I'll start by explaining that I tend to imagine space station design in 2 basic categories: The "giant high-rise" model, and the "city in a bubble" model.
The "giant high-rise" model is the one I find more realistic in terms of construction - here we see decks stacked one atop each other like pancakes, each one holding a "cross-section" of living quarters, various stores and shops (think shopping mall, minus the outside parking lots...), storage areas... we could consider it the equivalent of many small towns stacked one atop each other, each 2-4 floors high, after which there would be a blast-barrier and then the cycle would begin again. On important thing to clarify is that under this model, there are no "open streets" - everything is hallways of varying size, with doors to whatever happens to be lining that particular hallway.
Advantages are primarily the highly efficient use of space inside the station's outer shell - assuming the construction of such a shell to be a momentously expensive and resource-consuming venture, you wouldn't want to be just handing out space unless you had to - and the ability to seal hazardous sections off by simply closing airtight doors.
Disadvantages are numerous, but include the difficulties of piping water and air around such a densely populated environment, the maintenance of systems when they break down ("
Jeffries Tubes" would be an absolute must if you didn't want to be constantly ripping up someone's cieling or floor), and the potential for limiting hallways to become prime territory for stampedes and choke-points (or worse yet, sections rendered completely inaccessible due to damage).
The second class, the "city in a bubble", is far easier to be described. It's a shell, the "bottom" of which is flat or flat-ish and is used as the "bedrock" for anchoring buildings on to, the end result of which is a planetside-like city under the station's protective bubble.
Advantages are the nice, open spaces to work in for emergency services, maintenance, and general mental health.
Disadvantages are the awesome difficulty in containing danger - you'd face all the issues you would in an open city on a planet, with the additional dangers of cosmic radiation leaks, unstable high-energy systems in the station's shell, and the specter of an air leak all hanging over you - with absolutely no way to reliably seal one section of the "city" off from another, unlike the "giant high-rise" model.
In all reality, I think EVE stations would likely be a blend of the two - i.e., the "floor" of the city-in-a-bubble may have several more "high-rise" levels below it, as may the cieling (since nothing dictates the cieling actually has to be thin, it could theoretically be many layers thick, or even have another "city bubble" built on top of it).
