Retrofitting business suburbia: competition, transformation, and challenges in metropolitan Boston’s suburban office parks
Name
Retrofitting_Business_Suburbia_preproof_2018.pdf
Description
Accepted version
Size
3.3 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
39748b132cdf8102e1a18d4e434f3255
Author(s)
Jansen, Hendrik
Ryan, Brent D.
Date Issued
December 7, 2018
Journal
Journal of Urbanism: International Research on Placemaking and Urban Sustainability
Publisher
Informa UK Limited
Citation
Jansen, H., & Ryan, B. D. (2018). Retrofitting business suburbia: competition, transformation, and challenges in metropolitan Boston’s suburban office parks. Journal of Urbanism: International Research on Placemaking and Urban Sustainability, 12(2), 203–229.
Version
Author's final manuscript
Abstract
This paper examines the retrofitting and redevelopment of suburban office parks, and in particular, the planning, design, and policy issues and challenges associated with this redevelopment. Recent literature indicates a shift of suburban business development in favor of increasingly competitive central cities, a dilemma for planners charged with revitalizing aging suburban business parks. To understand the nature and causality of suburban office park retrofitting and redevelopment, we conducted 13 qualitative, semi-structured interviews with planners, developers, and officials in the inner Boston metropolitan region. Interviews indicated increasing obsolescence, with widespread redevelopment as a coping strategy. Strategies included densification, mixed uses, enhanced public spaces, and attempts to enhance transit. We examine two case studies: Northwest Park in Burlington, MA, and Needham Crossing, in Needham, MA: both are former office parks redeveloped as mixed-use developments. Our research clarifies the nature and types of physical redevelopment, as well as the specific motivations behind redevelopment as a planning strategy for enhancing the viability of aging suburban office developments.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Urban Studies and Planning
Terms of Use
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-ShareAlike
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1080/17549175.2018.1552886
