Entry 17 - Touring Downtown
Hello everyone!
Today we're taking a tour of the downtown area of our new sunny city! Allons-y!
Downtown Glenvale - a collection of buildings neatly arranged in a grid. Well, for the most part.
Glenvale is full of buses, though the picture is skewed as we are at the corner of Davies and Walgrove, and this is where most bus lines converge.
Concord Square is a park in the middle of town. Tropical plants were added in 5E30, and during the Great War it was used as a rally point for recruiters. However in the 70s it had become derelict, much less the rest of the city at the time. Some people even wanted to simply get rid of the park and replace it with a giant parking lot. Thankfully, those efforts never came true and the park was refurbished in 5E101.
Driving on Davies Avenue, three of the city's biggest buildings on different sides of the corner with Downey Avenue. The closest is the Cookie Factory building. Behind it, just opposite Downey, one can find Diamond Tower. Both towers were built in the 80s, resulting in the eviction of three thousand people who lived there. Facing Concord Square, the third building (here on the right hand side) is the great Bluerise Tower.
However, the biggest building in the city is by far the Mithril Arch. About sixty floors on two sides, linked together with skybridges (also dubbed skycranes). This building was erected in 5E112, and is now known as the icon of southern Kingscote. Due to the low taxes, many high tech companies have their HQ in this tower and there are restaurants and other facilities within the tower, so that residents do not need to leave the tower at all; however as of 5E122, more than 40% of the building is still empty.
Looking at the sky and at the top of the Mithril Arch.
Some of the city's older streets and neighbourhoods have been retained, however. This area is located in South Downtown.
The city centre is organized in six super-blocks bounded by the major avenues. This is the corner of Federal Avenue and Rowland Avenue - the Mithril Arch can just be seen in the background.
This being Fifth Era Nirn, magic has become near extinct. However, there are still a few wizards and the facilities that accomodate them. This is the Mages' Guild, a centre for learning arcane magic, and a dwelling ground for mages of all backgrounds. The only other Mages Guild in Cathnoquey is located in its capital, Wellingborough.
Talking of learning..this is Glenvale University. It is tucked away in the further reaches of low-rise downtown. There are plans to move the university grounds to a more suitable, and grander place with campuses and parks...but those plans need money and one thing Glenvale has little of is cash at the moment.
The Fortune Cookie tower, overshadowed by the much taller Stark Tower to the left. You can see the sea at the end of that one road! Stark Tower itself is full of financial companies, but the top floors are dedicated to the Blades and their most powerful magisters.
There is a lovely balcony on top of the Cookie tower, which is often used for official receptions.
A tiny chapel is completely overwhelmed by the bigger high rises all around it. However, its unique architecture means it is protected as a national heritage site, and that it cannot be destroyed.
In the southern reaches of the downtown core, the Dragon Memorial stands proud as a memorial to the Cathnoqueyans who died in the Great War against Akavir.
Driving eastbound on Davies Avenue, and out of the downtown core. However, higher-rise buildings can be seen for about fifteen more blocks. Commerce Tower is just hidden by closer brownstone buildings.The red facade building to the far-right is in fact part of the Civic Center complex.
Glenvale Central Station with its iconic bell tower. The Station has six tracks and is the southern terminus of the East Coast Main Line that runs from Wellsborough, Aleswell and the state capital, Albany. Soon enough, Amesbury would become a major station on that line, but it's a few hundred miles north... It is also a terminus of the South Kingscote Regional Commuter system, which took over local services in the area a few years ago.
The Central Station is also the city bus network's main hub. Here is a few of the bus station itself. That specific day, line 1B - the second-busiest- was disrupted, leading to a huge queue of waiting passengers.
The Commerce Tower as seen from the tracks just ahead of Central Station.
A Springdale Line SKRC train leaves Central Station. The R68s are sturdy trains of Breton design, and were in fact built in High Rock, then shipped to Cathnoquey. This particular train is made of 7 coaches.
A Chirper Tower on the eastern edge of town - this is one of the principal HQs, though Chirper Inc. prefers its decentralized structure. This is the building that would serve as model for smaller HQs across the country.
Next to Chirper Tower, a much bigger stone monolith stands as one of the landmarks of the city. Behind, Chirper Park is a lovely area for Chirper employees and locals alike to enjoy.
The downtown core is bounded by highways - this is where M102 separates from the M1 motorway.
Glenvale is a city of innovation - the Aperture Enrichment Center is a place for scientists to gather and works together with Glenvale University.
Aperture Park - the biggest downtown park in Glenvale - is built around the Enrichment Center, but maintained by the city council.
The city motorway system is relatively expensive, but it could have been MUCH bigger. A motorway was supposed to link the southern side of the downtown core together (effectively cutting off downtown from the rest of the city), but after the destruction caused by early works, the project was called off amidst severe civil unrest. Motorways M101 and M102 are the only legacy of this aborted plan.
It would have required the destruction of this beautiful city beach, for instance - though the river is awfully low on this shot. Glenvale is enduring an ongoing drought, and water levels are at their lowest ever.
And that's it - an overall view of downtown Glenvale looking east. Many buildings are in fact no more than a few stories tall, due to restrictions on height in the building code.
And now for maps!
Glenvale street map - well, the major streets anyway.
Bus services around Glenvale : 22 regular lines criss-cross the city. Game values say 5320 people a week, but that's a simulation value. The thick lines are for lines or parts of lines with more than 600 passengers a game week. I don't know how much it is supposed to represent in real time, however :/
And finally, the South Kingscote Regional Commuter (SKRC) Rail map! There is only one station in the city itself for now, but that might change. More of a regional network anyway (there are 100 miles between Albany and Glenvale).
That's it for now! Hope you like this entry and the new city! Thanks for reading, and as usual feedback is appreciated 
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