Function Follows Form

Urban policy molds urban form. This paper suggests that urban form also molds urban policy. Urban form frames the political economy of whether to relocate the city center's jobs and shops. In that sense, city functions follow urban form. This view rivals the ''form follows function'' that has become proverbial in architectural theory. Extensions to this analysis of the suburbanization of employment and shopping address the city's topography, the convexity of its skyline, the possibility of sprawl and the effects on jurisdictional merger