2026 Theses Master's

Flagship Urban Development as a Mechanism of City Branding: A Comparative Analysis of Canary Wharf and Hudson Yards

Hirunviriya, Surayuth

Existing city branding scholarship often treats narrative positioning, spatial form, and governance arrangements as separate analytical dimensions, producing a fragmented understanding of how branding actually functions in urban development. This thesis argues that city branding is not a communicative veneer but a structural mechanism that organizes narrative, space, and governance from the outset. Through a qualitative comparative case study of London’s Canary Wharf and New York’s Hudson Yards, the research examines how city branding operates across these three dimensions simultaneously.

Drawing on urban entrepreneurialism, global city theory, and city branding scholarship, the thesis proposes an integrated analytical framework to foreground the constitutive relationship among the three dimensions. The research utilizes policy documents, media and promotional materials, and spatial and visual data to analyze how each project materializes economic strategy and symbolic positioning. Applied comparatively, the framework reveals a self-reinforcing system in which the brand is not layered onto development, but structured within the decisions that produce it.

The comparison between Canary Wharf and Hudson Yards surfaces both meaningful similarities and differences, demonstrating how branding acts as a flexible logic that adapts to distinct political contexts and institutional conditions. The thesis concludes that treating branding as a structural process has significant implications for planning practice and urban theory. It shows how the uneven distribution of risk, spatial access, and public resources is inseparable from the structural logic that produces flagship districts in the first place.