Edge Cities?

[proud herald]

Does any of these cities qualify as an “Edge City”? I just recently stumbled upon the term, those who are more familiar with the term would you care to enlighten me on the very nature of what exactly is an edge city, Wikipedia did an OK job but wasn’t too many examples other than some city near Washington D.C. #1014973634831450212 #1014234216038400091 #1021888724218429580

[simple sail]

edge cities are places like Tysons corner in DC, really big office buildings and shopping malls but 10 miles from the white house

also la defense in paris is far from the Eiffel tower and also has a lot of skyscrapers headquartering big companies

also theres bellvue wa, with google office but its 7 miles away from downtown seattle

[molten prairie]

Are you from NoVA or the wider DMV...? Because I am not sure how many people outside of this area even know about Tysons, lol...

Haha. Well, regardless of whether you are or not, I just looked at the edge cities article on Wikipedia, which references Tysons (and Reston Town Center), so maybe people beyond this area could be familiar if they were familiar with the Wikipedia article on this... 🤷‍♂️

[simple sail]

i live in richmond, but essentially think a large business district with skyscrapers a few miles from the traditional downtown

[molten prairie]

Richmond is a good spot. I love some of the places you find in The Fan...

[digital urchin]

So Edge or Ex-urban Cities are suburbs or suburban development far from the central city that become major job and regional retail centers.

These edge cities can be seen as part of the postmodern urbanism movement that came out of the Los Angeles School of Urbanism, where there traditional concepts of urban form are revised into a more decentralized form of urbanization.

[proud herald]

So all edge cities are formed the same way? start as a community then grow into a fully self governed city with mayor & city services or no?

[digital urchin]

Not always. They can develop into full cities, remain unincorporated, or even develop with an incorporated city.

[digital urchin]

The examples above really show this. LA Defense in Paris is not actually within a city. Century City in Los Angeles is within the City of Los Angeles. And then you have Bellevue, Washington which started out as an edge city but then grew and incorporated into a major city in its own right.

[digital urchin]

In terms of how they form, generally they all start out in a similar way - they are purposefully established and built as major employment centers away from the central city. How rhey grow and evolve from there is up to the region it is in. Generally they do very well and spur huge residential development around them or transportation infrastructure construction and investment (usually highway in North America, but starting to see more rail/bus connections).

[digital urchin]

Does this help? Or are you wondering if any of the cities Phil created in all of his series would classify as an edge city?

[proud herald]

Yes it helps, also I have been watching Phil's YT video for some time now and I have noticed that he has been putting more into how the cities began and how they are developing by creating real life story plots, which I have come to enjoy more than I thought I would. Which makes me want to develop certain story lines and mix it with actual city planning scenarios i.e. "edge cities" which one of his towns if at all could be considered an Edge City? what is the Central City?

[digital urchin]

Not many in his series could really be classified as an edge city, but the closest thing could be the Space Port and maybe the lifestyle center in Verde Beach. Clearwater County and Nicolet Bay don't have edge cities.

[simple sail]

edge cities have skyscrapers/ high rises

[digital urchin]

A central city really refers to the main downtown or original city center. Take Los Angeles for example, you have Downtown LA with all the major skyscrapers, but then you had Century City get developed out in the western part of the basin about 12-13 miles (19 - 21 kilometers) from the core of downtown. You get this with Paris as well, where the La Defense area is about four to five miles (seven to eight kilometers) away from the Louvre. In London, the Canary Wharf area is about four to five miles from central London.

[digital urchin]

A lotnof the major ones do, but it is not always the case. You are seeing a lot of newer edge cities with low rise but large footprint buildings.

[proud herald]

🦶🏾 🏢?

[digital urchin]

A building that has a large base (the footprint) that can exceed hundreds of thousands of square feet or multiple acres (square meters /hectares). Examples of this would be Apple's headquarters in Cupertino, CA or the Squarie Office Building in Frankfurt.

[proud herald]

Googles Apples HQ

[molten prairie]

I usually just think of/reference the Pentagon for this one... 🤷‍♂️

[digital urchin]

True, that is a perfect example

[molten prairie]

Even though, I worked in that building for over a year, it still astounds me that the footprint of the Pentagon is equal to 5x US Capitol buildings...Crazy stuff, really!

[digital urchin]

Right! It is crazy to think that it is still one of the largest budings in the world!

[proud herald]

Apples HQ is a huge Circle ⭕️ & U.S. Dept of Defense is a Pentagon ⭐️ go figure! Lol

[outer hare]

Parramatta in Sydney might be the sort of thing you’re talking about?

[raven loom]

Oshawa in the Greater Toronto Area might be a good example of this
It's known for being a suburb of Toronto, but has its own somewhat substantial downtown as a city of 175k
More importantly, it has its own relevance due to the GM Oshawa Assembly Plant (which was known in years past for its sedan build quality)
When the plant closed in 2019, there was no shortage of concerns that the rest of the city could be doomed
Production returned in 2021 with electric Silverado production, assuaging those concerns for now