Mobile architecture : offering new perceptions of the city

The purpose of this thesis is to explore the design of mobile architecture that challenges traditional ideas of site through the design of a museum to commemorate immigration to the United States. This thesis develops a floating, moveable, inhabitable structure that moves on the inter-coastal waterways of South Florida, within the public areas of Miami. The floating museum offers new perceptions of the city and new means of occupying its various settings. Its architectural elements do not change but are read differently in each location. The museum brings its exhibitions to the city as an event. One moment it is there and the next it is gone. In its design, the Museum of Immigration explores the experience of leaving one place to settle in another. As a prototype, it might be the first in a series of such buildings around the country that offers a new relationship between building and site.

A study to determine whether the needs of the physically handicapped are being met by the hotels in the city of Miami Beach, Florida

The purpose of this study was to determine whether the needs of the physically handicapped traveler are being met by the hotels in the City of Miami Beach, Florida. A sample was drawn from the hotel population. Mail questionnaires and personal interviews were used as the methods for collecting the data from the sample. The data was compiled and a hotel mean was computed. A mean was also calculated from the standards recommended by the American National Standards Institute to the American Hotel and Motel Association. The statistical test, The Significance of Difference Between Two Means, was used to test the hypothesis. A significance of difference was found and the hypothesis: The hotels in the City of Miami Beach, Florida, are not meeting the needs of the physically handicapped traveler, was accepted.