Retrofitting business suburbia: competition, transformation, and challenges in metropolitan Boston’s suburban office parks

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.