New Suburbanism: Sustainable Spatial Patterns of Tall Buildings

Kheir Al-Kodmany

doi:10.3390/buildings8090127

Abstract

Much of the anticipated future growth in North America will occur in suburbia. The critical challenge that we will face is how to accommodate this growth in a sustainable and resilient manner. While the past 50 years have been characterized by suburban sprawl and low-rise development, “suburban sustainability” is increasingly making its way into the planning and urban design policy realm. This research investigates the spatial patterns of tall buildings in 24 suburban communities of three different regions including, Washington, D.C., Miami, and Chicago. The study identifies 10 different spatial patterns that prevail in suburbia and provides a concise summary of these patterns and reflects on their spatial and urban design aspects. The research concludes that the Tall Buildings and Transit-Oriented-Development (TB-TOD) model, an urban design approach that refers to vertical mixed-use clusters centered on mass-transit nodes, is one of the sustainable options for large regions going forward. The paper also discusses the challenges to the TB-TOD model implementation, mainly limited transit lines and community resistance. It ends by offering directions for future research.

Highlights

Much of the anticipated future building development in North America will occur in suburbs, defined generally as areas that fall between the outskirts of cities and rural areas [1]
By scanning other locations of major regional shopping malls across the U.S, we find that tall buildings, in many cases, are located near them
Vertical density is an important component of compact developments and the challenge is figuring out where and when to apply it so that future growth is accommodated in a sustainable and resilient manner

Summary

Introduction

Much of the anticipated future building development in North America will occur in suburbs, defined generally as areas that fall between the outskirts of cities and rural areas [1]. To accommodate the increased population in typical low-rise suburbs, the built environment would need to expand by about 50%, leading to additional massive sprawl [1,2,4]. Massive suburban expansion has fueled inefficient spatial patterns characterized by massive street networks, scattered shopping plazas, big-box retailers, isolated business centers, and gated communities. These land-use patterns have resulted in the wasteful use of water, energy, land, and have amplified air and water pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. Suburban sprawl has been linked to social problems stemming from increased separation and isolation of communities and individual residents

Methods

Findings

Discussion

Conclusion