Tittmann and the 'Tiger Car' : competing conceptions of modernity in Haiti, 1946-50

The purpose of this project was to address the lack of scholarship on mid-twentieth century Haitian history and illustrate its significance. It employs primary and secondary sources in shaping a Gramscian historical narrative. Ideas of "everyday resistance" and internal and external politics are also be of significance to this work. In mid-twentieth century Haiti, the black-nationalist rhetoric of noirisme became the dominant political ideology. Blackness was amorphous and its application to politics was dependent upon class. In proclaiming blackness the average Haitian was attacking the class schism that beleaguered the island. Yet for the elite noirismewas a conduit to modernity and a useful tool for muting the division between rich and poor. With the election of Dumarsais Estimé in 1946, dialogue between the U.S. government, the Haitian elite, and the masses, relative to definitions of modernity played out within the new political reality of noirisme.

Retail centers for community : addressing both pedestrian and car traffic

The purpose of this thesis was to redesign a commercial center in Miami, Florida in a manner that incorporates the needs of pedestrians as well as the automobile. In my research, I studied projects that had been successful at integrating cars in retail design. I applied the strategies learned from this research to the design of a center that creates a positive interaction of pedestrian and car traffic, addressing the needs of the surrounding community. I designed a master plan that includes a mix of residential, retail, commercial and parking space. The parking is designed so that the retail center is not dominated by surface parking. Rather, the automobile is introduced into the different layers of the proposed buildings. The design focused on connecting pedestrian plazas and parking areas beneath them through the introduction of light and greenery. The findings show how a shopping center might transform the area around it by including spaces for residential, civic, cultural and social functions, as well as for the automotive infrastructure that make those functions possible.