PARK-ABOVE-PARKING DOWNTOWN

210 Pages·2012·6.5 MB·English

PARK-ABOVE-PARKING DOWNTOWN:
A SPATIAL-BASED IMPACT INVESTIGATION

by

LANBIN REN

A DISSERTATION

Presented to the Department of Landscape Architecture
and the Graduate School of the University of Oregon
in partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy

December 2012
DISSERTATION APPROVAL PAGE

Student: Lanbin Ren

Title: Park-above-Parking Downtown: A Spatial-Based Impact Investigation

This dissertation has been accepted and approved in partial fulfillment of the
requirements for the Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Landscape Architecture
by:

Mark Gillem Chairperson
Deni Ruggeri Member
Robert Ribe Member
Yizhao Yang Outside Member

and

Kimberly Andrews Espy Vice President for Research & Innovation/Dean of the
Graduate School

Original approval signatures are on file with the University of Oregon Graduate School.

Degree awarded December 2012
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© 2012 Lanbin Ren
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DISSERTATION ABSTRACT

Lanbin Ren

Doctor of Philosophy

Department of Landscape Architecture

December 2012

Title: Park-above-Parking Downtown: A Spatial-Based Impact Investigation

Parking and parks are both crucial to downtown economic development. Many
studies have shown that downtown parks significantly contribute to increasing
surrounding property values and attract residents, businesses and investment. Meanwhile,
sufficient available parking promotes accessibility to downtown that also contributes to
increasing tax revenue for local government. However, both downtown parks and parking
raise problems. Many downtown parks have become places for drug dealing, shooting
and vandalism since the decline of downtowns in the 1960s. At the same time, residents
and visitors alike oftentimes complain about the lack of parking while in fact parking
spaces occupy a large amount of land in downtown. Parks and parking also compete for
space in downtown where land value is higher than the rest of the city. To address these
issues, several cities have begun to address the relationship between parking and parks by
placing them in one place: park on the ground level and parking underneath. This
typology is defined as a park-above-parking project in this research. However, this
phenomenon has received little scholarly attention. To justify the existing situation of
park-above-parking and to contemplate future projects, this research provides a spatial-
based investigation to discuss the empirical relationships between social cultural and
political-economic impacts, design quality, and related policy-making processes based on
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four cases. A longitudinal study that traces the direct and indirect impacts of park-above-
parking projects was conducted for each case through both qualitative and quantitative
methods. This research provides a set of methods for the measurement of contributions of
park-above-parking downtown, connections between park quality, social use and adjacent
economic growth, recommendations for land use planning policy-making and guidelines
for the design of park-above-parking projects.

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CURRICULUM VITAE

NAME OF AUTHOR: Lanbin Ren

GRADUATE AND UNDERGRADUATE SCHOOLS ATTENDED:

University of Oregon, Eugene
University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio
South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, China
Chang An University, Xi’an, China

DEGREES AWARDED:

Doctor of Philosophy, Landscape Architecture, 2012, University of Oregon
Master of Science in Architecture, Architecture, 2007, University of Cincinnati
Master of Architecture, Architecture, 2005, South China University of
Technology
Bachelor of Architecture, Architecture, 2002, Chang An University

AREAS OF SPECIAL INTEREST:

Sustainability in urban design, open space and economic development,
land use planning

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE:

Architect, Architectural Design Institute of SCUT, 3 Threes

GRANTS, AWARDS, AND HONORS:

      Design Excellence, Departmental Buildings in New Campus of South China
University of Technology, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development,
/The Ministry of Education, China, 2008

The First Price, Problems and Solutions of Bio-architecture, National Competition
for Scientific and Technological Works of Undergraduate Students, The Ministry of
Education, China, 2001

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SELECTED PUBLICATIONS:

     Ren, L. (2012). The Rise and Fall: A Typology of Historical Downtown Parks.
Proceedings of EDRA 43 Emergent Placemaking EDRA41 Proceedings (pp.122-128).
Presented at the Environmental Design Research Association, Seattle, WA: 
Environmental Design Research Association.

Ren, L. (2012). Public Space and Community Safety: A Study of High-density
Housing Planning. The Sixth China Urban Housing Conference Proceedings (pp.279-
287), Presented at the Sixth China Urban Housing Conference, Beijing, China: the Sixth
China Urban Housing Conference.

     Gillem, M., & Ren, L. (2010). The Downtown Park: Integrating Open Space,
Urban Infill, and Economic Development. Policy & Environment EDRA41 Proceedings 
(pp. 58–67). Presented at the Environmental Design Research Association, Washington
D.C.: Environmental Design Research Association.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I wish to express sincere appreciation to my committee, Dr. Mark Gillem,
Dr. Deni Ruggeri, Dr. Robert Ribe, and Dr. Yizhao Yang for their assistance in the
preparation of this manuscript. Dr. Mark Gillem inspired me regarding the topic of
downtown parks. He led me to Esther Short Park, downtown Vancouver Washington
where I witnessed how a downtown park contributes to urban development. In the
following five years, Dr. Gillem helped me develop the scope of this research. During my
research, he provided me fundings on field trips, conferences and many other academic
events.
Dr. Robert Ribe helped me move forward on research especially on methodology.
He sat down with me on a regular basis regarding methods development for this research.
Dr. Deni Ruggeri provided in-depth comments on every draft. The revision of this
dissertation could not have completed without his guidance. Dr. Yizhao Yang shared her
expertise on land use planning with me and taught me how to efficiently write my
dissertation. I am grateful for having them on my committee. I would also like to thank the
faculty and students in the landscape architecture department who offered me thoughtful
comments over the years.
I would like to thank my and friends for their generous help on this long journey.
Special thanks to Dr. Yan Yang and Ms. Wu for our long-time friendship. I also thank
many friends who encouraged me to move forward step by step.
Finally, I would like to thank my family. Much gratitude to my parents: Yutang
Ren and Shulan Wang. They always believed in me and supported me. Dad, mom, I
cannot thank you enough.
Last but not least, I thank my new husband, Jon Penneman. I am so happy to be
with him. I want to thank him for all his love, support, encouragement and dedication.
Thank you all.

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To My Parents
Yutang Ren
Shulan Wang
And
My Husband
Jon Penneman

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chapter Page

I. INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................... 1
Background ............................................................................................................ 1
Park-above-Parking Projects .................................................................................. 2

Purpose ................................................................................................................... 6

Research Questions ................................................................................................ 6
Significance............................................................................................................ 7

Summary of Chapters ............................................................................................ 7

II. LITERATURE REVIEW ........................................................................................ 9
Introduction ............................................................................................................ 9
Methods.................................................................................................................. 10
Downtown .............................................................................................................. 11

Downtown Vitality................................................................................................. 12

Downtown Parks .................................................................................................... 14
The History of Downtown Parks ..................................................................... 14
The Social Struggle of Downtown Parks ......................................................... 15
The Design and Renovation of Downtown Parks ............................................ 16
The Economic Impact of Downtown Parks ..................................................... 18
The Proximate Principle ............................................................................ 19
Impact Area ................................................................................................ 22
Measuring the Economic Contributions of Parks ...................................... 23
Index Method .................................................................................................. 26
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