Final Research Paper

PowerPoint Presentation

A letter of Appreciation

To Nora, I did like to take the time and the advantage of this blogger to post my gratification and appreciation of your work and time spent with us in class. As I already have said in a previous email last week, you have given me another reason to understand why environmental research is so important to the Landscape Architectural profession and/or any other design related field. There weren't a single reading that you gave us that I didn't enjoy reading it. The videos and Shaun's presentations on the Complete Street were very inspiring. I just wish we could've have had more time with this class to over explore beyond class materials. You were a great insight and your teachings have influenced a lot in my current studio design projects. As I child, I have always been curious about the outside world and how thing did happen the way it happen? and/or why people did what they did? I have always been an observer by nature. In spite of that, you have introduced me the tools and skills that I will need as a designer in my near feature landscape architectural profession. These tools and techniques are now part of my new design skills that will shape my design choices forever. Thank You!

Feedback on Sustainability Discussion

I wanted to take a minute and use this opportunity to express my opinion about the whole idea on sustainability. I agree with Mat when he brings the topic saying that sustainability has become a common problem and a complex subject to deal with among designers. As I am proceeding with my studies as a landscape architecture student, I learn more every day about the meaning of what is to be sustainable. Although sustainability is now and days the most efficient way of designing spaces, I believe that this same design method is an idea that goes accordingly to each project location and the designer's style. It is not necessary or it shouldn't never be part of the asla code ethics. I have listening to successful designer's speech at the BAC and other places, that are doing marvelous design work on other parts of the world and have not embraced a sustainable design method. I find Boston a very difficult city to express any rich and innovated design. For instance, I love working with colors and am all in favor of modernism.

Analysis Approach

In the effort of beginning my search on David Square I have created a questionnaire of about 12 questions that emphasize on the use, circulation and physical comfort of David Square. To complete my research and gather the information that I needed to know about the Square, I decided that interviewing people would be most efficient. I visited my site in two different days for a period of 2 hours each visit. The first visit I made was on a Wednesday between the hours of 3-5pm about 3 weeks ago. During these hours I had the opportunity to interview a few people, man and woman. The second visit I made was on Friday of that same week at a later time between 7-8pm.

Class Comments - 03.29.12

What Comes Next? who are we sampling - nouns what are our participants doing - verb why are they doing it -motives how do we know what we know - What are our research approach? [assumption/description/explanation/prediction/action] what are our research questions? how do we find out - what are our tools? how do we measure it? consistency and accuracy NOTES: "archival research is getting a hold of research that other people did" who should i been talking to? what is the population? what is the sample?

Class Notes: Feb 23

At Shaun's class presentation of the public realm, I found it very interesting the examples of ecotones that he showed in the slides. The black and white diagrams shows very clearly the transition between the black line and the white. This simple diagram was very clear explaining the principle theory of what ecotone means.

Some of the urban city images that Shaun showed in the 21st Century Public Realm slides in class were also very explanatory about what ecotone is. I find the urban ecotone sample image of the street and sidewalk very explanatory and clear. After Shaun’s presentation I begin to see the city with a different eye. I begin to realize and pay much more attention into detail and how street patters makes transitions to boundaries spaces.


The images above are examples images that shows different ecotone that I researched. The images represent a little of my understand what an urban ecotone is.

Review of Questionnaire and Class Discussion

We have discussed in class possibilities for re framing our survey questionnaire that we have created for our colleagues. The idea was to explore how these research questions did or does succeed on getting the answers I was looking for. The following are questions that were raised in our class discussion when we analyzed our questionnaire:

a.How does the way the question was framed influence the answers you got?
b.How does the content fit into analyzable categories?
c.What are the “outliers” e.g. the answers that don’t seem to fit with the others?
d.What is missing in the “data” and why?

Response: I thought my question was straight forward when I asked everyone about their childhood experience in the environment they have been raised. I believe everyone did respond my survey question and I got the answer I was expecting.

After our class discussion we were then asked to re phrase our survey question and this is how I would re phrase it:

How did the outdoor environment in which you grew up affected you socially? Did you have positive or negative memories? Going back in time, would you have anything changed in your environment that would make it more pleasant? Today, does your currently environment affect your mood behavior in any way? What would you change?

Topic Proposal for Research - David Square

For my research study I decided to concentrate on the context of pedestrian presence around David Square in Somerville and distinguish what is about David Square’s physical and social design aspect that makes people attracted or wanting to go there? In this subject, I like to investigate what makes Davis Square successful or not successful for pedestrian walkability, staying and socializing?

I will investigate the street and sidewalk context and how does it works to connect people in and around the square? Who goes there and from where? How long does people stay on Davis square? What do they do there while staying? What are the most common activity that happens there? What are the most age group that visit the square on a daily bases? Does the commercial core on David Square play any influence in pedestrian traffic? How does the sidewalks and streets help pedestrians by leading them to where they want to go? It is successful or not? Does the square users and activities change at night? What are the most popular feature or place at Davis Square that people seems to like the most?

My intentions is to find answers for most of this questions by using research techniques I've learned in Sommer's reading. I plan to begin my research method by creating a place-centered map and analyzing what people do or go most. I also plan to prepare a questionnaire and ask users a few questions.

Feedback on Responses to the Survey Question

COLIN:
Understanding one's background and knowing the place of raise is very important because the character and personality of an idividual can be shaped by the events, activities and even the phyical conditions of that environment. I believe Colin did answer my question successfuly. The story about how he never fully enjoyed growing up in a small town in New Hampshire because of the unpredictable events that usually happens in a small community. People knows everyone and things like gossip can be common to see in a small group. He also explained how does the same place today seems different and as an adult. In my past I have also had places like that. Some I didn't like when growing up and today I do, others I did like and today i don't. My gramparent House was a good example. Growing up, I spent many Summers at their house. I love to stay there for weeks and see all my causins. As a kid, staying there was always happy and my grama used to cook a lot of meals. As I got older and became more involved with work and moved further away, my visits there became very seldom. As I got older I began to realize that so did my gramparents. Things change around the house in the physical and social aspect that made me not liking going there anymore. Very Good!


MATT:
I really like Matt's answer. His story of how living in Lincoln was very positive to him. I can see how living in a suburban town can differ from the city. Growing up in a quiet zone with houses spaced apart can be sometimes exciting, specialy for a young kid that enjoys playing in the woods. Growing up everything change, and we have to adjust to the places life takes as an adult. I too have my memories from growing up. I spent 7 years of my childhood living on a condo unit with my sister and parents in a suburban town of Sao Paulo, Brazil. There I cultivated many friends, which I did see them almost every day. Living on a condo of almost 500 units on a woody area, I knew a lot of people and as a kid I did too enjoyed playing paitball with my friends. That was just one things we loved to do! Today, my life is in the city and my woody grounds are the highway!


NANCY:
Nancy gave a good example of a positive and negative feeling about her growing up place. She mentioned ho much did she like to live in Long Island in new York and that she enjoyed the open aspect of the ocean landscape. She says the ocean was a place for her to get away from everything and if she didn't have lived close to the ocean she would not have a place to get away. She also gives an example of how, at the same time, never did enjoyed living in the house settings of her neighborhood becouse of the way it was planned. She felt lock down for the square shaped of the house she grew up and how the landscape was most likely ignored. Thanks for you answer Nancy!


SARA:
Sara's love for the trees has certainly positively impacted her growing up. Because of her interest in the, presumably the only tree near her house, as a kid she became facinated but the physical aspect and characteristics of that natural tall element, that today she expresses it as an influencial factor to her personaly as an adult. Good answer!


SUSAN:
I love Susa's story about how the house where she grew up on the city was a happy place with a playgroung and that she used to pick up fruits from the tree near by her house with her childhood friends. She continues saying how it was a happy place but as an adult she no longer sees her house as a playground. Life events can transform the aspect and feeling of a landscape. Things that you did enjoy in the past can no longer be enjoyable as adults. The passing of someone you love, the chage of neighbors can also affect one's feeling about a certain space. Thanks for sharing you Story Susan!


TED:
Ted's love of nature and fishing has influenced him to became a landscape architect. I can see that by growing up on a place like Maine anyone can be influence by the beauty and natural resource that Maine has to offer. Great answer Ted!

Observations on Newbury Street Parking

The purpose of this assignment was to investigate and observe a particular element on Newbury Street. My part of the project, was to study parking issues on Newbury Street between Mass Avenue and Fairfield Street. To complete the project I needed to investigate issues like, parking pros and cons, how much parking cost? where do people park? Is it efficient? What does it like? etc. This observations were made on a holiday early this week around the hours of 4-6pm. For each block I gave an approximate 40-45 minutes time for this study.

HERE IS MY BRIEF ANALYSIS:

I begin my observations by starting to walk from Fairfield Street toward Mass Avenue. One thing that is inevitable about Newbury Street, and that everyone will agree with me, is that parking can be a serious headache for residents, visitors and commercial vehicles. To start, the scale of the street is too small to host all the vehicles that it attracts every day. For my experience as a long time street parking user at Newbury Street, there are days of the week and certain hours of the day that parking becomes almost impossible.

During the week, after 4 pm parking space becomes more difficult to find by the hour. One needs to be persistent and go around the block a few times before they find a parking space.

Some of the first issues I observed was that is very common to see double parking in the street. Usually it is a vehicle waiting for a parking space or a quick drop off. For the most part of the day, parking takes the entire block leaving no space go empty in the block. Because parking space is very hard to get, double parking is certainly thus it creates traffic jams in the street. At times, a particular vehicle can take about 15 minutes to cross 3 blocks alone. That is how bad traffic gets.








However this double parking happens quite often, it is illegal and drivers are always on alert for parking and police officers to avoid a ticket.

Another issue I notice on Newbury Street parking, since all three blocks length differs from one another, the amount of parking space availability also change between them. For instance, between Fairfiel Street and Gloucester Street, the block can only hold about 51 parking spaces. Between Gloucester Street and Hereford Street the block is shorter thus fits only about 36 cars between both sides. Between Hereford and Mass avenue however, the block is longer thus fitting the most amount of cars (about 50-60), but parking can be quite competitive with all the commercial trucks and valet.

Parking space is not divided neither painted on the pavement, so the way it goes is, each block will fit as much cars it can.






Because street parking is shared between visitors, residents and commercial vehicles, depending on the time and day of the week, it can creates another problem. Parking is already limited and by having to divide between three different uses makes it harder. Another factor about parking, is that fire hydrants are installed on the right side of every block. Fire hydrants are important for the city, but it takes from parking. You can also find in the sidewalks is the parking electronic meters for making parking payments.

THE FOLLOWING DIAGRAMS SHOWS HOW EACH BLOCK LOOKS LIKE:

New Bury Street Block Between Fairfield Street and Gloucester Street:

Street Lenght = 506.74 Ft




New Bury Street Block Between Gloucester Street and Hereford Street:

Street Lenght = 373.48 Ft




New Bury Street Block Between hereford Street and Mass Avenue:

Street Lenght = 652.03 Ft




While parking payments method is in still transition from quater meter to electronic meter, Newbury Street among a few others in the Backbay, was one of the first to adopt the eletronic payment system. With the eletronic payment system, in my opinion, cars no longer have a specifield parking space in the street. Now street blocks can fit as much cars is possible. A good example of that is Fairfield Street, a perpendicular street to Newbury Street. It still uses the old quater methods.






Because every block vary from one to the other in physical and usage context, parking spaces are limited for the public. Street parking are necessary to be shared between the local business and residents. Also, a couple of other factors that takes a parking space from the public are fire hydrants and handcap parking space. I Notice however, that fire hydrants are only in one side of the street and is always on the right side of the street going west.






I believe that an urban street like Newbury needs to provide parkings space for all different usages, creating a solution for this problem is not part of this research and documentation.

STREET PARKING COSTS AND PAYMENT METHOD:

Street parking is calculated by the minutes and the hours that one use as parking space. Drivers are charged $.25 per 12 minutes adding a total max of 2 hours per parking space ($1.25 for aan hour, $2.50 for twoo hours). Meter payments are control by parking officers that routinaly circulate the block to verify that each car has a sticker on the window as proof of payment. If drivers don't renew of remove their cars fom the space, the are subjected to a parking thicket in the amount of $25.00 per infraction. Now with the electronic payment methods, visitors can easy purchase their tickect using their credit cards or cask.



COMMERCIAL USE BETWEEN HEREFORD AND MASS AVE:






Commercial trucks and vans are very regular at Newbury Street betwen Hereford St and Mass Avenue. Specialy in the left side of the street adjancent to the retail stores and restaurants. Newbury Street is always a fun subject to study. The street provides a diverity in all physical context and social aspects. I have enjoyed doing this research!