Edgeless Cities - 9780815706113

Edgeless cities are a form of sprawling development that account for the bulk of office space found outside of downtowns. Every major metropolitan area has them: vast swaths of isolated buildings that are not pedestrian friendly, not easily accessible by public transit, nor designed for mixed use. While critics of urban sprawl tend to focus on the social impact of “edge cities”—developments that combine large-scale office parks with major retail and housing—edgeless cities are difficult to define or even locate. While they stay under the radar of critics, they represent a significant departure in the way American cities are built, and are very likely the harbingers of a suburban future almost no one has anticipated.Edgeless Cities explores America's new metropolitan form by examining the growth and spatial structure of suburban office space across the nation. Inspired by Myron Orfield's groundbreaking Metropolitics (Brookings, 1997), Robert Lang uses data, illustrations, maps, and photos to delineate between two types of suburban office development—bounded and edgeless. The book covers the evolving geography of office space in thirteen of the country's largest markets: Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Washington.Lang demonstrates how edgeless cities differ from traditional office areas, provides an overview of national, regional, and metropolitan office markets, covers ways to map and measure them, and discusses the challenges urban policymakers and practitioners will face as this new suburban form continues to spread.Until now, edgeless cities have been the unstudied phenomena of the new metropolis. Lang's conceptual approach reframes the current thinking on suburban sprawl and provides a valuable resource for any future policy discussions surrounding smart growth issues.