Abstract
Continuity among architectural structures in the urban setting is an often cited component of visual attractiveness. Since urban tourism is essentially based on visual attractiveness, architectural continuity is an important element of a healthy, sustainable tourism economy. Although many scholars of tourism have alluded to the importance of architectural continuity in tourism communities, little research has been accomplished regarding this topic. The purpose of this research was two-fold: first, to develop a methodology to quantify relatedness, the fundamental component of architectural continuity; and second, to utilize a relatedness score to investigate factors suspected of controlling architectural relatedness. Galveston, Texas was chosen as the case study community. Its long history of tourism, lack of architectural regulation, and randomizing effects of hurricanes rendered Galveston a suitable location for a study of this sort. For the purposes of this study, relatedness was defined as the compatibility of a specific building with neighboring buildings as measured by defined elements or features. The features selected to measure relatedness included height, facade proportion, site utilization, materials, texture, color, roof shape, scale, directional expression, and style. To obtain the information, the investigator compared the ten features of each tourism facility with those of adjacent buildings. The differences between the tourism facilities and adjacent buildings (based on the ten features) were added to obtain a relatedness score. In addition to obtaining relatedness information for each facility, factors suspected of correlating with relatedness were collected. These included ownership type (proprietorship, corporation, etc.), residency of owner, era of construction, original use of the structure, level of employment, and occupancy rates of the lodging establishments. In addition, sub-districts and business type were collected as control factors. Upon analysis of the data, the following relationships emerged. The co-variates, ownership type and district, were found to have a high correlation with architectural relatedness. Relatedness tends to decrease as ownership type becomes more complex. In addition, a strong link exists between architectural relatedness and occupancy rates, confirming the relationship between architectural relatedness and the economic success of individual tourism facilities.
Dodd, Lisa Britt (1987). Architectural continuity in urban tourism. Texas A&M University. Texas A&M University. Libraries. Available electronically from
https : / /hdl .handle .net /1969 .1 /DISSERTATIONS -26122.