Urban Patterns
This assignment meets the following course learning outcomes:
Interpret maps and other primary texts, and global spatial patterns of economic activities, land use, and economic development, including inequalities, diversity and sustainability of modern societies.
Students will meet this learning outcome in their comparison of the urban structure models in part one of this assignment. They will further demonstrate their understandings of this outcome in the second part of the assignment by defining terms that will reinvent the inequalities, diversity, economic development, land use, economic activities and sustainability as cities of North America evolve.
Students will interpret the maps of the urban models in order to complete the assignment. The objective: This lesson helps students come to an understanding of the basic elements of urban models outside of North America and more recent interpretations of urban structure.
The students may also gain an increased understanding of urban structure models describing North American cities by comparing them to a model describing a Latin American city. The students will understand how the classic North American models are being reinterpreted as new forces act upon and change cities today.
Background Information
The internal organization of cities may be taught by comparing different models that attempt to describe cities. The major textbooks all discuss three classic models describing North American cities: concentric zone, sector, and multiple nuclei.
A summary of all Three Models
• Developed during the first half of the twentieth century, a period of rapid urbanization in North America
• Based on studies in Chicago (Burgess and Hoyt)
• Focus of the models is different types of land use Concentric Zone Model
• Developed by E. W. Burgess. • Argues that urban land use is best represented by a series of concentric circles.
• Recognizes five distinct zones: — The central business district/nonresidential — Zone in transition/poorest quality housing/immigrants/apartments — Zone of workingmen’s homes/second-generation immigrant settlement — Zone of “better residences”/middle class — Commuters’ zone/high-class residential
• The concentric pattern arises as land uses compete and are sorted according to ability to pay for land. As one moves toward the central city, land becomes scarcer but accessibility improves, the rent therefore increases, and land uses that cannot exact sufficient rent are sorted out. Similar activities are likely to be found at similar distances from the central business district (CBD). Sector Model • Developed by H. Hoyt.
• This model assumes the land use is conditioned by transportation routes radiating outward from a city center.
• Industrial, retailing, and residential districts extend out from the CBD like wedges.
• Hoyt saw the best housing extending north from Chicago along Lake Michigan. Multiple Nuclei Model
• Developed by C. D. Harris and E. L. Ullman.
• This model assumes that urban areas have more than one focal point influencing land use.
• Land-use patterns are formed around several discrete nuclei that attract certain uses and repel others. These nuclei most often develop in response to the evolving transportation network. They form, for example, around major highway intersections and surrounding airports.
• These multiple nuclei may have arisen in one of two ways: — They were once separate settlements but were absorbed by growth of the urban area. — They appeared as urban growth stimulated specialization and specialized centers outside the CBD, around which complementary uses then located.
• Residential land use develops in response to the influence of the various nuclei. There are two parts to this assignment.
Part One:
Read a description of the model of a typical Latin American city using the sources below. List at least three similarities and three differences between the classic models of North American cities and that of a typical Latin American city. Below are readings and videos describing Latin American Cities. Be sure to reference each classic model. Ford, Larry and Ernest Griffin. “A Model of Latin American City Structure.” Geographical Review, Vol. 70, No. 4. (Oct., 1980), pp. 397-442. JSTOR. To access this article, use the library website to search for JSTOR and you will have access to the article. This source must be used in your paper. (Links to an external site.) Link (Links to an external site.) Michael Kauls lecture
Part Two:
Conduct research on three of the topics found on the list below. On each of the three topics you choose from the list below, include a definition of the term, two specific examples, and a description of how the term represents a change in land use from earlier models. See the attached rubric for my expectations concerning this part your assignment. Your paper should be at least 2 pages total (not 2 pages for each of the three but rather 2 pages total), single spaced, new time roman font and 1 inch margins. Your paper should also contain at least two sources properly cited using MLA formatting and included in your writing using in text citations. While researching the following topics, keep in mind the important changes and developments in land uses and land use patterns in North American cities. These changes are:
Inner cities that were once reserved for business and a ring of the poorest-quality housing are being “revived.” Suburbs have begun to take on the roles more typically associated with the central business districts. Topics to research: • Edge cities • Decentralized cities • Gentrification • High-tech corridors • Master-planned communities • New urbanism • Office parks • Postindustrial cities • Suburbanization of business • Technoburbs • The “galactic city”/peripheral model • Urban realms • Redlining • White Flight
