The formation of edge cities and its influence on urban Structure of metropolitan areas in the United States

2002 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary

• Project/Area Number: 12680071
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Human geography
• Research Institution: Saitama University
• Principal Investigator: KANNO Mineaki Saitama University, Faculfy of Liberal Arts, Professor, 教養学部, 教授 (10114208)
• Project Period (FY): 2000 – 2002
• Keywords: Urited States / metropolitan area / urban structure / edge city / Atlanta

Research Abstract

Since the 1980s suburban centers in metropolitan areas in the United States of America developed and added retail, financial, entertainment, and office functions. These suburban centers are different from CBDs, and are called edge cities. The present paper attempts to analyze the formation process and structure of edge cities, and to find changes in areal structure of metropolitan areas with the emergence of edge cities. The city of Atlanta, Georgia, is analyzed as a case of example.
The movement of white people toward the northern parts of Atlanta has brought retail and office activities in the areas and lead to the opening of shopping malls and office parks. From 1970 to the 1980s, office parks and industrial parks were constructed along a circumferential Interstate Highway I-285 and I-75 and I-85 radiating from the CBD of Atlanta. The number of employment increased in the northern parts of the Atlanta metropolitan areas.
Atlanta is a center of finance, insurance, management, distribution, and wholesale activities in the southeastern United States. Atlanta has a management function not only for inside of the Atlanta metropolitan area but also for outside of the area. Therefore, regional headquarters of firms are concentrated in the suburbs of Atlanta. They are located in the Cumberland-Galleria district and the Perimeter-Center district which are called edge cities, and are centers of employment and business activities in the suburbs of Atlanta. These edge cities have many regional headquarters with central management functions. They also attracted many business services. In these processes office districts have been formed in the northern suburbs of Atlanta. The Atlanta metropolitan area thus has multi-nuclei structure with CBD and edge cities as nuclei.