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Journal of Housing and the Built Environment 19: 333334, 2004.Book reviewEdgeless Cities. Exploring the Elusive Metropolis, R.E. Lang, Brookings
Metro Series, Brookings Institution Press, Washington, DC, 2003.The theme of this study is the development of urban form in the USA
over the last few decades especially of urban sprawl and the suburbs.
The title suggests that the accent would be on urban sprawl, which
creates edgeless or elusive cities. But the book also concerns the phenomenon of the edge city, which is the authors source of inspiration and
the counterpart of the title. Edge cities are usually dened as multifunctional concentrations (of oces, retail space, and dwellings) of
some size; in this study, however, edge cities are suburban clusters of at
least 500,000 m2 of oce space. Oce space or concentrations of a
lower size and density are seen as edgeless cities.Most studies on urban sprawl and suburbs concern residential
developments, but this one concerns the spatial pattern of oces. It is
about how an important segment of the oce sector, leased multitenanted buildings, has spread over (primary and secondary) downtowns, edge cities, and edgeless cities in...