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*[[Perth, Western Australia|Perth]], [[Perth central business district]], [[Western Australia]]
*[[Perth, Western Australia|Perth]], [[Perth central business district]], [[Western Australia]]
*[[Canberra]], [[City Centre, Australian Capital Territory]]
*[[Canberra]], [[City Centre, Australian Capital Territory]]
*[[Townsville, Queensland]], [[Townsville central business district]]
*[[Darwin, Northern Territory]], [[Darwin central business district]]
*[[Hobart]], [[Hobart central business district]], [[Tasmania]]
[[Image:La_Défense1.jpg|right|thumb|150px|[[Paris]]'s [[La Défense]].]]
[[Image:La_Défense1.jpg|right|thumb|150px|[[Paris]]'s [[La Défense]].]]
'''[[Europe]]'''
'''[[Europe]]'''

Revision as of 16:08, 12 March 2006

For other meanings of the term downtown, see downtown (disambiguation).
"City center" redirects here. For the performing arts venue, see New York City Center.
File:Melb cbd.jpg
The central business district of Melbourne, Australia.

Central business district (CBD) and downtown are terms referring to a commercial heart of a city. Downtown is the usual term in North America. In the United Kingdom, Hong Kong, Ireland, Australia, South Africa and New Zealand the term "central business district" is used by geographers and sometimes by others, but the term city centre is much more common in colloquial usage. In the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, South Africa and New Zealand, the term is often just shortened to the single word "city" in general conversation among residents of a city, giving rise to the phrase "going to the city". One exception is in London where "the City" specifically refers to the City of London financial district rather than to any other part of central London. Some cities in the United States have a mixed use district known as uptown near the downtown area (in Minneapolis, for example, Uptown is a district nearly adjacent to downtown, centered around the Uptown Theater on the intersection of Lagoon St. and Hennepin Ave.) On the other hand, in some cities, like Charlotte, North Carolina, uptown is simply the historic name for the business center.

New York City's Midtown is an example of an urban downtown district typically found in North America

The CBD or downtown is the central district of a city, usually typified by a concentration of retail and commercial buildings. Although applicable to any city, both terms usually refer to larger cities.

The term city centre (or center city) is similar to CBD or downtown in that both serve the same purpose for the city, and both are seen by a higher-than-usual urban density as well as the often having the tallest buildings in a city. City centre differs from downtown in that downtown can be geographically located anywhere in a city, while city centre is located near the geographic heart of the city. Examples of a city centre can be found in Philadelphia, Boston, Pittsburgh, Seattle, Vancouver, Toronto, London, Sydney, and other cities. London effectively has three city centres rolled into one, namely the City of London, the medieval City of Westminster, and the newly built Canary Wharf.

List of typical CBD characteristics

A CBD is likely to have many of the following characteristics:

  • It has a distinct land use pattern that can be delimited from the rest of the settlement.
  • It is the geographical centre of the settlement.
  • It contains the settlement's main public buildings.
  • It contains the major retail outlets (though this is becoming less often the case, especially in the United States).
  • Similar activities within it are concentrated in certain areas (functional zoning).
  • It features vertical zoning.
  • It has the greatest concentration and number of pedestrians and traffic in general.
  • It is a focal point for transport.
  • It contains the greatest proportion of the settlement's offices.
  • It has the tallest buildings in the region to maximize land use.
  • It has the highest land values of the region.
  • It attracts people from outside its sphere of influence to work and spend money inside.
  • It is advancing into new areas (assimilation) and/or losing old commercial functions (discard).

List of some notable CBDs and downtowns

File:Istanbul levent.jpg
İstanbul's Levent district

Africa and the Middle East

The Central Area of Singapore.

Asia

Australia

Paris's La Défense.

Europe

View of Key Tower, the Mall, and Cleveland Browns Stadium in Downtown Cleveland, Ohio.
File:Dallas Texas USA aerial.jpg
Aerial view of Downtown Dallas, Texas

North America

South America

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