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This thesis addresses authenticity's relationship with neighborhood centers using Columbus, Ohio as a case study. What is the process of an authentic city center's creation, who participates and in what form? And what is the structural organization of space produced by that process? Finally, the thesis addresses a third question critical to accessing authenticity. What are the uses within structures? Authenticity is closely associated with local citizen involvement in the process. Bittner assesses Columbus' various neighborhood centers through observations and both written and oral works, historical and contemporary. He concludes that authenticity occurs where the process is participatory with each local resident presenting his competing interests. To actualize a community center and to establish a multi-centered city, not a nuclei region as Columbus currently exists, the authentic process provides the opportunity for residents to express needs and interests as they arise out of this complex of relational identities.