as did social interactions and relationships. Uses may be sustained with the help of planning tools beyond those commonly thought of as preservation strategies, such as land use zoning and economic incentives. Social aspects of place are harder to address but can be recognized through expanded definitions of heritage and interpretive efforts. Though a limited response rate constrained interpretation of some results, elements of the methodology show promise for enabling direct input from place users in practice. Defining what heritage-related qualities are most meaningful to community character can yield better informed preservation planning processes.Item Seeking Asylum: Race, Memory, and the American Landscape(2019) Tai, Daniela; Eisenbach, Ronit; Architecture; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The stories and places we choose to preserve tell us who we are as a people. What does it say about ourselves when the stories that are associated with a particular place are ones that we wish to keep in the dark? As we look towards the future of preservation it has become clear that our perception of what is “significant” has shifted. Modern preservation has expanded to include tangible and intangible landscapes, environmental conservation, and more voices at the table. This thesis explores how to use preservation, storytelling, and sustainable practices to respond to places of difficult history and reclaim that space, while using Crownsville State Hospital as a model. The racial and systemic trauma experienced at the formerly racially segregated mental health facility permeated the campus grounds; not only does the community need to heal, the land does too.Item Adaptive Reuse: a chamber symphony for 13 musicians(2017) Wixon, Henry Ross; Gibson, Robert L; Music; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Adaptive Reuse is a chamber symphony of approximately 14 minutes 30 seconds in four continuous movements and is scored for 13 musicians: 1 flute (doubling piccolo); 1 oboe (doubling English horn); 1 B-flat clarinet (doubling bass clarinet); 1 horn in F; 1 trumpet in C; 1 percussionist (quad toms and vibraphone); 3 violins; 2 violas; 1 cello; and 1 double bass. The piece explores the term “adaptive reuse:” the repurposing of old buildings to meet a community’s changing needs while preserving sites of historic value. Whether in the form of rustic tables made from reclaimed barn timbers or mixed-use developments that breathe new life into derelict industrial buildings, the notion of adaptive reuse combines our society’s increased awareness of the earth’s limited resources with our demand for authenticity. This concept is ideally suited to musical materials as well: since the Middle Ages, Western composers have reused their own music and the compositions of others or have simply found inspiration in older, more “learned,” forms throughout every stylistic period. The musical materials of Adaptive Reuse are drawn from my 2007 solo bass clarinet work Requiem for Dead Wood; I develop the original composition’s compelling motives through non-tonal and rhythmically asymmetrical explorations. The first movement, “Reclaimed Wood,” acknowledges the source material (Dead Wood) and the aforementioned repurposing of old construction materials into furniture or architectural details. The second, “Persons of Record,” divides the ensemble into two competing choirs, reflecting the attempts by impassioned speakers to sway community members at public hearings. “Request for Proposal,” refers to the solicitation of bids from developers; in this movement, I rework a second-movement countermelody through several guises (“proposals”) using a number of compositional schemes. As the subtitle “Old and New” suggests, the final movement conveys the dual outcomes of adaptive reuse: first, the ensemble coalesces into the only true climax of the piece for one shimmering moment—its new purpose—and second, the opening material returns, indicative of the preservation inherent to this type of development.Item GOZAR( Iranian Cultural Park)(2016) Naser, Zara; Simon, Madlen; Architecture; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The severed relationship between Iran and the United States is encapsulated within the abandoned architecture of the former Iranian Embassy. In essence, architecture has become the physical manifestation of a problem. This thesis will investigate how architecture can embody cultural healing by revitalizing the abandoned site of the former Iranian embassy. Indeed, architecture has the presence and authority necessary to begin to mend severed ties between two major global entities. Ultimately, the project proposes a Gozar—an arrangement of architectural interventions within a cultural park which reveals the true culture: the food, music, costume, language—of Iran, as a way of combating the stereotypes about Iran that have prevailed throughout the United States. The proposed cultural park seeks to bring hope and vibrant interaction within this underutilized space. Temporary, yet timeless, interventions located within the premises of the abandoned Iranian Embassy will create a place that engages visitors with the customs and history of Iran.Item Breaking through the Margins: Pushing Sociopolitical Boundaries Through Historic Preservation(2016) Hopkins, Portia Dene; Williams- Forson, Psyche; American Studies; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)“Breaking through the Margins: Pushing Sociopolitical Boundaries Through Historic Preservation” explores the ways in which contemporary grassroots organizations are adapting historic preservation methods to protect African American heritage in communities that are on the brink of erasure. This project emerges from an eighteen-month longitudinal study of three African American preservation organizations—one in College Park, Maryland and two in Houston, Texas—where gentrification or suburban sprawl has all but decimated the physical landscape of their communities. Grassroots preservationists in Lakeland (College Park, Maryland), St. John Baptist Church (Missouri City, Texas), and Freedmen’s Town (Houston, Texas) are involved in pushing back against preservation practices that do not, or tend not, to take into consideration the narratives of African American communities. I argue, these organizations practice a form of preservation that provides immediate and lasting effects for communities hovering at the margins. This dissertation seeks to outline some of the major methodological approaches taken by Lakeland, St. John, and Freedmen’s Town. The preservation efforts put forth by the grassroots organizations in these communities faithfully work to remind us that history without preservation is lost. In taking on the critical work of pursuing social justice, these grassroots organizations are breaking through the margins of society using historic preservation as their medium.