Beverly Hills

West Hollywood

Hollywood

CenturyCityWestwoodBrentwood

Fairfax District

KoreatownWestlake

Downtown

Hancock Park

Los Feliz

Silver Lake

Echo Park

Venice Marina del Rey

Culver City

West Los Angeles

Miracle Mile

Fox Hills

USC

Chinatown

Pico-Robertson

Mid-City

UCLA

Huntington Park

Inglewood

Pico-Union

Mar Vista

Pico

LeimertPark

Crenshaw

Hollywood HillsHollywood Hills West

Bel-Air

PacificPalisades

Glassell Park

Cheviot Hills

Santa MonicaSouth-Central

FashionDistrict

ArtsDistrict

LittleTokyo

AtwaterVillage

Griffith Park

Elysian Park

EastHollywood

West AdamsJefferson Park

Palms

PlayaVista

Ocean Park

North ofMontana

Westchester

BaldwinHills

Mulholland Dr

Comp

to n Av

e

National Pl

Centr

al Av

e

Ocean Ave

Lincoln Blvd

Vignes St

Burton Way

Riverside DrSu

nset

Blvd

San Pe

dro St

Gran

d Ave

West e

rn Av

e

9th St

Alvara

do St

Ramp

art Blv

d

Melrose Ave

Stocker St

Ver m

ont A

ve

Norm

andie

Ave

Sepulveda Blvd

Beethoven St

Long

Beac

h Blvd

Overland Ave

Pacific Ave

Olympic Blvd

6th St

Mai n

St

Verm

ont A

ve

Alameda St

Robe

r tson

B lvd

7th St

Bundy Dr

La Tijera Blvd

Westwood Blvd

Figue

roa S

t

Soto

St

L a Ci

eneg

r a Bl

vd

Vernon Ave

Rimerton Rd

Martin Luther King Jr Blvd

Los Feliz Blvd

Cloverfield Blvd

York Blvd

Cahuenga Blvd

Hoop

er Av

e

Beverly Dr

Spring St

Olympic Blvd

Rose Ave

Culve

r Blvd

41st St

Ocean Park Blvd

Ave 26

4th St

Mateo

St

National Blvd

8th StBeve

r wil D

r

Olympic Blvd

1st St

Rodeo Rd

Bran

d Blvd

Sunset Blvd

Dohe

n y Dr

Beve

rly G l

en Bl

vd

Silve

r Lake

Blvd

Martin Luther King Blvd

Jefferson Blvd

4th St

Sun set Blvd

Temple St

Venice Blvd

Gatew

ay Blv

d

Centinela Ave

Glen

dale

Ave

V erm

ont A

ve

Vine S

t

Main St

San Vicente Blvd

Elysian Park Ave

Whittier Blvd

Bandini Blvd

San Vicente Blvd

Beverly Blvd

Washington Blvd

Centinela Ave

Figue

roa St

Montana Ave

Pico Blvd

Beverly Blvd

Hoov

er S t

Gage Ave

Santa

Fe Av

e

Hoov

er St

2nd St

Washington Pl

Hill S

t

Beverly Glen Blvd

Broadway

Jefferson Blvd

40

Pasadena Ave

Stadium Way

Fletch

er Dr

Scott Ave

San Fernando Rd

16th St

Washington Blvd

Arlin

g ton A

ve

Abbot Kinney Blvd

Laurel Canyon Blvd

La Ci

eneg

a Blv d

Crystal Springs Dr

Pico Blvd

Cesar E Chavez Ave

Verdugo Rd

Neilson Way

Holloway Dr

Alame

da St

Slauson Ave

Venice Blvd

Sunset Blvd

3rd St

Mar ke

t St

Florence Ave

Fairfa

x Ave

Hollywood Blvd

Washington Blvd

La Br

ea Av

e

Ross

more

Ave

Castle Heigh ts Ave

C res

cen t

Hei gh

t s Bl v

d

Broad

way P

l

Cren

shaw

Blvd

Cattaraugus Ave

Silve

r Lak

e Dr

Rowena Ave

Los Feliz Rd

Weste

rn Av

e

Academy Rd

Glendale Blvd

Kearney St

Hollywood Blvd

Sepulveda Blvd

Cold w

a ter C

a nyo

n Dr

Sepulveda Blvd

Mission Rd

Venice Blvd

Pico Blvd

Olympic Blvd

Martin Luther King Jr Blvd

Ripple S t

37th St

8th St

4th Pl

Florence Ave

La Br

ea Av

e

3rd St

Eagle Rock Blvd

Culve

r Blvd

P acif

ic B l

vd

Figueroa St

Hyperion Ave

Motor Ave

Adams St

Washington Blvd

5th St

Jefferson Blvd

Manning Ave

Vernon Ave

Broa

d way

Avalo

n Blvd

Gowe

r St

Beverly Blvd

Slauson Ave

Franklin Ave

Pico Blvd

La Cie

nega

Blvd

Van Ness Pl

Fairfa

x Av e

P rair

ie A v

e

38th St

Alpine St

Exposition Blvd

San ta

Fe Av

e

Olympic Blvd

26th St

20th St

H igh

land A

ve

Van N

e ss A

ve

Sunset Blvd

90

2

2

110

110101

101

101

10

5

5

5

10

10

10

5

5

110

405

405

405

110

101

101

405

1010

405

90

110

Universal CityWalk

The Grove

Villa Marina Marketplace

The Americana at Brand

Hollywood & Highland Center

The Home Stretch

The Marketplace at Hollywood Park

Westfield Fox Hills

Glendale Galleria

Beverly Center

Westfield Century City

Eagle Rock Plaza

Santa Monica Place

Westside Pavilion

Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza

Venice Beach Boardwalk

Santa Monica Pier

Getty Center

Rodeo Drive

Sunset Strip

Melrose Avenue

Farmer's Market

La Brea Tar Pits

Chinese Theater

Walk of Fame

Griffith Observatory

Universal Studios

Disney Hall

Olvera Street

Hollywood Bowl

Wiltern Theater

Staples CenterL.A. Convention Center

L.A. Memorial Coliseum

Nokia Theater

MOCA

LACMA

Third Street Promenade

Royce Hall

Ford Theater

Greek Theater

Hollywood Sign

Pacific Design Center

Natural History Museum

California Science Center

Historic Core

Bergamot Station

Dodger Stadium

Pantages Theater

Mariachi Plaza

Leimert ParkThe Wilshire / Santa Monica Corridor

Wilshire

Boulevard

Santa Monica

Boulevard

Wilshire Boulevard

Santa Monica Boulevard

San Diego Freeway

Santa Monica Freeway

Santa Monica Freeway

Marina

Freeway

Har

bor F

reewa

y

Arroyo Seco Park

way

Glendale Freeway

Golden State Freeway

Hollywood Freeway

Santa

Ana

Free

way

Ballona Creek

Los Angeles R iv er

Los Angeles River

Delimiting the Postmodern Urban Center:An Analysis of Urban Amenity Clusters in Los Angeles

- The Wilshire / Santa Monica Corridor -Internal structure of the metropolitan center revealed in Map B

(cartographic classes are rendered with 400-meter buffers from theunderlying 800-meter hexagonal cell arrays)

Miles0 1 2½

The Wilshire / Santa Monica Corridorwith Manhattan Island, to scale

Prevailing methods for delimiting urbancentrality tend to reduce urban place to amonetary space by focusing onemployment centers, commuting patterns,or ‘central’ land uses in order to identify adowntown or a Central Business District(CBD). This study elevates the experienceof place in the formation of urban structurethrough a focus on the core spaces ofcultural production as revealed through theurban environment of discretionary timeand leisure uses. Urban amenities areemployed as indicators of these corespaces.

Many previous studies on the structure ofLos Angeles conclude that the regionexhibits polycentrism with a weak ornonexistent core center, trending towardsgreater dispersion rather than towardscentralization. Recognizing that regionscan be ambiguously bounded,discontinuous, and internally inconsistent,rather than searching for a binary ‘truth’with a hard-edged boundary, a postmodernurban center is sought by this study. Thisnew analysis of urban morphology in theLos Angeles metropolitan area reveals bothpolycentrism and a strong core center.

Using a Local Indicators of SpatialAssociation (LISA) analysis, clusters areidentified among the locations of differenttypes of urban amenities. A centrality scoreis then calculated for every location basedon the number of spatially coincidentclusters of different amenity types there.This centrality score, in turn, is used tocartographically visualize urban structureand to delimit the central place (Map A).

The methodology, which is validated in theChicago and New York metropolitan areas,employs multiple regular hexagonal arraysinto which amenity location points areaggregated. These amenities are classifiedaccording to the North American IndustryClassification System (NAICS) and groupedby broad categories informed by otherresearch (see legend below).The hexagonal arrays are created at threedifferent scales and at two different offsetsfor each scale. These arrays, whose analysisresults are overlaid for a final analysis output,mitigate against the Modifiable Areal UnitProblem (MAUP) and reveal urban structuresoperating at multiple scales (Map B).

This study identifies a structural core centerin Los Angeles, which is christened theWilshire/Santa Monica Corridor (Map A).This corridor, comparable in function toNew York’s Manhattan ( Map C) or toChicago’s Loop, is a coherent unitcomposed of Santa Monica, Westwood,Beverly Hills, Fairfax, Hollywood,Koreatown, and Downtown Los Angeles.It includes most of the region’s most iconicurban districts and activity centers whileexhibiting strong primacy within the widermetropolitan region (Map B).

1. Purpose 2. Context 3. Concept 4. Methodology 5. Conclusions

See: Krueger, Samuel G. (2012). Delimiting the postmodern urban center: an analysis ofurban amenity clusters in Los Angeles (Master's thesis, University of Southern California).

© 2012: Samuel G. Krueger, Spatial Sciences Institute, University of Southern California

Streets: EsriUrban Areas: U.S. Census BureauNeighborhoods: Los Angeles TimesWater Features and Shoreline: Cal-AtlasManhattan Island: U.S. Department of TransportationShopping Malls: Directory of Major Malls (via Esri Business Analyst)Other Amenities: Infogroup (via Esri Business Analyst)

AC

0 2Miles

Centrality Score100%[90%, 100%)[75%, 90%)[50%, 75%)[25%, 50%)[10%, 25%)

TinyURL.com/SamuelKrueger

Santa Monica

Beverly HillsHollywood

Downtown

Venice

Culver City

GlendaleBurbank

North Hollywood

Woodland Hills Van Nuys

Pasadena

Hermosa BeachGardena

LongBeach

Costa Mesa

John Wayne Airport

Disneyland

Fullerton

Huntington ParkInglewood

Torrance

Santa Ana

Mission Viejo

Little Saigon

San Juan Capistrano

AlhambraWest Covina

Rowland Heights

UplandClaremont

Chino Hills

Ontario Mills Mall

Arlington

Northridge

Ventura

Valencia Town Center

Redlands

Temecula

CrenshawEast Los Angeles

Monterey Park

Thousand Oaks

MalibuRiverside

San Bernardino

Artesia

Santa Clarita

Simi Valley

Camarillo

The Wilshire / Santa Monica Corridor

- Centrality in Metropolitan Los Angeles -Primary analysis results for the entire metropolitan area

(cartographic classes are rendered with 1-km buffers from theunderlying 2-km, 5-km, and 13-km hexagonal cell arrays)

0 10 205 MilesB

Urban Area

(Map A) →

Urban Amenity Categories:

Landmark

Cinemas, Spectator Sports, Recreation Facilities,Arcades, & Other Amusements

Performing Arts Venues, Museums, & Galleries

Book & Music Stores, Coffee Shops, Juice Bars,Ice Cream Parlours, etc.

High CultureHotel or MotelFull-Service RestaurantTrendy Hangout

Entertainment

With a Gross Leasable Area (GLA) over 400,000 ft²(included in the Entertainment category during analysis)

Shopping Mall

(also includes shopping malls with GLA's over 400,000 ft²during analysis)