Make suburbs more livable

 

I found this article very interesting as it tells us why and how to retrofit suburbs and aging suburban commercial areas.

Firstly, old suburban office parks and malls can seldom compete with newer, polished commerce, especially further out in suburbia. They cannot adapt simply by expanding as they are often surrounded by developed land,. So they end up relinquishing unless renovated. However, modifying suburbs into a pedestrian-friendly surrounding result in fewer car trips and thus less pollution.

Secondly, walking in a typical suburban commercial area is problematic as it involves buildings set back far from the street. Moreover, the area between the street and the buildings is typically dominated by parking lots. The author suggests keeping some of the area residential, helping people to walk to the shops and offices. And instead of disorienting superblocks, make these residences, shops, and offices on a grid of streets that are narrow enough to be easily crossed by pedestrians. The parking is suggested to be in decks surrounded by "liner buildings" so that it doesn't impair walking or uglify the neighborhood. Finally, the authors show numerous examples, to show how doable it all is.

Finally, in the wake of COVID – and as many urban dwellers are fleeing cities for the suburbs' seeking safety and open spaces – I think this article “Retrofitting Suburbia: Urban Design Solutions for Redesigning Suburbs” by Ellen Dunham-Jones and June Williamson is an essential guide to how to urbanize the suburbs. Pandemic will surely accelerate the thinking of designing of the American suburbs that has been underway for several decades. Nevertheless, starting from dead malls, industrial parks, abandoned stores, empty strip malls can be transformed into the kinds of vibrant, mixed-use development we need for the future.