Maxis References

[Don Miguel 560]

I believe this may have been mentioned somewhere but the seaport building from SimCity 4 is based on the piers in the Fort Mason Center in San Francisco.

[Don Miguel 560]

The next one I'm not 100% sure about.  What do you guys think?

It's the Stock Exchange building from the Asian tileset in SimCity 3000.

It looks like a mix of the New York Stock Exchange Building...

 

and the Tokyo National Cancer Center Hospital...

[JiuLing 242]

Although someone has mentioned before, I found those two buildings.

The yellow one is the Colosseum, and the red one is the Paterno. Although Buechner Apartments and Martin Apartments are similar and they are considered as alternatives, Buechner Apartments is actually based on the Colosseum, and Martin Apartments is based on the Paterno.

Both of them are historic apartments building in New York, and their locations are very close.

[JiuLing 242]

It is the 40th Central Park South in NYC.

It seems that Reed Mansion is based on it.

[JiuLing 242]

Bank of China Building (Not Bank of China Tower) is located at no.2A Des Voeux Road Central, Central, Hong Kong. And it was the headquarters of the Bank of China in Hong Kong.

A commercial building of SC3KU in the Asian tileset is based on it, but I forget its name, it may be called Lee, Lew&Lau Associations.

I think I have seen Maxis officially admitted that the building is base on it, but the website where I saw it was shut down. And sadly my SC3KU game can not run in my Windows 10 computer.

[Don Miguel 560]

In that picture is also the City Hall from the Asian tileset in SimCity 3000  (bottom right hand corner).  It's the Court of Final Appeal building.

 

On 12/1/2020 at 9:53 AM, JiuLing said:

Bank of China Building (Not Bank of China Tower) is located at no.2A Des Voeux Road Central, Central, Hong Kong. And it was the headquarters of the Bank of China in Hong Kong.

A commercial building of SC3KU in the Asian tileset is based on it, but I forget its name, it may be called Lee, Lew&Lau Associations.

I think I have seen Maxis officially admitted that the building is base on it, but the website where I saw it was shut down. And sadly my SC3KU game can not run in my Windows 10 computer.

 

[Don Miguel 560]

I think I found Somers Place.

 

401 West End Avenue in New York City.

 

[JiuLing 242]

O'Hare Apartments in the game is based on Greenway Condos in Houston, TX.

Though it was found several years ago, the picture in the post was broken.

[Captain Adam 421]

The Goldman Building (CO$$$) is based on the Manhattan Building from Chicago, Illinois.
 

[Captain Adam 421]

So I decided to spend some looking for some buildings that were never mentioned here (maybe some of them were mentioned idk), here is the list:

(1) The Opera House is based on the Palais Garnier from Paris, France.

               

(2) The university is based on the Washington University in St. Louis.
  

(3) The light house is based on the Yaquina Head Lighthouse

 

(4) The Tubing Facility high tech is based on the Building N-206 at the NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California.

    

(5) The "Orange Point Suites" house from the Europe set is most likely based on this building from Berlin, Germany.

  

(6) The Zvenigorodsky Inc building is based on the Royal Nawaab from London, UK.

  

(7) Four modern villas from the game are inspired by "The Villa Casa Casuarina" (also known as the The Villa By Barton G)

   

(8) The Graham Apartments are based on this Barrington Plaza Apartments from LA.
  

(9) The Primavera is probably based on Villa D'Este Houston, a highrise building in Houston, Texas.

  

[JiuLing 242]

I travelled around New York on Google Earth and tried to find out some buildings that might inspire those buildings in Chicago and New York tilesets. However, NYC is so big that I am exhausted.

This is 1065 5th avenue, I think that it may inspire Quigley Place in the game, but I am not sure.

[Don Miguel 560]

Small Condos from the Chicago Tileset is based on 302 W 79 St in New York City.

 

 

[JiuLing 242]

It is an idea from a friend in a SimCity chatting group.

May Sky Rise Deluxe Condos be inspired by The Sovereign, an Apartments Tower in New York?

Their shapes are some similarities.

[Don Miguel 560]

I wonder if this building was the inspiration (albeit loose) for Twin Peak Towers from the Euro set?

It's a dormitory building for TH Koln, in Cologne, Germany.

[JiuLing 242]

 

On 2021/1/21 at 6:10 AM, Don Miguel said:

I wonder if this building was the inspiration (albeit loose) for Twin Peak Towers from the Euro set?

It's a dormitory building for TH Koln, in Cologne, Germany.

 

Their bottom parts are rather similar, shown by Google Earth.

[JiuLing 242]

This building in SimCity 3000 called "Super Spur", probably based on Messeturm in Frankfurt, which also inspired the Hogan Wallace and White Insurance in SimCity 4.

[Boombox Gamer 19]

The Major League Stadium is essentially Camden Yards in Baltimore

Mixed with Turner Field from Atlanta

 

 

[Don Miguel 560]

Miyagi Garage from the Asian tileset in SimCity 3000 may have been inspired by the Total House, a parking garage and office complex in Melbourne, Australia. 

[edwardjeria 503]

Hi, I don't know if this has ever been discussed, but the "Yoshi Tower" in SC3 is based (according to me) in the "demolished" Sofitel Hotel Tokio.

 

[Don Miguel 560]

Vikayakar Foods was based on 54 W Hubbard St in Chicago  (also known as Courthouse Place).

The in-game version was made smaller, just like how they shrank some other buildings like the McAdams Building (the Sherry-Netherland hotel in New York City) and Paull Inc (the Times Square Building in Rochester, NY).

 

 

[Jasoncw 11,841]

I always used to like that one a lot, as well as the one that's similar, because of their color. But they were always some of the less realistic buildings in the game. It's very interesting to see the real building this one was based on.

[MI Explorer 19]

Chong Inc. may be inspired by the Mizuho Bank Head Office Building in Tokyo (built 1980). I don't have a good picture of the game building, but it is that really UGLY high-rise in the Houston CO$$ office set with the navy blue columns and teal-coloured windows.

[JiuLing 242]

 

On 2021/12/11 at 8:08 AM, Don Miguel said:

Miyagi Garage from the Asian tileset in SimCity 3000 may have been inspired by the Total House, a parking garage and office complex in Melbourne, Australia. 

 

I think it is inspired by Rumsey Street Multi-storey Car Park in Hong Kong, China.

Even both of them are eight storeys for parking and two storeys for offices.

[Don Miguel 560]

On 5/4/2022 at 10:07 AM, JiuLing said:

 

 

I think it is inspired by Rumsey Street Multi-storey Car Park in Hong Kong, China.

Even both of them are eight storeys for parking and two storeys for offices.

 

Wow.  Yes.  That looks more like it!

[Don Miguel 560]

Ben Tower, from the European tileset in SimCity 4 looks a lot like NM-1 in Frankfurt, Germany.

I know Frankfurt has a lot of new buildings that have gone up since the game was released ~20 years ago, but according to Emporis, the building is from the 60's.

https://www.emporis.com/buildings/109676/nm-1-frankfurt-am-main-germany

 

   

[Don Miguel 560]

This one might be a bit of a stretch, but these are the Treptow Twin Towers in Berlin.  Built in the 90's before the game game out.

  

 

I wonder if they're the inspiration for these buildings:  Colin Condos and Bilyk Tower.

  

 

[Don Miguel 560]

I think Depiesse's Diner was based on 66 Diner in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

  

 

Here is a historic photo of the building with windows similar to the one in the game.

[Don Miguel 560]

Aijanagadde Inc. from the Houston tileset was based on 1010 Lamar St (Younan Square) in Houston.

 

   

[Don Miguel 560]

Ferrara Inc. from the Chicago Tileset in SimCity 4 is based one of the wings of the the Omaha National Bank building in Omaha, Nebraska.

 

         

[MI Explorer 19]

I think I found the inspiration for the SimCity 4 jail.

 

It may be based on the Monroe County Jail in Monroe, MI.

 

Here is an aerial view of the jail on Google Maps: