| Popis: |
The morphology of cities, and more specifically, the development of the downtown, has been studied by several scholars; however, almost all of these studies have focused on the development of the structure of the downtowns in large cities. Whether the downtown morphology of mid-sized cities and its structure conforms to characteristics described in the literature has not been explored extensively. The focus of this research is, therefore, to examine the development of mid-sized cities, specifically of the form of the downtown. This research is concentrated on the centeredness of the downtowns in mid-size cities. Qualitative methodologies yield the best results for the purpose of this research, and case studies are a common tool for qualitative research. This thesis familiarizes the reader with the notion of centeredness and its importance to the study of the morphology of downtowns. It helps to understand the factors associated with the centeredness of urban cores and uses downtown Kelowna as a case study. To this end, this research examines the structure of downtown Kelowna and the factors that have affected it from the 1970s to the 2010s. The factors selected for this study are derived from the work of several prominent urban morphologists, which will be discussed in the literature review. The research is primarily library based, and the data regarding the case study comes from government statistics and reports. This research posits that the downtown of the city of Kelowna is mainly centred and, save for a few instances, follows a similar structure to the urban core of large cities examined in the literature. One of the areas that a mid-size city in Canada might be different than a large city is immigration patterns, as the immigrants use downtown and influence it in different ways. Moreover, the downtown land use mix might be arranged differently in mid-size cities, especially in terms of the small, local, or high-end retail stores, cultural centers and entertainment and tourist attractions. |
