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ETD Abstract Container

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Re-Imagining the National Park Experience

Spencer, Alexander
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1535372504337022

Abstract Details

2018, MARCH, University of Cincinnati, Design, Architecture, Art and Planning: Architecture.
America's national parks demonstrate the shifting and evolving relationship between civilization and wilderness. This thesis investigates that relationship and explores the role that architecture can play in the transitional experience between these two environments within the national parks. The mission of the National Park Service is two-fold: to not only protect and preserve our nation's most valued natural and cultural resources, but to do so for the enjoyment and inspiration of people living today and in the future. As park visitor rates continue to surge as they have throughout the last century, the issue of preservation of our natural resources versus accessibility to those that wish to enjoy them has become a central dilemma in the way we think about the performance of the parks themselves. While accessibility requires encroachment of built environment into the natural landscape, thought must be given as to how that built environment fits into the fabric of each park's ecosystem. This thesis studies architectural precedent throughout the history of the National Park Service from the "rustic" railroad lodges of the early twentieth century, through the mid-century modernist movement of the (then) new visitor center concept, to recent re-interpretations in the twenty-first century. Through this analysis and research into place-sensitive architecture, this thesis proposes a design in the Moraine Park area of Rocky Mountain National Park in northern Colorado. The design re-imagines the visitor center typology to create an experiential and meaningful connection to the adjacent landscape and at the threshold of the wider wilderness.
Michael McInturf, M.Arch. (Committee Chair)
Jeffrey Tilman, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
115 p.
Architecture
National Parks; Wilderness; Critical Regionalism; Visitor Center; Rocky Mountain; Experience

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Spencer, A. (2018). Re-Imagining the National Park Experience [Master's thesis, University of Cincinnati]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1535372504337022

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Spencer, Alexander. Re-Imagining the National Park Experience. 2018. University of Cincinnati, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1535372504337022.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Spencer, Alexander. "Re-Imagining the National Park Experience." Master's thesis, University of Cincinnati, 2018. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1535372504337022

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

ucin1535372504337022
113
© 2018, some rights reserved.Creative Commons License Re-Imagining the National Park Experience by Alexander Spencer is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. Based on a work at etd.ohiolink.edu.
This open access ETD is published by University of Cincinnati and OhioLINK.