Corporate icons in the suburban landscape

The image of the modern workplace in the American suburb has long been a contentious topic of discussion among academics, planning and development professionals, and the public. Today, the critics of office parks in the low-density neighborhoods are applauding the idea of reverse migration back to the city. It is no doubt a trend for large competitive corporations and one that this thesis will explore. But in their day, the suburban corporate centers represented the epitome of advanced thinking about corporate organization, productivity, innovation, marketing, and architecture. This thesis will focus on how these large centers came into being, how they functioned and their continuing legacy. The principal cases and relevant examples discussed were designed by renowned 20th century architects and are of an iconic architectural value. The classic examples examined include: General Motors Technical Center, Deere and Company, PepsiCo, and Union Carbide. The hypothesis is that the day of suburban corporate centers is not over, that despite the changes in corporate culture and work-life, the lure of the isolated center in the landscape is so powerful that it will continue to be valuable to companies - but in new ways: as amenity locations for workers, and with new kinds of uses and activities incorporated into the centers.

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

2013

Author dc:creator

• Abolina, Viktorija

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Dennis Frenchman.

• 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/1721.1/79148

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/79148