Park : reassessing patterns of life in small urban communities : designing the interface between living, working and playing

Today, many small urban communities look to their historic downtown districts as a great resource for regenerating economic vitality and creating cultural identity. However, one common problem experienced by many of these communities lies in the incompatibility between contemporary patterns of living and the existing built fabric of these downtowns. Sociocultural shifts in the American life-style as well as shifts in our transportation patterns have created a mismatch between places of work, places of residence and places of recreation, rendering these downtown areas ill-adapted to meet contemporary patterns of living. Although the building stock in these places may adequately meet the budding demand, the fundamental inadequacy in parking facilities creates a problem limiting the potential habitation of the district. The parking infrastructure and municipal parking policies become key elements in the eventual health of these communities. Because most people who live, work, or shop in these areas own an automobile, a bottleneck occurs for those attempting to utilize the area. Vital nodes of many downtown districts tend to cluster around existing parking garages, however, these parking facilities are expensive to build, and when constructed, are often physically removed from the center of activity rendering them underutilized or they inadvertently occupy precious real estate, obliterating the continuity of the street and pedestrian activity necessary for healthy businesses. Many communities attempt to solve their needs for parking in a nearsighted manner, looking only at parking in terms of supply and demand. However, ultimately, the downtown neighborhood needs to be viewed as a type of ecosystem consisting of interrelated parts that make up a whole.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Architecture.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2004

Author dc:creator

• Taylor, Jeffrey, 1972-

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Jan Wampler.

• Architecture.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/17665

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/17665