The Zube Lecture Series is hosted by the UMass Amherst Department of Landscape Architecture & Regional Planning. Guest speakers lead weekly talks on major topics in landscape architecture, planning, and community development. 

About the Talk

Will cities survive in the age of remote work? As the need to live near the workplace diminishes, recent research has found an exodus from dense, central city neighborhoods in the largest American cities, towards peripheral neighborhoods beyond traditional commuting distances. Analysis of this so-called “donut effect” reveals these patterns to reflect peak-pandemic conditions rather than remote work effects. To understand the spatial implications of WFH, this lecture frames recent telework expansion against the ongoing digitalization of human life and use demographic population dynamics to emphasize the cyclical nature of urban development. Applied to recent survey data connecting remote-workability and location choice, this approach suggests the age of remote work is one of continuity—not change—in metropolitan development and spatial organization.

About the Speaker

Marley Randazzo is a PhD candidate in Urban Planning & Development at the USC Price School of Public Policy. His research focuses on how digital technology influences urban development and the metropolitan spatial structure: if people increasingly use computers and the internet for work, entertainment, and social interaction, what role will cities have as dense clusters of human activity?