Psychic Value and Urban Regeneration: How and Why Signature Architecture Affects Regional Economies
Open Access
- Author:
- Grosek, Alexander
- Area of Honors:
- Finance
- Degree:
- Bachelor of Science
- Document Type:
- Thesis
- Thesis Supervisors:
- Christoph Hinkelmann, Thesis Supervisor
Brian Spangler Davis, Thesis Honors Advisor - Keywords:
- Finance
Architecture
Pritzker
Economics
Urban
Psychic Value
Urban Regeneration
Signature Architecture
Design
Art
Spillover - Abstract:
- Focusing on buildings designed by winners of the Pritzker Prize for Architecture, I create a sample of 509 buildings-designed-by-signature-architects (BDSA) in the United States. This yields 170 metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) that contain 509 BDSA. Drawing on U.S. Census data from 2010 – 2019, 13 economic data points are collected for each MSA in the sample, yielding 2,210 initial data points. The same 13 data points are collected for each of the 37 states where at least one BDSA currently resides, yielding an additional 481 unique data points Finally, the same 13 data points are collected for the U.S. economy as a whole. This data is sorted using basic weighted-average calculations to measure the relationship between the number of BDSA and the regional economic performance of the group of MSAs containing those BDSA, weighted by the number of BDSA in each city. The BDSA-weighted average of these economic statistics is then compared to the state and national averages for the same economic indicators. The results of this study show that the 170 regions under analysis have BDSA-weighted economic indicators that, when viewed together, demonstrate significantly more robust regional economic environments than the population-weighted average statistics for the 37 state economies in which they reside and the national average for the U.S. The results of this study show that BDSAs overwhelmingly appear in economically vibrant cities that are wealthier, more racially diverse, more educated and more employed than the respective average for the 37 states that contain at least one BDSA, and the United States overall.