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City showcase by Andreas

Started by Andreas, June 16, 2007, 05:43:14 PM

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Jmouse

Looks like you have mastered the art of creating pleasing neighborhoods as well. I love the way you use diagonals in a realistic way. I use them, too, but mine always come out looking unnatural, and they're a traffic nightmare.
Here's hoping you keep the photos coming.

Joan

Owen Luby

Nice work Andreas!
I love that tunnel that goes under the suburban area... very subtle but effective! :satisfied:

;D wen
I want SC4 back!!

Snaper

It's very beautiful, I love your city ... There are much diversity, it's very well done  :thumbsup:

But I don't know if there is that me, but I have much evil to open your images  &Thk/( ... 3-4 minutes each one  &mmm

But I am not disappointed to have put time to see the images (sorry for my bad english  :P)

Bravo Andreas  &apls

Andreas

@Joan: Well, as a matter of fact, the diagonal streets exist because I pestered frimi (the creator of the Euro Road Textures Mod) to modify the ANT from the NAM in order to get diagonal streets. Shortly after, Teirusu (I think) discovered a method that doesn't use the ANT, so we can have fully functional diagonal streets in the game - and I'm glad to hear that I put them to good use. :)

@Snaper: As I said earlier, I've already uploaded about 80 screenshots (from this region alone) to ImageShack, so I'm sorry that you'll have to wait so long for opening them. Obviously, I didn't create Perth within the last few days, but rather post the developments of several months which I have collected and translated into English (the original German showcase can be found at SimForum.de). As suggested, try to open all images in new background tabs at once, and then go through them one by one - this should eliminate most of the waiting.

Nevertheless, thanks everyone for the nice comments! :)




Since Perth has developed quite well so far, I moved over to the port town Freemantle in the south-west corner of the region map. At first, I wasn't really convinced about the city structure, but then I had the idea to create a "former seaport area" that has been converted for residential usage. There never was an actual seaport at this location, but at least we can pretend it, can't we? ;)

 

As usual, the overview about the whole city and a downtown shot. The arial pic shows the Indian ocean in the lower left corner, and the Swan River comes from the top. The industrial area in the upper left corner has been built first (including the small seaport). The city itself has been spread out from the downtown across the whole peninsula.

The bay with the "former seaport" has been partially created by raising the land above the sealevel, which created almost the entire space for the residential highrises next to the city center. The downtown itself is rather compact and not that spectacular, but there was enough demand for a number of CO-$$ skyscrapers. Currently, Freemantle has about 175,000 inhabitants.

   

Let's have a closer look at the Harbour District, where I used Marrast's embankment lots again, like in Perth. This time, they are supposed to be the old quay walls. :) Most buildings are R-$$ from the Houston tileset, but there are also a few older buildings from the Chicago and New York sets, among them the castle-like Cobb Emperador (it's the very first time I got that one in one of my cities :) ). Of course, a few parks to raise the desirability have been placed as well.

 

Towards the east, the development changes to smaller buildings, with the NDEX Riverside College and a few stores as center. The filler lots that are included in Marrast's embankment set can be combined with the sandstone pedmall puzzle pieces, which is really neat. The fancy loft buildings and luxury apartments suit the waterfront very well, too. :)

   

But also in downtown some nice spots have developed, such as the stock exchange plaza that has been created on a former unused triangular space within the block. Right next to the downtown, the central station has been placed, providing a direct rail connection to Perth. At the western artery towards Perth, I created a small R-$ highrise quarter that filled my R-$ demand quite nicely.

 

The aforementioned arterial road also leads to the stadium, surrounded by some commercial service buildings and another commuter rail station. Up to now, I didn't develop any large commercial service areas with large retailers like in Perth, so most of the residents either work in the industrial area, in the downtown, or the neighboring cities. The seaport is rather humble, but I think it still looks nice together with the adjacent freight yard. Commuters can take the ferry to Perth and Cannington here as well.

 

West of downtown, located on the peninsular, there's also a small city park next to the hospital and an elementary school. The start of the waterfront also marks the location of the city museum and one of the libraries. Towards the south, the development changes into single-family homes and villas.

   

Obviously, the location on the elongated peninsula, covered with lots of trees, has lured the rich and famous, who have erected their fancy mansions here. A golf course and a private school are just around the corner. At the far end of the peninsula, the Freemantle lighthouse can be found.

   
Andreas

Owen Luby

Nice update!
I love your suburbs... especially how they are surrounded in trees...
Very nice...

()stsfd() wen
I want SC4 back!!

Jmouse

Well, thank you for pestering somebody, Andreas -- I'd have downright nagged if I'd known whose ear to bend!  :D
Are those longnecks in Freemantle's CBD plops or growables? Either way, they look very natural. I got my fill of skyscrapers as a native of Houston and later a resident of the greater Dallas area, but I like the way you have laid out your CBD. You have achieved a nice balance of small, medium and large without going overboard in any area.
But the lighthouse is the cherry on top of the parfait!  :thumbsup:
Looking forward to more inspiration.

Joan

bat

Another beautiful update, Andreas! :thumbsup: Great residential areas!!

Andreas

Well, I guess this is some proof that I'm the slowest city builder ever, but after having David asked to resurrect this showcase from the death, here's another update, that somehow didn't get posted last time I've updated my German showcase at SimForum...

First, a small update from Perth, that has changed quite a bit since the last update. The city has grown to 618,000 residents, accompanied by 336,000 commercial and 140,000 industrial jobs. It won't grow much larger, though, since almost all areas are developed now (apart from some minor remnants that will stay this).

   

The downtown has developed really well, ten more skyscrapers have grown. On the left pic, the city park is shown again, now with a nice lawn instead of the dense grove that didn't look too well for a park right next to the city center. But now, the situation has changed to the better. :)

Scrolling up a bit reveals the full beauty of the downtown, apart from one or two exceptions, the tallest buildings of the city are located here. For some reason, I wasn't able to grow the Nitron Center that I modded from the original capacity, now I've adjusted it again, and it worked fine (note: I don't use the CAM so far, that's why any building with more than 7,000 occupants is extremly hard to grow).

The pic on the right shows the same situation, rotated by 90 degrees. This area also shows quite a few skyscrapers that I got for the first time. The original Ellington Tower also had 7,000 jobs - no wonder why it never grew for me! The City Tower Hotel was quite hard to get, because the 7x4 lot got occupied by those pesky 1x4 small commercials - I really need to restrict those to low density. BTW, the block with the Nitron Center provides more than 28,000 CO-ยงยง jobs in total - and that without CAM!  :satisfied:

   

The left pic shows the old city center again. At the southern end of the plaza in front of the rail station, IMO the most beautiful building ensemble has grown: Dusktrooper's Skychase Bank Plaza and Seven56 right next to it. Initially, I planned to grow a Nitron tower there, but it didn't happen (as explained above) - but I guess I was really lucky to get this combination, which fits ideally to Skychase Bank Plaza, and of course as well to the surrounding buildings. :)

The pic in the middle shows a place, where a Key Tower grew right next to a Juneau Bank Plaza - in between of a low density commercial area. Of course this didn't look right, so I replaced the low density commercials with medium and high density residential buildings, as well as some more commercial lots. The result came out rather well, I think. Finally, another park on the pic on the right that doesn't look too bad, either.

   

The aforementioned park can be seen on the left pic as well (rotated by 180 degrees), with a high wealth quarter in the vicinity that is protected by sound walls and a highway tunnel. The doubled highway intersections might be a bit over the top, but the traffic is quite heavy in this area, so I'd say it's justified. ;) I also enlarged the Dusktrooper loft quarter a bit, now featuring about 50 loft buildings.

The screenshot in the middle shows the TV tower, erected on a hill north of the city. The hill itself is covered densly with low density residentials and counts to the more wealty areas. At the foot of the hill, the city zoo and the tram museum are located. It's the first time I actually built the museum, due to the lack of extended tram networks in my cities before. It's really great to zoom closer and watch the museum tram that starts at the museum tram stop, circles the loop, stops at the exit to the citie's tram network again and then turns left or right. :)
Andreas

LoneRanger

Wow, great showcase Andreas.  &apls
I do wonder though why anyone would like to have a big tv tower in their backyard.  :D

thundercrack83

Welcome back, Andreas! I'll be awaiting more of your progress!

Ennedi

Very nice to see your MD again, Andreas!  :thumbsup:

Knowing your experience in many SC4 aspects I'm very curious of your new ideas...  :)
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Andreas

Thanks, guys! :)

@LoneRanger: Yeah, some folks might not like it, but on the other hand, their view across the hills in the vicinity isn't obstructed by a hideous TV tower. ;)


Anyway, since Perth is more or less finished, I moved over to Cannington, the southern neighbor, and the former industrial city that mainly served as job supply for Perth has developed quite nicely. The city now has 300,000 residents, there are 114,000 commercial and 67,500 industrial jobs. First, here's an overview shot:



Perth is located north (top), and Freemantle to the west (left). Cannington is divided by a river, and the industrial area is restricted to the north-east part. The oldest parts of the city are the industrial area in the north, and the narrow, elongated development along the shore of the peninsula in the west. After that, I started to build at several places at once, and over the time, the quarters are growing together. The transportation network consists of a highway, several avenues, a couple of bridges, an extensive bus station network, one railway line that loops the city in the shape of a large question mark through all quarters, and several passenger and car ferries. I guess I'll create a detailed transportation map later. :)

 

Other than usual, the commercial downtown (left pic) grew on a completely blank space, the dense residential development next to it was developed later. Only across the river (see pics below), some taller buildings had grown before. Commuters from other quarters mainly use the highway bridge in the east (left), the avenue bridge in the west (right), the railway bridge and the ferries.

   

Here are three screenshots of the buildings across the river, they basically induced the first boom in the city. At first, only residentials were located here, the small commercial area developed later, in order to lower the excessive usage of the railway bridge, and to lower the commute times from the surrounding quarters. Two railway stations and two ferry ports are handeling the majority of commuters across the river.

 

Let's rotate the view by 180 degrees and look at the oldest part of Cannington. Although Houston and Euro buildings have replaced some of the older buildings, the charme of the "old narrow streets" (ok, in SC4, all streets have the same width, but one can dream...) has been preserved. In order to keep the traffic out ouf the city, I built a bypass avenue along the hills in the west (left), which has been placed either in a tunnel (three in total) or behind a sound wall. The avenue is used heavily, also by commuters from Freemantle on their way to Cannington's city center.

     

Here's a portrait of the four bridges across the Swan River. On the left, the large highway bridge that leads towards Perth. Since the traffic is rather low here, the highway is continued as avenue, with a distributor roundabout at the end of the highway. I built this shortly after the NAM June 2007 release, and I think it looks really well at that place. :) The avenue bridge (second pic from the left) connects the old Cannington with the city center. Below the bridge, a small harbor village is located, which has been erected as a tourist trap. ;)

The railway bridge that connects South Cannington with North Cannington is used heavily, but also the ferries show heavy usage. I modded the Goldiva Water Taxi stations to a capacity of 10,000, but they are still overloaded by 500%. It's the first time I use them to a greater extent, and I think they fit in very well here. :) The pic on the right shows the highway bridge in the east, which is also used heavily, mostly by commuters towards the nearby high-tech industrial area.

   

The I-HT area is located at the border of the map in the east, connected via an avenue that has a direct highway access. West of the industrial area, a large low density residential area is located. It's one of the oldest developments, grown together with Old Cannington. It's a typical suburban development with lots of green, curved streets, and some civic facilities in the center.

     

Next to the city center, a small commercial area is located at the western shore, along with the harbor village that I mentioned before already. Another ferry port handles the incoming commuters from Old Cannington and Freemantle. Also, the industrial center of the city is located here, along with a large freight railyard, a powerplant (the rest of the power is imported from Perth), a large seaport and countless factories and warehouses.

   

The left pic shows another view of the western bridgehead towards Perth and Freemantle, as well as two shots from the southern suburbs of the city. As you can see, I connected every quarter with avenues that serve as major arteries in order to reduce commute times. Once I get a chance, I will show those areas in detail, but for the time being, enjoy the ones above. :)
Andreas

thundercrack83

More excellent pictures here, my friend! My favorite ones are of the port and the industries, but my favorites are always ports and industries! Everything looks great, and I'll be coming back to see more!

Dustin

nova vesfalo

What a City Show-case ! Like thundercrack83, the Industrial pics are awesome !

FrankU

You show a lot of nice ideas and developments.
Another row of inspirations.
Also the Big Dig lots look really nice.