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Lakewood in the Pines: anatomy of an emergent community
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Novack, Nisan Mayer. Lakewood in the Pines: anatomy of an emergent community. Retrieved from https://doi.org/doi:10.7282/t3-9xry-gy66

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TitleLakewood in the Pines: anatomy of an emergent community
NameNovack, Nisan Mayer (author); Hoefer, Wolfram (chair); Alomar, Richard (member); Smith, David (member); Rutgers University; School of Graduate Studies
Date Created2022
Other Date2022-10 (degree)
SubjectLandscape architecture, Community, Emergence, Emergent, Formal, Formalism, Lakewood, Lakewood (N.J.)
Extent1 online resource (185 pages) : illustrations
DescriptionDoes the structure of a community have a role in its survival? Community decline has been an ongoing question faced by the design and planning professions for decades. This thesis explores the elements necessary for a community to survive in the face of adverse events. This study is framed around an exploration of the the city of Lakewood, New Jersey, which is a fast-growing city with a large and growing orthodox Jewish community. This growth was spurned by the opening of the Rabbinical Academy – Beth Medrash Govoha (BMG), in 1943. The draw was followed by a sustained community composed of alumni of the Academy and their families, which resulted in a thriving local economy. The city can be compared to boomtowns from the American industrial era, peaking in the 1920s, in which towns and cities grew large in short time due to an initial catalyst. Usually, these catalysts are economic but in the case of Lakewood the catalyst was a religious institution – BMG. The difference between boomtowns that endured and those that disappeared as quickly as they grew would be its unique cultural elements transcending its economic draw. This thesis explores what the determining factors are of a successful community and seeks to define what a successful community is. This exploration of the Lakewood Jewish community includes documenting its unique characteristics and extrapolating the qualities which can be universally applied to help other communities survive in the face of adverse events – i.e., de-industrialization, displacement from natural disasters or climate change, mass closures of local businesses due to pandemic events, and more. The case study of the Lakewood community includes documenting its socio-cultural landscape and its aesthetic profile. This exploration involves documenting the observations of how the religious culture affects the physical landscape – noting how public space use varies based on the times of the day/week, marking the informal pathways formed and used by the locals, and observing the change in traffic patterns between the week and the Sabbath. Interviews also take place with various community veterans to understand the history of the community’s development from an inside perspective – an oral history. Finally, the study gives way to a design for a model neighborhood in the city of Lakewood that accommodates its cultural needs best based on what is learned about Jewish neighborhood design.
NoteM.L.A.
NoteIncludes bibliographical references
Genretheses
Persistent URLhttps://doi.org/doi:10.7282/t3-9xry-gy66
LanguageEnglish
CollectionSchool of Graduate Studies Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Organization NameRutgers, The State University of New Jersey
RightsThe author owns the copyright to this work.
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