Intermodal connections: a movement oriented approach to placemaking in Downtown Sudbury

Abstract

The urban fabric of the city is the product of its history of development. Each development in history can be seen to improve, revitalize and reshape the city through the definition and redefinition of places, and paths of movement. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, many cities in North America went through a transformation aiming for places in cities with taller, larger, more durable buildings made possible by new building technologies. In the mid-twentieth century, the automobile became a major influence on urban form, often involving extensive demolition and rebuilding of places to accommodate this emerging mode of movement. In the late twentieth century there has been a significant shift in the development of urban fabric. This shift has focused on modes of movement at the human scale, and the experience of places in the city more connected to the natural environment. This thesis examines how to revitalize the City of Greater Sudbury as a whole using intermodal connections, by creating new relationships between places and paths of movement, with an emphasis on human experience and nature as essential contributors to urban form. From this network of Intermodal Connections, architectural and urban placemaking strategies can be implemented with community-oriented programs to bring people back to the Downtown core.