Edge City: Life on the New Frontier

Edge City: Life on the New Frontier — Web site

First there was downtown. Then there were suburbs. Then there were malls. Then Americans launched the most sweeping change in 100 years in how they live, work, and play. The Edge City.  Joel Garreau is the foremost chronicler of the biggest revolution in 150 years in how humans build the cities that are the cornerstones, capstones and, sometimes, millstones of their civilizations–the places where most of our new wealth is being created.

This shift toward what Garreau christened "Edge Cities"–Information Age 21st-century nodes where the majority of Americans now live, work, play, pray, socialize, shop, grow up and grow old–shows what people genuinely value.

Garreau's work has been acclaimed by marketers, entrepreneurs and social analysts. He pioneered the Edge City Boundaries, which demonstrate there are now 171 new urban cores in the U.S. outside the old downtowns.

These Edge Cities–such as Silicon Valley, Calif., The Route 128 Technology Corridor in Massachusetts, Tysons Corner, Va., Schaumburg, Ill., and Irvine, Calif.–are home to the headquarters of such world shapers as Microsoft, Motorola, McDonalds and The Greatest Show on Earth, The Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. Some of these Edge Cities are now larger than downtown Seattle or Minneapolis. They have become the places around which the majority of all Americans now live, work and vote.

Edge Cities are not simply American creations. They have sprung up in urban areas as diverse as London, Paris, Toronto, Seoul, Peking and Jakarta. They are the great drivers of wealth and jobs, worldwide.