Landscape Architecture & Regional Planning Graduate Research and Creative Activity Copyright (c) 2013 University of Massachusetts - Amherst All rights reserved. http://scholarworks.umass.edu/larp_grad_research Recent documents in Landscape Architecture & Regional Planning Graduate Research and Creative Activity en-us Mon, 04 Mar 2013 06:30:39 PST 3600 Climate Change Adaptation Chapter: Marshfield, Massachusetts http://scholarworks.umass.edu/larp_grad_research/23 http://scholarworks.umass.edu/larp_grad_research/23 Thu, 31 Jan 2013 10:22:46 PST Climate change, understood as a statistically significant variation in the mean state of the climate or its variability, is the greatest environmental challenge of this generation (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 2001). Marshfield is already being affected by changes in the climate that will have a profound effect on the town’s economy, public health, coastal resources, natural features, water systems, and public and private infrastructure. Adaptation strategies have been widely recognized as playing an important role in improving a community’s ability to respond to climate stressors by resisting damage and recovering quickly.

Based on review of climate projections for the region, we developed a projection of likely climate changes for Marshfield. By the year 2100, Marshfield can expect sea level rise of approximately two feet, 16 - 30 more days with heat over 90 degrees in summers, and increased precipitation in the winters. Along with this will come more severe and frequent flood events.

Three key strategies were identified as top priority changes that Marshfield can enact when considering adaptation planning methods: a living shorelines treatment, pervious pavement installation, and a building elevation grant program. A matrix of additional strategies was also generated that addresses a range of sectors.

]]> Chase, Joshua H. et al. McGrath Corridor - A vision for the future in Somerville, MA http://scholarworks.umass.edu/larp_grad_research/22 http://scholarworks.umass.edu/larp_grad_research/22 Wed, 16 Jan 2013 12:10:32 PST Project Goals

This project seeks to create opportunities for green connections and city beautification along the McGrath Highway corridor. Key directives are: • Build greenway connections including pedestrian path and bike lanes • Increase open space • Minimize storm water flows and create on site infiltration through green infrastructure. • Improve tree canopy • Enhance economic growth and revitalization The studio’s primary goal is to plan this urban greenway project at multiple scales. The studio synthesizes information about natural features, recreation resources, and development patterns to create a green infrastructure network that addresses the unique problems and opportunities of the study area. Moreover, the studio focuses on finding innovative strategies for enhancing green space in the city, creating urban wildlife habitats, improving recreation access, and enhancing environmental quality.

]]> Kwon, YouJin et al. Prelude to a Master Plan: Ware, Massachusetts http://scholarworks.umass.edu/larp_grad_research/21 http://scholarworks.umass.edu/larp_grad_research/21 Wed, 16 Jan 2013 11:31:30 PST Prelude to a Master Plan offers ideas, recommendations, and a toolkit to help the town chart its own path towards that future. While the teams and individual students worked to ‘drill down’ into specific topic areas, the Studio defined three basic areas in order to think about how the various assets, challenges and ideas undermine or reinforce one another. The report is loosely organized in those terms: addressing the outlying rural areas and issues specific to these places, considering one of the key growth areas that has extended from town and the conflicts that arise from the many uses occurring along a single corridor, and then finishing at the center with the downtown and Mill Yard. This is the order in which most residents express their affection – unmitigated pride in the natural heritage, satisfaction with housing and joy in community, and cautious hope (or disappointment) in the town center. This is also the way in which visitors experience this place. Whether in setting priorities for preservation of resources, or determining ways in which to project the town’s identity to attract visitors and businesses, it is important to keep stepping back to see the Town of Ware, with all of the places and all of the people that comprise its entirety. And so, while this report begins with data and maps and natural resources it ends with identity and public participation, this report is not a Master Plan. It is the prelude to a Master Plan. Ware’s plan will be a success because of the people at the heart of that process and the community.

]]> Alfaro, Belen et al. Reconnecting People to Springfield’s Riverfront: from the South End to Forest Park http://scholarworks.umass.edu/larp_grad_research/20 http://scholarworks.umass.edu/larp_grad_research/20 Tue, 20 Nov 2012 12:03:38 PST This report documents the work of the Senior Urban Design Studio on Springfield’s southern riverfront. What is Springfield’s riverfront of tomorrow? The primary goal of the project was to develop a vision to connect the neighborhoods of the South End and Forest Park to the Connecticut River. What are new imaginative ways to engage the southern waterfront of Springfield as a place for people? How can a landscape engage water-ecology with both functional and sensual-aesthetic values?

Our proposals offer new planning and design strategies for this great location in Springfield.

The studio articulated four major design objectives:

  1. Improving and creating dynamic physical and mental connections to and from the riverfront in Springfield. Encourage accessibility to the River with attention to create a coherent pedestrian and bicycle system. Propose design elements that increase the visibility and experience of the River.
  2. Creating a new landscape experience along the Riverfront. A new path along the River engages the water’s edge and ties into the larger network of the Connecticut River Walk and Bikeway.
  3. Restoring and redesigning the ecology of the rivers. The ecological functions of the Connecticut River and the Mill River have to be restored to minimize urban runoff and create new habitat for wildlife. This restoration is accompanied with an educational concept for visitors and residents to teach about the functions and beauty of the River.

    1. New economies on the riverfront have to support the ecology of the river.

Proposed public open spaces on the riverfront provide a long term framework and will guide crucial decisions for decision makers and the general public.

]]> Bernard, Nathaniel J. et al. Springfield`s Upper Lyman Warehouse District - Visions for Revitalization http://scholarworks.umass.edu/larp_grad_research/19 http://scholarworks.umass.edu/larp_grad_research/19 Tue, 20 Nov 2012 11:23:48 PST This report documents the work of the Senior Urban Design Studio in Springfield’s Upper Lyman District in downtown Springfield. It is part of the Metro Center neighborhood and adjacent to the Union Station that will be revitalized in 2016. The district is challenged by high vacancies and general abandonment. Housing opportunities and market-rate housing in particular are very low. The primary goal of the project was to develop a staged vision to revitalize and rediscover the Upper Lyman Warehouse District and to improve livability in the heart of downtown Springfield for employers, employees, residents, and visitors. The following recommendations can be articulated:
Zoning regulations and creative incentives should encourage mixed land uses.
Strategies such as adaptive reuse for significant historic buildings or urban infill could keep some of the historic character.
New housing typologies should attract a diverse clientele to accommodate different styles of life, create a robust mix and support the vibrancy of the city.
New retail with focus on grocery markets can attracts people to live in downtown and provides food security.
A pedestrian and bicycle-oriented circulation system should connect to the Arc of Recreation and the Connecticut River Walk and Bikeway and to local assets like Downtown, the Union Station and the Quadrangle Museums.
Include strategies should transform our area on a short-term basis and foster shaping a community. Art performances, temporary public art, urban agriculture, more specific programming for vacant land can help identify and shape places.
Designing the streetscapes as visual experiences to encourage walking.

One idea for a site responsive intervention on Lyman Street by Chris Johnson was developed further and realized in the fall of 2011 by Professor Frank Sleegers as art mural COMMUNITY SPIRIT - El ESPIRITU DE LA COMMUNIDAD.

]]> Alexanderr, Jane et al. Population 7 – Lyman Street Art Intervention http://scholarworks.umass.edu/larp_grad_research/18 http://scholarworks.umass.edu/larp_grad_research/18 Tue, 20 Nov 2012 11:23:46 PST POPULATION 7 started as an experiment in the fall of 2011 as an Urban Art Laboratory “Art – Place – Tour” with the vision to make a tangible impact to the culture of public art in Springfield. At first sight art seems to be not existent in the public realm. We are searching for an organic, sustainable concept with the potential to grow from inside to outside. Our goal is to invite to a discussion about public art and art in general that is introduced through minimal but diverse, economical eventually temporary, site-responsive interventions. We see our art as personal statements that we bring to Springfield to open up a dialogue. This dialogue has the intention to be inclusive to other groups or individual approaches to facilitate and encompass diversity. In this context the makers of POPULATION 7 are subjects of a discovery tour; they learn from the visitors as much as they share and give with their individual personal art work. Area and Place

The project area is the upper Lyman Warehouse in Springfield, MA.

Vacant lots and vacant buildings dominate the scene of a formerly flourishing business district for food storage and production. Can public art stop further decay and send out a positive signal and bring the upper Lyman Warehouse district back to the map and our attention?

Tour

POPULATION 7connects the already existing public artworks and places in Downtown Springfield to create a comprehensive understanding along a guided tour that reframes the City. The 1.5 mile tour has ever changing perspectives and the stations due to the contributing participants that share their impressions and stories with the group. Visitors are not just spectators but experts.

POPULATION 7 Lyman Street Art Intervention introduced people in Springfield to art as a process-oriented strategy, re-thinking urban environments, and initiating a change of perception - Tangible site responsive interventions as a narrative for new transformative aesthetic experiences. POPULATION 7 reclaimed an underutilized part of the City and brought it to public attention. In the future we want to expand the spirit of POPULATION 7 and reach out for new collaborations with artists, community groups, entrepreneurs and everybody who is excited about urban transformation through art.

The art mural by Professor Frank Sleegers and Chris Johnson COMMUNITY SPIRIT - El ESPIRITU DE LA COMMUNIDAD won an 2012 Merit award by the Boston Society of Landscape Architects.

]]> Foster, Carli et al. From the Quadrangle to the River: Revitalizing the Heart of Downtown Springfield http://scholarworks.umass.edu/larp_grad_research/17 http://scholarworks.umass.edu/larp_grad_research/17 Wed, 25 May 2011 10:13:11 PDT This studio report explores community service learning in the graduate urban design studio taught in the in Department of Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and instructed by Professor Frank Sleegers.

The project will began with a visioning workshop, conducted to engage community members in the shaping of project goals and objectives within the project area of downtown Springfield. These findings were brought to the studio and guided the design process and outcomes.

Five design teams developed five alternative master plans for the core area of downtown Springfield with focus on the revitalization of open space and the connection of the urban axis from the Quadrangle to the Connecticut River. These five design strategies are recommendations to improve the livability of the heart of downtown Springfield for employers, employees, residents, and visitors.

Remarkable for this studio was a simultaneous collaboration with another Landscape Architecture Studio and an Architecture Studio at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. These studios were coordinated through the UMass Amherst Design Center that was launched in the spring of 2010.

The public response to the work of the three studios resulted in the reopening of Pynchon Plaza – a pocket park in the axis of the Quadrangle to the River that had been closed down for 35 years.

]]> Dehais, Mary F. et al. Town of Braintree - Monatiquot River Watershed Study http://scholarworks.umass.edu/larp_grad_research/16 http://scholarworks.umass.edu/larp_grad_research/16 Wed, 25 May 2011 10:13:08 PDT Monatiquot River has played an important role in the Town of Braintree’s great industrial history. Over time, people’s relationship with the river has evolved from daily necessity and industrial utilitarian usage to scenery and recreational amenity. Currently, there is limited public physical access to the water and a lack of connection to regional greenway system. In addition, the extreme flood in March 2010 signified the prolonged urbanization impacts on floodplains and massive impervious surfaces in the watershed. Under the climate change effects, Braintree is likely to face more frequent and severe storms that affect safety and welfare of the increasing population of Braintree residents. Finally, water quality in Braintree has been a concern as a downstream community in the increasing urbanized watershed. To address those challenges in Braintree, the main goals of this project are to provide stromwater management strategies, improve water quality management and to evaluate accessibility and recreation opportunity of the Monatiquot River within the Town of Braintree.

This project underwent a series of data dredging and assessment through meetings with the members of the Planning & Community Development Department and Public Health Department, site observations, GIS data analysis and assessment at Weir subwatershed scale and town scale using a SWOT (Strength, Weakness, Opportunities, and Treats) analysis methodology, and a public community workshop. The studio then synthesized those findings in company with relevant case studies and developed planning and implementation strategies for each project goal

Key recommendations indicated in this report include implementation of stormwater best management practices (BMPs) at all scales (subwatershed, town, and site scales) on all land uses to reduce impervious areas, increase infiltration, and improve water quality. In addition, a continuous riparian 200 feet buffers to restore ecological and hydrological functions for flood control and water quality improvement. Furthermore, develop long-term plans for acquisition of floodplain properties and restore hydrological functions of floodplains. Moreover, provide access to the river through redevelopment and enhancement of existing public access points with trail connections to town parks and initiate a Monatiquot River Greenway System connecting both local and regional recreation systems. Finally, develop Monatiquot River Outreach and Education Programs that help to bring the awareness of watershed issues, facilitate BMPs implementation, and build a long term stewardship with the river.

]]> D'Agostino, Benjamin et al. 'Learning by doing': adaptive planning as a strategy to address uncertainty in planning http://scholarworks.umass.edu/larp_grad_research/15 http://scholarworks.umass.edu/larp_grad_research/15 Tue, 03 May 2011 08:28:57 PDT Adaptive management, an established method in natural resource and ecosystem management, has not been widely applied to landscape planning due to the lack of an operational method that addresses the role of uncertainty and standardized monitoring protocols and methods. A review of adaptive management literature and practices reveals several key concepts and principles for adaptive planning: (1) management actions are best understood and practiced as experiments; (2) several plans/experiments can be implemented simultaneously; (3) monitoring of management actions are key; and (4) adaptive management can be understood as 'learning by doing'. The paper identifies various uncertainties in landscape planning as the major obstacles for the adoption of an adaptive approach. To address the uncertainty in landscape planning, an adaptive planning method is proposed where monitoring plays an integral role to reduce uncertainty. The proposed method is then applied to a conceptual test in water resource planning addressing abiotic-biotic-cultural resources. To operationalize adaptive planning, it is argued that professionals, stakeholders and researchers need to function in a genuinely transdisciplinary mode where all contribute to, and benefit from, decision making and the continuous generation of new knowledge.

]]> Kato, Sadahisa et al. Proposed Greenway of Hatfield, Massachusetts - LA497C - Senior Studio http://scholarworks.umass.edu/larp_grad_research/14 http://scholarworks.umass.edu/larp_grad_research/14 Tue, 29 Mar 2011 10:35:56 PDT This is one of five reports submitted for the LA497C Spring 2011 Senior Studio project.

This proposed greenway plan will be assessing the features of Hatfield such as, History, natural features, and open space within the town. After a thorough assessment of the towns features the report will cover the extensive proposed greenway plan, focusing mostly on the town center of Hatfield. The town center is the hub of the town where the major community buildings are such as the elementary and high schools, town hall, the town library, and most of the public recreation fields. Once the overall greenway plan has been analyzed, the report will cover more in depth specific areas of focus that are important when creating connections through the town center in the proposed greenway plan. These focus areas are, The Mill River Park, Education connection, and renovations to the Smith Academy Town Park. Each area of focus provides the residents and visitors to the town of Hatfield the benefit of safe recreation as well as an opportunity to learn about the history, wildlife, and natural features of Hatfield.

]]> Bent, Matthew G. et al.