Because of the rising real cost of energy, geographic patterns that have dominated the contemporary metropolitan landscape are in a state of change. A conceptual model of the contemporary and future metropolitan landscape is presented to stimulate thought about the changes which may evolve in the spatial organization of urban regions as the real price of energy continues to increase relative to the other factors of production. It was also designed to suggest changes which should be implemented by local metropolitan regions in order to ease the transition to the post-petroleum age. The graphic model consists of a map and a population density curve for the contemporary and future metropolitan area. Each side of the diagram represents an idealization of population densities, land use patterns, and settlement structures displayed at a high level of generalization. Overall, the model shows that the contemporary metropolis has segrated land uses and is linear in growth, dispersed, dependent upon using automobiles, energy dependent, and energy wasteful. In contrast, the future metropolis has centralized energy growth, integrated land use, implemented mass transit lines, and is clustered, energy efficient, and energy self-reliant. Finally, this model has been and can be used as a learning activity, an inquiry exercise, in the geography energy college classroom. (Author/NE)