Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Figure 9.22
The Three Classical Models of Urban Structure.
The three classical models of urban
structure are the concentric zone model, the sector model, and the multiple nuclei model.
© E. H. Fouberg, A. B. Murphy, H. J. de Blij, and John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
explaining where the wealthy in a city chose to live. Hoyt
argued that the city grows outward from the center, so a
low-rent area could extend all the way from the CBD to
the city's outer edge, creating zones that are shaped like
a piece of pie. Hoyt found that the pie-shaped pieces
describe the high-rent residential, intermediate rent resi-
dential, low-rent residential, education and recreation,
transportation, and industrial sectors.
Researchers studied both theories, and Chauncy
Harris and Edward Ullman argued that neither the con-
centric rings nor the sector model adequately refl ected
city structure by the mid-twentieth century. In the 1940s,
Harris and Ullman proposed the multiple nuclei model
(Fig. 9.22 C). Their model recognizes that the CBD was
losing its dominant position as the single nucleus of the
urban area. Several of the urban regions shown in the fi g-
ure have their own nuclei.
Most urban geographers think these models are
too simplistic to describe the modern city. With the
availability of personal automobiles and the construc-
tion of ring roads and other arteries around cities in the
1970s and 1980s, suburbanization exploded around new
transportation corridors. The outer city grew rapidly and
became more functionally independent of the central
city, and suburban downtowns emerged to serve their
new local economies. Often located near key freeway
intersections, these suburban downtowns developed
mainly around big regional shopping centers and
attracted industrial parks, offi ce complexes, hotels, res-
taurants, entertainment facilities, and even sports stadi-
ums. They became
edge cities
. Edge cities such as
T ysons Corner, Virginia (outside Washington, D.C.) and
Irvine, California (outside Los Angeles) fl ourished. They
attracted tens of thousands of nearby suburbanites—
offering workplaces, shopping, leisure activities, and all
the other elements of a complete urban environment—
thereby loosening remaining ties not only to the central
city but to other suburban areas as well (Fig. 9.23). As
early as 1973, American suburbs surpassed the central
cities in total employment. By the mid-1980s, in some
metropolises in the Sun Belt, the majority of jobs in the
metropolis were in the suburbs.
