1、CITIES OF THE FUTUREReviving the City Center:From Office Buildings toKnowledge CampusBy Masaki Hamura,Richard Florida,Vladislav Boutenko,and Natalia KonyukovaARTICLE APRIL 11,2025 15 MIN READThe downtown has been declared deada victim of COVID.Fewer people are frequentingrestaurants and retail space

2、s in the city center,and more are spending in the suburbs.According toresearch from third-quarter 2023 covering 118 major cities in 50 countries,suburban spending hasgrown 15 percentage points more than that of downtown areas(the so-called doughnut effect).What was once a thriving socioeconomic cent

3、ral business district(CBD)ecosystem looks to beunraveling.12025 Boston Consulting Group1But our research suggests a different narrative:the worlds cities have arrived at a moment ofreinvention and revival.Its true that the city center is struggling,which our analysis of 38 CBDsand 13 of the worlds l

4、argest and wealthiest megacities confirms.We also identified severalexceptions,however,with Tokyo the most notable.Already a model of urban innovation,the worldslargest cityhome to more than 37 million peoplehas figured out how to adapt to new workingnorms.In Tokyo,the CBDtraditionally a center for

5、offices with large numbers of workers commutingfrom far-flung locationsis being transformed into what we call a knowledge campus.This newtype of CBD attracts both businesses and talent,offering opportunity and optionality,andsatisfying a wide cross-section of needs:company leaders who want to enhanc

6、e productivity,employees who want opportunity for social interaction,commercial developers that want to keeptheir buildings filled with tenants and charge competitive rent,and cities that want to attractbusinesses and boost the tax base.In the future,even the office itself will be a microcosm of the