Scope should include discussion and interpretative analysis of the case of selected city’s contemporary state, history, urbanization processes, urban form, urban transportation, urban renewal/renovation, “imageability” and legibility using Lynch methodology, and quality /feature of urban spaces.
Overview: Each student is required to complete an academic paper assignment for a chosen urban case study as the final project of this course. This case study paper is a comprehensive research project that is designed to help reinforce the understanding of course contents by requiring students to apply knowledge, principles, theories, concepts, and methods in tandem with the course learning.
The case city selection must meet specified criteria including a minimum population of 100,000 and access to an adequate number of resources beyond Wikipedia and Google.
The final project should be presented in the form of a comprehensive research paper that is based on findings from both regular assignments and additional outside research.
The course schedule should serve as a guide for topics about which you should research, prepare written summaries, and create interpretive graphics on a regular and on-going basis.
Expectations: This project has rigorous expectations and constitutes 30% of your course grade. This study should be well researched, carefully cited and effectively supported with relevant, interpretative graphics.
Written argument / discussion should be reflective and creative in its analysis and interpretation (i.e. it should not be a bunch of factoids cut and pasted from Wikipedia and other sources). The writing should be informed by multiple sources including lecture contents, assigned readings, outside research and original analyses (such as articles, papers, books, book chapters, etc).
Narrative should be populated with pervasive citations and footnotes where appropriate. Images /Illustrations must also be properly cited unless they are original photos or graphics created by the author.
Scope should include discussion and interpretative analysis of the case of selected city’s contemporary state, history, urbanization processes, urban form, urban transportation, urban renewal/renovation, “imageability” and legibility using Lynch methodology, and quality /feature of urban spaces, etc.
The writing content should also include a section of a focused research and discussion about at least two significant contemporary urban issues (such as urban sprawl, poverty, water shortage, urban transportation, land use, public space quality, street front, urban landmark, etc.), confronting the selected city.
Reflections about appropriate design and planning strategies that could be/are being used to address it, as well as informed projections about the city’s future should also be included.
It is up to the student to choose one of the three academic citation styles (Chicago, APA, & MLA) for the paper’s citations and footnotes. It is very important to provide appropriate citation information for any content that is not originally from the author. The paper should be at least 2500 words long. Required Content of Writing:
Part I: Introduction – the Brief History and Existing State of the case
Part II: Literature review: the theoretical analysis of two urban issues of your choice – provide some writings on something such as how the two issues have been discussed by other scholars; why it is important for us to focus on those two issues for the case; what are the dimensions or aspects of each issue? What issues have evolved; How both issues are addressed in other cities? Etc. Those discussions will help you to frame a deep and thorough analysis of the two issues within the city of your study.
Part III: Main Discussion on issue one – state the problem of issue one; provide sufficient evidences and information, discuss the possible causes of the issue; discuss what the efforts have been done to address the issue and if they works or not; discuss what possible solutions can be and why; if the theories introduced in your part 2 can help address the issue of your case? If not, why? Etc.
Part IV: Main Discussion on issue two – same as above Part V: Conclusion – summarize your research findings. Part VI: References and Works Cited (pervasive citations of sources expected)
