mipro Barry Sanders Project

[Explodingsims 3]

Wow, all of these look good! How many are done, and I where can I find them?

[Jasoncw 11,840]

SimFan34:  Yeah, that's almost all of the detail of the real building.  The real building has patterns in between the windows, which I will do with textures.  But I don't have any plans to do the Book Cadillac Hotel. 

Baldy:  Thanks!!  You've been a mega big help with the photos.

Yeah, I saw the Lego buildings too (on Flickr, not at the convention).  It makes me feel like I should be working faster, Jim has made all of these great buildings in less time than it takes me to do one, lol.  And Legos are much harder too, there's a lot more thinking, and compromises, and physical work.

UltraGIR XL:  The limestone is pretty grey, but it does have some tan in it.  Most of the tan you're thinking of is probably from the sun.  I'll be doing the whitish lights.  I might make a seasonal prop for the other color scheme though.  I don't know anything new about the Ren Cen.

ExplodingSims:  The ones that are done are the ones on the STEX, search for "BSP" and you'll find all of the completed ones.

With the new 211 photos, I'll be finishing that one up.

[nofunk 1,933]

Holy crap, Jason! You've made a lot of progress on the Penobscot Building!

Makes me want to get back to work on some of my old BSP projects.

[bigskelding 12]

nice work jason, my computers not that bad for things like this, but lets just say, it i dont run SC on max, as for this project and adding a few Windsor buildings to it, i would love to do that if i had any clue how to use the BAT or were to fined it, any site that i have looked at only has the patch for it. if someone could help me out with that, i would love to get inloved in someway with this project, im always around downtown windsor and detroit.

[Simfan34 11]

I never mentioned the B-C! You must have misheard my coughing.

[Jasoncw 11,840]

Nofunk:  You should!!

BigSkelding:  If you look in the Mega BAT FAQ at the top of this forum, it has some entries for finding the BAT.  And in the omnibus, there are some BAT tutorials.  If you ever need any help learning how to BAT, just ask.

SimFan34:  Plus, even if I did the BC, I don't know exactly what the addition will look like, or how some of the other renovations will affect the look of the building.

[Hanson784 165]

Penobscot looks great Jason! A welcome Art Deco addition to any sim skyline.

Reminds me I need to get started already on the model of 500 Fifth Avenue you sent me a while ago.

[Jasoncw 11,840]

Thanks!

I don't know how accurate 500 5^th Avenue is though.  I made it such a long time ago.  I'd like to BAT NYC's Art Deco skyscrapers, but Detroit's are the priority.  I'm hoping that with the experience from the Penobscot Building, skyscrapers in general will be easier to make.  There are very few high quality Art Deco skyscrapers, while the number of shorter wall to wall buildings has increased a lot (from next to nothing) from when I started BATing.

Flickr is really lacking on the skyscraper photos though.  I search for building's names, and I only get a few pages.  I feel like I'm searching for the wrong terms, but I'm using what Emporis calls the buildings.  I don't know.

I'd really love to do the David Stott Building (Detroit), but the building is 1.6x1.6 tiles.  And if I included the tan building next to it, it still wouldn't fit any lots very well.  And I can't scale it up horizontally, because it would hurt the proportions.

Search for "David Stott Detroit" on Flickr.com

Here's a bunch of photos of the building.  Click on them for larger versions and more information.  Note in the first one, that the David Stott Building is in the foreground, and Penobscot Building is in the background.  The Penobscot Building is 40 meters taller.

If anyone has good ideas on how to make the building fit in well with SC4, then post! 

[Simfan34 11]

Stick some fake buildings at the bottom- expand the base- put a garage.

[SpartanBadger 4]

why don't you just make the building as it is-1.6x1.6 and then stick it on a 2x2 lot and then make a nice little lot for it

[Sim shady 12]

I agree with spiderman, just place it on a 2 X 2 lot, if you still want it w2w just pretend one side is an alley

[Howling 10]

You could of course make them corner W2W lots. Just put one side at the edge of the buildings and create a nice small plaza with props.

I'd love to see this building on the STEX, it'd make a fine, fine addition!

[Jasoncw 11,840]

I could bring it up to be wall to wall on the front, with a large sidewalk on the side, and an alley in the back side.  But it is snug on its lot in real life, and there are buildings on both sides of it.  Not only that, but the building next door is a nice filler building that could be done, since it's very close to being 16 meters wide.  Although I think the building technically wraps around the David Stott, I'll have to find out.

If I scale it up by 115%, then it will be wall to wall on the front, and it will go against the edge of the lot on the back, but there will still be a plaza next to it.  But that makes the building look too chubby.

I could also just make it, and then figure out how to scale/lot it afterwards.  The building doesn't look very hard to do.

[wolverine 12]

Why not add an automated parking garage to the side.  I know that's not there in real life, but for SimCity purposes it would work.

[bigskelding 12]

Has anyone planed on doing michigan central station? i know that its well, abandoned and a total killer on the eyes, even from my side of the river, but as a BAT it could be cleaned up the way it used to be, it really is a nice building if u really look at it and block out the razor wire and fence that surounds the place to keep people out lol, and its pritty important to detroit, just tossing it out there, i would bat it but... i really suck at this stuff. just kinda tossing it out there. OH and it was in Transformers!! lol and i would toss a pic of the building in but, i dont know how. lol

[SpartanBadger 4]

Skelding I was thinking of that the other day; I was watching Transformers and I thought I saw the Cadillac Tower and then I saw the sign for "Fort Street" and then some other Detroit landmarks and finally MCS...anyway I couldn't stop thinking about how they were supposed to be in LA and yet they were at the top of a Detroit building...

[Andreas Roth 607]

I'd say a small plaza or maybe a parking garage would work fine to fill the lot properly. The building is too nice to be left out just because of the footprint.

[Jasoncw 11,840]

Ok, here's a Master Plan for that block:

A - David Stott Building:

Modeled as normal, and scaled 115% horizontally, and 110% vertically (after the normal 133% scaling).  2x2 corner lot.  Could be modded for CO§§§, CO§§, R§§§, LM, Plop.  The building is currently CO§§, but if it was renovated (which is the intention as far as I know), it would be  R§§§.  The building was presumably originally CO§§§.

B - Small Sandstone Building:

This is a short building that wraps around the David Stott Building in real life.  The part that wraps around does not line up with

SC4

's tiles at all, and from what I recall it's pretty nasty looking (it looks like it was modernized and then poorly maintained afterwards).  The part shown here perfectly fits on the

SC4

tiles, and would be a nice filler building for the game.  I don't know anything else about the building.  It would be a 1x2.  Two sets of lots could be provided, one which has the building set back the same distance as the David Stott Building, and another set that uses my standard setback (one meter).

C - 1001 Woodward Garage:

This fits very well with

SC4

's tiles.  It would be a 5x2 parking garage.  The alleyway between the small sandstone building and this garage will be lotted on the garage, so that the other building can be used in wall to wall environments, and since the building itself is 16 meters wide (there would be no space for the alley on that lot).  The building itself isn't very significant, but right now it's sort of well known by people who go downtown, since it's new, pretty big, has a CVS on the bottom, and was well designed as far as garages go.  A handful of buildings were demolished for it, which are more interesting than the garage itself.

D - 1001 Woodward:

The building has a large sidewalks/plaza on the side, which makes fitting it onto a lot simple.  And in real life, the side of the building is on a diagonal road.  An overhang-lot diagonal version could be made.  It would be a 3x4 corner lot.  CO§§§, R§§§ (it's being converted into condos), LM, & Plop are possible.  The building was built on the site of one of Detroit's early skyscrapers, and it's on a spot facing the busy Campus Martius Park, but other than that, I don't know of any historical significance. 

Link to Emporis.com

.

[Simfan34 11]

Woah. "Can't fit on a lot, so do the block!"

[gerAndi 29]

very nice project, jason! =)

I can

[Jasoncw 11,840]

Simfan34:  They would all be done separately, but that is how they would fit together on lots.  The grid in the picture are the lot borders, and you can see that everything can be separated.

GerAndi:  Actually, the David Stott Building is Class C office space, and probably dirt cheap.  It's also mostly empty, with only a few floors being used.

The building can not be practically upgraded into better offices, and even if it was, there is absolutely no demand for office space in downtown.  The building can't be upgraded because the floors are so small.  Large companies don't want their offices spread out on so many floors, but at the same time, subdividing each floor would loose even more floor space because of the extra walls and utilities.  Regardless, the costs of the upgrade would make it too expensive to be desirable.  If real life was SC4, then the David Stott Building would be CO$ (which doesn't even exist in the game), and it would almost be abandoned.

There is a general plan to turn the building into condos.  This could be done, and each floor could either be one unit, or could be divided up into two.  The units would be really expensive though, because of the costs of the renovations, but there is demand for luxury living downtown, and the David Stott would be desirable, because of its location, views, and architecture.

[Fledgeling 1]

The David Stott Building is phenominal. Are you planning on doing all buildings that you listed?

[Jasoncw 11,840]

Eventually I'd like to do every single building everywhere, but I'll do certain ones first, based off how easy it is to do, how useful in the game it would be, and how much I like the building.  For BSP projects, that also has to do with how much of a landmark the building is in real life, but so far coincidentally most of the buildings I'm working on, or have made aren't landmarks, just random buildings that I decided on because of those other reasons.

Another thing I consider is how many consecutive buildings can be made, which is another goal (not to recreate just individual buildings, but also individual neighborhoods/districts).  The area I'm focusing on is generally defined as being the area around Fort Street and Lafayette Blvd., and the area around Griswold Street and the most south end of Woodward Avenue.  I chose this general area because it has the greatest number of landmarks, and because the streets are a grid, while for a lot of downtown it is not a grid.  Originally I wasn't planning on going North of the Olde Building, since there is a funny intersection and diagonal road there, but I really like the David Stott Building.

Sorry for the long explanation!

bigskelding:  I personally don't have plans to do it, but it is a famous landmark, and would be useful for the game.  The only reason it's not done is because no one has happened to make it.

[Sim shady 12]

Wow big plans there Jason! I pray you actually follow through with all of it

[Jasoncw 11,840]

These buildings should be easier to do though, lol.  There won't be problems with reference photos, and the buildings themselves are simple to model.  Everything that's taken a long time recently has been because of things making the process more complicated, or the buildings just being time consuming.

[mightygoose 92]

or put it and the beige building as overhanging props to make diagonal w2w's.... check out prepo's thread on devotion jason. maybe it will fit better if you look at diagonals...

[Jasoncw 11,840]

None of the buildings in that render are diagonal though.  The black one is square, but the street next to it is diagonal, but I already mentioned making an overhang lot for it.  I'm confused at what you mean.

[mightygoose 92]

as in you render the entire building at a 45 degree angle, or are you trying to go for realism and maintain the correct orientation to the rest of the set....

[Jasoncw 11,840]

Ooooh, I think I know what you're saying.  Yeah, in real life, the grid in downtown Detroit isn't aligned with North South.  But in my opinion, the directions in SC4 don't have much meaning, since the shadows aren't fixed in any direction.  In my opinion the SC4 grid could represent any orientation of grid.  The SC4 grid can just be assumed to line up with Detroit's grid.  But buildings that are diagonal to downtown's grid would likely have diagonal versions to help users recreate downtown Detroit.

[Spike345 20]

speaking of diagonals, do you think you would ever attempt any?