As you know, Northern Virginia is now referred to as "data center alley." It has, by far, the largest agglomeration of data centers in the world. The latest figures are somewhere around 200 completed facilities and some 49 million square feet, with a lot more in the pipeline.
Here's the global top 10 list via Bloomberg:
And here's a map of existing (blue) and proposed (purple) data centers via Loudoun County, Virginia:
This has been an economic boon for Virginia. It's estimated that the data center industry contributes up to 74,000 jobs and $9.1 billion in GDP to the state each year. But along with these benefits come some trade-offs, one of which has to do with the region's built environment.
Here are two zoom-ins of an area to the west of Dulles International Airport:
These maps raise a question that is only going to become more important as time goes on: What's the best way to insert large insular boxes into the fabric of a city or suburb? Of course, in some ways, this is not a new phenomenon. The suburbs are no stranger to this kind of built form.
But it's unique in that these boxes are not meant to be experienced in real life. They're a physical manifestation of our online activities, juxtaposed against our offline lives. It's two different worlds colliding. And already, it may be more appropriate to ask our question in the opposite direction: What's the best way to plan a city or suburb around data centers?
If you're familiar with Toronto, you'll know that one ubiquitous feature of its urban landscape is street poles and overhead wires. They're everywhere. And even if you aren't acutely aware of their presence, they're probably impacting your experience in some way. It's one of the reasons why some streets just feel nicer than others.
As an example, here are two AI-generated images that show what the same street in Toronto might look like if you (1) removed the street poles/overhead wires, (2) added some trees, and (3) expanded the boulevard on one side. The AI images do look like AI — and that helps them appear broadly cleaner/nicer — but even still, the streetscape impact is dramatic.
As Toronto expands its Avenue network and works to rethink its Major Streets, we should also be thinking about bringing beauty and grandeur to our most important arteries. As it stands right now, many of our urban streets do not reflect the kind of global city that we have become.
Cover photo by Dmitry Gerasimenko on Unsplash
Cities should do what they can to allow the smallest of interventions.
What I mean by this is that -- when it comes to our urban environment -- small and granular is usually a good thing. It's why our historic main streets tend to be better urban streets than the ones we are creating today from scratch. They were built at a time when cities were more compact and it was more feasible to build small. Now, intuitively, we know this to be true. It's why planners will encourage things like "fine-grained retail" and impose maximum areas for each CRU (commercial-retail unit). It's to try and recreate how things were done before.
But at the same time, we (as cities) also do lots of things that make it more difficult to go small. Every hurdle means that you need that much bigger of a project in order to make it worth while for a developer or small-business owner. Take for example Toronto's current debate over allowing small-scale retail shops in residential neighborhoods. This is a perfect place for smaller businesses. The rents should be lower than on any major street. But only if we don't erect too many barriers.
To this end, here's a project and coffee shop in Córdoba, Argentina that I have liked since it was completed back in 2021. Designed by Estudio Rare, which is one of ArchDaily's Best New Practices for this year, the building is situated on a triangular piece of leftover land created by its orthogonal neighbors. The resulting footprint is only about 4 square meters, which is somewhere around half the size of a typical Toronto condominium bedroom. So it's the kind of "site" that could have been easily forgotten and left to collect garbage. And yet, the architect, client, and operator made something work.
Here's the ground floor plan:
And here's a street view image from May 2024:
Now, I don't know what hurdles the project team had to jump through to build and operate this coffee shop. Maybe there were very few or maybe there were many. If any of you are from Argentina and familiar with the planning landscape, maybe you can let me know. But for the purposes of this post, it doesn't really matter. The simple point is that these kind of small-scale developments are a positive thing for cities. It doesn't matter that the footprint is only half the size of a small bedroom. It's a place to stop for coffee and a place to linger on the street with others.
Images via Estudio Rare
As you know, Northern Virginia is now referred to as "data center alley." It has, by far, the largest agglomeration of data centers in the world. The latest figures are somewhere around 200 completed facilities and some 49 million square feet, with a lot more in the pipeline.
Here's the global top 10 list via Bloomberg:
And here's a map of existing (blue) and proposed (purple) data centers via Loudoun County, Virginia:
This has been an economic boon for Virginia. It's estimated that the data center industry contributes up to 74,000 jobs and $9.1 billion in GDP to the state each year. But along with these benefits come some trade-offs, one of which has to do with the region's built environment.
Here are two zoom-ins of an area to the west of Dulles International Airport:
These maps raise a question that is only going to become more important as time goes on: What's the best way to insert large insular boxes into the fabric of a city or suburb? Of course, in some ways, this is not a new phenomenon. The suburbs are no stranger to this kind of built form.
But it's unique in that these boxes are not meant to be experienced in real life. They're a physical manifestation of our online activities, juxtaposed against our offline lives. It's two different worlds colliding. And already, it may be more appropriate to ask our question in the opposite direction: What's the best way to plan a city or suburb around data centers?
If you're familiar with Toronto, you'll know that one ubiquitous feature of its urban landscape is street poles and overhead wires. They're everywhere. And even if you aren't acutely aware of their presence, they're probably impacting your experience in some way. It's one of the reasons why some streets just feel nicer than others.
As an example, here are two AI-generated images that show what the same street in Toronto might look like if you (1) removed the street poles/overhead wires, (2) added some trees, and (3) expanded the boulevard on one side. The AI images do look like AI — and that helps them appear broadly cleaner/nicer — but even still, the streetscape impact is dramatic.
As Toronto expands its Avenue network and works to rethink its Major Streets, we should also be thinking about bringing beauty and grandeur to our most important arteries. As it stands right now, many of our urban streets do not reflect the kind of global city that we have become.
Cover photo by Dmitry Gerasimenko on Unsplash
Cities should do what they can to allow the smallest of interventions.
What I mean by this is that -- when it comes to our urban environment -- small and granular is usually a good thing. It's why our historic main streets tend to be better urban streets than the ones we are creating today from scratch. They were built at a time when cities were more compact and it was more feasible to build small. Now, intuitively, we know this to be true. It's why planners will encourage things like "fine-grained retail" and impose maximum areas for each CRU (commercial-retail unit). It's to try and recreate how things were done before.
But at the same time, we (as cities) also do lots of things that make it more difficult to go small. Every hurdle means that you need that much bigger of a project in order to make it worth while for a developer or small-business owner. Take for example Toronto's current debate over allowing small-scale retail shops in residential neighborhoods. This is a perfect place for smaller businesses. The rents should be lower than on any major street. But only if we don't erect too many barriers.
To this end, here's a project and coffee shop in Córdoba, Argentina that I have liked since it was completed back in 2021. Designed by Estudio Rare, which is one of ArchDaily's Best New Practices for this year, the building is situated on a triangular piece of leftover land created by its orthogonal neighbors. The resulting footprint is only about 4 square meters, which is somewhere around half the size of a typical Toronto condominium bedroom. So it's the kind of "site" that could have been easily forgotten and left to collect garbage. And yet, the architect, client, and operator made something work.
Here's the ground floor plan:
And here's a street view image from May 2024:
Now, I don't know what hurdles the project team had to jump through to build and operate this coffee shop. Maybe there were very few or maybe there were many. If any of you are from Argentina and familiar with the planning landscape, maybe you can let me know. But for the purposes of this post, it doesn't really matter. The simple point is that these kind of small-scale developments are a positive thing for cities. It doesn't matter that the footprint is only half the size of a small bedroom. It's a place to stop for coffee and a place to linger on the street with others.
Images via Estudio Rare
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