London Gherkin

[Caliban 2]

My first BAT building.. 30 St Mary Axe in London, aka the London Gherkin.
It is to scale as accurtely as I can make it.



The night lighting gave me some hassles due to BAT limitations.

Any comments are welcome.

[Caliban 2]

Sorry for the bump.

Just wanted to say that I have now managed to get the picture uploaded.

I spent a lot of time on this building and think it came out pretty well, just wondering what the community thought of it. https://community.simtropolis.com/assets/emoticons/1.gif>

[Masterbrew 0]

Very impressive

[DuskTrooper 314]

Nice work.  It looks more like an EEarthworm's head, BTW.

[Rickk 16]

Now that is cool! I can't wait to download it. https://community.simtropolis.com/assets/emoticons/1.gif>

[Caliban 2]

Thanks https://community.simtropolis.com/assets/emoticons/1.gif>

I don't know who called it the Gherkin first but it was used a lot in the press when it was proposed for construction back in 2000.

[DuskTrooper 314]

The architect must be messed up to make something like that!https://community.simtropolis.com/assets/emoticons/22.gif>

[deadwoods 542]

Very impressive. It's a truly unique building and you've done a great job of modelling it.

[joerg 278]

I never really like buildigns that are this free form but ever sense this building was built it has been one of my favorites. And for a first BAT this is a great building and night lighting looks very nice.

[hogmeister 7]

Well my post didnt work at all the first time, so here goes again. What a fantastic building for a first BAT, great work, youve captured the building very well. I see this from the train every day, its by Sir Norman Foster, and he got it past the planners, its amazing what a title will do to a civil servant. It's built on the site of the Baltic Exchange, that was blown up by the IRA not that long ago. What the picture dosent show you is how the building stands out in its surroundings, there are a few box towers around it, but this building puts all those commercial boxes to shame, it has grown on me. I hope we get more stylish buildings like this in London sooner rather than later. Have you thought about any other london buildings, say the old Nat West tower, its distinctive, if not the prettiest building you will ever see.

[JEC 100]

i'm glad to see this building. you have done a fantastic job, especially for your first building. sir norman foster is a very good architect. i believe he won the pritzker, which is probably the most prestigeus architectural award.

[phishery 0]

excellent work. for some reason i thought i'd never see that one in the game (no, i didn't doubt any of you). it's one of my favourites, i'm glad you're working on it, it looks great!

[whateverwhatever24 0]

wow- that is one of the best BAT buildings I have yet seen and considering its your first project, that is awesome!

[DuskTrooper 314]

Really nice work!  Too bad the building in real life is weird!

[Caliban 2]

Thanks for all the positive feedback https://community.simtropolis.com/assets/emoticons/9.gif>

I looked at a number of London buildings when choosing what to make but decided to do this one first as it looked the hardest https://community.simtropolis.com/assets/emoticons/1.gif>

Being a bit of a perfectionist I made each pane of glass (it should have the right number) a seperately smoothed item so the building is correctly faceted.

The biggest problem I had was sorting out the night lighting. As using the supplied night textures looked rubbish and making my own didn't work because the texture is applied flat in post and unsuitable for the shape, I finally had to use 40 nightlights (1 per floor) with far attenuation.

Its a shame that it needs to be isometric really as it doesn't do the buildings shape justice.


Although I am a newcomer to gMax and BAT, I have been using 3D Studio Max for several years so find it very straightforward but a little limiting.

[The_Dalai_Llama 15]

Simply stunning!  I was wondering if someone can make this, well, interesting building.  I just love the attention to detail!  I hope more buildings are in store.

[Llama_Sim 0]

I love this building! Really nice job! Is it available to me, the SimCity player? I want it in my city.

[Tunafish 48]

Hey Dusktrooper, he's almost as good as you are! Very Nice. I'll give you a 10 now!https://community.simtropolis.com/assets/emoticons/24.gif>

[Nugget699 0]

i love that, cant wait for the download

[MayorVieira 1]

I personally hate this building (Foster has gone nuts) but I must say you did a perfect job in recreating it for SC4. I hope you keep making buildings in BAT, and I hope I like your next choice. https://community.simtropolis.com/assets/emoticons/2.gif>

[EmergentFungus 29]

London's best buildings are getting made at quite a pace!

 

I had intended to make this building myself but you have made it now and it looks stunning! The detail on it is amazing.

[Masterbrew 0]

Heres a cool nightshot of the building. Think you can make red LED's like on the picture?

http://www.emporis.com/files/transfer/6/2003/12/234516.jpg

A London 2010 Tileset would be so cool

Edit: they worked when I made the post >

[frogface 352]

that is an awesome building! it a excellent recreation of one of London's best buildings.

i tihnk you should make a grey bands of glass a little darker though, in real life it seems to be a little darker.

cant wait to download this!

[Screwballl 196]

[bEGINQUOTE]

3/24/2004 9:15:26 AM[/quoteDATE]

Masterbrew[/quoteAUTHOR]

Heres a cool nightshot of the building. Think you can make red LED's like on the picture?



A London 2010 Tileset would be so cool https://community.simtropolis.com/assets/emoticons/4.gif>

London Bridge Tower:


Minerva Building:


Colombus Tower:


And ofc the 'Erotic Gherkin'https://community.simtropolis.com/assets/emoticons/11.gif>


Edit: Heres another one, the 460 m Citygate Ecotower!

[/quoteMESSAGE][/bEGINQUOTE]


nice squares with red boxes, try uploading the pictures to our server here because other providers are more liekly to go down

 

also, you may have the scale set close to real life scale but ingame, it does help to exagherate for it to fit ingame properly. the ratio i found that works best is 3:4... a 3m real life ceiling height should be created to 4m tall to look proper ingame. take all sizes and multiply by 1.25 to 1.333333... for your building, 1.25 would look about right once exported and ingame

[Smurfer2 7]

That is an unusual building, but were glad your making it. You just can't miss it in the London skyline, can you....

[frogface 352]

[bEGINQUOTE]

3/24/2004 10:48:54 AM[/quoteDATE]

Smurfer2[/quoteAUTHOR]

That is an unusual building, but were glad your making it. You just can't miss it in the London skyline, can you....

[/quoteMESSAGE][/bEGINQUOTE]


thats true, it really does stand out. when i last went into London it really did stand out in the skyline and i was wondering what the heck it was. of course i know now https://community.simtropolis.com/assets/emoticons/1.gif> 

i agree with screwballl you should experiment with exagerrating the height slightly, it may not end up being to scale but it might look better.

[darren 7]

here what he was lookin for
London Millennium Tower
>
London Bridge Tower
>
Columbus Tower( the one on the left)
>
Minerva Building
>
and 30 St Mary Axe
>

[frogface 352]

the london bridge tower is one of my favorites! it should be being built now that they have planning permission for it.

i was thinking of making it but i dont think i'll really be up to it.

[darren 7]

i 4 got the Citygate Ecotower

>

[darren 7]

sorry double post (deleted)