Public space as an anchor in suburban commercial development : new main streets and town centers.

An innovative suburban commercial development strategy is gaining momentum in the 1990s. Its prototype may be called the new Main Street/Town Center (MS/TC). The model reacts to complex economic and social circumstances using a public-space anchored design approach. A major motivation for the trend is the unquantified, but recognizably growing demand for a greater sense of community. This demand may be captured at a profit using a creative development approach, which also appears to generate external environmental and sociological benefits at the margin. Retail industry restructuring is one event triggering the MS/TC's insurgence. Residential uses are found to be a vital addition to commercial ones. This thesis poses the following questions: What are the circumstances in which a public space-anchored, or street-making, approach is successful in suburban commercial development? As a developer, how would one employ this prototype to capitalize on the applicable market and design circumstances? And, what is the outlook for a public space/street-anchored type of commercial development? Three case studies -- Downtown Park Forest, IL; Mizner Park, in Boca Raton, FL; and Redmond Town Center in Redmond, WA -- highlight both the constancy and the diversity of the model. MS/TC projects comprise both redevelopment and new development, and are spearheaded by public, public/private, and private development entities. The new Main Street/Town Center model, which employs mixed uses and varies in scale, is unusual for contemporary suburban development in that it seeks to fortify, or reintegrate, a street network to serve multilateral needs. This audience encompasses autos and pedestrians and sometimes natural ecosystems but does not require connection to mass transit. A comprehensive set of site planning solutions has evolved to address needs of multiple components. There is no singular market context in which the a new Main Street/Town Center model will succeed, but a creative, tailored approach is necessary to optimize financial and social potential.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Urban Studies and Planning

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

1998

Author dc:creator

• London, Laura McLain, 1969-

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• John P. deMonchaux.

• Urban Studies and Planning

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/68343

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/68343