Edgeless Cities

31 January 2004 - 1:00pm

A major factor fueling the growth of edgeless cities is the need to offset the fiscal burden of housing with commercial ratables.

"Those who hope that suburbia is finally growing up and starting to behave itself often cite this much-quoted line: 'Edge cities mean that density is back,' taken from Joel Garreau's 1991 book Edge City: Life on the New Frontier... In “edgeless cities,” one type of sprawl is apparent, a form of low-density office development that never reaches the scale, density, or cohesiveness of edge cities. Edgeless cities are everywhere but have been essentially overlooked. In terms of total office space, edgeless cities outnumber edge cities by a margin of nearly two to one, and they contain more office space than most downtowns."

Full Story: Edgeless Cities
Source: Urban Land Magazine, January 31, 2004
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The goals of densification, infill, and containment may be generally appropriate for U.S. cities, but not for cities in the developing world where average urban population densities are over four times higher than in the U.S.