Master's Projects

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Master's Projects

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Urban Design Studio: Habersham County Growth Management and Conservation Strategies

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2022-12) Davis, Nathan ; Davis, Madison ; Scott, Sierra ; Kaufman, Mira ; Raven, Roxanne ; Beduhn, Lauren

Georgia's land cover change over the past 50 years has been documented in an unprecedented study conducted by the Georgia Conservancy and the Georgia Tech Center for Spatial Planning and Visualization (CSPAV). This study has resulted in Georgia Now and Forever initiative, an ambitious undertaking to educate key decision-makers across Georgia as to the study's findings with a message that intentional, thoughtful decisions around the use of Georgia's remaining undeveloped land are inextricably linked to Georgia's future ecological and economic sustainability. item_description: Georgia's land cover change over the past 50 years has been documented in an unprecedented study conducted by the Georgia Conservancy and the Georgia Tech Center for Spatial Planning and Visualization (CSPAV). This study has resulted in Georgia Now and Forever initiative, an ambitious undertaking to educate key decision-makers across Georgia as to the study's findings with a message that intentional, thoughtful decisions around use of Georgia's remaining undeveloped land are inextricably linked to Georgia's future ecological and economic sustainability. Unsurprisingly, but important to have clearly documented, is the role low density development has played in the significant acreage conversion from agricultural land, forested land, and wetlands. These findings from past development patterns have allowed for the identification of plausible future landcover change trends, assuming business-as-usual development approaches. North Georgia is clearly in the path of major landcover change to low density developed land as metro Atlanta proceeds to "move" northward. This is also an area of significant ecological and carbon assets in the form of our mountain and valley forests, as well as agricultural lands. There is keen community interest in welcoming development-especially diverse and affordable housing choices-but alongside serious advancement in the conservation of the natural landscape. Representatives from the Habersham County, the City of Clarkesville and the property manager of a large conservation tract in the area that includes two riverfront miles of the Soquee River requested assistance from the Georgia Conservancy and Georgia Tech to consider how and where development and conservation can and should occur across their home county of Habersham. There is an understanding among this group that the very conditions that draw new residents to the area-the forests, mountains, streams-are at risk without a concerted effort to include conservation alongside land-efficient development. Given the larger situation in Georgia, the public and political will in the Clarkesville/Habersham area to pursue a larger joint development and conservation priority led to this planning process of identifying strategies for managing local resources in a sustainable way.
Urban Design Studio: Faith Based Affordable Housing

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2022-12) Delargy, Colin ; Cena, Kortney ; McFarlane, Clifton ; Dominguez, Miriam ; Waheed, Jullanar ; Murphy, Ansley

Well known by now, and getting worse by the moment, is Atlanta’s affordable housing crisis. In the Atlanta case, as in “hot” markets all over the country, jurisdictions are trying to come up with strategies that might work. One such tried here and in other cities is to eliminate single family zoning. Early evidence in its usefulness for addressing affordability from Minneapolis, Seattle, and Portland, however, shows that strategy to be failing. It’s not producing density, the investment required is raising property values and taxes, the red hot “build to rent” markets are displacing neighborhoods, particularly Bipoc and low wealth neighborhoods. And its top-down approach is stripping communities of any input into the process. In short, this solutionist strategy does not work. In Atlanta, the city council decisively defeated it in December. item_description: Well known by now, and getting worse by the moment, is Atlanta’s affordable housing crisis. In the Atlanta case, as in “hot” markets all over the country, jurisdictions are trying to come up with strategies that might work. One such tried here and in other cities is to eliminate single family zoning. Early evidence in its usefulness for addressing affordability from Minneapolis, Seattle, and Portland, however, shows that strategy to be failing. It’s not producing density, the investment required is raising property values and taxes, the red hot “build to rent” markets are displacing neighborhoods, particularly Bipoc and low wealth neighborhoods. And its top-down approach is stripping communities of any input into the process. In short, this solutionist strategy does not work. In Atlanta, the city council decisively defeated it in December. Since we and others remain in a state of crisis, though, the context for this studio investigates strategies for what to do instead. These include coming up with the tools and resources to coordinate use of publicly and non-profit owned land; to maximize conservation of existing stock; and to concentrate densification in already dense areas like transit corridors and existing dense areas. For us, we will explore the potential for faith-based property owners to step up, using their land holdings as a way of underwriting the land cost element of an affordability-serving pro forma. This studio explores the issues and ideas from an overview perspective. The studio worked with four faith-based organizations to go deep, developing case studies to further tease out the issues and opportunities. This work was guided by these organizations, possible by nearby affected communities as well. The work product includes both our overview and the findings from the individual case studies. Students worked in group settings, applying their knowledge across the specializations of housing and community development, economic development, and urban design, along with associated regulatory and resource requirements. The studio progressed from data assembly to analysis, to consideration of alternatives, to suggested courses of action, to a final report and presentation. Stakeholder organizations will review each stage of the work. Students utilized their skills in data management, analysis, communication, and presentation in a cross-disciplinary and community engaged process.
Urban Design Studio: Home Park Neighborhood Strategic Planning

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2022-12) Master, Michaela ; Yohanis, Samrawit ; Hudson, Joel ; Noe, John ; Lieu, Seung Jae ; Neaves, Thomas ; Yuxiang, Zhao ; Rollins, Miles

Nestled between Georgia Tech and Atlantic Station (and between the Connector and Northside Drive), Home Park neighborhood leadership has provided planning frameworks through the years, ultimately approved and incorporated into the City of Atlanta’s own plans, that aim at maintaining neighborhood integrity and quality of life for its residents amidst change forces all around. This update will respond to these challenges by exploring their impact on neighborhood futures and also provide recommended short-term actions that signal reassertion or reimagining of neighborhood values. As such, students will be called upon to work in group settings, applying their knowledge across all specializations, emphasizing syntheses among them. The neighborhood will provide forums for reviewing and providing feedback to our progress and shaping these interests. Their organization is committed to carry out a long-term, inclusive, transparent, and community-engaged program. item_description: Nestled between Georgia Tech and Atlantic Station (and between the Connector and Northside Drive), Home Park neighborhood leadership has provided planning frameworks through the years, ultimately approved and incorporated into the City of Atlanta’s own plans, that aim at maintaining neighborhood integrity and quality of life for its residents amidst change forces all around. This update will respond to these challenges by exploring their impact on neighborhood futures and also provide recommended short-term actions that signal reassertion or reimagining of neighborhood values. As such, students will be called upon to work in group settings, applying their knowledge across all specializations, emphasizing syntheses among them. The neighborhood will provide forums for reviewing and providing feedback to our progress and shaping these interests. Their organization is committed to carry out a long-term, inclusive, transparent, and community-engaged program. Examples of the neighborhood’s range of interests include; o Reviewing useful proposals from earlier planning work o Tackling housing-related issues like conservation, affordable housing options, and impacts of short-term rentals o Framing development options along corridors (10th Street, 14th Street, Hemphill, and Northside Drive), including traffic control options o Exploring urban design initiatives for strengthening neighborhood identity, ped/bike-oriented streetscape, and connectivity and SPI-8 parking priorities o Analyzing, as an empirical matter, how closely the City follows neighborhood master plans, with an eye towards strengthening the influence of those plans The studio work includes data assembly and analysis, the consideration of alternatives, suggested courses of action, and a final report and presentation. Community stakeholders were intimately involved in each stage of the work. As a framework planning/urban design exercise, the studio covered issues and opportunities across the full spectrum of planning specializations including: data collection, recordation, analysis, visualization and presentation in a cross-disciplinary and community involved processes, transportation planning, land use planning, open space planning, urban design and zoning.
Tokyo Smart City Studio at Nihonbashi – Spring 2022

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2022-05) Yang, Perry Pei-Ju ; Arsam, Muhammad ; Buchanan, Regan ; Chen, Lu ; Conschafter, Stephen ; Clowse, Maddy ; Foxley, Sebastian ; Franco-Pinilla, Rossana ; Garcia, Mirna ; Nicolson, Maggie ; Manitius, Natalie ; Snedaker, Tasha ; Wineski, Olivia

The studio's mission is to enhance the Nihonbashi neighborhood through carbon neutrality, climate resiliency, and post-Covid-19 consciousness. The studio focused on: 1. Celebrating the progress and history of the neighborhood 2. Engaging stakeholders across social, cultural, and geographic distances 3. Ensuring that future development supports climate resiliency and livable- and people-focused communities 4. Adding open spaces that support synergy between blue and green systems 5. Designing streetscapes and transit that makes movement enjoyable and accessible 6. Helping the neighborhood become more resilient to shocks such as Covid-19 or natural disasters 7. Anticipating trends and needs of population changes with land use 8. Harnessing smart technologies to enhance quality of life and economic opportunity, as well as our designs and processes 9. Catalyzing Tokyo's pursuit of carbon neutrality by using Nihonbashi as an example
Augmenting the Impact of Community Organizations

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2022-05) Al-Khayyal, Sarah ; Allgaier, Orion ; Amahrir, Safae ; Mers, Bianca ; Wagliardo, Nathan ; Webber, Noel ; Wright, Janelle ; Yandell, Izzy

Based on a philosophy of community-based planning that centers community needs which are supported by external partners, the 2022 studio worked to leverage a planning skillset to bolster the organizational capacity of this year’s partner organization, Impacto Juventud. Building off the work of the 2019 and 2020 Georgia Tech studios in Puerto Rico, the 2022 studio recognizes that global studios can be mutually beneficial for students to broader than perspectives and for partners to increase access to additional resources. In the context of this studio, this was best accomplished by building the capacity of community organizations to support their outreach and activism. The studio’s sub-focuses included community asset mapping, renewable energy, and non-profit communications.
The Chattahoochee Brick Company Studio: Envisioning a Commemorative Future

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2021-12-05) Abel, Hunter ; Carnell, Phillip ; Coutinho, Pedro ; Hopkins, Alison ; Nyman, Tanning ; Oliverio, Gabrielle ; Roth, Grace ; White, Reginald ; Xie, Ray

Our report aims to function as a vision plan for the development potential of the Chattahoochee Brick Company site and its opportunities for reparative justice. item_description: Our report aims to function as a vision plan for the development potential of the Chattahoochee Brick Company site and its opportunities for reparative justice • Background • Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT) Analysis • Conversations with various stakeholders in the community and wider surrounding area to determine visions: • Greenspace • Industrial (I-Mix) • Housing/Commercial • Analysis of proposals that includes examples and impacts **Now that the City of Atlanta is starting the process to begin possible acquisition, some of the visions are more likely to occur than others.
Housing for the cost burdened: a step toward a just society

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2021-01) Dyott, Sarah ; McKinney, Michaela ; Newman, Ian ; Thompson, Brock ; Mykulyn, Bryan ; Durham, Audra ; Lapwood, Bonnie ; Miller, Bryce ; Murphy, Eirin ; Zou, Nina ; Chapman, Olivia ; Yap, Soo Huey ; Wong, Summer

Affordable housing is one of Atlanta, Georgia’s most pressing, pervasive, and persistent urban planning crises. Additionally, the advent of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the preexisting affordable housing issues across housing security, demographics, the supply and demand of affordable housing policy, and the health of low-income housing occupants. This report aims to address these issues, as they currently persist in Atlanta, and offer recommendations and considerations for their solutions. This document consists of four sections: Affordable Housing Finance in the City of Atlanta, Wealth Divide and Housing, Homelessness, Health & Hazards. A case study of Atlanta’s Healthy Hotel Project, and the Nexus of Housing, Transit, and Jobs. This report was created by graduate students in the master’s in City and Regional Planning Program (MCRP) at the Georgia Institute of Technology in collaboration with multiple local stakeholders. Though this report will not solve the affordable housing issue in the city of Atlanta, it will address the current conditions and numerous challenges associated with affordable housing in Atlanta and will offer a pointed recommendation to create a path toward solutions for these wicked problems.
Tokyo Smart City Design at Shinagawa

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2020-05) Barnum, Christopher L. ; Bolden, Willie M. ; Colburn, Ryan L. ; O-charoen, Natcha ; Pedrick, David J. ; Starbuck, Zachary W. ; Zhen, Shuhui ; Baldwin, Ashley S. ; Bernard, Violet F. ; Blumenthal, Danielle L. ; Dhurkunde, Akhilesh V. ; Doyle, George P. ; Dunham, Andrew ; Kokitkar, Bhaswini B. ; Kroi, Eleni ; Peng, Cynthia ; Sisson, Danielle M. ; Slep, Hannah L. ; Wang, Jun ; Watson, Alexandra D. ; Zahin, Sanjana ; Yang, Perry Pei-Ju

The Tokyo smart city project is an international collaboration from 2016 to 2020 between the Eco Urban Lab of School of City and Regional Planning and School of Architecture at Georgia Tech, Global Carbon Project (GCP), the National Institute for Environmental Studies of Japan, and the Department of Urban Engineering of the University of Tokyo. Tokyo provides a living urban laboratory for designing complex urban settings, agglomerations of physical, cultural and technological systems. The Tokyo Smart City Studio in Spring 2020 investigates Shinagawa and its surroundings at the Tokyo Bay waterfront area in the context of new maglev high speed rail station area development, one of the biggest urban development projects in the City of Tokyo of the next decade. The operation of the new high-speed maglev rail station from 2030 will make Shinagawa a 70-70 new gateway, 70 minutes from Tokyo to Osaka for a region with 70 million population. The new infrastructure will compress the concept of space and time, and will change the inter-cities relation. Its future city vision will have profound impact to the urban forms, functions and experiences of the city. The project aims to develop a test bed of urban systems design to demonstrate how a smart community is designed, evaluated, and implemented in Japan by incorporating governmental agencies, stakeholders and communities, with focuses on urban design and modeling, urban analytics of big data, Internet of Things (IoT), smart mobility and eco urban performance evaluation.
Making Cataño Count

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2020) Apollon, Celine ; As-Salaam, Kamau ; Braun, Jonathan ; Ferreira, Andrea ; Hart, Haley ; Highfield, Robert ; Lim, Matthew ; Jones-Bynes, Jasmine ; Prendergast, Kyla

The School of City and Regional Planning at Georgia Tech hosted its second iteration of its Planning Studio master’s requirement in Puerto Rico in Spring of 2020. This year’s studio focused on the United States Decennial Census efforts for 2020. Puerto Rico, as an underrepresented territory within the United States, was a driving motivator for this project. The studio was assigned to Cataño, a small municipality just across the bay from the capital, San Juan. Cataño faces disproportionate levels of hard-to-count and underrepresented populations within the greater metropolitan area. Both the Cataño government and Puerto Rican Planning Board were assigned as the studio’s clients.
Tide to Town: Rapid Health Impact Assessment of Savannah’s Tide to Town Urban Trail System

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2020) Zhu, Kevin ; Igietseme, Nene ; Jones-Bynes, Jasmine

The Tide to Town Rapid Health Impact Assessment (HIA) was conducted as part of a studio assignment at Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech). The purpose of the HIA is to evaluate the potential health and social impacts of the proposed Tide to Town trail in Savannah, Georgia.