You may explore form issues of today that are worth writing about because they represent a new or innovative idea, are part of an important current debate, or are interesting because you can get close to events as they are unfolding. The trick is to avoid gross generalities and to do more than a piece of urban journalism.
Examples of Past Student Papers
While the full text of the following student papers may not be available online, the list of examples is intended to provide a better understanding of successful topics and fruitful directions for this assignment.
Karen, V. “Pedestrian-free Environments.” 1977.
Landman, W. “Recycling the Suburbs.” 1977.
Oliver, R. “The Boston Waterfront District: The Environment as an Exchange System.” 1977.
Kokkoris, P. “Similitude and Formalism.” 1979.
Smith, T. “The Isolation of the Columbia Point Public Housing Project: A Social Control Exerted Spatially.” 1979.
Holleran, M. “Street Patterns as a Preservation Issue.” 1985.
Wiggins, G. “The Impact of the Information Society on the Form of the City.” 1988.
Robinson, R. “The Evocative City.” 1990.
Klein, M. “Nantucket: An Island Controls its Future.” 1980.
Fraser-Reid, T. “Suburban Neo-traditional Towns.” 1991.
Ahmed, I. “The Mall Road, Lahore.” 1991.
Kucan, A. “Barcelona: Spectacle of Modernity and Traditional Public Space.” 1992.
Panfil, J. C. “The Pedestrian Pocket: A Closer Look.” 1993.
Slate, B. R. “The Covenant and the Grid: Toward New Suburban Tracts for America.” 1993.
Feng, Z. “Conceptual Urbanism.” 1993.
Chew, W. “What is the Future of the Present Centrality of the Past.” 1994.
Pollard, K. “Projetto Bicocca: ‘Mind Takes Form in the City’.” 1994.
Sandomire, D. “City as Memory.” 1995.
Mukhija, V. “Whose City is it? A Lefebvrian Critique of Delhi.” 1996.
Lave, R. “Designing Change: Transforming Cultural Attitudes towards the Natural Environment.” 1997.
Durska, M. “Affirming the ‘Correct’ Urban Past: Rob Krier’s Ritterstrasse Housing Project.” 1998.
Campos, G. “The Re-emerging Concept of Neighborhood.” 1999.
Kron, Z. M. “Abandoned Gas Stations.” 2000.
Messagli, M. K. “E-Tailing vs. Retailing: The Socio-Cultural Dimensions of Shopping.” 2000.
Schupbach, J. “Urban Entertainment Centers and Downtown Shopping.” 2002.
Shorett, M. “Spiritual Planning: The Fate of a Polycentric North American Regional Plan.” 2003.
Felix, E. “Form and Situated Meaning.” 2004.
Sevtsuk, A. “Effects of ICT on City Form.” 2005.
Nguyen, E. “Transforming Value in the Place of Waste.” 2006.
Zhang, X. “Becoming Visible: Mapping and Analyzing the Geographical Patterns of Gay and/versus Lesbian Populations.” 2007.
Hall, K. “What is a City Hall Plaza?” 2008.
Rehman, N. “Roads: Symbolism or Equity?” 2008.
O’Koren, J. “The Freeway in the City.” 2009.
Kraubitz, T. “1001 Houses for Baladia City, Negev Desert, Israel: A Mock City to Rehearse for Future Wars in the Middle East.” 2009.
Zewde, S. “Towards a Theory of Black Urbanism.” 2010.
Doone, R. “Bifocal Nature: An Image of the Future Modern City.” 2010.
De Vries, C. “Beyond the Cosmopolitan Enclave.” 2010.
