Theses and Dissertations from UMD

Permanent URI for this communityhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/2

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.

Browse

Filters

2011 - 201922020 - 20211

Settings

Subject: search.filters.subject.Urban Renewal

Search Results

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    STRONG FOUNDATIONS: EXPLORING THE ROLE OF EDUCATIONAL ARCHITECTURE IN MITIGATING BALTIMORE’S RACIAL DISPARITIES
    (2021) Quintanilla, Melonee; Noonan, Peter; Architecture; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    The underfunding of public infrastructure in majority Black communities of the USA is an historic issue exacerbated by disenfranchisement, redlining, ‘slum’ clearance, and systemic racism. The Harlem Park neighborhood in West Baltimore needs a new school complex to replace the current Harlem Park Elementary/Middle and Augusta Fells High School building. The existing building is a relic of the disastrous 1961 Urban Renewal plan that created Route 40 (the “Highway to Nowhere”) and destroyed hundreds of homes in the neighborhood. This thesis will explore the role of educational architecture in both repairing a community harmed by discriminatory design and lessening racial disparities in education. As we grapple with yet another wave of societal reckoning, let us imagine a world where the children of Harlem Park have equal opportunity to a strong foundation of public education.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Building Publics: The Early History of the New York Shakespeare Festival
    (2018) Sheaffer, Adam; Hildy, Franklin J; Theatre; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    This dissertation explores the New York Shakespeare Festival/Public Theater’s earliest history, with a special focus in the company’s evolving use of the rhetoric and concept of “public.” As founder Joseph Papp noted early in the theater’s history, they struggled to function as a “private organization engaged in public work.” To mitigate the challenges of this struggle, the company pursued potential audiences and publics for their theatrical and cultural offerings in a variety of spaces on the cityscape, from Central Park to neighborhood parks and common spaces to a 19th century historic landmark. In documenting and exploring the festival’s development and perambulations, this dissertation suggests that the festival’s position as both a private and public-minded organization presented as many opportunities as it did challenges. In this way, company rhetoric surrounding “public-ness” emerged as a powerful strategy for the company’s survival and growth, embodied most apparently by their current moniker as The Public Theater.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Restoring Neighborhood to North Broad Street in Philadelphia
    (2011) Jacks, Philip J.; Rockcastle, Garth C; Architecture; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    A century ago, mansions of Philadelphia's industrial nouveau riche lined upper Broad Street. Today these neighborhoods are virtually cut off from City Hall and Center Square amid blocks of urban blight. One last relic of this gilded age is Willis Hale's Lorraine Apartments of 1894. Acquired by Reverend Baker in 1947, the Divine Lorraine became the city's first integrated hotel and beacon for the civil rights movement. Since its sale in 1999, the building has remained abandoned and its interior gutted, despite its designation as a national historic place. By adapting the Lorraine for multi-use occupancy, with additional residential and commercial development around the Fairmount Metro station, this thesis aims to restore a sense of place to the African-American community, while celebrating its significant achievement in music and theater. It joins the nearby Metropolitan Opera House, Freedom Theatre and Blue Horizon as living legacies along the newly dubbed "Avenue of the Arts."