ABSTRACT
Several different concepts have dominated thinking about the future of the metropolis. One concept is that of the ‘spread city’ whereby the city continues to add rings of suburbanization, notwithstanding natural barriers such as a lakeshore, a seafront or a mountain range. Another concept is that of a ‘megalopolis’ where expanding urbanization unites different, independent metropolitan areas in a continuing strip or corridor of cities, suburbs and transportation infrastructure. A third and less common concept is that of a ‘compact city’ where new forms of energy-efficient urban technology create an almost space ship approach to a reconsolidated urban community. But there is also the appropriate technology concept of a compact city which is being built by Paolo Soleri at his Arcosanti in the American Southwest. A fourth and perhaps more practical concept is that of the ‘metroplex’ , symbolized initially by the con solidation of the metropolitan space between Dallas and Fort Worth. The new urbanization between two or more free-standing cities in particular regions is a more prevalent, and less ambitious, tendency than that of the sprawling megalopolis. Other examples that come readily to mind are those of Baltimore-Washington, ClevelandAkron-Canton, Chicago-Rockford, Los Angeles-San Diego, the Front Range cities in Colorado, most of Florida, portions of south eastern New England and the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario from Buffalo to Toronto.
