JBSimio Inc.

[JBSimio]

mauricio:  Thank you!

TopCliff:  Actually... I just made some pizzas up real quick like.    Thanks!  (And today was a little better.)

Sim Shady:  Thanks!

Hogmeister:  Thank you!  I'm glad I decided to leave that picture in after all... I had almost decided to skip it but then figured, it's already done... might as well post the thing! 

Dustin:  Thanks!

Duane:  Thank you!  Thanks also for posting those pictures.  It's great to see how seamlessly the Smalltown buildings match up with Spa's great ones.  They combine together so well.  I really like your town square... I have a very similar set up in my "Smalltown, USA" test city.  I'll have to dig up a picture of that one sometime.

Well today certainly went better than yesterday, although it still ended up being longer than I had hoped for.  Just means I didn't get a chance to start on the new one yet after all.  I did however manage to get the Brooks Building lotted and almost ready for testing:





This picture isn't quite accurate, but close enough.  I originally tucked the building to one side of the lot for that second street elevation idea.  After looking and thinking about it, I decided that wasn't really necessary, so the building is now centered.  The difference is pretty minimal really.  I just need to finish the readme for this one and it will be ready for testing.  As far as the other two are concerned, I realized I made a couple minor (yet stupid) mistakes that have now been fixed.  I caught them before the scrutineers did... so I only feel like half an idiot anyway!    More next time...

JB

[TopCliff]

Looks great. Brooks Building would make a great corner building. Good to hear your day was better. Now, concerning those pizzas. Were they typical cheese and pepperoni, or did you go for the classic Sicilian style?

[Pat]

  2 thumbs here Jon and I really think your chugging along nicely....

[thundercrack83]

The Brooks Building is looking fantastic there, my friend! Great work!

[Sim Shady]

wow i dint even know you had this brooks building in production.  nice job on it, it looks great!

[threestooges]

I'm liking what I'm seeing. I think the only thing that might possibly add to the building would be a water tower atop the building (but that might almost make it a bit crowded). Excellent work with the extended street side, and I'm just now noticing the arched windows above the doors on the short side. Believe it or not, according to my roommates in undergrad (civil engineering students) apparently (if I recall correctly), if you are looking at a map of the LA area, there should have been 1-2 more east-west freeways between I-105 and I-10 that connect I-405 and I-5, a continuation of the 91 all the way to meet the 405 (right now it just turns into basic streets) and then one north-south somewhere in there. The idea was to have a freeway (N-S or E-W) every 2-3 miles. Oddly enough, the freeway system appears to follow old street car routes (believe it or not, LA used to have a fairly decent mass transit system) and has helped to give rise to the allegedGreat American Streetcar Scandal. Interestingly, this is also referenced in Who Framed Roger Rabbit (the part that leaps to mind is Judge Doom's speech at the end where he talks about the "Red Car" (Pacific Electric Railway if I recall correctly). But that is going off on a rather wide tangent.

I must commend you on your BATting/lotting skills. Your buildings are always so well done and the lots compliment them nicely. Just those few bushes and a few people really bring it to life. I could use your advice on a building I'm working on that I will probably post a pic of shortly in my BAT thread. It may just be the size, but it's not quite working for me yet.

Sorry to hear about the emergency rush to work (those types of calls are always the worst) but it sounds like you were able to bring it to a good ending (and pizza always hits the spot). Hope you've been able to get some rest since then. Take it easy and I'll see you next update.
-Matt

[hydra]

Nice work going on here these are looking great.

[Hogmeister]

I love the way you have grouped your 3 classic turn of the century towers together, they really work well as a group, brimming with character. 

[JBSimio]

TopCliff:  Thank you!  Since dinner was already late before I even arrived, I stuck with cheese and pepperoni... 

Pat:  Thanks!  I've got two thumbs here as well... rather convenient in my opinion!   

Dustin:  Thank you!

Sim Shady:  Thanks!  It came out of a very long hibernation actually...

Matt:  Thank you!  Civil engineering projects gone awry is a subject that has always interested me.  Detroit has many similar stories with the freeway system... things that didn't get built... ramps made in preparation for things that never happened... all that stuff facinates me.  I always try to keep the lots for these two series pretty simple.  Part of it is just a lack of space for extras anyway to be honest.

Hydra:  Thank you!

Hogmeister:  Thanks!  My first grouping was actually rather amusing.  I had the Hurst and Brooks Buildings switched around to show the corner possibilities for the newest one.  But it looked like one of those cell phone commercials.  "More bars in more places."   

I started a new building today that I'm honestly pretty excited about.  For those of you who don't know, Hogmeister is like a photo library.  He had posted a general shot of St Louis years ago... just as a little side comment really.  I mentioned how much I liked the looks of one of the buildings in that picture and the next thing I knew, there were about 15 pictures of that one building waiting for me.  As we all know by now, I don't generally do proper recreations... and I don't really plan to do one this time either... but I'm going to stick fairly close to the original this time just because I like it so much.

Anyway... here is what I've done so far:



This is the Bruder Building... named after the Bruder Building in St Louis, MO.  Sadly, this building was torn down and no longer exists... but I'll try to fix that at least for all of us!   This will be a 12-13 story building on (probably) a 3x3 lot.  What you see right now is floors 3-10 on what will be the front side.  The sides will be slightly shorter, so there will most likely be an alley or something behind this one.  I don't really know if it will work out as a wall to wall building yet, although so far I'm leaning towards no on that one.  That's about it for now...

JB

[TopCliff]

N-I-C-E!!!

You do a great job in this field. Don't stop what you do. EVER. That's an order.

[thundercrack83]

I'm not familiar with the Bruder Building in St. Louis, but if it's half a great as your Bruder Building, I'm sure it was a sight to see! I can't wait to see more of your creation, my friend!

Keep up the fantastic work!

Dustin

[DFire870]

Great job on the last slender building Jon, we need more of those in the game. And the new building looks great too. All of these turn-of-the-century buildings make me want to build a downtown entirely out of these.

Anyhow, looking at all of these buildings you've recently done, I realized that you might be interested in one particular building here in Austin. It's the Driskill Hotel, and it's the oldest hotel in the city (built in 1886). Anyhow, I know you don't really do recreations, but I figured you might be able to use some of the architectural details on it for a later building. You can Google the name for some pictures.

-- John

[figui]

looking nice
and your previous pic with your 3 buildings is great and as said above me, makes me want to make an entire neighborhood with them

mauricio.

[JBSimio]

TopCliff:  Thanks!  Aye-aye sir!

Dustin:  Thank you!  To be honest, I had never heard of it either until Hogmeister showed his picture.  Here's a look at "what started it all" for this one...  (It's the building in the foreground)


(This is Hogmeister's picture... not mine... I'm assuming he won't mind my using his link)

John:  Thanks!  I took a brief look at the Driskill Hotel.  That certainly looks interesting... I may have to dive deeper into that one sometime down the road.

Mauricio:  Thank you!

Just  a very brief progress shot.  This may be a little bit of slow going as there are so many little setbacks and things.  The third floor walls are actually out slightly further than those above... the same goes for the bottom two floors which I've just roughed in so far.  It's not a huge deal, but it tries to confuse me a bit more than usual. 



Off to bed before Pat yells at me... 
JB

[Sim Shady]

Wow thanks for the Steetcar story.  I had no idea about such a thing, and Im a pretty big History buff.  Shame that such a thing happened, amazing the corruption that has continually pervaded American society throughout history...

I love what you are doing with Bruder Building JB 

[threestooges]

-SimShady: Well, it is only a theory and speculation, still it is sad to see what LA transit used to be (streetcars from downtown LA to Santa Monica, etc).

-Jon: That building is off to a great start (no surprise there) and so far looks dead on. I like the little details too. Knowing how much time things like those can take from experience... well done. Ramps made in preparation for things that never happened? That must be a sight to see. At any rate, I'll keep an eye on this. Good work.
-Matt

[Hogmeister]

Off to bed before Pat yells at me... 

Glad I'm not the only one who has that problem, lol.

Looking good JB,  the more I look, the more I see, the more I like.

[JBSimio]

Sim Shady:  Ahh... another history buff.  I've become one, although I absolutely hated the subject in school.  Thanks!

Matt:  Thank you!  The details are certainly slowing things down somewhat... although not too badly.  It's just that there are so many different "standards."  The double windows in the center portion are plain... those on the side panels have extra details... those on the third floor have other details... etc.  There are some very interesting things with the freeway system in Detroit... I'll try to find some photo examples.  One of the stangest sights for quite a while was the 4-stack interchange for I-75 and I-696 north of the city.  I-696 was the last main freeway to be finished but the interchange was built much earlier as part of an improvement (resurfacing or widening or something) project on I-75.  So it just sat there leading to nowhere for years.

Hogmeister:  Thank you!

Well, I'm off to sit in the dentist's chair again this afternoon.  It's quickly becoming my second home... but the nice thing is that everything will be done before I leave the state.  I'll probably have some updates to show tonight when the drugs wear off... unless I short circuit my computer by drooling all over it! 

JB

[oldrogue]

Well Jon this is looking quite nice...I guess from the response that you might want to start a "mediumtown USA" series  .  I do agree with the others that these will fill a much ignored niche that is nevertheless very important....Have lived in many cities and the mix of 'downtown' buildings is always fascinating....that's because it is a mix. One of the things that has always bothered me about SC is the downtowns that are all modern...that just doesn't happen....unless you live in a city that went thru a big boom in the last 30 years....like  Dallas or Houston....they have mile after mile of new high rise, that would be interesting if there were only a few of them...but get lost in the shuffle when so many are together.

And on the tangent...the Red Car story has always fascinated me.... from what I understand General Motors was the real mover behind getting the transit system demolished.  In the "Book" LA Confidential..not the movie... that is one of the themes...the corruption behind that whole bag of worms.

Anyway, enjoy the Dentists and don't forget to wear a bib while bating this evening.

[Hogmeister]