The amenity mix of urban neighborhoods

Abstract

Advances in computational urbanism have stimulated the rise of generative and parametric approaches to urban design. Yet, most generative and parametric approaches focus on physical characteristics, such as a neighborhoods walkability, energy efficiency, and urban form. Here, we study the colocation patterns of more than one million amenities in 47 U.S. cities to model the amenity mix of neighborhoods, and to identify the amenities that are over- or under-supplied in a neighborhood. We build this model by combining a clustering algorithm, designed to identify amenity-dense neighborhoods, and a network, connecting amenities that are likely to collocate. Our findings extend generative and parametric urban design approaches to the amenity mix of neighborhoods, by leveraging the idea of relatedness from the economic geography literature, to evaluate and optimize a neighborhood's amenity mix.