Imperial Command Centre (a.k.a The Capital) - Pre Rush Hour Days - OMGZ
Well after a rather long winded approach into Solaria, and with the wide regional shots; it is time to get down to the City Tiles themselves and take a microscope to what makes Solaria - Solaria.
Note - writing and photos complete, but not the formatting. That will come later - more to the point when I can be err bothered 
So feel free to comment 
This entry we take a look at the oldest and largest tile in Solaria - Imperial Command Centre (a.k.a The Capital)
Imperial Command Centre during the day
IPC during Twilight
IPC at night (looking more over the Wiri Industrial District to the north of the tile)
The Facts on Imperial Command Centre
Tile Number: 001 (It was the first tile founded and is the regional capital 
)
Founded: February 2003 (Real Life Time)
Age of City: 94 Sim Years Old
Population: 1,304,896 (approximate)
Planning Methodology: Mixed and Ad-Hoc semi planned organic growth
Attractions of Note:
- Imperial Mesa
- The Emperor's House
- Central Control Spire
- Solarian Air Force Base
- Imperial Space Centre
- The Hub
- Solarian Movie Studios
- The Bunker
- Palpatine International Airport
- Old Imperial State Fair Grounds
Imperial Command Centre was founded in February 2003 (same month as Solaria) and by default is my longest running (and largest) city I have running to date. That is right, for 8 very long years - Imperial Command Centre (along with Rangitoto Town) has been built, demolished, rebuilt and altered as new aspects to the game (such as Rush Hour and NAM) and you know what - I still "play" with the tile and it still gives me GREAT satisfaction as builder, overlord and urban/transport designer.
The first part of Imperial Command Centre was built Pre-Rush Hour Days - that is right PRE Rush Hour 
and subsequently upgraded when Rush Hour came along. Ironically IPC (and the rest of Solaria) will usually be "upgraded" each time a new major NAM update is released - so essentially IPC is in its 7th evolutionary phase.
Just as a side note - Solaria is my sole region that I have played and built since 2003 - no other region has been built since the Solaria - so yip, she is my one and only nation!!! 
This is IPC when she was essentially founded in February 2003 - a virgin and rather ugly pre modded Maxis landscape.
Note: Historic Pictures have been lost over the years, so what little I have will be shown here.
I am aware you can see a Mayor's House and some parks on top of Imperial Mesa - that would be from Imperial Command Centre being a wee wee village of 5,000 just to the right of the photo. But essentially what I am showing you - was the landscape right back at the beginning - both the ground and Palpatine Lake.
This shot is about 7 Sim Years or 2 months real life later after the founding of Solaria and Imperial Command Centre.
At this time, the population of the tile would have been about 30,000 and what's more is that this was all built PRE RUSH HOUR. No avenues, EL rail and I think no One Way Roads - just roads, streets, heavy rail, subway and Maxis Elevated Highways 
!
However you can see some basic planning aspects and features that I would have used that stay with Solaria in 2011. You can see the first highway running that began moving sims efficiently from the capital to Te Puke out east (right) and eventually South Solaria to the south - this highway would be known as Palpatine Highway or STATE HIGHWAY ONE (the flagship highway). The usual practice of its time (and still practised somewhat today 2011) of the absolute separation of the RCI (residential, commercial and industrial) zones was in use here (and as can be seen) thus the island affects you can see in the shot. One thing that was trialled at the time and was considered advanced then but common practice now; was the creation of "Development Islands" surrounded by major transit infrastructure to keep sims happy.
It was discovered that residential sims did not like high road noise often produced by major roads (and later and especially avenues), so what I started to do and can started to be seen on the right was I used the major roads to create a square or rectangle "island" grid/ring. Inside that ring would be a secondary ring 1 or 2 tiles apart in the inside from the major ring - with spokes connecting the two rings. Then inside the secondary ring the zone of choice would be placed along with some parks, an odd bus stop/subway station and maybe a library. In between the two rings though would be the major bus stops, subway stations where applicable, a rail line of one ran through and public parking garages for park in ride - as well more parks/trees acting as a buffer. The idea is that sims would mostly drive from their interior to the Public Parking Garages and switch over to mass transit to complete their trips to their work place and vice versa and for most part before Simulator Z it some what worked (about 40%). The only catch was that the exit/entry points between the major and secondary rings would get congested - until Rush Hour, Simulator Z and some better planning fixed that problem.
Further south towards what would be Solarian Point
You can see the Development Island system in place albeit rather primitively where there is 2 sets of parallel roads (with trees in the middle) running down then left towards State Highway One. If you get your electron microscope out, you can see a single road connection east to Rangitoto Town in what would be the first neighbour tile connection.
Strangely the route for avenues is pre mapped out here while maintaining the 'Development Ring' system when they (the avenues) would eventually come out in Rush Hour.
In my next entry or as an edit to this update - the transition between Pre Rush Hour IPC and Post Rush Hour IPC
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Part Two of the Entry
Some more historic Pre Rush Hour photos of Imperial Command Centre
Ok that was the last Pre Rush Hour shot that I could find - the above being the Capital extending to the south west.
In the next entry - we take a look at the transition as I literally rip up half the city tile, as I begin adding the features that came in Rush Hour.
Oooooo the destruction and disruption I cause to 300,000 sims as the city gets a massive make over and upgrade
MUHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHA
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