The office park or campus is a global phenomenon. Currently the most gigantic and contagious versions are "free zone" enclaves offering glittering skylines and generous legal exemptions to attract investors. But labor usually ends up on the losing end of these deals, and investing in existing cities rather than newly minted enclaves would return more benefits to the economies of host countries.
When cities like Las Vegas, Detroit, and Seattle do build downtown campuses rather than exurban enclaves, what sort of precedent do they set in the global urban network? Often the investors in these downtown scenarios are regarded as saviors that come bearing cash, jobs, revenues, and other progressive gifts to a grateful city.
In
Gift City
architect and theorist, Keller Easterling offers biting, provocative commentary on the enticing pile of gifts, to make visible the assets and advantages that cities already bring to the table for their investors and citizens. While econometrics rules the world, this project demonstrates
the value of a spatial portfolio of urban arrangements and relationships. With portfolios such as these, cities around the world might reappraise their worth and make a better bargain for their future.
Keller Easterling is an architect, writer, and professor at Yale University. She is the author of Organization Space: Landscapes, Highways and Houses in America, Enduring Innocence: Global Architecture and its Political Masquerades, and Extrastatecraft: the Power of Infrastructure Space. Her work has been shown at the 14th International Architecture Exhibition at the Venice Biennale, the 3rd Rotterdam Biennial, the Storefront for Art and Architecture, and the Queens Museum.
