Architecture Program
Date of this Version
Spring 5-10-2014
Document Type
Article
Citation
Goeser, Matthew D. "Reprogramming Inner Suburbs" Master of Architecture Thesis, The University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2014
Abstract
The ramifications of suburban sprawl and the American dream are widespread and numerous. In a modern society where the preconditioned value of a three-car garage, large, private backyard and detachment from the city center outweighs the possible shortcoming of suburbia, there is an increasing need to reevaluate the way in which our cities grow. With suburbia already having a strong footing in the way that modern America operates, we have come to an age where it is more feasible to mend our cities through suburban intervention than reshape the entire system of American values. Urban sprawl has become a matter of fact; an accepted evil that is not necessarily an inherently negative aspect of urban development. Sprawling, underdeveloped suburbs have been designed and encouraged by suburban developers, investors and the general public who have little education or interest in their larger urban implications. As architects struggle to find their place in contemporary society, we are seeing an increase in cheap, poorly designed cities and architecture that does not perform to its potential. For too long the field of architecture has turned its cheek to suburbia in an attempt to not soil their design with the negative connotations of suburban sprawl. In suburban development there is little room for well designed cities when those invested are looking to turn the largest profit.
Comments
A THESIS Presented to the Architecture Faculty of The College of Architecture at the University of Nebraska In Partial Fulfillment of Requirements For the Degree of Master of Architecture, Major: Architecture, Under the Supervision of Professor R. Wayne Drummond. Lincoln, Nebraska: May, 2014
Copyright (c) 2014 Matthew D. Goeser