JBSimio Inc.

[JBSimio]

SA:  Nice one...    I hadn't actually considered a school of accounting yet.  Although something like that might fall under the "business school" umbrella?  So many things to consider...

JosefBrisko:  Thank you!  Funny you should mention that...

I thought I'd take a rather dramatic jump from my normal styles and try something completely different.  I started this with the Swan Centre for Business Studies in mind, but as it progressed I thought it would lend itself really well to a school of design.  So here is a very early preview:



I thought a huge skylight be kind of cool for studio space.  That part will definitely stay in some form.  I'm pretty happy over all with the elevations on the left hand side (which is south)... but I'm not too sure about the west elevation yet.  The three story curved glass was something I just wanted to try (mostly to see if I could pull it off or not)... and while it looks pretty good, I'm not so sure it fits.  Even for a showy type of design building, it may be a little overboard for a campus setting.  Any thoughts about that?

Still a ways to go on this one, obviously.  I haven't really done anything with the law school since the last picture either, but I'll get back to it when the historical mood strikes me again.  We all know it shouldn't take too long for that to happen... 

JB

[threestooges]

I think its quite good. Especially for a design school. On my undergrad campus, our arts building had an interesting design too that didn't match anything else on campus. It's the Fritz B. Burns Fine Arts Center and if the link doesn't take you right to it, just look for it on the map. Interestsing pics.

I would say keep the skylight and the curved glass. It's a great touch and serves an art studio well. As far as it looking off, I would suggest raising the angled part up (an amount equivalent to the grey cement piece just below it) as, from the side, it looks a bit short where it meets the lower part of the wall. I love the staircase too. Put a garden below it and it might add another artsy/design touch. Can't wait to see more progress on this one. Good luck with it.
-Matt

[JosefBrisko135]

That's really cool. I like it a lot. I can't wait to see it further. Those stairs are really crazy! So its going to be 3 storeys? or are you adding on?

[oldrogue]

Very nice Jon....so far would fit perfectly for a school of design....figure that whatever patron had funded it, they would want a "lot of bang" and recognition for their bucks .....I really like the glass areas...both the skylite and the entryway....seems to work well for me......would be nice to have some seasonal trees just outside the entrance for the ambiance.....agree about the staircase..really cool...actually if you add one more from another angle you could have an Escher type affect .....oh...and am also curious about the final number of stories.......hmmm just had a random thought......most of the other building have domes to set them off .... this works without the dome because of the entryway....I think that's what I mean anyway

[BigSlark]

Jon,

I like the design as is. The top floor is part of the studio, the second is a gallery, and the bottom floor is some sort of student gathering area.

How's that for justification? :p

This project is looking great in general, keep up the great work and I look forward to playing with it all! 

Cheers,
Kevin

[ACEfanatic02]

I'd say ditch the curved glass.  The rest of the building is sharp angles and corners, and the curves just don't fit.

Besides, curved glass is very hard to make work in SC4.

Love the rest of the building, though.

-ACE

[Diggis]

Jon, the library I sent you has a curved glass wall around the back.  It can fit in very well.  Personally I like it.

[SC4BOY]

Don't worry about it "looking different".. universities and government buildings in general (especially local governments) are the major "users" of completely "whacked out" designs.. I'm sure it makes them feel "academic" or "progressive" Every major school that I know of has a core of "theme-ish" formal or older style buildings with various completely whacko things scattered around..

[JBSimio]

Matt:  Thank you!  I liked those pictures a lot.  It's too bad there weren't a couple more of them as that looks like a very interesting building.  I'm absolutely keeping the skylight.  It probably will get raised a little bit more, but I just roughed it in for now.

Josefbrisko:  Thanks!  The stairs took me forever to get sorted out.  I'm actually not quite finished with them yet either.  I think I'm going to top out at three stories plus the skylight, but that could still change.

Duane:  Thank you!  Good point about the building's donor.

Kevin:  Thanks!  That justification sounds good to me!    I'll try to remember that when I get to the interiors.

ACE:  Thanks!  Actually, the curved glass was easier to do than that skylight was.  Getting the arches to match up while also on an angle (and figuring out what that angle in the first place) took me a bit of head scratching. 

Diggis:  Does it?  I saw the curved bay window on one side.  I tried to look that up on Google Earth, but the satellite coverage isn't very good right there.  I'll have to try another search just for images.

SC4Boy:  Looking different was never an issue.  I wanted that... I just wanted to be sure it still match while it looked different.

[figui]

personally, i like the way it looks with the curved glass

mauricio.

[Pat]

Jon Dont change a thing on that building cept maybe textures lol... Naw kiddin aside I love the curving and it give that a more realistic feel to it..... Cant wait to see more!!!

[Strechnitz]

Hey Jon,

I like the new building. The style is refreshing and I believe that it will work wonderfully with the already existing structures.
I particularly like the shape of the stairs and the glass walls. very 80's contructivism. although that's probably not what you call it in the US

Strech.

[TopCliff]

Cool looking library. If you want a new age library, somewhat modern, but represents the classical theme of the school, I have just the thing. Expect numerous pictures in a PM sometime soon.

[JBSimio]

Mauricio:  Thanks... I think the curved glass is going to stay.

Pat:  Thank you!  Does adding more walls count as "changing stuff?"  If so, then I apologize... 

Strech:  Thanks!  I don't know what we call it in the US really.  I was never much on keeping different style names straight in my head. 

TopCliff:  Thank you... I think.  This isn't a library, but I'll be watching for your PM anyway! 

I played around with this a bit more.  I finished off the skylight area and then started around on the north side.  I wasn't really thrilled with how it came out and then, after looking closer, I realized it's really not going to work at all.  Since it's all going to change anyway, I won't show that side just yet.  Here's the same views as before just to show the part I did get finished:



The main problem with the staircases and "courtyard" that you can sort of see is that it won't line up with anything the way I have it now.  Trying to get this on a lot in its current shape would be no fun at all.  So I'll have to try again tomorrow...

JB

[XiahouDun]

Couldn't you use the BAT to make either sidewalks or some kind of small concrete courtyard pads to help connect it more naturally to your lot textures? Something like a patio with some furnature so you could kind of imagine it would be a place students would go to on a nice day to study or have some kind of group gathering like a club. Could have it open ended, or maybe fenced off with a small step to the lot textures.

[threestooges]

Sorry to hear the stairs aren't working too well (I like XiahouDun's suggestion) and I hope that, whatever you come up with, the stairs keep their interesting form in some way. Also, with all that flat roof space, I hope to see some nice sitting areas up there. I'm glad you liked the building, I'll see if I can find you some more pictures of it. Take it easy.

[Pat]

I echo both what Eric and Matt said about the patio and no that dont count but what will if you mess with those wonderful stairs!!! lol  great job jon and looking real good with the finishing off of the walls....

[Strechnitz]

Well it need not line up with the paths, no layout of any campus or city is perfect, not even Clayhurst.

On a sidenote, In northern Europe many Gothic buildings like cathedrals and cityhalls and such have a perfect simmetry apart from one or two little things. That was done deliberately. They strongly believed that God was the only perfect entity and symetry was seen as a form of perfection. So striving for perfection was seen as an affront to God, and so they purposely brok symetry to show that they were only human. BTW it goes beyond human hypocrisy, they knew they could build symetrical if they wanted to. But it was a strange votive. Those views changed with the renaissance though (luckily)

But why did I type this?  Oh yeah, to back up XiaHouDun's patio/square idea. then your lovely stairs come out on the patio's and you only have to line the patio/square up on the paths.

Strech.

[oldrogue]

Well Jon all I can say is I agree with the above statements.....even Pat's...

[JBSimio]

XiahouDun:  I certainly could do that, yes.  I try to avoid BATting in sidewalks for a couple reasons.  First, I have a very hard time getting the textures to match up with the ingame sidewalks.  Secondly in this case is the fact that we're using the interchangable BSC Park textures... so I wouldn't know what to match up to anyway.  If all else fails, I probably will just add a patio a step or two above ground and line things up that way... but it's kind of a last resort right now.

Matt:  Thanks!  The first set of stairs won't change either way... the second set is what I need to move around a little more to get things to fit.  I'll definitely get to some "patio junk" eventually, but I like to leave that until closer to the end so it's not all in the way the whole time. 

Pat:  Thank you!  I think I already answered your other comments, so I'll just keep going... 

Strech:  Oh no, not perfect... but I don't think a stairway should just ranomly end in the grass either.    I'm not going for symmetry either... I just need to adjust for the set size of the game tiles.  I had heard that "affront to God" idealogy before... and as you say, thank goodness we don't worry about that any more.  Most of my buildings would really make God angry otherwise!   

Duane:  Wow!  Even Pat, huh? 

I may have given the wrong impression last night.  I have no intention of "ruining" the stairs or making one side a mirror image of the other.  In fact, my hope is to actually offset the entries on either side of the building.  To do this, I just need to keep the spacing correct to match with the textures available.  For example, if I put the south entry at x=0 meters, then the north entry (ideally) should be at x=16 meters since one game tile is 16 meters square.  There are of course textures where the path isn't prefectly centered on the tile which gives me more options, but ultimately the path needs to leave the lot centered on a tile so you can connect it with the other pieces.  The problem I have right now is that I'm not even close to any of those options.  My differential between the two entries at the moment is something like 6 or 7 meters... which doesn't line up with anything.    The original staircases from the first pictures are set properly and won't change... it's just the new set (which wasn't all that interesting anyway) that I need to tinker with.

I know that was a rather long explaination that half of you probably don't care about anyway, but I felt like typing something, so there you go!    Hopefully it will all make more sense later this evening as I'm about to put the monkeys to work right now.  More to come...

JB