Form in the [middle]-ground : urban/suburban sprawl in Georgia & Tennessee

Abstract

Over the next quarter century the U.S. population will expand by 25 percent, an unprecedented steep and rapid increase that has already begun. The urban and suburban land area has been expanding to create a sprawling landscape of housing developments, shopping centers, and industrial parks. Sprawl has created a sense of disorientation as the spatial growth has blurred the boundaries between the rural landscape and urban/suburban cities and towns, leading to the creation of amorphous regions. This disorientation and the rapid increase in population are generating undesirable environmental consequences. This thesis proposes a new way of approaching the development of cities and towns so as to create clearly defined communities within the amorphous sprawl of development that is consuming the landscape and resources. I proposed the middle-ground, a term I use to suggest a place found between the rural and suburban/urban boundaries as a new landscape for development. Using U.S. Census data, GIS information, site visit and interviews I assess the impact of growth and sprawl in the Interstate 75 corridor region between Atlanta Georgia and Chattanooga Tennessee. I offer a new direction in smart growth in the design of a new town located between the sprawl of Chattanooga, Tennessee and Dalton, Georgia, to house 100,000 residents. In addition, I propose a new train station as a central transportation link between the Chattanooga and Atlanta airports as a means of creating a well-defined, well-populated node that is a counterpoint to those regions with blurred boundaries.