Rebuilding a City From Scratch
Well, prop pox struck Kendall again, and there was nothing I could do to reverse its effects. Rather than limit myself to taking pictures of unaffected parts of the city, though, I decided I had to start over.
Rebuilding a city as developed as Kendall - with over 500,000 residents and most of the map developed - was a daunting task, to say the least. I was committed to recreating the city as accurately as I could, so I needed a guide to the old version of the city. Thankfully, SC4 Savegame Explorer has a feature that displays a map of all the lots, buildings, or props in a quad (depending on which subfile you open), so mapping out all of Kendall's lots and transport networks was fairly easy. The hard part was labeling almost all of them, so I knew what to plop where. I also needed to make an accurate subway map, so I referred to the in-game traffic volume data view quite a bit. My final map ended up looking like this:
By following this map, I was able to rebuild Kendall exactly as it was. But rather than slavishly recreate every detail, I took this opportunity to make a few improvements to the city. One of those improvements was rebuilding all of the R-3/50 freeway as a RHW (it used to be an overridden Maxis highway). Here are a couple pictures of how that effort turned out:
This is the freeway's interchange with Pacifica and Nicholasia Avenues. Based on fan comments, I decided to rebuild this interchange in a trench to minimize the freeway's elevation changes. The new version also keeps the longer offramps grade-separated all the way to their ends, which should improve traffic flow.
Further down the R-3/50, I built these overpasses. I ended up having to learn about the RULs the NAM is built on in order to fix a bug that affected the avenue overpass, which led to me becoming a full NAM Team member.
I also made a couple new lots to replace temporary layouts. Here's the new Arts Plaza, at the intersection of Puget and Nicholasia Avenues.
For the most part, though, I just wanted to get as much of Kendall to look as it once did as I could. I'm pretty satisfied with the results; the new Kendall is as vibrant and busy as the old one was.
My efforts even match up across quad borders, as this mosaic shows.
I made some improvements to the campus of Royal University, Kendall, as well. The flagship campus of Lower Columbia's federal university system, RUK was founded by King Edward as the Royal College in 1733. This legacy as a former college lives on in the names of College Street (which ends at the campus administration building) and the College Park neighborhood.
This is an overview of the whole campus and its surrounding area, facing west. The oldest part of campus is in the middle, with the residential annex at bottom, and several of the university's newer buildings near the top, along with some of the fraternity houses of College Park. The football stadium's parking lot is also partly visible at left. Farther down the mosaic, College Street crosses the channel into the Federal Circle business district.
The western half of campus is home to Mikaelslot, one of the university's largest pre-20th-century buildings. Originally built by King Michael I as an alternative to Kendall Palace, Mikaelslot and its grounds were gifted to Royal University by Michael's successor, Brandon I. Although the former palace was quickly used for classes and office space, the palace grounds were neglected until the 1950s, when the university needed to add new facilities. Most of Royal University's science and engineering classes now take place in the buildings that were built on the grounds.
The east end of campus is where most of the dormitories are located. This is another area that wasn't originally part of Royal U's campus; it was purchased from the city around 1960, when the student population outgrew the old dorms.
Finally, although Lower Columbia is an overwhelmingly Christian nation, it also has a growing population of Muslim immigrants. They recently built the Malkut al-Hijra Mosque on the edge of the Kendall Heights, east of Parliament House. Its construction was controversial, due to its size and prominent position overlooking the city center. It's here to stay, though.
-
17
9 Comments
Recommended Comments
Sign In or register to comment...
To comment in reply, you must be a community member
Sign In
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In NowCreate an Account
Sign up to join our friendly community. It's easy!
Register a New Account