Edge City

It is interesting to read this book again with the benefit of some history since it was first written. The Edge City has evolved and continues to evolve, but there is little doubt at this point that Garreau's basic premise was correct. We are on the edge because this is where it makes sense for so many of us to live. Just as the traditional city worked in the late 19th and first half of the 20th century, Edge City works today, and not just in the United States, but globally. I've seen Edge City in Toronto, Malmo Sweden and other places the author references and what strikes me is how similiar it is to Edge City in my own backyard, that is, The Woodlands, Texas. Garreau is correct that Edge City is in transition. The Houston Galleria has gone from Edge City to traditional city in any sense of the definition. As housing is added and density increased, the area adapts. Always a destination, it is now home for increasing numbers of Houstonians. Mass transit is not far off. The Edge City is going mainstream, at least in the Galleria, and the end product is very attractive. The same can be said for The Woodlands. Yes, it is Disney-esque, but it is also funky in it's own way, and the end product will continue to evolve. The new pedestrian friendly village is already a hit, and water taxis and pathways make carless movement between major attractions a viable alternative to traditional suburban transit. This is an excellent read, in no small part because Garreau resists the urge to lecture and condescend. He seems fascinated by the product and willing to admit that Edge City is what it is, and it might be a viable alternative even for those among us who view sprawl as wasteful and immoral. If you're interested in understanding the evolution of modern society, both good and bad, in terms of the places more and more of us are calling home....then this is a worthwhile read.

This book explores what has become of the suburbs. Garreau's argues that certain suburbs have developed into a new kind of city, a city without a traditional downtown. He believes that such "edge cities", are the cities of the future. Garreau's criteria for an "edge city" are: --5 million square feet or more of office space --600,000 square feet or more of retail space --more jobs than bedrooms --perceived as one place by the population --developed within the last 30 years With these criteria in mind, Garreau sets off across the US to study our major edge cities. He explores edge cities in New Jersey, Texas, Southern California, and the areas around Boston, Detroit, Atlanta, Phoenix, San Francisco, and Washington D.C. In each area that he visits, Garreau takes up an edge city theme. For instance, in Detroit he discusses cars and the role they play in edge cities, and in Atlanta he discusses questions of race and class in edge cities. At the end of the book is a list of US cities that qualified for edge city status in 1992. This is followed by a glossary of words used by edge city developers and a set of "laws" about how edge cities work. These "laws" are statistical observations about human behavior relevant for city planning, such as "the furthest distance an American will willing walk before getting into a car is 600 feet." Finally, there is an annotated list of suggested readings, endnotes, and an index. Garreau is neither for nor against edge cities. He tries instead to understand how they work, and why they have popped up so rapidly across the country. He strives to be descriptive rather than prescriptive, coming across more like Jane Jacobs than Lewis Mumford, who argued so stridently for regional planning. Garreau points out that edge cities are being built by developers who are in the business to make money. In other words, they build what they believe will sell, and given the fact that the developments sell so well, a lot of Americans are making the conscious decision that they want to live in edge city developments. Through interviews with developers, employers, and residents, Garreau explores the factors that make edge cities so popular. He writes "Maybe it worked like this. The force that drove the creation of Edge City was our search deep inside ourselves for a new balance of individualism and freedom. We wanted to build a world in which we could live in one place, work in another, and play in a third, in unlimited combination, as a way to nurture our human potential. This demanded transportation that would allow us to go where we wanted, when we wanted. That enshrined the individual transportation system, the automobile, in our lives. And that led us to build our market meeting places in the fashion of today's malls." Cars are key elements in this phenomenon. They make it possible for people to separate their workplaces from the residences, and they define the distances which are considered commutable. They

This was the first book on cities and planning I ever read, and I was captivated through most of it. Filled with fascinating views on how real estate and commerce work together, this book ties together views of different metropoles as they develop their "Edge Cities," grown-up suburbs that are more than bedroom communities. These Edge Cities have overwhelmed the central city that gave birth to them, as suburbanites find them easier to commute to (at first), and certainly cleaner than the "real city." Gridlock and sprawl are the result as the Edge Cities go up everywhere.And I still remember my eagerness in reading this terrific book, city after city, looking forward to the San Francisco chapter... and my crushing disappointment when Garreau discussed not Silicon Valley, the quintessential Edge City, but... Concord. Concord? How did he miss Silicon Valley, at the intersection of 85 and 280, or 101 and 880, or... (Garreau feels freeway junctions lead to Edge Cities)Okay, other than my personal disappointment that he missed the real story, that the suburban metroplex is none other than San Jose/Santa Clara/Cupertino/Sunnyvale/Mountain View/Palo Alto/Redwood City this is still a great book. The endpapers show the contrast between Tyson's Corners postwar and in the nineties, and what a contrast it is.This book goes well with "Suburban Nation," which shows how to avoid the downside of Edge Cities.

I first bought this book back when it first came out in 1992. I've lent it out to numerous friends and acquaintances over the following years and it always provoked good discussions about what's important in how people make decisions about where they live and how location does and doesn't affect the fabric of your life.Edge City looks at how suburbs are no longer just residential areas whose populations commute to the city to work and play, but have emerged as centers of employment and commerce in their own right. This will be familiar to anyone who has commuted down to a job in the quintessentially "Edge City" Silicon Valley. Each chapter looks at a different edge city and uses it to examine some of the issues that have cropped up in what Garreau argues is a new way of life. Although the subject urban planning could be a pretty slow read, Garreua's training as a journalist shows and his prose make an easy and enjoyable read.

Joel Garreau is a good story teller about life on the new suburban frontier. His writing style reminds me of Jane Jacobs and her classic "Death and Life of Great American Cities." While Jacobs' book helped to modify the discourse on central city urban development with her praise of mixed uses, the value of sidewalks, and face to face encounters with your neighbors, Garreau likewise stakes out some ground counter to conventional planning wisdom about the suburbs. As a former city planner, I found Garreau's discussion of the new "downtowns" that are forming up on the suburban fringe and along certain freeways to provide a refreshingly candid look. He is essentially optimistic about a phenomena that is almost universally condemed by the professional planning and architecture community. The book's final two chapters are worth the price alone. In "The Words" chapter the author defines in lighthearted terms some of the slang that is associated with edge city development: "Ooh-ah: An unusual Amenity inserted in a development specifically to elicit an animated reaction from a client. Commmercial Ooh-ahs include built in hair dryers in the mens room" In the chapter titled "the Laws" and includes such tidbits as: "The number of blocks an American will walk in most downtowns: Three, maybe four." Overall a very readable and important book. In fact I use it as a text for a college class titled "The Built Environment" By reveiwing and discussing the "terms", "laws" and the players in nine "edge cities" around the country, the author does an amazing job clarifying what drives this sort of development and where it leading the future of American cities into the 21rst century. Jareau is basically optimistic, despite the boring warnings planners who warn of the impending collapse of civilization unless we abide by their dictates.