Nyhaven: Views From Within (Nuclear City - 5/8)

[adroman]

Well, my first visit here, and I don't think it'll be my last! 

Well done, this is a stunningly realistic MD... you must have the paitence of a saint to do the things you do...

Keep it up  ,
Adrian.

[woodb3kmaster]

Battlecat (x2): Thank you! What with all the traffic on those tracks, I'm sure you're right about some people's commutes being disrupted. At least now we don't have to worry about any more accidents on those streets, what with the at-grade crossings being removed!

djvandrake: Thanks, my friend! Nyhaven's railroads definitely see their share of traffic, so this project was much-needed. Thanks for your kind words!

Alex (Driftmaster07): Thank you, Alex! Yes, the NAM team did a great job on the viaduct puzzle pieces. As for ports, Lower Columbia includes the ports of Seattle and Vancouver, which are pretty close to the ocean. The closest ocean port to Nyhaven is the port of Astoria, which sits just a few miles from the open ocean. So there are plenty of options for cruise ships visiting the kingdom.

petjuh: Welcome to Nyhaven, and thanks for commenting! I appreciate your kind words about my remodeling work in Kendall. Battlecat hit the nail on the head in his reply to you (thanks, Battlecat!); there is, in fact, a subway line running under the viaducts. You can see a station for it right next to the viaducts, in the upper part of the mosaic at the end.

Glowbal: Thank you! I'm glad you like the story.

Daniel (danielcote): Yes indeed, those viaducts were sorely needed. Thanks for commenting!

Swesim: Don't worry about the frequency of your replies; you're always welcome here in Nyhaven! I'm sorry to hear about the crashes in your area, but I'm glad you liked my story. Thanks for commenting!

Vivien (Earth quake): Thank you, Vivien!

Geoff (calibanX): Thanks, Geoff! To hear you say you like my story is terrific, given how well you've been telling the story of Tiko Shore over at Monument Valley. I greatly appreciate it!

976: Thank you!

Adrian (adroman): Welcome to Nyhaven, my friend! Anytime's a good time for a first visit. I'm glad you like my work so much, and for someone whose own MD is the epitome of realism to say that Nyhaven is so realistic is high praise. I hope I'll continue to impress!



Today we return to Kendall to take another look at my remodeling. I didn't show you all of it last time, although I didn't leave very much out.



My last modification, after redesigning the Royal Mall, was replacing the Maxis landmark Schloss Schoenbrun with a new LEX release, Stormont Castle, to serve as the offices of the Ministry of Justice, again making a custom lot to fit the building into the existing city block. Once again, I used a heaping helping of CP's trees.



To close out this update, here's an overview of the redesigned center of Kendall. If the number of repeating Maxis buildings is less than appealing, you'll be glad to hear that I've installed a Maxis blocker and am now slowly rebuilding all the zoned areas of central Kendall to get rid of as many Maxis buildings as possible. We'll take another look at that soon, along with a close-up of a smaller area of the city that I recently redesigned.

[ecoba]

That is an extremely nice overview of Kendall, Zack.

Great Work!

Ethan

[KoV Liberty]

Good job Zack. And I am glad to hear of the maxis blocker. Mine was such a good idea. I think you will be stisfied with your result. But remember, there still might be repeating buildings which I think you may have no problem with since you have been around for a while here.

[danielcote]

I don't know. Some of the maxis apartments are actually nice.

[Battlecat]

Looking good!  Can't wait to see the redevelopment start!

[Earth quake]

Wonderfull pics.
Your park is just splendid.

[adroman]

The new Ministry of Justice building looks well ... sensational! ... Your park system through the city looks brilliant... 

The Maxis Blocker's a bit of a lifesaver, eh? 

Havva good one,
Adrian.

[djvandrake]

^^^ Have to agree, the new Ministry of Justice building looks great.  Your mall is a great way to bring it all together.

[woodb3kmaster]

Ethan (ecoba): Thanks, Ethan! I'm glad you like it.

Alex (Driftmaster07): Thank you, Alex! While I've already had some trouble with repeating BATs (especially Parisian W2W BATs, for some reason), I'm still pretty happy with the way things are turning out, and I'm sure you will be, too.

Daniel (danielcote): True, there are some nice-looking Maxis apartments, but unfortunately, the Maxis blockers out there don't let you block specific buildings, only whole zone/wealth types. Maybe someday someone will make a blocker that lets you block specific growth stages for each zone type...

Battlecat: Thanks! I think the redevelopment is going well so far, although there are still a lot more zones I need to redevelop, and with the end of the quarter upon me, I've had to sacrifice my SC4 time to focus on finals. It'll get done soon enough, though!

Vivien (Earth quake): Thank you, Vivien! I'm glad you like the park.

Adrian (adroman): Welcome to Nyhaven, and thank you very much for your kind words! I'm glad you like my re-lot for the Ministry of Justice, as well as the Royal Mall. I'm already really enjoying the fruits of the Maxis blocker, so I must agree with you on that.

djvandrake: Thanks!





I didn't usually communicate much with the officials of Wahkiakum County, which Nyhaven is the county seat of, but one day in the fall of 2404, after being in a particularly bad car collision, I found myself having to go to court to claim my share of the compensation I was entitled to.



Conveniently, the county courthouse was located just across Founders' Square from City Hall, so I had only a short walk from my office to go to my hearing. It was at this time that the amount of growth that the city and county had gone through in recent decades really hit me, and not in a very pleasant way. You see, the old courthouse had been built quite a long time ago, back when Nyhaven was much smaller, so by then, the number of available courtrooms wasn't nearly enough to handle all the litigation that the county population was involved in. In short, the building was a madhouse. Naturally, I couldn't let this sad state of affairs go on any longer, so I started talking with county officials about building new facilities for county administration. They agreed, and so I got to work preparing a plan for the new facilities.



I decided that the county should have a new, much larger courthouse and a pair of office buildings, all surrounding a civic plaza. The office space was definitely a necessity, since the county needed a large bureaucracy to administer its 847 square miles and over 2 million inhabitants.



Since industry in the inner city had fallen on hard times, I took the opportunity to eliminate the last of the industrial zones in the Foothill neighborhood, replacing them with a mixture of retail and apartment buildings. At long last, the process I had started back in the 2390s with the performing arts center and residential projects would be complete!



In the fall of 2405, work began on the project. The first step was to clear the city blocks of the old factories, many of which were already abandoned, and realign a couple of the local streets.



With the land cleared, work began on the new courthouse. This building would be several times larger than the old courthouse downtown, with more than enough courtrooms to handle the county's legal needs.



Across the future civic plaza from the courthouse construction site, and next to the busy February Street subway station, workers started building the taller of the two office buildings as winter began.



As the year progressed, the courthouse started rising above the ground. It was exciting to watch the building grow!



The first office building also kept getting taller as the weeks passed.



Crews started building the second, shorter office building towards the end of 2406, when work on the other buildings was in full swing.



Finally, with the buildings mostly finished, work started on the plaza in the summer of 2407. It moved pretty quickly, since there wasn't much to build on the site. The workers also started planting sod in a new park next to the courthouse.




At last, in January 2408, the new county facilities opened their doors, and yet another project was complete. Private firms had already built most of the new shops and apartments in the area.



Overall, I think the new complex fit together nicely, both internally and with its surroundings. Not far away were the performing arts center I mentioned earlier, as well as the Central Nyhaven Country Club and the neighborhood of Little Baghdad, just across the tracks.

[djvandrake]

 

Another fantastic update Zack!  Turned out well, and it looks like you have a good deal of traffic making use of the new courthouse, offices and shops. 

Can you come to my real life city?  It's a dump and could really use your planning acumen.  If only it could be this straightforward in R/L.

[Battlecat]

Fantastic job on this latest update!  Great choice of custom buildings. 

[danielcote]

Absolutely lovely, and I think the aria very much needed this too. The aria looks much healthier and vibrant since you added the new justice complex. It must have spurred the arias buissneses too.

[Tomas Neto]

Great update, fantastic work!!! 

[KoV Liberty]

Very cool! I can see what you mean by the repeating parisians. Those occur in my city alot.

[Sciurus]

Waow, this is impressive!

Guillaume

[woodb3kmaster]

djvandrake: Thank you very much! Yes, there certainly is a lot of traffic on the streets in that area, though I don't know why. Perhaps it's related to the subway station, which sees a huge amount of traffic. As for improving your RL city, I'm flattered! I can take a look at what needs improving...

Battlecat: Thanks! I'm glad you approve of my BAT choices. I think they complement each other nicely.

Daniel (danielcote): Thank you, Daniel! The area certainly needed this project, and I'm sure that local businesses were quite happy to have a new place to call home. Real estate pressures are building in downtown Nyhaven, as you'll see in next week's update...

Tomas Neto: Thank you very much!

Alex (Driftmaster07): Thanks! Heaven knows why the simulator loves those Parisian buildings so much...

Guillaume (Sciurus): I'm glad you think so! Thanks for stopping by!



When putting together Update 35, I was struck by the blandness of the Maxis convention center, which is in a lot of the pictures in that update. So, after a bit of hunting on the STEX, I decided to take an existing civic BAT and mod it to function as a convention center (to avoid losing the benefits of having the convention center in my central Nyhaven quad). Here's what I downloaded:



This is Xyloxadoria's Andrewtropolis Concert Hall, which I strongarmed into being a working convention center (as I said above). The original lot is not as deep as that of the Maxis convention center, so I added a larger forecourt to it. Since it's designed to be a very "green" building, I thought it best to add some of CP's awesome trees as well. I think this BAT makes a nice convention center, don't you?

[Nanami]

The hunting was trully making benefit, because I think it's good choice.

[Battlecat]

That is one seriously awesome convention center!  Great choice, excellent modding job to make it work! 

[djvandrake]

I think this BAT makes a nice convention center, don't you?

Yes I do!  Very alluring shape and the green roof is just the right touch for a dense urban area.   

As for improving your RL city, I'm flattered! I can take a look at what needs improving...

How big is your bulldozer?    I live in St. Louis.  It'd be had to know where to begin in terms of what needs to be improved!    This city hit it's peak in 1904 and hasn't been the same since.

I'm anxiously awaiting your next project and update.