The Village of River Ranch: A Post Occupancy Evaluation of a Traditional Neighborhood Development in Lafayette, Louisiana

The proponents of New Urbanism claim the neighborhoods they design, called Traditional Neighborhood Developments (TNDs), promote community, sense of place, physical health, and environmental sustainability. Critics assert that community is stressed at the expense of individuality, that design unity has become rigid uniformity, and that the neighborhoods are orchestrated and do not reflect real life. This thesis, a post occupancy evaluation (POE), examines how one TND works for its residents and whether it accomplishes the goals of the architect/planner. An additional, essential purpose of this POE is to serve the "feed-forward" role of informing future neighborhood planning projects. The Village of River Ranch in Lafayette, Louisiana is the site of my research. Utilization of multiple research methods (survey, interviews, naturalistic observations) offered opportunities for triangulation and the ability to produce a more comprehensive analysis.

Name thesis:degree_name

M.S.

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

School of Urban Planning and Regional Studies

Year

2007

Author dc:creator

• Tomlinson, Elizabeth A.

Contributors dc:contributor

• Ehrenfeucht, Renia
• Brooks, Jane
• Gladstone, David

• New Urbanism
• Traditional Neighborhood Development
• neighborhood planning
• post occupancy evaluation
• the Village of River Ranch
• Louisiana

Repository record dc:identifier

https://scholarworks.uno.edu/td/640

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:scholarworks.uno.edu:td-1640