city layouts

[mistershnerples 0]

I was just wondering what everyone tends to do with city layouts. I tend to go for the square shapes and measure how a 6x6 area for all my cities now. I know its only somewhat realistic, but it gets the job done for the game and for its transportation needs (at times). Whenever I look at city pictures online it seems everyone has filled every corner, whilst my cities are all blocky and there are lots of square open spaces. Anyways, I was just wondering what people did!

[SockoJr53 51]

I try to build a little more realistic, based on what I've seen around the New York & New England region (where I'm from). For example railroads usually hug shorelines and river banks, and roads will conform to hills and valleys and such. I only use blocks in the downtown, and let the suburbs wind around.

[belfastuniguy 18]

I don't do realistic in any major form really, apart from surburbs. As my CJ shows, I love building my cities in a grand imperial way with long wide avenues, grand public spaces and buildings and overall showcase masterplanning. That's what I enjoy and I really love that kinda planning.

I think there are those that enjoy building realistic cities and those like me that love grand cities, I do what I enjoy doing as do many. It's always good to see such variety in CJ's here.

[prkrsmth 0]

i usually try to do like crazy diagonal things for more aesthetically pleasing cities, and then like grids in between that, but if its just a functional city aimed towards population or something, usually ill go with mostly a straight grid, or something very basic

[t_co 0]

Depends on whether I'm building a downtown, suburb, or other district.

Downtowns: 6x6, 8x8, 6x8, 8x10 grid bounded by avenues with streettop subway/bus stations at the four midpoints of the resulting square's sides. However, in my sole "large" downtown (the one that's filled with skyscrapers) I have built a winding, s-shaped avenue lined with shops, parks, and museums that runs the length of the medium city tile (right down the middle). The downtown is ringed with a freeway loop and has a cross-shaped underground freeway system running through the medium city tile at the center of the region.

Suburbs: I usually take a large city grid, split it into sixteen blocks with avenues, and then proceed to build winding suburban neighborhoods inside each block or small industrial/commercial developments. Sometimes I will simply fill a block with parks and museums, etc, or those massive japanese schools made by somy (which i find simulates a suburban school in terms of coverage much better than the maxis schools). Freeways tend to go straight, with five large loops that look like a sinusoidal rose forming my regional freeway system. (the middle part of the rose would be my downtown.) Also have sunken suburban rail, usually with two lines going through each large city tiile (which looks like a cross, one line down the middle going northsouth and the other line down the middle going east west).

Industrial complexes: 6x6 road grids with avenues every four or five roads. Also usually built around a port or giant railway depot (which usually takes up between 10 to 20 6x6 blocks).

Ports: One long highway going parallel to the coast, with feeder roads going through it at right angles leading to piers and warehouses etc . Usually have industrial development on the other side of the highway.

Exurbs/mountain communities/luxury communities: usually large city tile with one avenue going through it, one major road that then branches off into many streets among a) winding hills and small mountain cabins or b) the beach and beach houses/massive estates

Airports: regional airport has a ring of highway around it surrouding four terminals and four crisscrossing runways (in a # configuration with terminals at the corners)

Farmland: rare, but usually a single road running down the middle of the tile with farms/streets surrounding it.

Coasts: I terminate the grid at a coast, only allowing bridges for freeways. The water is bordered with an avenue that intersects with all the grid streets it hits, but not the smaller streets. Part of the downtown loop highway is along a coast and takes the place of the avenue there.

[Cob92 360]

My inner city areas tend to be very grid based, while suburban and rural roads tend to follow winding, curving paths. My downtown is usually the first part of the city I build, so this fits in fine with the "achieve financial sustainability" type of goal of the early game. My suburbs are built after the city center is established, so I usually have more cash and/or neighbors to provide a boost. This allows the preplanned roads, cul-de-sacs, and strip malls characteristic of suburbs. Additionally, this is the order in which real life metropolises were built, and it is an effective and realistic method of city planning.

[hawkpride147 1]

im the same as cobhris96

[mistershnerples 0]

t_co: very interesting. i tend to do the same things, except i keep the square blocks without the winding streets within each block. that is a good idea though. and i also do the same thing with city services and putting them in those squares. i find them convenient. i also like to put a bus stop and subway station and each ne corner or so. oh what is that japanese school you're using? where did you find it on STEX?

Cobhris96: i totally agree with that. once you get that city center with w/e layout it is much easier to expand outward and you can usually be more creative once you have the financial stability.

but very interesting! thanks guys!

[bbfan02 23]

I'm just wondering, if your making a huge city, like New York, not suburbs, how many commerical buildings should you hav per residential buildings so there are enough jobs for everyone in those residential buildings?

[prkrsmth 0]

bbfan02: just enough so there are no "no job" symbols above the residential buildings. The game will let you know if there is a lack of jobs. Usually it builds along with how many it needs, but if you start to get alot of no job symbols just build a little more high density commercial

[_MostlyHarmless 17]

I build like how I see things where I live. I'm from Chicago, so I grid everything out.

[snickm 2]

I actually prefer small grids (4x5) as a base & then mixing different styles in along the way (some 4x4, 5x5, 2x5, etc). When I look on Google Maps, it seems that many cities varied the grids, I'm guessing, depending on the neighborhood & use. To me, the smaller grids seem to make the buildings feel a larger. Also, here in Baton Rouge, when have a lot of blocks that I would consider 2x6 or 2x5.

[t_co 0]

For the Japanese school, here is the link: http://members3.jcom.home.ne.jp/somy000/

[mistershnerples 0]

northsider1983: that's exactly how i feel. i feel like everything should belong in a grid. otherwise i feel like its out of control. maybe my new cities will have a mixture of grids and randomness. b/c im from seattle, and there's grids everywhere, then there's random streets that just cut across for no reason at all.

snickn: i agree with you as well. there are many grids in seattle, but then they are varied. for example, some commercial grids may be larger than residential grids, or just depends on where the grid will be located. like tin the downtown area maybe grids may be more closers together while the residential ones in the suburbs can be bigger.

t_co: thanks!

[bobgleason 0]

i just go all willy nilly with my layout. i ussualy layout commercial areas all together, then use open space and trees to border it from resodential and industrial zones, and connect them all using highways.

[masochist 111]

Hmm...interesting ideas.  It's cool to hear how other people go about developing their cities, which approaches they take to get it perfect.

As for myself, I'm with northsider1983.  I build my city streets based on cities I have lived in in real life, which means Las Vegas and Houston.  While the zoning of the two cities is radically different (because Vegas has the strip and Houston has no zoning), the road layout is surprisingly similar.  They're basically grids that aren't totally straight.  You have huge boulevards that stretch across the city in more a less a straight line, but it's not necessarily a grid.  I mean, you can tell which streets run north to south and east to west, but they curve and they go diagonal every now and then.  And there are the odd avenues here and there that slash across the metro diagonally all the way (Rancho Dr/Boulder Hwy. in Vegas, Main St. and Hwy. 6 in Houston).

There are other things, as well.  For example, the freeways in Vegas somewhat dictate where the roads go (or vice versa, I suppose).  Houston has large pockets of high-density commerce spread out around the city in addition to the main CBD.  Both cities have massive airports with direct freeway access (which will be so in my city whenever I get around to it).  And both cities have massive, massive suburban sprawl, so that's also an important aspect of my city (that's actually where I started building).

I hope you guys don't mind me sharing, but I have a picture to illustrate what I'm talking about:

(That's not the main CBD in my region.  I have yet to build the real one...)

So yeah...that's how I plan my cities...

[mistershnerples 0]

that is an amazing city. i dont know why, but it reminds me more of las vegas ... probably because there's a bunch of buildings and suddently homes. and then a main avenue that just slices the place. hmm. oh well. great to hear your guys' thoughts!

[Cleaner475 150]

good use of bridges masochist - good pic

i build in blocks and then once I have build on a large majority of the city tile I start to redesign the areas I have already built so I can make tranportation better.

[Exsun 0]

I'm still playing with the style aspect. I use to do just grids 9x9, 6x8 for downtowns and industrial areas. For residential it really depended on how I was feeling. Most of the time i would end up wit ha mix of 2x blocks in various lengths. After seeing so many good looking cities with the winding roads I have tried to incorporate them into my region. I have tried just about everything it seems now. My regions really look disjointed as my whim takes me into new cities with a different newly found style. Anyway I usually always end up with Maxis std grids because I get impatient and want the city to grow. It seems everyday I find something new to try. Right now I am trying to bring my little pockets toghether somehow. Either that or start over yet again...

t_co: I would like to see some of your work as it sounds interesting how you have things laid out.

masochist:  I think you have a nice looking city going there.  Any chance of seeing some closeups?

[star.torturer 0]

i do it like this:

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This makes each zone 5 tiles long or 3 and 2 which is what the zone tools do automaticaly.

the 2x2 space in the center can be used for beautification or transport or servicies.

i usualy zone each with a mixture of both C$$$ and R$$$

never do suburbs cause im shelterd. and each section that i am zoning has to be perfectly flat so i make lots of cliffs lol

[Cob92 360]

From what I've seen of the road layouts in Houston, they are a strict grid in the older parts of the city that grows more irregular the further you get from downtown. Out in the suburbs, the roads follow curved patterns with numerous cul-de-sacs. Also, I've noticed that the newer roads are based around the freeway network, due to its being the prime transit utility in Houston. The road layout of Houston has served as inspiration for the planning in my major cities.

Right now, I am trying to do a sprawler city with no mass transit, which means that everyone drives their own cars. The city has a downtown grid and irregular suburban streets, as well as highways that provide rapid access to the city center.

[Deathamphetimine 2]

Like most of you, I use a straight grid downtown at either 4x4, 4x6, or 6x6. Expanding beyond the areas built before 1950's, I continue the grid with about a square quarter mile between avenues with windey dead-end streets in those blocks, similer to older suburban neighborhoods from circa 1970, like Albuquerque or Phoenix. Im also a fan of having numerous freeways, almost in a grid like Arlington, Texas, but they always seem form a spoke and wheel concept like that of .....well, every major city in Texas. For my suburbs after the 1980's, I build master-planned communities with one major avenue with lots of flora and greenspace. The neighborhoods are built in small villages with no more than 2 of 3 streets with lots of nature preserves between the villages, like the sub-divisions of New Tampa and Wesley Chapel (North of Tampa) Florida. I guess I like realism.