Are office parks worse than suburban sprawl?

[Neo 199]

Planetizen has an article suggesting that office parks may be worse than suburban sprawl. By not being transit friendly and isolating themselves from the surrounding environment office parks are taking sprawl to an extreme level and for what reason?

Do you think office parks are worse than suburban sprawl? How can we make them more friendly to our cities or are they a lost cause?

[JDC 0]

It's hard to say that one is better of worse than the other, especially because, in my view anyway, office parks are just the "suburban sprawl" manifestation of office space.

I grew up near an office park and the congestion (at 9 a.m. and 5 p.m.) was so predictable that you'd always know when to take an alternate route. What was sad about this particular park was its lack of sidewalks despite lots of lunchtime power-walkers.

[Neo 199]

...which has me wondering, why the determination to make office parks uninviting to pedestrians? It seems that a lot could be gained by placing the buildings on a grid, having either sidewalks or something akin to greenways (doesn't necessarily need streets connecting throughout the 'park'), and having some retail space on the ground level like Subway, fast food joints, etc.

[krazeeboi 183]

I think office parks do constitute urban sprawl, probably one of the worst forms of it.

[thegryseone 0]

I always saw office parks as part of suburban sprawl, so it's hard for me to answer the question.

[MissySchmidt 0]

Planetizen has an article suggesting that office parks may be worse than suburban sprawl. By not being transit friendly and isolating themselves from the surrounding environment office parks are taking sprawl to an extreme level and for what reason?

Do you think office parks are worse than suburban sprawl? How can we make them more friendly to our cities or are they a lost cause?

[nashvillwill 1672]

My girlfriend works in a large office park, which is not very far from our city center. This park offers beautiful fountains and green area's, and even a lake. However, there are zero sidewalks, so accessing these area's is difficult at best, and there are no picnic tables or anything of the sort. Yet, there are duck crossing area's. The area has a greenway passing through it, which cannot be accessed directly from the park. Two bus lines serve the area, but there are no benches or waiting area's, only a bus stop sign stuck in the mud. It's disgusting.

On the other hand, i found a positive article about a local industrial park tenant. LEED office