School of Architecture, Planning & Preservation

Permanent URI for this communityhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/1607

The collections in this community comprise faculty research works, as well as graduate theses and dissertations.

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Subject: search.filters.subject.Baltimore

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Now showing 1 - 10 of 27
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    RETHINKING MOVEMENT
    (2024) Gomez, Jose; Tilghman, James; Architecture; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    Today, there are numerous transportation methods that are constantly changing our landscape. Despite the diversity of transportation options, our approach toward movement has become outdated. The emergence of autonomous vehicles, electric vehicles, sustainable power sources and advanced infrastructure are currently shaping the way we move throughout the world. The advantages of these technologies are clear; high performance, low to no carbon emissions, automatic systems, and improved safety are clearly the direction of the future. However, their adaptation and implementation is slow and ineffective. Emerging technology presents a viable opportunity to design architecture and mobility as a synergetic system that can facilitate movement, improve accessibility, and reclaim the human experience from outdated infrastructure. It is therefore important to rethink how we move through space in order to design for human wellness. This thesis will explore transportation problems in cities, emerging technologies, sustainable practices, and design guidelines and precedents in search of an efficient moving, self-sufficient, wellness focused future.
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    HIGHWAY TO HARVEST-WAY, REIMAGINGING BALTIMORE THROUGH URBAN AGRICULTURAL INFRASTRUCTURE
    (2023) Jones, Liam Wynn; Gabrielli, Julie E.; Architecture; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    Earth has seen exponential growth in population within the modern area, requiring human society to respond by expanding the boundaries of the built environment to accommodate. This expansion - coupled with climate change - threatens food production for an increasingly reliant global community. Recent geopolitical events have highlighted the delicate balance of food supply chains, emphasizing the need to plan accordingly. This thesis explores how new infrastructure can challenge the American food system and the relationship that rural communities and urban centers have with sustenance. The city of Baltimore, Maryland will act as the nexus of change due to its high food scarcity rates and history. Highway to Harvest-Way examines the architecture of agriculture, cultural traditions of food within the region, and investigates how a modular approach to growth can respond to a community it services at varying scales to redefine the paradigm of food within cities.
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    Harboring Identity: Community-Informed Design for Belonging in Westport and Curtis Bay
    (2023) Abe, Danielle; Filler, Kenneth; Architecture; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    This thesis is a community-informed exploration of South Baltimore’s Westport and Curtis Bay neighborhoods. It is about listening, empathizing, and starting the design process with these communities and then exploring forms and spaces that can serve current community anchors and community needs while acknowledging complicated histories. In the U.S., the pattern of redlining and disinvestment of resources from communities of color is sometimes followed by re-investment that leads to physical and/or cultural displacement of long-time residents. The Baltimore Harbor is experiencing pressure of potentially speculative gentrifying re-investment that would serve future hypothetical residents instead of existing ones. The design intent is to empower residents to stay, strengthen, and feel a sense of belonging in their home neighborhoods.
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    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.
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    Lots of Healing: A Transformative Approach to Lot Vacancy
    (2021) Clark, Leah Christina; Burke, Juan; Architecture; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    This thesis aims to re-evaluate the abandonment of vacant lots and develop an architectural typology used to address the issue of lot vacancy in specific areas of the city. Through examining the history of the Sandtown-Windchester neighborhood in Baltimore, a multi layered intervention will be developed to address the issue of homelessness and lot abandonment specific to this neighborhood. This intervention will then be adapted to address lot vacancy that exists in cities across the country. This intervention and research will serve as a catalyst to spark further discussion about the societal implications of the mishandling of vacant lots, and ways to adapt them to serve the communities in which they exist in order to inspire a positive societal impact.

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    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.
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    Reviving the Heart of the City: Transforming Baltimore's Oldest Market into the City's First Sustainable Food District
    (2019) Bos, Eric; Kelly, Brian; Architecture; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    This thesis is about food, about how to replenish an abundance of good food, of availability and access in the inner city. Baltimore’s Westside neighborhood in downtown has been plagued by vacancy and dereliction for more than half a century. Public markets have long been cultural and social hubs of cities, yet amidst this backdrop, Lexington Market—Baltimore’s oldest public market—sits out of date and in desperate need of a new vision. Through a redesign of the market and the surrounding blocks to better connect this node to the city, a vibrant food-centric community can grow again. By expanding upon traditional market typologies to include the entire food cycle, the new market effectively responds to the needs of the 21st century. Food is grown, sold, cooked, and eaten on site, sparking cyclical nutrient and energy loops. As urban populations rise and agricultural land wanes, it is more important than ever to secure arable land within cities, vertically. Urban food production reconnects people with the food they eat, provides local produce with minimal transportation, and can be integrated into the public market. This thesis both revives a struggling piece of public infrastructure and demonstrates the efficacy of bringing super-productive farming into the city.
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    Can Design Evoke Youth? Exploring Paradigms of Intergenerational Interactions
    (2019) Weber, Emma Isabella; Abrams, Michael C.; Architecture; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    Society lacks a thorough understanding of the concept of aging. By the time Americans reach their senior years, they have little concept of what life will become as an aging adult. Older adults begin to grow isolated from society both physically and mentally. Health limitations, technological or transportation limitations, and spatial discrepancies generate barriers to seniors, perpetuating a cycle of isolation and loneliness. As the senior population rapidly increases with the aging of Baby Boomers, can architecture break this cycle and stimulate the creation of a society of intertwined generations? This thesis challenges the design of senior housing to become a vehicle through which seniors might reconnect with society through intellectual, physical, and social engagement. Designing spaces that foster new paradigms of intergenerational relationships may become the tool through society is exposed to the beauty and importance of aging.
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    From Hill to Harbor
    (2018) Giron, Leslie; Tilghman, James; Architecture; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    This thesis focuses on bringing an art hub onto Baltimore’s civic waterfront of the Inner Harbor, specifically on Rash Field. Rash Field has been an unsightly and underutilized space, and is considered to be the last remaining essentially vacant space in the Inner Harbor. It is the primary reason why the south shore is the least pedestrian traveled section of the entire Inner Harbor promenade. The goal is to promote a better exchange and communication between the public, private groups of people using art as the major generator. In hopes that it will bring a unique and engaging attraction to Baltimore and revitalizes the south shore of the Inner Harbor promenade.
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    Critical Juncture: Revitalizing Baltimore's Penn Station with MagLev
    (2017) Alli, Sarah Roetzel; Tilghman, James W; Architecture; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    This thesis seeks to examine what happens when a purposeful intervention is made at Baltimore’s Penn Station, an intervention that accommodates Mag-Lev Rail as part of the Northeast Corridor. With an augmented and fully integrated mass transit system, Penn Station can become an important economic node for the city and the Greater Baltimore Region. The expansion of the station and the design of the surrounding plazas can revitalize the urban fabric and make Penn Station a destination unto itself.