Most Popular Books by Margaret Hunt

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Office activities, that is activities concerned with the production, distribution and exchange of information, concentrate in the Central Business District (CBD) of most cities. It is hypothesized that the major reason for the central agglomeration of offices is the need for rapid access to, and communication with other office activities, with services and institutions located in the CBD. In addition, the spatial clustering of offices within the CBD partly reflects these business contacts. This thesis examines the intra-metropolitan location of offices in the city of Edmonton, Alberta. The spatial clustering of offices within Edmonton''s CBD was determined with the aid of standard distance and mean centre statistical measurements. There was little evidence of office clustering Only two major clusters were visible, these included offices belonging to the financial and legal groups of activities. It can however, be argued that the small size of Edmonton''s CBD renders spatial clustering unnecessary. Data concerning the office location decision and intra-metropolitan movement of offices were collected by means of a self-administered questionnaire. The questionnaire was completed by 238 office firms located within the CBD and in non-CBD areas. It was found that the major factor causing offices to remain in the CBD was the importance attached to contact with other office firms, government institutions, and customer and clients. A fear of losing these contacts if the office moved away from the CBD acted as a major locational constraint. Office decentralization appears to be taking place on a very limited scale. There is some movement of small, local market oriented offices away from the CBD, but these have tended to move relatively short distances. The majority of non-CBD office growth is mainly attributable to the in-situ growth of indigeneous office enterprises rather than by the movement of offices from the CBD. There is some evidence to suggest that the disutilities of the CBD, such as inadequate parking facilities, traffic congestion and high office rents, may encourage offices to decentralize in the future. However, at present the advantages of a CBD location are too strong for the migration of offices from the CBD to be anything more than minor. It is concluded that despite the improvements in telecommunication systems, the importance of business contacts appears to be a major factor causing offices to remain within the CBD.