Globalization Processes and Their Impact on the Structure of the Tel Aviv Metropolitan Area

Abstract

The chapter deals with processes of change in the functional structure of the Tel Aviv Metropolitan Area (TAMA) in the wake of economic globalization processes of the 1980s and 1990s. Of all the components making up the spatial organization of the TAMA, the chapter focuses on the development of two Central Business Districts (CBD) in metropolitan Tel Aviv: the traditional central city business arena and a new emerging center. Rather than heralding the formation of a polycentric urban structure, the new Tel Aviv CBD represents a real-estate led response at generating a new center of gravity for economic activity in Tel Aviv. The new center therefore competes vigorously with the established center. A further unique feature of the developing metropolitan structure is the ex nihilo nature of the new development. Instead of following the well-known pattern of incremental CBD expansion via new building at the margins of the established center, the new Tel Aviv business district represents an attempt at re-directing growth to a new location altogether.