Seattle, Washington, USA (Update 19: Seattle Municipal Tower)

[Roadman20 601]

Entry 1: Beginnings of Seattle, Washington... and early setbacks/rebuilding.

Hello everyone!

As most of you know by now, I've been showing off bits and pieces of my work in progress of building Seattle, Washington for Cities:Skylines.  I feel it is time for me to consolidate my progress work in a CJ place so I can share and you see my continual work in as close of an interesting city.  Some background on myself, I've loved SC4 finally came back to the city simulator world when Cities:Skylines came out.  My decision to build Seattle is due to living in the Pacific Northwest, although not in the city itself, for a number of years and the challenge it presents to a city planner. 

So without further ado, presenting Seattle!

I took Steam workshop map of Seattle and then I roughly recreated the regional highway network.  This work goes back sometime before After Dark.

It was here that began my work on perfecting multi-level interchanges with the signature work on the Interstate 5 and Interstate 90 interchange.  This is first version built in map editor, obviously not perfect.  You'll see throughout this journal the gradual improvement on this design, which influences how I build interchanges now.

As you can see, learning the finer details of onramp/offramp placement is pretty key to making good looking interchanges.  Too bad there was not any retaining walls at the time...

Oh hey, look sunken wall assets are made.  This was my first real test of using them to prop up a hill slope while using duckclog's pillars. Unfortunately, I only had a single save file at this time of Seattle and the save file was corrupted.

Well, it was a learned lesson to have two save files of that ever went down again... but the corrupted file incident provided an opportunity to rebuild in a more correct way.  I started Seattle again in the southern industrial heart near the I-5/I-90 interchange and made some immediate build changes. 

First, Holgate Street Bridge and rebuilding Interstate 5 as elevated viaduct highway as it should be through this area.  

Second, rebuild western termius of Interstate 90 near Safeco and Century Link Fields.

Rebuilding the Interstate 5/Interstate 90 interchange in it's third and final configuration.  Sorry about the quality of this particular shot... As noted that new placement means a new alignment of the rest of Interstate 90 northward eventually.  Note that Interstate 5 is fully elevated now throughout this shot compared to earlier shots.

Finally, overview of Pioneer Square, Sodo, and Industrial Districts.  Plus, early work on Seattle CBD layout.

Next time, the challenge of building Interstate 5 through the Convention Center.

 

[dedgren 830]

Whoa.  Roadgeek Paradise!  I'm on board.

[Roadman20 601]

Entry 2: Building Freeway Park/Convention Center Area

Now that I was satisfied with my 3rd partial rebuild of the Interstate 5/Interstate 90 interchange, I took on probably the most challenging aspect of building Downtown Seattle, building Interstate 5 through Downtown Seattle.  C:S does not allow the creation of "lids" so I had to undertake get some creative juices flowing to make this happen.

In addition to the lid challenge was the recreation of the Interstate 5 "Express Lanes" that run from James Street in Downtown Seattle to Northgate off to the north.  In the end a tunnel underneath the main line tunnels would be sufficient in this recreation.  Since C:S does not interchanging traffic, I decided on making a two-way Express Lanes (like it should be in real life, ha!).

This phase of the project started with this cutout of how many lanes I would be making for the southern end of the Convention Center project.  The main street underneath is James Street.  From left to right: 

• Madison Street offramp,
• collector-distributor connection to NB I-5 from WB I-90,
• main lanes for NB I-5,
• NB I-5 Express Lane offramp,
• SB I-5 Express Lane onramp,
• Main Line SB I-5,
• SB I-5 collector distributor lanes to EB I-90.

I didn't take much in progress shots of this, this seemed pretty straight-forward.

More detailed shot.

The next phase involved building the opening between Freeway Park and the Convention Center simulating the middle between two lids.

A heavy amount of terrain editing involved and placement roads to guide underground construction.  Adding the University Street onramp to NB I-5 and SB I-5 offramp to Union Street.

Opening to traffic simulation showing off personal success of project.

Northern end of Convention Center project.  Northern terminus of the Downtown Seattle Bus Tunnel is the pit to the right of the freeway.  I am not satisfied by my work of the retaining walls here so I paused here at the time being.  You'll see later why as I continue my work on building retaining walls.

An overhead view of the entire project area.

Here is an underground view of the entire project area.

As part of the project, was building up the local streets of First Hill as shown here and the eventual build of Yesler Way retaining wall that didn't build at the beginning of this project. 

That's all for now, the work continues south in the Rainier Valley neighborhood next time.  Another parting gift is the night traffic entering the area.

  Edited October 25, 2015 by Roadman20  

[dedgren 830]

Better and better.

 

David

[tariely 4,499]

the roads spaghetti give me vertigo but wow. Make me want to go back and do some pasta myself in CS. So much has changed since the beginning (when you were disappointed, dedgren, remember ?:-)

  Edited October 25, 2015 by tariely  

[Roadman20 601]

Entry 3: Beacon Hill and North Rainier Valley Neighborhood - Part 1

Today, we head south to the beginning development of the Beacon Hill and Rainier Valley neighborhood.  From the previous entries, I left the I-5/I-90 interchange partially completely.  The local street development of First Hill in the second entry of this journal would pave the way for the creation of this interesting section of Seattle.  The northernmost part of the Beacon Hill and Rainier Valley is what I've finished so far.  A largely unfinished Interstate 90 awaits rebuilding.

After laying out Rainier Aveune, I being to lay out I-90 parallel to it and start building the interchange over Rainer Ave.

I didn't know that bike could use the regular paths, so I later reduce to one path once construction is finished with the retaining walls.

Side glimpse of a concrete wall beauty.  Every since one is a single unit wall, it took forever placing every wall one by one.  However, building this three level retaining wall showed me how to build epic looking walls.

Historically, the southeastern part of Seattle is very demographically diverse with a rough 1/4 split between Whites, Blacks, Asians, and Hispanics.  The main depression of the valley hosts a narrow commercial thoroughfare on Rainier Ave and MLK Way.  Rising to the left of Rainier Aveune is Beacon Hill and to the right is Mount Baker Ridge.        

Lots of terraforming underway to shape Beacon Hill.  

The large empty lot at the northernmost point of Beacon Hill near freeway interchange is home to a National Register of Historic Places building, the Pacific Medical Center.  It was formerly a USMC hospital and served as Amazon.com's HQ for nearly a decade.  Unfortunately, I'm a complete scrub at even attempting to recreate this beautiful building.

The current end of the North Beacon Hill Reconstruction is the connection to the SoDo District via the Holgate Street Bridge. 

A more top-down view to compare and contrast Seattle in C:S and Google Maps

Evening sets on the valley...

Next time, Part 2 of Beacon Hill/Rainier Valley and reopening Interstate 90

  Edited November 11, 2015 by Roadman20  

[dedgren 830]

Is it real or is it Cities: Skylines?

 

David

[Mr_Maison 2,426]

Some great engineering you got going on here! The road networks look awesome! I can tell you're enjoying recreating Seattle.

[mrsmartman 200]

An early serious attempt in CSL gaming. Indeed promising.

[feyss 1,981]

Damn, it looks crazy.

Keep it up this awesome work

[Roadman20 601]

Entry 4: Beacon Hill and Rainier Valley Development Part 2

It's been a busy couple weeks IRL and the development of Beacon Hill and Rainier Valley suffered a setback while in advanced development.  A major park sits on top of Interstate 90 tunnel through Mount Baker Ridge.  

Meanwhile at the Lake Washington shoreline, WSDOT crews prepare for construction of the Interstate 90 Mount Baker Tunnels. 

Cranes are assembled for lifting heavy equipment and materials into place.

Mount Baker Tunnel, the Eastbound Lacey V. Murrow, and Westbound Homer M. Hadley Floating Bridges under construction.  The SR 520 Evergreen Point floating bridge is in the distance.

The original eastbound span was built back in 1940 as the Lake Washington Floating Bridge.  It is named after Lacey V. Murrow, the second director of the Washington State Highway Department.  Lacey Murrow is the oldest brother to famous CBS commentator, Edward R. Murrow.  Currently, it is the second longest floating bridge in the world only surpassed by it's longer sibling the Evergreen Point floating bridge in the distance.   

The westbound span was built in 1989 to alleviate heavy congestion and bring Interstate 90 into compliance with Interstate Highway standards.  The bridge is named after Homer M. Hadley, the original engineer who proposed the idea of a floating bridge back in 1921 is in honor of him and currently is the fifth longest floating bridge in the world.

After the new westbound span was finished, the original span underwent renovation and expansion.  On November 25, 1990, the span took on water from a storm during the Thanksgiving holiday due to human error and poor decisions.  WSDOT engineers decided to remove the sidewalks on the original span via hydro-demolition and temporarily store the contaminated water in the pontoons. However, storing the water from the renovation meant removing the water-tight doors of the pontoons which would lead to the sinking of the span on that fateful holiday weekend, totaling $69 million in damages.

In short order, the entire project is completed and public traffic is allowed to crossed the bridge and through the tunnel towards Downtown Seattle.

The completion of Interstate 90 is a perfect capstone towards the development of the Gateway to the Pacific.

Meanwhile, north of the interstate, the City of Seattle sets asides part of Mt Baker Ridge as a forest preserve with hiking trails through Frink and Leschi Park.

Then the massive tree plant began. 

However, in Cities:Skylines, we're not prone to such engineering gaffs... or are we?

I discovered shortly after completion of all the above mentioned work, I began work on a new block north of existing development near the newly completely parks.  I soon found out that I misjudged an earlier measurement by a full 80 meters which meant reworking every block east of the narrow 4-lane avenue that defines the western end of Mt Baker ridge.  I thought I could "fudge" the measurement early on as I tried to work around it, but I soon found out that if I desired the accuracy I needed to fix it properly. And fixing properly I did. The picture below shows midwork on a complete rework back to the Lake Washington shoreline in progress.

While the urge of measurement perfection was the order of the day, I took heavy liberties to fix issues to the neighborhoods to the south of I-90 and a rework of the westbound I-90 tunnel entry on the Lake Washington side.  The upper deck no longer curves and shoots straight in as it should in real life.  I also reworked Rainier Avenue to regain its true diagonal form again and realigned Beacon Hill's streets with the revamped grid in preparation for future growth.

Seattle at this point is a robust population of nearly 30,000 residents with no transit at the moment.  Next time in Seattle, a preparation for expansive growth between Rainier Valley, the Industrial District/Sodo, and West Seattle via a new spaghetti project that will rival the I-5/I-90 interchange in terms of grandeur.

 

  Edited November 11, 2015 by Roadman20  

[dedgren 830]

This is the "go to" CJ for Cities: Skylines roadgeeks.  I can also relate to your need to maintain accuracy, even to the point of backtracking at substantial cost in time and effort to correct an error.  Great update, can't wait for the next one.

 

David

[Roadman20 601]

Thanks for your comments David, it means a lot.  The Sim City series peaked my interest in the city simulation game as far back as the SNES version and peaked my interested towards the civil engineering career field up until college.  While I decided to no longer pursue it IRL, Cities:Skylines gives me the opportunity to come back to a dormant passion and having fun recreating cities that were hard to replicate before.    

I suppose that is why this CJ has more that engineering flavor to it than anything else at this point, not that I consider that a bad thing.

  Edited November 12, 2015 by Roadman20  

[dedgren 830]

I wound up, after dropping out of architecture school at University of Kentucky in 1972- my GPA was on life support- getting drafted.  Sixteen years and an undergraduate degree in business management from the University of Maryland later I wound up with a dual degree program J.D. from the University of Richmond and a Master of Urban and Regional Planning from Virginia Commonwealth University.  I worked as a professional planner for St. Lawrence County in New York and as a planning consultant for the Northwest Arctic Borough in Alaska hired to redraft its coastal management plan.  The law ultimately got me, though, and from 1995 'til 2013 when I retired I was in private practice in Anchorage doing planning and zoning work when I could and marital and domestic relations stuff when I had to.  Through that, I've always been a roadgeek in one form or another.  I've taken pictures of things like the old "ghost ramps" on the Alaskan Way where I-90 was supposed to end.  I always thought that was the pits- here 90 makes it all the way from Boston, surviving places like Buffalo, Cleveland, and the middle of nowhere out in South Dakota and Wyoming, and then gets killed off less than half a mile from its destination.  It is still, in my book, probably the best Interstate though.  I have driven its entire length.  Same for I-5, but I don't find it near as interesting.

So I'm a fan, both from the urban design and traffic planning and engineering standpoints, and out of the sheer joy of watching a master C:S player at work.

 

David

  Edited November 12, 2015 by dedgren  
Typos

[Roadman20 601]

This isn't a comprehensive update as usual since I'm still working on it; however, I am giving an early view of my first complex interchange with the Sharp Junction Angles mod enabled. This is the Interstate 5 / West Seattle Freeway interchange, and this mod was incredibly helpful in squeezing everything I needed to fit in.

 

  Edited November 15, 2015 by Roadman20  

[dedgren 830]

Ohmigod!

 

David

[BLANKBLANK 4,414]

The construction scenes are real highlights, well done!

[Roadman20 601]

It's been awhile now since the last update but a long awaited vacation during the Thanksgiving holiday paused progress on Seattle in Cities:Skylines.  During the last brief update, I previewed a glimpse of a completed West Seattle Bridge/Interstate 5 interchange.  This week, I've been busy punching away towards West Seattle and Harbor Island.  Behold Seattle's Industrial District in all it's grimy, smoggy, and traffic-clogged depths.  Remember folks, as any Seattlite can tell you, the city's transportation department gives the city's drivers a headache with all the road work going on!

West Seattle Freeway/Interstate 5 Interchange Under Construction.  This is before Sharp Angles Mod was out.  Note how Interstate 5 slopes upward where the interchange is being build, providing a exceptional challenge with construction of the additional levels.

Further progress with the interchange as flyover ramps appear.

Post Construction shot showing some details on the various levels.

A glimpse of what lies underneath the West Seattle Bridge between I-5 and SR 99 is Spokane Street, a cargo of freshly baked Dunkin Dounts heads out for delivery.

The power of Sharp Angles mod is demonstrated with the precision of the creation of the 1st Avenue South interchange with the West Seattle Bridge.

Beginning of Entry 3 overhead view of South Seattle at mid-development.  You'll note later the land reclamation shift occurring from SR 99 for the construction of the Port of Seattle, most notably in the next picture.

Progress on the Industrial District all the way up to SR 99 before the Duwamish Waterway shift project.

A closer look at the creation of the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Seattle International Gateway Freight Facility.  If you notice on the right, the Duwamish Waterway shift project for the creation of the Port of Seattle Piers 25, 30, and 32 is underway.

A completed Pier 25, 30, and 32 seaport facilities, let's take a closer look at the Port of Seattle operations so far.

Only the northern pier is operational as a functional seaport as noted in the background.  Cargo trucks enter from the north and can exit from either end.  There is currently minimal congestion in the facility itself, just the BNSF International Gateway is a bit congested as trucks have to navigate around the trains.  As noted, parts of Harbor Island is under construction.

The West Seattle Bridge/SR 99/Harbor Island Interchange.  Every interchange I've built for Seattle has been difficult in it's own way, I'm looking forward to the next interchange yet to be built.

Next time in Seattle, we'll be revisiting a much more built up Harbor Island.  However, I leave this preview of the Todd Pacific Shipyards where they usually build the Washington State Ferries fleet and in the background is the Shell and Kinder Morgan fuel facilities.

[dedgren 830]

Man, the sheer scope of what you are doing here is incredible.  It would be great to see an overhead shot with the game squares superimposed.  The interchange work is consistently the best in a game where the standards are already in the stratosphere.

Wow!  And that doesn't come close to summing it up.

 

David

 

[Vals Loeder 27]

I am an returning "old" SC4 player and have very recently bought Cities:Skylines. I play the game still as a Vanilla version. Awed by the possibilities of custom content i'll probably start getting mods into my game soon.

Very well done!

[The Big Z 103]

I literally can't even right now. I'm awestruck. How on earth have I missed this CJ? Thanks to dedgren for pointing it out in his CJ.

[Roadman20 601]

I know the last entry says part three; however, that is wrong.  This is part six of the series on building Seattle in Cities:Skylines.  The above shot is a view of the Columbia Center from the lower deck of the Alaskan Way Viaduct.  This entry isn't about new progress to be seen on Seattle, but about how my travels to various cities in the world influence design work on Seattle.  While I consider Seattle as the biggest city in the state I used to live in, there are things to be said about the challenge and speed of development of Seattle in this game.

I appreciate the comments on this CJ so far, yes, I am very detail-minded when it comes to designing the city.  I don't publish videos on the city's development mainly because it's really slow work and half of the time I am staring at Google Maps in both views.  Yes, there are a lot of mods and custom content available for C:S; however, there are still big holes in content development.  Certain things in Seattle for C:S have not been built because of unsatisfactory assets out there.  There is a lack of big stadiums and large industrial buildings that slow development of the city some days.  

Yet as you read this, you know that I am a specialist in building custom highway interchanges and general infrastructure, mainly due to my interest in engineering.  Now, I am aware of most of Seattle's infrastructure because I've driven or rode on it, there is a degree of creativity that cannot be matched in real life.  Yes, there are days I think about what to build after Seattle is built to my satisfaction and a new challenge arises.  All of the following photographs are personally shot by myself.

When I visited Istanbul, Turkey, I was amazed on how a modern tram line just weaves it's way through the oldest parts of Istanbul.  It makes think of the time approaches when I have to think about developing Seattle's light rail system.

Another shot of Istanbul towards the Golden Horn.  The Istanbul water traffic and breakwaters is very influential on development of Seattle's waterfront in C:S.  It also reminds me of how water traffic in C:S is lacking from cruise ships and large cargo ships.  The visit to Istanbul was my first glimpse at a European city, it's a challenging city to city planners for sure as I rode all around the city.

 Istanbul has a superb skyline with their large number of prominent mosques, best viewed from a boat obviously.  A screenshot of this in Cities:Skylines would make the game the pinnacle of amazing city simulation game.

While Seattle's train yards are a complex maze of tracks, nothing prepared me for the highways of steel that I extensively rode in Germany, Czech Republic, Austria, and Switzerland.  This above picture is the main train station in Cologne, Germany. Also impressive, architecturally speaking, is the famous cathedral is that just right next to it.  It's good to see modders pretty much recreate the Deutche Bahn system.  I was impressed by the Berlin Hauptbahnhof, that is an impressive station when I transited it.

Another noted downfall of C:S is a lack of bridge types, the Hohenzollern Bridge in Cologne, Charles Bridge in Prague, as other platitude of bridge types made famous around the world should make their presence in this game.  When CO made the European theme, I did totally expect cities like Prague or Vienna to start appearing, so far I've haven't been disappointed by a cropping of those types of cities in the game.  Visits to a city like Prague or Vienna helped me appreciate the value of attention of detail to a city, which I try to do with a more gritty American city.

 

Not everything is about Cities:Skylines should be about urban, densely packed cities, it's about building really anyplace in the world.  That's why I appreciate dedgren's recreation of a part of the Kentucky River Valley.  Now this picture isn't part of the Kentucky River Valley, but Interlaken, Switzerland.  Luckily, modders like TPB are moving close to recreating terrain to any part of the world. This is great news to the C:S building community, and for further development of Seattle.

On the other hand, a lacking theme in C:S is a true Asian theme.  I've noted before that recreating an Asian city like Tokyo is impossible because everything is so compact for the person recreating the city.  However, visits to Tokyo, Hong Kong, Seoul, and Bangkok have given me ideas of what to do with Seattle if I need to divert from the original planning.

By far one of my favorite photographs I've taken, this is of Tokyo in the Shinjuku District.  I've looked closely at highway interchange design in Tokyo as I build Seattle's interchanges.  It should be noted that interchanges should be compact, yet in many published examples in C:S, most interchanges built are way too compact and out of scale.  It helps to measure on Google Maps on how big those interchange you're building are.  

My visit to Hong Kong was a very interesting experience, it was the first city I've visited that built an extensive network of pedestrian sky walks everywhere in the CBD.  I knew Hong Kong was compact, but I never knew that city's challenge against vehicular vs pedestrian traffic led to a reduction of crosswalks in the city.  A very interesting feature if it were ever included in the game, although the work on ped/bike lanes is a good step in the right direction.

The last city I draw inspiration from for Seattle is Bangkok, Thailand.  Bangkok is an interesting city of canals, superhighways, and an above ground train line that reminds you of the movie Dark Knight with the overhead train lines.  Well, BTS Skytrain Siam Station is double stacked above the street.  Like Tokyo and Hong Kong, the theme of compact continues, except the use of vertical compactness is interesting.  You've got street level, the second level is the pedestrian sky way, and then the two levels of train way.  I figured that's where GSVos drew inspiration for the super stack pillars since they look similar. 

This last picture is a highway outside of Downtown Bangkok.  I've seen some extensive highway infrastructure in the United States, especially in Texas, but this takes the cake.  It's a ground-level expressway with an overhead limited-exit expressway above.  There are frontage roads to either side of the ground-level expressway.  Plus, note the pedestrian bridge, and not pictured are turn around bridges for cars dotted all along the route.  If you thought you've seen some spaghetti, you should probably come down to Bangkok and get stuck in the traffic. 

There is a lot of inspiration to draw on from real world cities, I've showed you quite a bit of my travels around the world that fuels my imagination to develop Seattle, Washington in C:S.  As I said before, there is a lot of custom content for C:S out there; however, it does really come down to opening your creative juices to utilize those assets.  I think why I do so well in development of a realistic city in C:S is the ability to draw from the professionals that have left their mark on different cities in the world.  If you're running out of ideas on construction, you don't have to look far to draw from the well inspiration. 

 

[Vals Loeder 27]

These are some very nice photo's of real cities. Thank you for sharing.

 

EDIT: After reading the CJ and seeing how meticulously you are recreating Seattle I had a sudden flashback of the City Journal about the recreation to scale of Edmonton in Simcity4. It was the first journal where a player recreated a city on the region map. The map was terraformed by hand and not by imported maps or anything. A true masterpiece and I wonder if that awesome journal still exists somewhere.

[dedgren 830]

It is great to be well traveled- you certainly are.  I have had the good fortune to live in Europe for a couple of stints, and have traveled around that continent twice in the past five years.  It seems like I look at the same things you do.

Quote

It helps to measure on Google Maps on how big those interchange you're building are.

I think most of the US-based folks playing city-builder games today were born after the period- late 50s through early 70s- when the bulk of the Interstate Highway System was constructed.  I grew up in the Chicago 'burbs while the Tri-State, East-West and Northwest Tollways were being built, and seeing that construction is probably what sparked a lifelong interest in roads and highways in general and limited-access freeways and tollways in particular.  Your observation is spot on.

 

David

[Roadman20 601]

Above: Late Night Freight on Harbor Island

Welcome back everyone to Seattle with a small update.  Harbor Island is about 70% complete and the next update will be a detailed walkthrough of everything built there.  The above shot is really just a teaser for what is yet to be revealed.  Mostly since Seattle has started, there has not been really any overhead shots on current development, well today that changes.  I'll show the box I'm working in and other neat stuff for you to view.

The following three pictures details the regional progress of Seattle since construction began a couple months ago.  As part of Update 8, the construction of the Port of Seattle is drastically altering the landscape of Seattle.  Harbor Island transforms from a tree-filled island to an industrial superhub.

Seattle, Washington as of November 13, 2015

Development of Seattle, Washington as of December 15, 2015

View of the 5x5 tile box limitation on the development of Seattle

Lastly, for your viewing pleasure, I've utilized the power of Cimtographer for a visual aid to navigating the mean streets of Seattle, including navigating some of it's most complex interchanges.

Map of Seattle, WA (Courtesy of Cimtographer via Maperitive)

Downtown Seattle Layout (Courtesy of Cimtographer via Maperitive)

The parting picture is development of Seattle Industrial District and Port of Seattle.  On the bottom left is just some evidence of a new interchange under construction.  On Harbor Island, you're seeing what is shaping up to be one of the most extensive ports built in Cities:Skylines.

Seattle Industrial District Map (Courtesy of Cimtographer via Maperitive)

 

 

[dedgren 830]

Very cool.  Cimtographer does an amazing job.  Of course,though, competent hands probably have a lot to do with that.

Question:  How are you succeeding in posting your images?  You appear to have found a way to work around the absence of an image link button in the edit window toolbar.

 

David

[Roadman20 601]

2 hours ago, dedgren said:

Question:  How are you succeeding in posting your images?  You appear to have found a way to work around the absence of an image link button in the edit window toolbar.

I directly paste the image links from what I upload to my Imgur account to my post on the CJ.  Then I press Enter and usually Simtrop will auto generate the image automatically.  Sometimes it fails so I try again or two and it come up. So I'll write a post like I am now and then the image link directly like: 

(Imgur web link here)

Then after pressing Enter, the web link auto generates and I continue writing.

[Turjan 1,048]

Awesome update. Cimtographer is a very nice tool. The only nitpick I have with standard CS maps is that South is top, but there must be some kind of workaround I have not found yet I guess.

[dedgren 830]

Hmmm.  I wonder if I have an ImageShack problem, then, rather than a ST problem.  My edit box simply barfs back up all images I try to upload after the first one, and I am doing (among others) the same thing you are.  Ahh well- if only on CJ can upload pics right now, I'm really glad that it's yours.

 

David

[FullStrenght 74]

Great CJ! Why haven't I seen this before? Also great to see some fellow urban planners around here. Keep up the nice work on Seattle!