Saturday, April 21, 2007

Edge Cities

Some say that they create an incomplete or pepperoni-pizza city. I would explain them as a simple solution to suburban sprawl. Currently more than five 25 floor buildings (25 floors is the cap) are being built in the massive suburbs of unincorporated Miami, where I live. I was just curious to see some opinions on edge cities and what is likely to be the future of this newly created edge city. According to Joel Garreau, who coined the term, an edge city must meet these criteria:

1. The area must have more than five million square feet of office space (about the space of a good-sized downtown)
2. The place must include over 600,000 square feet of retail space (the size of a large regional shopping mall)
3. The population must rise every morning and drop every afternoon (i.e., there are more jobs than homes)
4. The place is known as a single end destination (the place "has it all;" entertainment, shopping, recreation, etc.)
5. The area must not have been anything like a "city" 30 years ago (cow pastures would have been nice)>

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