Experimental skyscraper districts

[Terring 6,473]

Hello

I love skyscrapers but i don't like the sceneric of them when they are too much. I would like to build a skyscraper district but not a New York-like jungle. Please note that i love New York, i just don't agree with this...

So i make a little experiment with some landmarks and plopaple skyscrapers by Somy, and here is the result...

6x6 blocks with skyscrapers and parks (this is a test, skyscraper districts will be not as small as these )

Other buildings can be exist at the parks, like police stations and museums

Mass transit systems

Do you like my idea?

[Lampala 1]

Well... do you have money cheats? A huge district of that is going to be very expensive.

[diamonddog_74 32]

Originally posted by: Lampala

Well... do you have money cheats? A huge district of that is going to be very expensive.quote>

I agree. Also, the whole point of skyscrapers is less sprawl, your test is a bit spread out.

I do get what you're trying to do, though. Maybe clustering some skyscrapers, but surrounding them with green belts that also serve as transportation networks between clusters may work too.

I don't have the game fired up, so I can't show you what I mean.

[WARGOD 11]

kinda leaves to much open air maybe put freeways passing by and non maxis parks atleast

[diamonddog_74 32]

Originally posted by: WARGOD

kinda leaves to much open air maybe put freeways passing by and non maxis parks atleastquote>

Terring is using the Maxis parks just as a placeholder to show us his idea.

[cubenax 2]

A district like this with many sky scrapers? .... kind of, well, boring. It doesn't look much like a nice skyline. And repeating buildings is lame. Have some variety. 

P.S, I personally love urban jungles like NYC.

[Jezus53 18]

I think it's a great idea. I do not like the buildings, but I think those buildings are there so that way he can show you what he means. The skyscrapers will be the normal growable ones....I think. I think that it should be a little less spread out. Maybe instead of three large park areas and a skyscraper in a 2x2 section put in a line of plazas or something around the actual sky scraper. That would make an 8x8 or 9x9 block and leave open space, but it'll also look less open.

[Terring 6,473]

"Well... do you have money cheats? A huge district of that is going to be very expensive."

I have the Simoleon RH mod, so no need for cheating ;-)

"Maybe clustering some skyscrapers, but surrounding them with green belts that also serve as transportation networks between clusters may work too"

I know what you mean, good idea :-)

"kinda leaves to much open air maybe put freeways passing by and non maxis parks atleast"

For my cities i want plenty of open space and not too much density for the buildings. I like Maxis parks but you can replace them with anything you like, like landmarks and extra custom parks. But passings for the pedestrian is a great idea :-D

"And repeating buildings is lame. Have some variety."

The buildings that i select are plopable structures just to give you a little taste of what i mean. But i totally agree with you, the same skyscrapers again and again it's extremely boring. My idea will be much better with grownable buildings :-)

"Maybe instead of three large park areas and a skyscraper in a 2x2 section put in a line of plazas or something around the actual sky scraper. That would make an 8x8 or 9x9 block and leave open space, but it'll also look less open."

Sorry my friend but I'm a bit confused, maybe because my English are a bit terrible. Can i have an image of what do you mean?

[The Arrowz 3]

Interesting concept. It should work, but may not be that realistic; usually skyscrapers are built because there isn't enough room to spread out, so people must go up. But with so much open space, there doesn't seem to be such a need for massive buildings Maybe fill up the plazas with smaller commercial or residential buildings?

(Where did you get that el-rail station!?)

[Francis90b 748]

Interesting experiment, but skyscraper are built because of lack of space, and so what you've tried to do is quite difficult to find in real life...even if some high rise public housings were built according to this, with few high towers surrounded by a lot of green....

[Terring 6,473]

Less room means more demands for tall buildings, and you end up with urban jungle. This is what i want to avoid, cities that Sims feels more like prisoners than citizens. I have these ideas maybe because I'm living in a city without any skyscraper, but it doesn't that i dislike them. Maybe my project look unrealistic, but don't forget that Simcity is a game ;-)

More images are coming soon, showing a better view of my experiment :-)

And the El over road station is at http://www.bripizza.net/sc4/namStaover/namStaover.html

[Yuu Caa Sim 55]

I've always liked cities that had more spread out skyscrapers . It may be somewhat unrealistic, but I think it would make the people living in the cities happier (in real life of course. Sims don't care ). I think your concept as it is spreads the skyscrapers out a bit too much though.

I believe what Jezus53 is referring to is a cityblock, the area between 4 intersections that form a square. In your picture, a 2x2 cityblock (which thus contains 4 cityblocks arranged in a square) contains only one block with a skyscraper, and 3 that have only plazas. What I think Jezus53 is suggesting you to do is to enlarge each cityvlock and have a skyscraper in each block, surrounding 2 or 3 sides of it with parks/plazas.

Incidentally, I would agree wholeheartedly with that .

[2000flatblkcivic 0]

i love it

[Lampala 1]

I think it would look better/cooler if you did 2 things: one would be to use shorter buildings, so that it doesn't strike people as unrealistic when they compare it to any real cities. Instead, it would look sort of futuristic or utopian, I think. Second of all, it would look better and be more fun (though slower) to use the SFBT park sets-- the medium wealth one, the high wealth one, or the low wealth one-- to create custom paths. And also it looks not-right to have so much space without any parking lots, so I would put some in.

[technicallydead 1]

Yo do have an idea. But another solution for the skyscraper sprawl is height control and architecture matching. Height control is easy. The highest building will be at the center and then buildings with gradually lower height would follow, much more like a pyramid type. Architecture matching is making the building match its surrounding skyscraper and environment.

[Terring 6,473]

A better presentation of my experiment.

A lagger view. I use these buildings to show you a better idea, so please don't complaint about the buildings themshelf

Plenty of open space, with lot's of parks and other buildings like polise stations and bus stops

Skyscrapers and heavy rail under road (with station )

Taxis and El rail over road. Public transportation is vital, so you can go to your work without using your car

And why not? An avenue with tram

I hope that you like it. I didn't use any of your advise not because i don't like them but because i want to show you my ideas. Comments are welcomed

[sim-Al2 4]

Looks nicer than the cramed to death districts!

[Cioppo 0]

I still don't know why you have to do this...............it isn't reality and you have compulsorily to cheat to have this........

[City2TheMax 3]

hmm, this is interesting

Considering real life situations, this idea could work, depending on the actual population situation. With huge buildings like that, parks would definitely allow enough room to breathe. In addition, it would decrease the "heat island" effect so often seen in dense downtowns. It appears to be a futuristic eco-friendly utopian idea, which is very intriguing.

From a practical SimCity standpoint, I find this idea to be on the verge of excessive. As people have mentioned, the parks would take tons of money for upkeep. And the idea behind skyscrapers is that they utilize the given space as to optimize it. If people wanted open spaces that hold more people they would continue building strip malls and suburbs.

To me it almost feels "empty" without spaceships and hover-cars etc., because as I have mentioned it looks futuristic and utopian. But for a practical city, especially in SimCity, I don't think that it's a great idea.

[Francis90b 748]

Newer pictures look much better.

[spa 968]

LeCorbusier, utopian city planner and architect, would have liked this It's pretty much straight out of his conception of how cities should be built: Towers in the Park.

[Jasoncw 11,840]

Yes, it's interesting that what you're proposing is very similar to modernist architect, Le Corbusier's, Radiant City.

Edit:  oh, I see me and spa posted at the same time. 

[Cioppo 0]

Well.........if you talk like that it would be the perfect futuristic-utopian city.............it would be better if on the roof of those buildings you "put" some solar panels......but I think that in Simcity doesn't looks very good.....

[Terring 6,473]

it isn't reality and you have compulsorily to cheat to have this

If i want reality, i turn on the television and watch the news . Also many players use mods, cheats and money trees to build anything they want without caring about the cost.

Considering real life situations, this idea could work, depending on the actual population situation. With huge buildings like that, parks would definitely allow enough room to breathe. In addition, it would decrease the "heat island" effect so often seen in dense downtowns. It appears to be a futuristic eco-friendly utopian idea, which is very intriguing.

At the old days of Simcity 3000 i didn't just playing around and building cities, but also i design urban utopias. Some were my ideas, others were inspirited from others. Here is one of my designs:

The same tradition in Simcity 4, not only games but also suggests for a better future

If people wanted open spaces that hold more people they would continue building strip malls and suburbs.

In a place that you need plenty of open spaces and as more Sims as possible at the same time, strip malls and suburbs will not be the solution.

To me it almost feels "empty" without spaceships and hover-cars etc., because as I have mentioned it looks futuristic and utopian.

Now you are in my mind

But for a practical city, especially in SimCity, I don't think that it's a great idea.

If you want an eco-frendly city of the future, because Simcity 4 begins at the year 2000 and never ends, why not?

[Aarkadius 0]

Its not the prettiest but I admire your idea.... I dont understand this bashing here... :-/ Although it would be quite unrealistic in the world now ur idea of a utopia without cars just public transpotation is admirable

[aiumkastarkius 0]

Good Idea, but i doubt it would ever come to fruition because of the land that is not generating tax income, and is instead in need of maintenance. I do like the ped mall on broadway in New York though

[Terring 6,473]

"Although it would be quite unrealistic in the world"

Don't forget that we are talking about a game, not a real world simulator, that allows you to build anything you want. Besides a futuristic city in Simcity 4 is much more realistic than a Fun City in Simcity Societies.

"a utopia without cars just public transpotation"

You can still use your car, but will be just useless. With subway, heavy rails under, El rail over roads, taxis and buses, you just don't need to take a car :-)

"That looks terrible. whered you get such a stupid idea "

I guess that you have a much better idea than mine, but why you didn't show it to us? Post your idea and i will comment it. Don't worry, i will be polite and i will explain my comments.

[Defecto 44]

Reminds me of the old "Bijlmer" district in Amsterdam. Planned out so well, raised avenues, pedestrian passages going under and over those roads, residential towers with parks spread out in between the towers, and el. trains & busses driving through it. It sounds like utopia, and that's how it looked in the architects impressions.

But not quite, pretty much immediately after it was completed in the 1970s it turned out to have become the benchmark ghetto of Amsterdam.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bijlmer

[koolkalang 2]

That's a lot of large plazas and flwoer gardens. lol.

I know it's an experiment, but it would be nice if there was a little more variance in the "open areas" -ie, lakes, ponds, recreational areas, etc.

[Teddah 1]

Neat idea, terring!

Forget the naysayers; SimCity is supposed to be the place where you build the city of your dreams, and have fun at it. I think there are a lot of people in this community who have forgotten that.