Day 2
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Day 2
by Thomas 22nd April 2010, 18:24
Today’s discussions and debates will take place in the Capital Hotel, currently the tallest building in Ollingdale.
Today’s we are asking how you developed your CBD and Downtown cities, again with five or more points and ideas as to how you created your dense districts.
Example
- Spoiler:
- Building your Downtown/Central Business District will be one of the most important parts of your region. It will be the most important part of the highrise areas of your region, and will show the strength and power of your country's economy.
- Include a variety of building sizes - these dense districts don't need to be all the same size, midrises and the super-tall towers can be mixed, especially around amenities and plazas. Repetition is extremely rare in cities, as all companies want a different building to another.
- The transport network here will be vital to showing your city's size well. Including subways, railways, monorails, highways and lots of bus networks will be very important.
- A CBD will look incredible on a waterfront setting. Many modern cities are based around natural features, like rivers, bays and seafronts. The desirability nearer the water will be much higher than further in the city.
- Plazas and parks around Downtown will be hotspots for development, and if you're plopping the buildings, these will be great areas for big buildings to be based. Train stations and public centres will also be near park areas, to make the city appeal to travellers.
- Towards the outskirts of your downtown will be the midrise districts, where more people will live as opposed to the central areas of the city, where congestion and pollution levels are high. The centres of your city will have very little industry, if any at all, and only small pockets of apartments will exist in your CBD, probably around parks or the waterfront. The highest buildings in your city will be commercial offices.
Thomas- Overlord of Eurasia
- Posts : 5849
Re: Day 2
by anarchy0029 22nd April 2010, 18:40
From Hypertrophy's suggestion
- Downtown should have an activity during the day and a portion of night. Make sure you place shops or eateries. (Try to avoid mods with parking lots if you can, too much isn't attractive)
- Downtown should have a civic center. Make sure you place them at an appropriate location. It should consist of a City Hall, Courthouse, Gov't Bldg, A Police Headquarters, and an Emergency Center.
- Take careful time in designing a downtown using smaller mods. Beleive me they fill the voids when you place large towers.
- Waterfronts should have a special theme for downtown recreation, Anywhere from a rec center, shopping pier, beachfronts, promenades, or a marina. Seawalls are great, but you want to utilize it for activity.
- Operas, theatres, museums, or art galleries should be placed primarily in the residential area. Plus it helps grow your residential area the way you want it to be.
- Also don't be afraid to use diagonal roads, it shows you are versitle and realistic in designing your city. In Europe and Asia, the streets aren't always parallel. Same goes for NYC, Boston, Montreal, and Baltimore, and Mexico City.
- Downtown should have an activity during the day and a portion of night. Make sure you place shops or eateries. (Try to avoid mods with parking lots if you can, too much isn't attractive)
- Downtown should have a civic center. Make sure you place them at an appropriate location. It should consist of a City Hall, Courthouse, Gov't Bldg, A Police Headquarters, and an Emergency Center.
- Take careful time in designing a downtown using smaller mods. Beleive me they fill the voids when you place large towers.
- Waterfronts should have a special theme for downtown recreation, Anywhere from a rec center, shopping pier, beachfronts, promenades, or a marina. Seawalls are great, but you want to utilize it for activity.
- Operas, theatres, museums, or art galleries should be placed primarily in the residential area. Plus it helps grow your residential area the way you want it to be.
- Also don't be afraid to use diagonal roads, it shows you are versitle and realistic in designing your city. In Europe and Asia, the streets aren't always parallel. Same goes for NYC, Boston, Montreal, and Baltimore, and Mexico City.
anarchy0029- Counsel
- Posts : 754
Age : 48 -
Re: Day 2
by Daniel 22nd April 2010, 20:09
I started with a shape. Providence and Redding City were both designed around a circular (or, rather, octagonal) pattern, Yorke was designed on a grid.
I'm a big fan of central plazas or town squares marking the centre of town. The CBD should be the focus of business during the day and have a decent night life.
CBDs should have a recognisable skyline. There should be buildings that are unique to that city. Avoid using the same custom content in more than once city.
Transport systems should radiate outwards from the CBD so there needs to be an interchange near the centre of the city.
The most imoportant thing is to stick to a theme. Redding City was always meant to be the "big" city, with tall buildings and high population density. Yorke is the second city - more open planned, but still big enough that you don't feel as though you're standing in an open field. Providence, being purpose-built as the capital, was designed to be charming and small, yet attractive.
I'm a big fan of central plazas or town squares marking the centre of town. The CBD should be the focus of business during the day and have a decent night life.
CBDs should have a recognisable skyline. There should be buildings that are unique to that city. Avoid using the same custom content in more than once city.
Transport systems should radiate outwards from the CBD so there needs to be an interchange near the centre of the city.
The most imoportant thing is to stick to a theme. Redding City was always meant to be the "big" city, with tall buildings and high population density. Yorke is the second city - more open planned, but still big enough that you don't feel as though you're standing in an open field. Providence, being purpose-built as the capital, was designed to be charming and small, yet attractive.
Daniel- On Leave
- Posts : 2333
Age : 45
Re: Day 2
by Guest 23rd April 2010, 02:41
- Start from a main avenue
- Plop some plopables building if the demand is big enough.
- Make some street to connect the avenues(recomended to use the SSM).
- Make some over and underpass.
- Use the hirise civic building.
- Plop some plopables building if the demand is big enough.
- Make some street to connect the avenues(recomended to use the SSM).
- Make some over and underpass.
- Use the hirise civic building.
Guest- Guest
Re: Day 2
by Liberater444 23rd April 2010, 04:30
My Response
- Spoiler:
- 1. Base city around single form of transportation: for example, Roma has a ring road structure, with perpendicular roads running into the center at a single square. Likewise, cities such as Jakarta and New York were based around their access to water.
2. Education: keeping Sims educated may seem pretty obvious, but it is very important in creating a prospering, developed CBD. Combine with Operas, Parks, and attractions, and your younger Sims will grow up to own that thousand foot tall skyscraper on 1st Avenue.
3. Don't make it a concrete and steel sculpture: Be sure to keep a downtown area a little green. It never hurts to plop some parks or create a nice little forest. Unless you're designing this city to be a metropolis such as the Matrix's city, include some green in your scene.
4. The sky's the limit, but you don't have to push the limit: One of the things I find somewhat annoying is when a well designed area is smothered with 80 story buildings every block, creating both an unrealistic atmosphere and and unpleasant sight.
Last edited by Liberater444 on 23rd April 2010, 12:38; edited 1 time in total
Liberater444- Ambassador At Large
- Posts : 1432
Re: Day 2
by emgmod 23rd April 2010, 06:55
Use spoiler tags. They save space.
- Spoiler:
- - Downtowns aren't all uniform density. There are shorter buildings, taller buildings, and sometimes, one, rarely two supertall buildings that stand out a lot.
- How many large downtowns exist with only surface streets? Build highways and mass transit. Subways/Big Dig lots are a very good idea for moving people downtown, as they are underground and don't interfere with buildings a lot.
- Green Space. This will probably be in every reply during the summit. You need some place where people can escape the city without driving/taking a train past the outer suburbs.
- Gradually lower the density of buildings from the CBD to suburbs. I hate when people post pictures of single family homes next to probably plopped skyscrapers. Midtown districts are useful for this.
- Transportation usually radiates from the CBD outwards. Freeways that bypass the city center are common, especially in American cities. Sometimes mass transit bypasses the city center too.
Finally, how I grow out cities:
When your city is a small town, make the town center an intersection. Expand from there, building out before you build up. When the population can support it, I start plopping buildings in spots where it will look good. Once I feel the city is big enough, I start the "suburban development" phase and build subdivisions everywhere. Once I finally feel that a city is "done", I slow the pace of growth.
emgmod- High Commissioner
- Posts : 1536
Re: Day 2
by Thomas 23rd April 2010, 17:00
emgmod wrote:
- Gradually lower the density of buildings from the CBD to suburbs. I hate when people post pictures of single family homes next to probably plopped skyscrapers. Midtown districts are useful for this.
Ah - just a note to everyone that that skyscraper actually grew out of nowhere in Ollingdale, when the CBD and surrounding areas was still small in comparison to it.
Thomas- Overlord of Eurasia
- Posts : 5849
Re: Day 2
by Daniel 23rd April 2010, 18:46
Thomas - the same thing happened in Providence. I just sat there, with my jaw dropping as they built it higher and higher and higher. I was forced to develop the Downtown area so it didn't look completely out of place.
Daniel- On Leave
- Posts : 2333
Age : 45
Re: Day 2
by Thomas 23rd April 2010, 19:00
It is quite annoying, isn't it? Might need to find some more high-density ploppable homes.
Thomas- Overlord of Eurasia
- Posts : 5849
Re: Day 2
by emgmod 23rd April 2010, 19:11
Ploppable residential doesn't work. You have to use nonfunctioning landmarks to achieve the effect.
emgmod- High Commissioner
- Posts : 1536
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