Nicolas DeSantis once designed a high-rise commercial airport on top of an office building that was 200 stories tall, eight blocks long, and three blocks wide. It was noted as the “metropolitan sky port of tomorrow” in 1939, when it was featured in an issue of Popular Science magazine.
John Kasarda, the man who coined the name “aerotropolis,” and in some ways came up with the concept, defines the term as “a combination of giant airport(s), planned city, shipping facility, and business hub. The Aerotropolis approach to urban living is reshaping life in Seoul and Amsterdam, in China and India, in Dallas-Fort Worth, Memphis, and Washington, D. C.” It is a community that is based upon the global delivery of goods and services.
John Kasarda is and was “the man with the plan” for global economic development. He created the blueprint for the way cities and countries around the globe are pursuing growth.
In the Aerotropolis model, the airport is at the center city, surrounded by hotels and conference centers, air cargo facilities, and offices. The next development ring includes facilities for just-in-time manufacturing, bonded warehouses, logistic parks and free trade zones, flow thru and e-commerce centers, information/communication technology corridors, research and technology facilities, retail/wholesale marketplaces, and exhibition areas. The next adjacent zone involves flex/tech spaces, industrial parks, distribution centers, sports and recreation/special use spaces, entertainment districts, and business parks. The final development ring has adjacent cities, medium- and lower-density residential, tourist attractions, medical and wellness centers, offices, and lots of green spaces. All of this is supported and served by a very high capacity airport, light rail passenger systems, vehicle expressways, and major rail.
Dallas-Fort Worth already has a very great deal of these uses and functions in place. North Texas is home to many corporate headquarters and has its own evolving telecommunications corridor—AT&T, Nokia, Ericsson, and Verizon. Additionally, there are significant tourist attractions including Texas Motor Speedway, Six Flags, the State Fair, Dealy Plaza, the Fort Worth Stockyards, the wonderful museums and concert venues, Lone Star Park, the Byron Nelson and Colonial Golf Tournaments, Cowboy Stadium, The Ballpark in Arlington, the American Airlines Center, and the new George W. Bush Presidential Library.
We residents of DFW live in an Aerotropolis. This is why there are so many of those very large white boxes (distribution centers) surrounding D/FW International, Alliance, and most of our interstate roadways. The proposed and developing inland port of south Dallas will enhance our global recognition and ability to process and distribute goods.
High-value products (cell phones, iPads, pharmaceuticals, hard drives, computer chips, etc.) arrive here via overnight air and are then taken to some of those large white boxes where they are repacked for distribution, utilized in final product assembly, or consumed in some other manner. Sometimes partially finished technical components are shipped from here, for instance, to China, Thailand, Singapore, Vietnam, or India for the formation of the end product which is shipped back to the United States.
Lower value bulk products (on a square inch basis) arrive in a container (think clothing, stuffed animals, consumer goods made in China), normally at one of our nation’s ports, where the container is placed on a rail car and shipped to a number of major cities for distribution throughout the rest of the country. One of the premier distribution centers in North America is Dallas-Fort Worth.
North Texas also offers the world high-value intellectual services. Business people live in Irving and fly to San Paulo, Buenos Aires, or London and consult on varies aspects of a client’s business practices or projects. Other folks live in Plano and fly to Atlanta in the morning, conduct their business and return home in time to see the end of their children’s baseball game. Corporate executives fly to Denver to visit the regional plant and return that evening or the next day. Sometimes people travel to India or Mexico or Thailand for a hip/joint replacement, plastic surgery, or bypass surgery, experiencing “medical tourism.
The airport staff at D/FW understands this concept. Ross Perot Jr. and the folks at Hillwood get this concept. DFW was an Aerotropolis nearly before the term was created.
The Aerotropolis concept differs from the normal way cities are created. Historically, airports were placed on the edge of the existing city and were a long way from downtown. The new development model for cities places the airport at the center and the cities grow around them.
Dallas/Fort Worth International was in the “middle of (almost) nowhere” when it was initially constructed. Today there is low-density housing, a few medium-density areas of office buildings and hotels, and all those white distribution centers with their vast parking lots exist in near proximity to the airport, which is the 10th largest/most active airport in the world.
Alliance Airport in Fort Worth was initially developed with major highways and rail lines adjacent to the property. Now it is a hub for Fed EX, a regional home for the Drug Enforcement Agency, a very large intermodal facility for BNSF, and home to scores of large distribution centers. The cities surrounding Alliance are some of the fastest growing in North Texas. Shopping, low- and medium-density housing, a race track, and corporate offices are taking root in the area. Alliance primarily receives cargo that was shipped from West Coast ports such as Long Beach, Los Angeles, Oakland , and others including some ports in Mexico.
The Inland Port in south Dallas will grow in much the same way that Alliance has, focusing on receiving cargo from around the globe via Houston. When the Panama Canal lock system upgrade and expansion (Panamax) is complete in the next few years, it is anticipated that many of the new generation container ships carrying products from Asia will bypass the ports on the West Coast and deliver their cargo to ports along the east coast and the Gulf. Houston will be a beneficiary of that activity as will Dallas-Fort Worth. North Texas will benefit because we have an excellent intermodal shipping infrastructure currently in place—and the opportunity to expand that capability through the development of the inland port in south Dallas at Wilmer/Hutchins.
And what about those gigantic white boxes we see surrounding our airports and rail lines? Yes, they are huge and contain vast flexible/wide open spaces. But they often also have very sophisticated concrete floors (super flat) that allow automated or on- board rider systems that “pick” product at high speeds 25 feet or more in the air. Many will have state of the art fire protection systems, smoke evacuation systems, and ingenious air handling systems, to name a few interesting attributes.
Although they appear mostly huge and featureless on the outside with a bit of articulation at the corners, some modest reveals creating a pattern on the walls, a minimal amount of glass, and lots of overhead doors for trucks. They certainly lack the charm of factories and warehouses of a hundred or so years ago. But, does form follow function? In this case, mostly yes.
Will we ever fall in love with them the way we did with those historical factories? Probably not. Do we like getting our books from Amazon in two days, Yep!
The world is changing, and DFW is at the forefront. As Le Corbusier said, “A city made for speed is made for success.”
Bruce M. Carlson is founder, principal, and CEO of CMA. Contact him at [email protected].
