Jason Beske - Suburban remix: creating the next generation of urban places

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Copyright 2018 Jason Beske and David Dixon

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Keywords: commercial strip, density, drivable sub-urban, the great reset, locally serving retail, regionally significant retail, shopping mall reuse, suburban poverty, suburban sprawl, suburban town center, urbanizing suburbia, walkable urban

by David Dixon

by Christopher B. Leinberger

by David Dixon

by Laurie Volk, Todd Zimmerman, and Christopher Volk-Zimmerman

by Sarah Woodworth

by Michael J. Berne

by Stewart Schwartz

by Linda E. Hollis and Sterling Wheeler

by Chris Snyder

by Tianyao Sun

by Harold Madi and Simon OByrne

by Terry Foegler

by Christopher Zimmerman

by Mark Hinshaw

by David Dixon

by Jason Beske

by Jason Beske and David Dixon

Wed like to thank our wonderful families for supporting (and humoring) us while we created Suburban Remix. They remain the focus of our respective worlds.

We feel deep gratitude for a team whose work and guidance helped us conjure a book out of a mutual interest in the walkable urban places transforming North Americas suburbs: Steve Wolf, our remarkable editor at Stantecs Urban Places (who deserves a credit on half the chapters in this book); Heather Boyer, our equally remarkable, and remarkably patient editor at Island Press, whose thoughtful direction never failed to improve the book; Stantecs Kasey Grzyb, our image wrangler extraordinaire; Stantecs Anushree Nallapaneni, our data-visualization wizard; Justin Falango, our placemaking and graphics guru; and map-making experts Ma Shuyun and Xumengqi. We also recognize our special debt to many generous colleagues who filled in for us on multiple occasions so that we could complete this book.

Were particularly grateful for Stantecs unwavering support for this project, which does not benefit its bottom line but does reflect a firm-wide commitment to and focus on all things urban. It would be hard to overstate the value of the chapters written by Michael J. Berne, Terry Foegler, Mark Hinshaw, Linda E. Hollis, Christopher B. Leinberger, Harold Madi, Simon OByrne, Stewart Schwartz, Chris Snyder, Tianyao Sun, Laurie Volk, Christopher Volk-Zimmerman, Sterling Wheeler, Sarah Woodworth, Christopher Zimmerman, and Todd Zimmerman. We deeply respect their knowledge and their commitment to helping us describe the emergence of walkable suburban centers, and remain grateful both for the time they took to shape their chapters and for the way they took this task to heart. Their complementary perspectives add a depth and richness that elevate Suburban Remixbut we expected nothing less from these accomplished practitioners who care deeply about the communities in which they live and for which they work.

Several developers who have pioneered the field of walkable suburban places offered valuable reports. In particular, we thank Federal Realty Investment Trust for its willingness to provide photographs of its projects; Crawford Hoying for making so many materials from Bridge Park available to us; and the Reston Town Center Association for its insight, cooperation, and images.

Finally, we dedicate this book to Samuel, Benji, Giacomo, and all the other kids who will inherit the world we are creating.

Jason and David

May 2, 2017

Figure 0.1. In the six decades after World War II, the classic suburban dream meant homogeneity, a growing middle class, two-parent families with children, and a single-family house. That era has ended. Suburban Remix describes how suburbs can invent and make real a suburban dream for today.

David Dixon

North America is a suburban continent with an urban population.

Roughly two-thirds of North Americans live in suburbs, and two-thirds live in single-family houses (see

Suburbs are not destined to suffer the fate of the traditional suburban dream. Today suburbs face an era of unparalleled, albeit far more urban, opportunity. This book views suburbs as an ongoing experiment in trying out new forms of development to respond to social, economic, and technological change (a notion introduced by Charles Marohn, founder and president of Strong Towns)and over the long history of human settlement, a very recent experiment. In fact, since suburbs first emerged as a recognizable form, with the advent of commuter railroads and then streetcars, they have represented a continuous experiment, evolving in response to the interplay of fundamental demographic, economic, ).