Employment centers that function like neighborhoods

Corporations are rediscovering the benefits of pedestrian-oriented environments. Office parks, with gleaming glass buildings surounded by parking, are the workplace equivalent of the cookie-cutter subdivision. Although office parks still are the prevailing model for workplace development in the U.S., an increasing number of new urbanist (NU) projects are bringing back the idea of placing the employment center in a mixed-use neighborhood. Twenty-four such projects are listed on page 3. Ten have workplace districts built or under construction, and the others are planned. While mixed-use, compact, urban workplace developments still face hurdles, the listed projects show that the hurdles are not insurmountable. The New Jersey Office of State Planning — one state agency that is paying attention to the issue of workplace design from an NU perspective — recently commissioned comparative renderings of NU and conventional workplaces (see page 4). The office held a meeting of real estate industry representatives and employers in the state to gauge their response to mixed-use, pedestrian-oriented design. Participants in the conference were favorably impressed by the number of NU employment centers under construction, says Carlos Rodrigues, a state planner. Planners also found that many participants, mostly representatives of medium-sized companies, saw substantial potential benefits from the NU model, says Rodrigues. Fortune 500 companies were invited but did not participate. “It doesn’t make sense for midsize firms to provide a restaurant/cafete— all of which are expensive — when these services could be offered across the street in the mixed-use, walkable employment center,” says Rodrigues. “Blue chip, Fortune 500 companies may be reluctant to give up the control that they have in a suburban office campus environment, but that’s not an issue for midsize and smaller companies. Many of those who attended said [the NU layout] offers nothing but advantages.” With the exception of the Hudson River waterfront and a few urban centers, most workplace development in New Jersey has been in the form of low-density, automobile-dependent single-use projects. These office parks do not adhere to the revised State Plan, which adopts a “smart growth” approach based on NU principles. Specifically, the plan calls for workplace buildings “in close proximity to a critical mass of housing, supported by institutional, civic, recreational and other such uses.” Other goals are a variety of housing types, accessibility to transit, and a street network that accommodates walking and bicycling. The state is taking its first significant steps toward visualizing these goals, testing their practicality, and gauging the response from the business community. Characteristics of NU employment centers The ideal NU employment district is located on a fine-grained, interconnected networks of streets and blocks (see rendering by Neal Payton of Torti Gallas/CHK). The office or light industrial buildings in this plan are located in mixed-use neighborhoods with housing and retail in relatively close proximity. The transition between different uses consists of high quality streets and public gathering places, which are pleasant and accessible to pedestrians. The NU employment district has a high level of pedestrian-scale connectivity, which starkly contrasts with the low connectivity of the single use suburban office park formula. How do the built employment centers in NU projects stack up against the goals? While generally better than suburban counterparts, the actual connectivity displayed by the employment component of NU projects varies considerably. Celebration, for example, has excellent connectivity between its residential, retail and professional office components, but its business park is separated from the rest of the development. Laguna West and Northwest Landing, the first two NU developments to lure major corporations, have employment buildings that are not quite urbanized but still located in close proximity to housing. The connection between the workplace and other uses comes close to the NU ideal in Riverside and Redmond Town Center. Addison Circle, King Farm, Malbis, and Civano are in the early stages of workplace construction, and the plans show good connectivity. Corporate criteria Developers and their corporate tenants are looking for nine criteria in office and light industrial space, according to a survey by Brown & Keener, an urban design consultant hired by the New Jersey Office of Planning. Some of these criteria favor suburban models, some the New Urbanism, and others offer no clear advantages to developers of either planning model. Identity: businesses want to reflect a certain corporate image, and sometimes this is represented by a stand-alone building near a major highway — which can only be satisfied through a suburban design. But visibility and image concerns can be addressed equally well on urban sites, as illustrated by the many distinctive corporate centers in downtown business districts. Accessibility: employees and clients must be able to reach corporate offices. In New Jersey, as in many growth areas, corporations usually think in terms of the automobile access. NU projects offer the advantage of being automobile accessible while offering greater transit potential. Corporate executives, however, may need to be convinced that NU design is just as convenient for automobile users as a conventional layout. Flexibility: developers and corporations are realizing that downsizing or corporate relocations require that office buildings be easily converted for use by other tenants. NU plans, with generally smaller buildings, have a clear advantage in flexibility, Rodrigues believes. Predictability: there is a perception, at least, that large corporations want complete control over their surroundings, which is more achievable in a suburban office park than an urban neighborhood. Security: the desire to control the influx of visitors can be achieved in a suburban or urban location. Retention/recruitment: corporations need to attract and keep good employees. The New Urbanism has an advantage, Rodrigues says, because amenities and services are created by the free market in the form of restaurants, stores, and services within walking distance to work. In suburban office parks, businesses must pay for these amenities. Development approvals: developers perceive that entitlements for mixed-use buildings, and mixed-use, NU developments in general, take more time and cost more money. Costs: structured parking is a requirement at the core of compact mixed-use centers, and it is significantly more expensive than surface parking. Mixed-use buildings, with offices and apartments over retail, tend to cost more to build, finance, manage, and maintain than single-use buildings, according to the Office of State Planning. Profitability: some mixed-use employment centers have run into financial trouble in New Jersey, including Forrestal Village in Princeton, and Main Street Vorhees in Vorhees. These projects suffer from flaws in pedestrian connectivity and design, and therefore are poor predictors of success for NU projects. Conclusions Many of the attendees of the conference — including corporate and real estate professionals as well as planners — agree that single-use, suburban greenfield office parks will be more difficult to build in New Jersey in the future. That’s because office parks epitomize sprawl, which is viewed more and more negatively be residents and elected officials, explains Rodrigues. Governor Christie Whitman has launched a major initiative to preserve open space. Corporate and real estate professionals appear ready to try compact, mixed-use planning models. A major incentive for NU employment centers would be to persuade municipalities to offer expedited permitting for these projects, Rodrigues says. Providing some sort of government financial incentives “for structure parking facilities that capitalize on shared parking is seen as critical,” he adds.