With more and more employers downsizing and moving to areas with more urban amenities, large suburban office parks offer an opportunity for increased density and mixed-use development.

Writing in The New York Times, Emily Badger describes the plight of a fading American typology: the suburban office park. “Today suburban office parks have drawn far less attention than downtown offices that are also threatened by remote work. But their decline reflects in some ways a more sweeping and permanent judgment — of once-dominant ideas about where Americans work, how the office should look, and what the suburbs should be.”
According to Badger, “Far from downtowns, there is a different kind of emptiness in suburban settings that were already isolated and lightly populated by design.” While some office parks will likely be modernized and used as offices again, “Other sites will have to become something fundamentally different: schools, senior living centers, apartment complexes, public parks, warehouses.” According to an estimate by commercial real estate firm Jones Lang LaSalle, “57 percent of suburban office space nationwide is so old as to be functionally obsolete.”
However, their massive footprints offer the opportunity for redevelopment with a variety of uses and amenities. “Amid a nationwide housing crisis, many obsolete office parks could be ideal sites for denser housing.” As Badger points out, “Multifamily housing is expensive to build, but the land now being used for suburban parking lots is cheap, so the economics can work out (if the politics do).” To this end, cities and counties must be open to zoning reforms that allow for adaptive reuse of office parks and promote mixed-use development on these sites.
FULL STORY: Lonely Last Days in the Suburban Office Park

Planetizen Federal Action Tracker
A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.

Chicago’s Ghost Rails
Just beneath the surface of the modern city lie the remnants of its expansive early 20th-century streetcar system.

Amtrak Cutting Jobs, Funding to High-Speed Rail
The agency plans to cut 10 percent of its workforce and has confirmed it will not fund new high-speed rail projects.

Ohio Forces Data Centers to Prepay for Power
Utilities are calling on states to hold data center operators responsible for new energy demands to prevent leaving consumers on the hook for their bills.

MARTA CEO Steps Down Amid Citizenship Concerns
MARTA’s board announced Thursday that its chief, who is from Canada, is resigning due to questions about his immigration status.

Silicon Valley ‘Bike Superhighway’ Awarded $14M State Grant
A Caltrans grant brings the 10-mile Central Bikeway project connecting Santa Clara and East San Jose closer to fruition.
Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools
This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.
Planning for Universal Design
Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.
Caltrans
City of Fort Worth
Mpact (founded as Rail~Volution)
City of Camden Redevelopment Agency
City of Astoria
City of Portland
City of Laramie