GROWTH AND STRUCTURE OF CITIES

SENIOR THESIS ABSTRACTS 2002

CHUDNOW, Amanda (Bryn Mawr) Sapphic Sisters in the City of Brotherly Love: The Interactions of Space, Community and Lesbian Sexuality .

A space can help facilitate the formation of a community but a community cannot rely on a space alone to hold it together and assist in its progression and maintenance. The lesbian population in Philadelphia struggles to form a community, both spatially and socially, in the City of Brotherly Love. Social interactions are regulated to temporal traveling public parties or restrictive semi-private residential socialization. Community therefore becomes imagined instead of real. Looking at the spaces that lesbians occupy in Philadelphia illustrates the self-defined goals and values of this imagined community.

CORBETT, EMILY (Haverford) What It Means to Be Green:

Examing Eco-Fad Labels for Lasting Meaning and Solutions in Ecological Design.

In the United States today, the consumerist mind set that drives society quickly latches on to marketable words and phrases. This coupled with the recent trend of ecologically friendly goods created the phenomena of “greenwashing”. Retailers use ambiguous terms with an ecological sound but without solid ecological justification in an attempt to attract consumers. This particularly effects the progress of ecological architecture. If a building simply claiming “sustainability”, for instance, sells as well as a truly ecologically friendly building, architects and developers may think twice before spending the extra money needed up front to pay for ecologically friendly designs and modifications. Clear, cogent definitions of terms such as “green”, “sustainable”, and “organic” would enable both architects and consumers to communicate ecological designs and ideas. Concise definitions would also establish a more inviting market to purchase ecologically friendly architecture because terms used to describe it would have some validation. To define these words, I refer back to their roots and subsequent development before further illustrating their meaning through examples of architectural designs within the last decade. I also examine the architectural factors that comprise these various terms to more fully define them. Within my thesis I wish to solidify definitions for these words, so both architects and consumers can promote rather than hinder ecologically friendly architecture and development.

DAVIS, Dorcas (Bryn Mawr) Endangered Islands: The Vulnerable Existence of Gullah Culture within Contemporary American Life.

During slavery, malaria deterred whites from staying The Sea Islands lace the Georgia and South Carolina coasts, although only a few dozen of these thousand or so islands have supported human populations. Most contemporary residents of these islands and its Gullah culture descend from African slaves.on the islands. After emancipation, Sea Island blacks gained the opportunity to purchase the lands they had cultivated as slaves. For nearly one hundred years afterwards, the Sea Islands existed in a tranquil, albeit economically worthless, anonymity. Land passed from generation to generation in tight-knit families and little changed about Sea Island lifestyle, retaining many African cultural features.

The introduction of bridges, resorts and development completely altered this lifestyle. The outside culture collided with the Gullah culture and the encounter proved the two to be contrary in motivation and maintenance. The Sea Islands have become a meeting place for two cultural economies- mainstream capitalism and the community based Gullah. These cultural differences are most tangible in the disputes over land; hence, this thesis uses observations and critical readings to examine the relationship the Gullah have with their land and how differs from the way “outsiders” view the same land. For the Gullah, in particular, land loss means loss of community and therefore, identity.

Gullah communities cannot be sustained by their former cultural economy. Their future depends on a pro-active, unified and economical community. This goal is being aided by the Penn Center, an organization devoted to the preservation of Gullah culture, and by federal and state plans. No longer physically isolated and culturally invisible, Gullah communities must use their visibility but more importantly their distinction as a source of preservation.

DOUGHTY, Michele (Bryn Mawr College) Sex in the City: Female Prostitution, Criminalization and Legalization in the United States and the Netherlands

DRUCKER, Caroline (Bryn Mawr College) Neue Kunst Information Mitte – Designing a Resource Center for Berlin’s Contemporary Arts Community

N-KIM is a project space

N-KIM is a reading room, computer and resource centre, screening room, café,

garden and meeting space

N-KIM is a response to specific needs of the Berlin contemporary arts community

N-KIM is an acronym: Neue Kunst Information Mitte

N-KIM is located in the heart of the Berlin contemporary arts district

N-KIM is a designed raumlichkeit that reflects upon history and the present

N-KIM is inextricably linked through design to its patrons and site

N-KIM is not an actual place

It is Caroline Drucker’s Senior Design Thesis

FREEMAN, Dawni (Bryn Mawr College) A Woman’s Place is in the Home:

Reconstructing Domestic Space in Two Feminist Housing Designs

Homes are not only shaped by the materials and tools of physical construction, but also by dominant cultural ideas, values, and norms. As a repository of cultural codes the home is both produced by and productive of the ideology and construct of gender. In American society, the home has traditionally been considered a feminine space that defines and is defined primarily by women. The gender hierarchies that pervade society are perpetuated by its physical layout and location in the greater spatial economy. The subject of investigation for my thesis is how these hierarchies shape the complex relationship that exists between women and their homes. I intend to examine two specific housing communities designed by feminists seeking to promote equality between the sexes. The first community was designed by Charlotte Perkins Gilman in 1909 and the second by Dolores Hayden in 1979. First I will consider women’s “proper” roles during each time period and how they were reflected in the home’s built form. Then I will look at the way Gilman and Hayden’s reforms of this domestic space reflect and critique the impact of space on women’s roles in society. I have chosen communities from two distinct historical periods because I feel they will illuminate the changing nature of women’s roles and how this affects and is affected by alterations in domestic space.

FREEDMAN, Michael (Haverford College) From House Form to Urban Form

In the same way that the traditional manner of studying architecture leads us to consider large scale urban design as an important element of the city, scrutinizing vernacular architecture should push for the examination of an ordinary, common, and general form on the urban scale. This thesis examines the relationship between house form and a large-scale urban pattern. I will focus on the genesis of Philadelphia’s pattern as a result of one particular root: the rowhouse.

Developers and speculative builders, who filled Philadelphia’s housing demands, were largely responsible for the creation of a recognizable pattern. Nineteenth century building in the Washington Square West district will serve as my example. One of these works of vernacular architecture in the city has little meaning when it stands alone. Examining the building in its larger context gives it historical significance to both the house itself and to the large pattern. That is to say that the processes that produced these houses expose a meaning that is external and relational.

Vernacular studies are carried out with several different sets of vocabulary and find their data in largely varying sources. For this particular study, the data comes largely from deeds, fire insurance records, old maps, and current photographs.

GARCIA, Javier (Haverford College) The Grays Ferry Community Center: A Design Thesis

This design thesis explores some of the issues that must be raised in rehabilitating and expanding an inner-city multipurpose center. It deals with issues of community needs, sports, activities and context, integrating these into a concrete design in the Grays Ferry Area. The design includes gymnasiums, classrooms, entry fora, offices and outside space, as well as grappling with the issues associated with integrating all these areas.

GILMAN, Lara-Louise (Bryn Mawr College) Refugees and National Identities in Border Settings in Mauretania/Senegal and Mexico/U.S.

This study addresses questions of border constructions as a source of conflict. What is the nature of the relationship between the political border and the power structures? How are contemporary border identities shaped by the political border being super-imposed on pre-existing cultural groups? Finally, how is the divergence between the political border and the socially constructed border a source for conflict? Looking at two case studies that differ in terms of history and development -- refugees from Mauritania in Senegal and Mexicans in the United States -- this study shows that the fundamental characteristic they share is the efforts of the political majority to control the socio-cultural border while also institutionalizing the political disparity between the pre-existing cultural groups. Thus, this institutionalization enables the dominant group to subject the minority to its own political objectives. The resources of the study come from interviews and studies from each of the two case studies, including interviews, programs, books and academic articles.

GRINBLAT, Alla (Haverford College) From Hospitals to Health Systems: Implications for Philadelphia Healthcare

Hospitals originated as small-charitable community institutions but have, in the 21^st century, become transformed into massive corporate health system. This thesis examines the hospital's relationship with the local community since the introduction of health insurance and the rise of managed care. Nationally, hospitals are facing low utilization and financial problems, while the public trust in health care continues to decline rapidly. Formation of health networks is the most obvious and common solution to the economic pressures but also may have consequences for the health care system, the city and neighborhoods. The thesis reviews the expectations of hospital mergers and affiliations, and compared it to the reality of health networks.

For data, the thesis focuses on hospitals and systems in the City of Philadelphia after numerous mergers in 1995. In order to understand the situation, a 1997 study of Philadelphia Hospital mergers is updated with the social commentary from local newspapers and economic data from the Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council. A comparison of the major four Philadelphia health networks finds that the Jefferson Health System and the Temple Health System are more cost-efficient and have better community image than University of Pennsylvania Health System and the Tenet Health Care Corporation.

GUGELMAN, Alice (Bryn Mawr College) Affordable Housing and Urban Sprawl in Chapel Hill, North Carolina

HAYES-CONROY, Allison (Bryn Mawr College) Harvesting Harmony: A Search for Environmental Meaning in the Seasonal Celebrations of Southern New Jersey

This thesis explores the ecological significance of seasonal celebrations in Southern New Jersey. Seasonal festivals and fairs offer compound ecological messages by using various types of connection to the natural world as attractions. Accordingly each seasonal celebration differs in the breadth of attention to the environment that it encourages. This is important when trying to determine the limitations of any given celebration in regard to its usefulness as a means for environmentally-attentive community development. Many South Jersey seasonal celebrations seem to further awareness of regional ecology but are limited in one way or another by the lack of an authentic or applicable model for modern community development. Other celebrations or rituals may be authentic means for modern community development, but are limited by their social acceptability. Nevertheless, the strategies for encouraging environmental attentiveness that these celebrations offer could be useful in combination as we try to negotiate future environmental management socially and culturally in South Jersey.

HAYES-CONROY, Jessica (Bryn Mawr College) From Eggs to Ethics: An Analysis of the Role of Farm Markets within a Changing South Jersey Landscape

In the 20^th Century, the landscape of Southern New Jersey has gone from being predominantly rural to almost exclusively suburban. This shift is due to both a decrease in agricultural viability and an increase in suburban land values, which heightened after World War II. However, some New Jersey farmers have been able to withstand these pressures, using their proximity to consumers as a distinct local advantage. The most significant outcome of this ingenuity is the suburban farm market, which took form during the mid-20^th century. The suburban farm market allowed South Jersey farmers to market their produce directly to suburban customers, increasing the efficiency of their distribution and decreasing the cost of their produce. Additionally, these roadside markets were socially valuable; they allowed for daily social interaction between local farmers and suburban residents. By the 21^st century, however, these markets have taken on an air of nostalgia. They are now only remnants of a historically viable agricultural economy, reminding us that New Jersey is no longer a 'Garden State.' These markets have recently proven desirable as instruments of direct producer-consumer marketing, which promises to enhance economic viability as well as social and environmental health. Nevertheless, continued suburban development in South Jersey threatens the authenticity of their local character, causing farm market owners to rely increasingly on non-local produce for the bulk of their sales.

JANKIEWICZ, Miriam (Bryn Mawr College) Displays of Nature: Natural History Museums and Green Architecture

Green architecture raises questions about nature—how we define it, display it, and incorporate it into structures. Looking back to the nineteenth century, natural history museums provide a means of comparison through aspects of display: arrangement, visibility, and authority/authenticity.

Due to their role as intellectual and educational institutions, college and university campuses provide an excellent context for the discussion of this matter. More specifically, Oberlin College’s Adam J. Lewis Center for Environmental Studies draws our attention to an overall shift in the display of nature—a shift from the natural history museum’s objectified nature.

KACZOROWSKI, Keith (Haverford College) Imagination

Part One – Imagination Theory

How the heck do our imaginations work? The best starting part is to examine what exactly is an instinct. Every reason and action of instinct, and every reason and action of imagination is a mediation of want and fear. Furtherly compared to instinct, there is a congruence of ‘masculine/feminine’, or a more utilitarian definition of doer/nurturer. Bring in the psychology and philosophy of the self (the psyche, the mind, the body, & the world) and the other, AND the translation and application of stimuli from each to the other. Imagination works thusly true; that is an oversimplified explanation of a somewhat plausibly convoluted equation.

The imagination is directly responsible for the timeliness of everything. The past nor the future exists only in the imagination. Subsequently, within the imagination are the divisions of memory and expectation/predicition. Welcome to the utility of the imagination.

To be able to connect the units that make up memory and expectation, be it a color, a family member, your knowledge, or your first kiss, you need to understand a fragmentation theory that engenders both eclecticism and the ability to respond to novel stimuli.

Concluding the first part of the thesis is an assumption: the explanation of creationation: the inclination towards creation, which is related to a deficit in the self responding to a deficit where you feel that you have to earn whatever you deem because everything is perceived a gift. This is the very essence of godliness, the essence of a utilitarian imagination. Ensue reaction: conception and actualization doth creationation mediate.

Part Two: Imagination Ethnography

This is the fun part because we get to prove everything! Using clubs as an example of a place where lots of people go, we see how the space and place is used in the self, more specifically in the imagination – however, these applications of the imagination theory work in all spaces from the weightroom to the dining center. Off the bat, we create mythologies both consciously and subconsciously to incorporate all the perceptions of other and world, and the subsequent mediation of ourselves into these perceptions. Of these mythologies, we are most usually the heroes, dedicated to creating stories. Carl Jung would agree with this if you look at his work on archetype. However, not only is there an archetype of person, there is also and archetype of space, and an archetype of opportunity!

How do we do this? Simply, the imagination uses a system of construct and semantic. An example of a construct is a hierarchy of attraction. An example of semantic would be all the manifestations of obeying said hierarchy. It is all a game of perception.

However, a community cannot survive on the perception of agreement; there must be action. The imagination responds to this need through a simple perception of intent. Intent is dictated by incidence and circumstance. Basically, being drop dead gorgeous incidentally is better than being drop dead gorgeous because you stood in front of a mirror for three hours. And it works across the board.

Mythology, construct/semantic, and intent all comes together in the imagination in a decision of virtue. Every decision is a creation; every decision is a concession. Like the timeliness of the self, the virtue of the extended self in the major product of the utilitarian imagination. In virtue, we are examining the very logic of our imaginations.

How is all this consistently sustained and maintained in a community, while allowing the eclecticism of experience of the individual? The fifth and final section of the ethnography answers this question: adjective, proof, and appreciation. Adjectives are the collective acceptances of the community, such as shared terms like ‘cute’ or slang; they are communicable. Proofs are patterns or instances that prove tangible in the imagination, such as a compliment received. Appreciations are just what they sound like, and they are the imagination’s perceptions of successful endeavor, an example of this is applause.

Part Three: Imagination compositionThis is an example of one complete possible mythology, because this is the best way to fully explain everything, at least allegorically.

LEE, Janet (Bryn Mawr College) Meaningful Space: The Transformation of Space and Community in Barcelona

Barcelona has become a model for urban development worldwide, yet the alacrity with which this model is processed and sold overlooks alternative models of urban life that exist in the city and question the premises of old and new Barcelona. My experience with Can Masdeu, a well-known squatter occupation in Barcelona, suggests that some people do criticize this model and that their critiques can be placed in a wider set of alternative urbanisms distant from the model celebrated in contemporary and future Barcelona. My thesis explores the viability of alternative models of living within the dominant discourses of consumer-driven society.

MARTIN, Anne (Bryn Mawr) Experiencing the Urban Coffee Shop: The Social Space Within Philadelphia’s Coffee Shops.

Since the sixteenth century, coffee shops have become integrated into the urban fabric of cities around the world, where they provide publicly-accessible informal social space where the anonymity of the individual can be transcended, allowing for social interactions between strangers and acquaintances. Starbucks’ emergence into the coffee shop market has caused a change in the urban landscape and in urban consciousness towards coffee shops in general, which is visible in Philadelphia with the current popularity of coffee shops, both Starbucks owned and independent.

In my thesis I explore how the coffee shop provides unique urban space, how the contemporary model itself leads to proliferation and differentiation, and the ways in which this affect the city, and how the internal environments of the coffee shop lead to social forces of both inclusion and exclusion. I have made many observations and held informal interviews at the following Philadelphia coffee shops: Starbucks (16^th and Walnut), Starbucks (12^th and Market), Starbucks (4^th and South), La Colombe Torrefaction (19^th and Locust), The Last Drop Coffeehouse (13^th and Pine), and Feewees (North 3^rd and Brown). These personal observations combined with research are the basis for my conclusions that the social space of the coffee shop is much needed in cities, however, the type of space provided and the amount of socializing which takes place depends upon more than most patrons realize.

NARIANI, Vinay (Haverford College) “Movin’ On Up”: A Detailed Look at Conspicuous Consumption in Hip-Hop Spaces

Over the last twenty years, hip-hop has bloomed in ghettos characterized by overarching poverty, violence, and crime. Interestingly, now that hip-hop as established itself as stable and prominent in the music business, a major contradiction has come to life in terms of values within the hip-hop culture that have never been fully or adequately resolved. This controversy involves attempts by commercially successful rap artists to maintain allegiances to their localized urban environs while in some cases generating multi-million dollar sales and earning regal incomes that enables them to move into more upscale neighborhoods.

It can be argued that in hip-hop culture or popular culture for that matter, the city is hip. It’s the locale of cool. In order to be “with it,” you must be in the city, or at minimum, urban culture must be transplanted, simulated, or replicated outside of the city wherever possible. The city is where hip-hop popular styles are born, especially songs, fashion, and demeanor. Out of urban culture comes new words, and new meanings and connotations are given to the routinely employed mainstream vocabulary. Hence, tt was thought that once a rapper lost contact with “the streets,” his or her career was all but over. The eccentric behavior of pop stars like Madonna, Michael Jackson, or Prince did not play too many in the hip-hop community.

But rappers have since moved out of the “’hood” and have embraced popular culture and vice versa. The spaces and places they now call home are found in Beverly Hills, Central Park penthouses, and the affluent suburbs of Atlanta, New Jersey, St. Louis, and Louisiana. The cars, clothes, jewelry, all go hand in hand with their multi-million dollar mansions that are far from the inner city ghetto which was seen to be the true place for hip-hop Are these stars selling out or moving out? Or is it just the gradual process of finally gaining a proverbial “piece of the pie?” Many rappers not only rap about living extravagantly but take every opportunity they have to show it. MTV, in particular its music videos and especially Cribs, have been used as a great medium to portray this lifestyle full of consumption. None of the homes depicted on the show are located in a city; they are in extremely wealthy suburbs and/or posh private gated communities. How can rappers claim to be “keeping it real” if their lifestyles are so surreal?

In my thesis I explore this transition from the ghetto to the attempt to live the “ghetto fabulous” lifestyle in the suburbs. Through shows such as MTV Cribs, I examine this current life full of conspicuous consumption and excessive spending. My paper is a detailed exploration of this phenomenon in terms of sprawl - from the streets to the suburbs and then back again. My conclusions have led me to believe that the very notion of hip hop spaces have changed but the rappers’ credibility has not. This new lifestyle full of conspicuous consumption is present because hip-hop stars want to prove to you and me, but more importantly, to themselves and fellow rappers, that they “made it.” They came from the ‘hood, moved out of the ‘hood, and do not want to go back. Why is everything so excessive? Because it can be. This is the new hip-hop, one more concerned with being part of The Lifestyles of the Rich Famous or today’s equivalent of MTV’s Cribs, rather than retaining the ideals and foundations of its old school roots.

POTTINGER, Trecia (Bryn Mawr College) Commodification and Difference: Kreuzberg (Berlin) and the Meanings of Modern Germany

Kreuzberg, located on the periphery of former West-Berlin, is one of Berlin’s most well known districts, defined by its marginalized populations and previously outlying location. In the 1960s, members of socio-economic groups who consciously or unconsciously opposed mainstream Germany settled in the area, due to its affordable housing. Since then, these groups have included members of the Turkish, leftist and queer populations, all of whom diverge from mainstream identities of modern Germany, and today, Berliners often discuss the area in terms of these groups.

This thesis will examine three contemporary spaces utilized by the Turkish, leftist and queer populations in Kreuzberg (a market, demonstration and nightclub respectively) and the ways in which these sites provide points of access for individuals outside of these groups. As such, I argue that these locations simultaneously function as sites of identity for their respective groups and as sites of consumption for outsiders, who have the opportunity to observe an other within an “authentic” context. Through these encounters, however, only specific aspects of identity assume a visible form, while other more complex and dynamic spaces remain invisible. In conclusion, I will explore the consequences of such limited public celebrations of the other and suggest that they do not necessarily yield an incorporation of such groups nor do they allow them to assert increased power over the city as a whole.

TOTH, Benjamin (Haverford College) Dream Architecture: A Study of architecture and the City in Fellini

From its onset, film has had an intricate relationship with the city in the exploration of the use and meaning of space. Many filmmakers use common themes found within cinema and the city as a new vocabulary to illustrate the importance of the relationship between the individual and the changing social constructs of their environment brought about by the development of technology. The Italian filmmaker Federico Fellini is no exception as he uses his films to comment on many prominent issues found in Post World War II Italy. Because cinema provides new ways of representing and viewing space, Fellini is able to use landscape, architecture and the cityscape to give further insight into the social issues he raises in his films. Studying the location, space, and architecture of Fellini's films is extremely important as they embody many of the ideas the director is calling on to compose his study of experience in a specific environment.

TYMAN, Shannon (Bryn Mawr College) Ideologies Enlivened: Examining Social Ecology within the World of Second-Hand Clothing