Garreau, Joel. Edge City: Life on the New Frontier. 1st ed. New York: Doubleday, 1991.
Over the last 25 years, America has witnessed the disintegration of the traditional urban city form into multiple commercial and residential developments as a result of the transfer of jobs to outlying residential and shopping areas along highways and intersections. These new urban cores grew beyond political borders without acquiring legal titles or municipal recognition. In this readable, journalistic study, Garreau examines the shaping and reshaping of the new Information Age cities on the geographical, ecological and commercial edges of the old municipal centers. He discusses the impact of the spatial compression of daily activities; the changing functions of urban elements; and the advantages and disadvantages of the edge cities, emphasizing key issues such as workplace, shopping, socializing, and transportation (including the metaphoric means of travel by cutting edge computer technology). Garreau argues that edge cities, the "biggest revolution in seven generations," establish a new urban pattern that will most likely dominate the American landscape in the future. This optimistic study is enhanced by a summary of the newly emerging edge cities across the country. While Garreau's study is based on the American experience, Edge City presents a global "anticipatory archaeology," a worldwide phenomena of similar urban reconstruction. [S. Vegh]