Yongxian (Roger) Huang

Collage Life in Downtown Hamilton

Downtown Hamilton is a centre of culture and heritage. It has convenient public transit, and many towers built in the 1960s and 1970s. It used to be a walkable neighbourhood. Influenced by automobile-driven planning post-World War II, residents gradually moved out to suburbs and small businesses found it hard to survive. Surface parking replaced many of the original mixed-use residential buildings and made downtown a hostile place. With the support of rapid transit and employment policy, downtown Hamilton has another opportunity to thrive. This thesis focuses on how to recover walkability in a densified neighbourhood.

Advisors: Angus Laurie and Mariana Leguia Winter 2021