摘要：The location of offices was a field of study neglected by governments and academics until the 1960s. Economists, planners and geographers have been slow to respond to the need for a bctter understanding of the patterns and processes of office2 location. Similar forces are at work in shaping the pattern of office activity at both the intraurban and interregional level. The fostering of business contacts with other organizations is one of the main factors influencing Iocationai choice. The build-up of office functions in downtown areas in the city and the proliferation of office buildings in capital regions has, however, led to fears of over-congestion, degraded urban environments and regional imbalance of office employment. Consequently, government intervention has modified the underlying processes of office location by attempting to direct office growth from zones of concentration to peripheral areas through the mechanisms of controls, taxes and subsidization. It is the aim of this paper to analyze office location policies in Western European countries and to ascertain other relevance to the planning of office development in Canada.
