Key Question:
How are Cities Organized?
Zones of the City
• Central business district (CBD)
• Central City (the CBD + older housing zones)
• Suburb (outlying, functionally uniform zone
outside of the central city)
AROUND THE WORLD CITIES
Modeling the Cities of the Global
Periphery and Semiperiphery
• Latin American City (Griffin-Ford model)
• African City (de Blij model)
• Southeast Asian City (McGee model)
Latin
American City
(Griffin-Ford
Model)
Latin American model


Generalized scheme both sensitive to local cultures
and international forces, both Western and nonWestern
In contrast to today’s cities in the U.S., the CBDs of
Latin American cities are vibrant, dynamic, and
increasingly specialized
–
–
A reliance on public transit that serves the central city
Existence of a large and relatively affluent population
closest to CBD
The African
City
(de Blij Model)
Southeast
Asian City
(McGee model)
Middle East: Mumbai, India
Modeling the North American City
• Concentric zone model (Ernest Burgess)
• Sector model (Homer Hoyt)
• Multiple Nuclei Model
(Chauncy Harris and Edward Ullman)
Three Classical Models of Urban Structure
Concentric zone model


Developed in 1925 by Ernest W. Burgess
A model with five zones.
Burgess’s Concentric Ring
Concentric zone model

A model with five zones.
– Zone 1
 The central business district (CBD)
– Zone 2
 Characterized by mixed pattern of industrial and residential
land use --Often includes slums and skid rows
– Zone 3
 The “workingmen’s quarters”
– Zone 4
 Middle class area of “better housing”
– Zone 5
 Consists of higher-income families
Another
Example
Of
Concentric
Sector model

Homer Hoyt, an economist, presented his
sector model in 1939

Because these areas were reinforced by
transportation routes, the pattern of their
development was one of sectors or wedges
Hoyt’s Sector Model
Modeling Cities:
sector model
Stresses the importance of transportation corridors. Sees growth of
various urban activities as expanding along roads, rivers, or train
routes.
Multiple nuclei model



Suggested by Chauncey Harris and Edward
Ullman in 1945
Maintained a city developed with equal
intensity around various points
The CBD was not the sole generator of
change
Ullman’s Multi Nuclei
Stresses the importance of
multiple modes of activity,
not a single CBD. Ports,
airports, universities attract
certain uses while repelling
others.
Modeling Cities:
multiple-nuclei
Changes in Cities in the U.S.
U.S. population has been moving out of the city centers to
the suburbs: suburbanization and counterurbanization
Developed Countries:
suburbanization
 wealthy move to suburbs
 automobiles and roads;
‘American Dream’
 better services
 wealthy move to suburbs
counterurbanization
idyllic settings
cost of land for retirement
slow pace, yet high tech
connections to services and
markets
U.S. intraregional migration during 1990s.
New Urbanism
• Development, urban revitalization, and suburban
reforms that create walkable neighborhoods with a
diversity of housing and jobs.
– some are concerned over privatization of public spaces
– some are concerned that they do nothing to bread down
the social conditions that create social ills of the cities
– some believe they work against urban sprawl
The new urban landscape






Office parks (many offices locate together)
Shopping Malls
Master Planned Communities
Festival Settings
“Militarized Space (no benches..keep out homeless)
Decline Public Space (Skyway in cities) (malls vs stores)