Ventura City

[tshirt23 75]

After looking at all the CJs on Simtropolis, I was finally inspired to start my own. Ventura City uses the NHP Ventura-Oxnard map downloadable from the STEX, available here:

.

It is not a recreation of the actual city, though I chose to keep the name. The goal for my city journal is realism - and it will feature primarily photos as I am not much of a story teller - though I do sometimes have my creative moments!

This first update will give you a tour of the entire city, and each successive update will most likely feature one certain area of the city. So, without further adieu, I give you Ventura City.

Most of the citizens travel in from the surrounding suburbs to work in the offices and stores of Downtown Ventura City. It is at a prime location, nestled right up to the Western edge of the Brentwood Hills.

Next we travel south to the Manufacturing District of Ventura where many of the lower class families work day in and day out.

Forming a ring surrounding downtown, is Arlington, the oldest neighborhood of Ventura City. Many of the original houses are still standing, though you can see numerous modern remodels throughout Arlington's streets.

Traveling Southeast to Elyria, this is where many working class families live, in tightly packed rowhouses.

Further to the East is Brentwood, a higher class neighborhood surrounded by the Brentwood Mountains to the North, and Grover Hills to the South.

And Here is Brentwood Heights, the Business District of Brentwood.

Now up to the North, we reach the University of Ventura. Here we find McAllister's Oval, or "the oval" as the students call it. It is named after the original president of the University, Stanley McAllister.

And going south, we reach the suburbs. Here is the quiet suburb of Moore Park, where you can find houses with larger lots, and varying architectures. This photo showcases Washington High School.

Traveling West through the suburbs leading up to the oceanfront, we reach our last stop, the Oceanside Docks.

I hope you enjoyed your tour of Ventura City, please stop by again!

  Edited July 31, 2012 by tshirt23  

[VMIUJcadet09 250]

This is an amazing CJ, it is super realistic! Good job! Maybe I will follow in your footsteps and start my own CJ too.

[Bepi__ 54]

Wow! Very nice! It looks very realistic! I wish I could make my cities like that!

[TekindusT 3,809]

Very realistic! Keep it up!

[Uzil 157]

Really nice

[Markus J 242]

I like it, keep it up. Maybe you'll eventually meet with my Hollywood

  Edited July 29, 2012 by Markus J  

[crazychickensc12 84]

Great opening to this city journal! Brentwood and the last Oceanside pics are definitely my favs! Looking forward to the next update!

[Fox 1,444]

Good start.. the city looks great and well designed so far, can't wait to see more.

[tshirt23 75]

Thank you everyone for the comments, it defiantly inspires me to keep going! This update of Ventura City will feature Oceanside.

Fisher Plaza is the upper one, and Woodside Plaza is the lower one.

Garrison is just West of Downtown Oceanside

And North Oceanside is just across the highway from Downtown Oceanside

Thanks for Visiting, and the Next update will probably feature The University of Ventura, so stay tuned!

[Schulmanator 5,807]

You are off to a fine start. I like your work so far. Keep it up!

[Benedict 3,119]

This is an impressive start! I'm hoping you'll be a regular updater.

[tshirt23 75]

Replies

Schulmanator - Thanks! I'm glad that you like it.

Benedict - Thank you! I'm hoping to update pretty regularly - I'm going to try at least

So, I lied last time, and said that I was going to show the University of Ventura next, but I was having fun playing around with Brentwood, so instead, that is what this update will focus on. Brentwood is an upper class suburb just east of downtown. It is situated in a valley between two mountain ranges - the Brentwood Mountains to the North, and Grover Hills to the South. I used a lot of Mattb325's houses for Brentwood, along with a few other downloads, though I re-lotted them to give Brentwood a more urban feel, with the houses right up to the roads, and large back yards. Here is an aerial map of the area to help you get situated. I'm going to try something new, and hopefully keep with this idea for future updates, and illustrate where each picture is on the map.

1: Brentwood Police Department

2: River Rock Shopping Mall

3: Brentwood Country Club

4: Madison High School

5: Brentwood Hills

6: Crossroads of Oak and Maple

Many of the main attractions, and hippest dining and shopping spots of this suburban neighborhood are located on the main thoroughfare of Brentwood Avenue, which brings you from Downtown to Brentwood Heighs and further up into the hills. The East line of the Ventura Elevated Rail System runs along Brentwood Avenue. You can see it's transition from elevated rail to ground light rail on the far left side of the picture, before it turns into the median.

This first picture is of West Brentwood, just east of Downtown Ventura. In the upper left hand corner of this picture you can see a portion of Brentwood creek running through the neighborhood, and the million dollar homes that are along the waterfront. The large building in the center of the picture is Brentwood Police Headquarters - a very large and very well funded police department keeping Brentwood's citizen's safe from crime.

Traveling further along Brentwood Avenue, we come across the River Rock Shopping Center, where the Brentwood citizens come for all of their retail needs and desires. There are also many office buildings and apartments lining Brentwood Avenue.

Traveling further along Brentwood Avenue, we reach the Brentwood Country Club, with an 18 hole 5 star golf course.

Traveling North away from Brentwood Avenue, we come to Madison High School, home of the Madison Lighting. It is situated on North Madison Avenue, and is one of the better schools in the district, with many extra curriculars, advanced courses, and a winning football team. Go Lightning!

And Finally, we reach Eastside Hills, a quiet neighborhood that breaks the grid as the road follows the natural terrain. There are hundreds of miles of walking and biking trails throughout Ventura, and here is a glimpse at the East Brentwood Trail, a nice and easy trail meandering its way through trees on its way through Brentwood to Downtown Ventura.

And our last stop is a quit crossroads in southwest Brentwood.

Thanks for visiting. And tonight I'm going to start working on North Brentwood - where Brentwood starts reaching up into the mountains - and will have some Los Angeles, Hollywood Hills, etc. inspiration to it, so look forward to that for the next update

[КaZZ 203]

nice town! thats the spirit!

[naftixe 131]

Nice use of natural sprawl. Really Impressive.

[simlink 1,098]

Love the sprawl - never seen some of the houses you use. Looks great!

[Schulmanator 5,807]

Good stuff and nicely done!

[Charlie_Zane 963]

Loving that gold corse!

[SimCoug 5,976]

Good looking region view!

[Mataby 1]

What a great CJ! I love all of the custom buildings you have, and, as many others have said, the city is very realistic! How long did it take to get to this point?

[Markus J 242]

Wow, you sure have built that up, my goodness gracious that's impressive!

Hey, stepping into Los Angeles/Hollywood, I got my eye on you

[tshirt23 75]

Replies

Testuser1234 - Thanks, I've tried to make it seem like a nice place to live.

Naftixe - I've done a lot of research on google maps to see how cities grow to make it look as natural and reasistic as I can.

Sim_link - Much time has been spent looking on the STEX and the LEX looking for new houses to add variety.

Schulmanator - Thank you! I've worked hard on this city, I'm glad that it's paying off.

City_Master - Thanks! Golf courses are actually one of my favorite things to make in my city, it's a challenge to get the right amount of holes in and to make it look realistic

SimCoug - Thanks, I'm working on a full region view to post, but there's a few things I need to work out, so it may take a little while.

Mataby - Thanks, I've spent a lot of time looking for custom buildings to add to the realism. It's taken be probably about a year to get to this point, at least from October of 2011, but I'm not sure when exactly I started this city.

Markus J -Thank you! I may have been inspired by LA, but i'm not sure how well it turned out...hopefully it doesn't disappoint.

Sorry it's taken a while to update my CJ. One of my Brentwood tiles came down with a case of Prop Pox, and I've been trying to fix that - not with much luck. I luckily found an older version of the tile before it was affected, so hopefully I can get it back to normal, but we'll see...So this update is more of a teaser of North Brentwood, until I can get a full update up - hopefully that wont take too long.

On this last picture I photoshopped in a waterfall, let me know what you think of it, I'm not sure that I like it.

[vivapanda 422]

Wow everything fits together so nicely! It actually reminds me somewhat of San Fransisco, great work!

[Patricius Maximus 236]

The first few updates featured urban cores that looked for the most part rather bland, but your lower-density areas are better-looking. I love Tallison Creek - it's the best snapshot yet posted from Ventura. Since you obviously have freeways, why don't you show us some of your freeway junctions in addition to your surface streets? Even if they are "just Maxis" it would add another dimension to your CJ. You don't seem to be the freeway-oriented type, but I've found over the years that expanding beyond what you usually prefer is worthwhile up to a certain point.

[tshirt23 75]

Vivapanda: Thanks. San Francisco is one of my favorite cities, and one of my inspirations.

Patricius Maximus: I agree. I prefer working on the lower density areas better than urban areas, and I think that shows through in my city. And I tried to show my highways in this update, buy the tile was affected by prop pox, and I got frustrated trying to get a good picture and gave up. Hopefully in the next few updates though I can.

Sorry for the hiatus. I got busy with school and work, but hopefully I can update now that classes are over for a few weeks. This update is West Arlington, an older neighborhood.

1. Grant Park

2. Grant Lake

3. West Arlington

4. Overland Shopping Center

5. West Arlington

6. Carsen River

7. West Arlington

8. Washington Elementary School

9. Webber Avenue

[tshirt23 75]

Here is a teaser to Ventura University and the surrounding neighborhood.

Travelli Square is one of three main quads in campus. It is a very popular spot for students to hang out after a long day of classes. On the left is the historic Travelli Library.

Hale is a very large residence Hall on campus in a prime location. This is one of the first dorms to fill up at as students sign up for their room assignments - very popular.

On the west end of campus is the Franklin Community Center. The top of the picture features Eaton Hall, one of the University's main lecture halls.

Now we are onto the surrounding area. Here is Goss, where many students live, being located just blocks from the university.

The elevated rail is how many residents get around in Ventura. Here is a shot of a station on the north end of Downtown Ventura, near to the University

Palmer is a neighborhood sandwiched between Downtown Ventura and the University. The KFC in this picture is a popular lunch destination for students.

Thanks for visiting!

[vivapanda 422]

Welcome back! Still as beautiful, I hope to see more

[Benedict 3,119]

Great work on your suburbs - from the region view it looks like you have spent some serious effort in filling them out. Great focal point for the neighborhood in that pond.

[tshirt23 75]

Replies

Benedict: Thank you for your comment. I do spend a lot of time in trying to fill out my suburbs - gets pretty tedious at times. I am glad you liked the pond, I try to create a focal point in a lot of my suburbs...the grid can get pretty boring if there is nothing else holding it together.

Vivapanda: Thank you for the welcome back! I hope to have more regular updates as well, I'll try

I am back tonight with an update that focuses on the University of Ventura.

Lets start off by looking at the three main quads that are on campus:

And now to focus on some of the Academic Halls...

And the Residence Halls...

And here is the recreation complex.

Thanks for visiting! Tune in (hopefully) Tomorrow for a look at the neighborhoods around the campus

[tshirt23 75]

I'm back tonight with an update on Glenhaven, an upper class neighborhood just east of the University of Ventura.

Here's a look at the campus in fall with all of the leaves changing colors.

Here is Hillsdale Park, sitting right up against the mountains

And a close-up of the playground.

Here is Glenhaven Middle School.

And some close-up street shots

Thanks for Visiting!

[vivapanda 422]

Beautiful pictures! Evereything in the pictures fits together