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Tower Life Building  1.0

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TOWER LIFE BUILDING
 
Origin: San Antonio, Texas, USA. 

The crowning masterpiece of architects Ayers & Ayers. Completed in 1929 in restrained late-Gothic Revival style, its observation decks decorated with terra-cotta and festooned with gargoyles offer grand views of the city. Originally named the Smith-Young Tower after its developers, this was for over twenty years the tallest building in Texas and home to the city's top architects, lawyers, and insurers. Architects Ayers & Ayers would even claim a whole top floor with observation deck for 360 degree panoramic views of the city below. Intended as the initial centerpiece of a new downtown commercial center of landmark high-rises, the tower would never see its envisioned sister buildings completed, for the shocking onset of the Depression would crush further grand building projects. The building is currently named the Tower Life Building after its primary tenant, Tower Life Insurance. With its glittering wedding-cake crown gleaming in floodlights at night, this tower remains among the most popularly recognized and admired skyscrapers in San Antonio.

I had hoped this could be a wall-to-wall or a diagonal lot, but the angles of the building base are just too bizarre. In exchange, I gave it a nice unpretentious plaza with an outdoor cafe.



LANDMARK VERSION

Lot Size: 4x4 Corner
Plop Cost: 110000
Bulldoze Cost: 12773
Wealth: High Wealth
Pollution at Center: Air 10, Water 10, Garbage 4, Radiation 0
Pollution Radii: Air 6, Water 7, Garbage 0, Radiation 0
Flammability: 38
MaxFireStage: 4
Power Consumed: 194
Water Consumed: 1226
Mayor Rating Effect: Magnitude 10, Radius 256
Budget Cost: 150

PLOPPABLE VERSION

Lot Size: 4x4 Corner
Plop Cost: 110000
Bulldoze Cost: 12773
Wealth: High Wealth
Pollution at Center: Air 10, Water 10, Garbage 4, Radiation 0
Pollution Radii: Air 6, Water 7, Garbage 0, Radiation 0
Flammability: 38
MaxFireStage: 4
Power Consumed: 194
Water Consumed: 1226
Occupant Types: CO$$, CO$$$
Building Value: 53906
Capacity Satisfied: CO$$ 2200, CO$$$ 1501

GROWABLE VERSION

Lot Size: 4x4 Corner
Growth Stage: 8
Bulldoze Cost: 12773
Wealth: High Wealth
Pollution at Center: Air 10, Water 10, Garbage 4, Radiation 0
PollutionRadii: Air 6, Water 7, Garbage 0, Radiation 0
Flammability: 38
MaxFireStage: 4
Power Consumed: 194
Water Consumed: 1226
Style Tileset: Chicago, New York
Occupant Types: CO$$, CO$$$
Building Value: 53906
Capacity Satisfied: CO$$ 2200, CO$$$ 1501



DEPENDENCIES

There are No Dependencies required for this BAT.



Let me know if there are any problems, as I do not have a city of sufficient size to test grow the growable version. Exemplar modding is another world for me, so who knows what I have really done. This model has been extremely long in coming, as I was planning it even BAT first came out, so I hope everyone enjoys it. A first BAT for me, hopefully there will eventually be more!

Many thanks to everyone here and in the BAT Forums for their help, tutorials,and encouragement with this little project. I've downloaded gigabytes of great stuff from here, so it about time I gave something back. Enjoy!
  • Like 24
  • Thanks 2



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Recommended Comments

this bat honestly deserves a 10 (from me atleast). the texstures are the best i've seen, the nightlighting is amazing and the bat is just awesome looking! fantastic job!!!

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Thank You! There's finally something else from San Antonio and it's beautiful! You need to do the Tower of the Americas next.

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THIS IS WONDERFUL! We need MORE buildings from San Antonio!!! Marriot?? Tower of Americas?? The detail on this is some of the best I have ever seen in Simcity... great work! - Creathir

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Oh My!!! I can't belive my eyes!! The most beautifully detailed buildinghas arrived to STEX!! How come only 9 stars!?!?! compare to what noramlly gets 8-9 here this should be 100!!
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I think this is the most beautiful building in the STEX. It reminds me of the Fisher Building in Detroit. Excellent job. 1000000 kudos

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This is the best BAT I've ever seen. How long did it take you to do? 1000/1000.

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Thanks for all the praise. The real building is very beautiful, and surprisingly humane in scale. If you were to walk to its base, you might think the building rather small, but the tower still has such sculptural presence on the skyline. Unlikely that I will do a version without the antennas (lots of work), though I have been eyeballing the Tower of the Americas, the Nix, the Plaza Hotel, and even the Alameda Theater.
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Oddly enough, this building looks like nothing you would expect from a Texas sunbelt suburb city. San Antonio's great building era as Texas's leading city was before the Depression, after which primacy forever passed to booming Houston and Dallas, leaving downtown San Antonio with lots of historic buildings and relatively few glassy modern or post-modern towers.
  • Like 1

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This looks great. I admire you for deciding to make the step from player to BAT-er after all this time. Keep it up.

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I remember this from your thread. It is just marvelous work. I agree with afuegosky, an option with the antenna would be nice, but I understand that it would be a lot of work and that you're not wild about doing it. Still 10/10

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Dude, this building is outstanding! The detail is really impressive. Looks like it's your first building, so KEEP ON ROCKIN in the future ;) We're all looking foward to see more.

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Just a little question: How many polygons does it contain? And how long did it take you to render?

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