Comprehensive Planning and Development: A Seaside Town in Connecticut

Abstract

The focus of this thesis is urban design. The project is a new seaside town along the coast of Connecticut of approximately 690 residential units, commercial space, and appropriate public buildings and spaces. Some current planning ideology, development, and architecture are fallacious, resulting in poor communities. This site is used to define, explore, and propose solutions to the issues of designing comprehensive communities while using the paradigms of the traditional city as tools for design. This thesis demonstrates that: history and theory of urban design are useful and necessary at all scales of design; classical and traditional paradigms are viable methods; and typology is essential in understanding and designing the city. The product of this thesis is a comprehensive town plan that: meets current demand for development; articulates critical typologies suitable to the project; explores and catalogues pertinent historical and theoretical precedents; and produces a graphic urban and architectural code.