SIMplemente

18 - Another promise. Uploaded with ImageShack.us Uploaded with ImageShack.us Uploaded with ImageShack.us Uploaded with ImageShack.us And everybody knows that there's nothing to fish in the L.A river, except an old shoe or maybe a dead rat. So, was it a real promise? Was the Mayor telling the true? Go figure!

17 - 777... Walmart! Uploaded with ImageShack.us Sim City Downtown Los Angeles, South Figueroa St, summer 1991... Uploaded with ImageShack.us Uploaded with ImageShack.us It's the César Pellin building in construction, and it's located in 777 S. Figueroa St... Uploaded with ImageShack.us Designed by César Pelli, and completed in 1991 is a 221 m. (725ft) tall and 52 floors skyscraper. It's known as the 777 Tower, and together with the neighboring building, the Ernst'n'Young Plaza, both form part of the 7th + FIG: the right place to spend your $L! Uploaded with ImageShack.us The tower looks fine in L.A. If developers were about to build it in another place one should say that the building looks a little 'gothic'... And dark, with all those ornamental sharp needles, like old battlements in a medieval castle. Uploaded with ImageShack.us But on the other hand, things are even more intriguing at nights... Uploaded with ImageShack.us Why the crown of the building has green lights during the night? Is there any alien living up there? About to know. In Los Angeles anything can happen, and any creature can live there! Uploaded with ImageShack.us Anyway, the completion of the 777 Tower was a new step in the construction of the Figueroa Corridor. Uploaded with ImageShack.us Now, let's go back to the City Hall. Let's check out what's going on there. Ah, those mayor advisors, they never shut up! Uploaded with ImageShack.us Wow! Even the Mayor agrees that those parking lots are boring and useless! Uploaded with ImageShack.us Uploaded with ImageShack.us Well, if the Mayor is sure, and if the city has the money... Let's work! Uploaded with ImageShack.us Now. They're working to make Sims happy! They're building a temple for shopping! Uploaded with ImageShack.us Removing parking lots! Working day and night! Uploaded with ImageShack.us Uploaded with ImageShack.us Get your wallet ready, because it's almost done... Uploaded with ImageShack.us No more car races to go shopping to Wilshire or to Hollywood. Now all that is over. Because now, Sims have the first Walmart in downtown! You feel like shopping? Uploaded with ImageShack.us Ah! Now downtown looks very different! It's almost human! Uploaded with ImageShack.us

I like how you deal with diagonal streets, roads or avenues. It is very interesting how you apply slopes in brigdes or overpasses to get a very realistic effect. And finally, as a lerner there's another lesson I've learned from you and it's so is simple: using only a few elements (a street, some homes, maybe a highway, trees and parks) and put them all at their right places you get a functional and a very realistic town... Congratulations. And thanks for sharing your city with us.

Good and intriguing start. I guess this is just another 'to be continued'. Great rural views (natural parks, and seasonal trees are awesome) and I enjoyed the rural and dusty roads. Nice and good pics as well. So... when comes the next post? I can't wait.

16- A new skyline and lots of litter in the streets. Hello mates! Last time I saw you we were in the middle of something... What was it? Oh yes, we were 'under construction in South Figueroa St'. We were developing what today is known as the 'Figueroa St Corridor'. It was something like this... Uploaded with ImageShack.us Uploaded with ImageShack.us This one: Uploaded with ImageShack.us or this one: Uploaded with ImageShack.us Formerly known as Simwa-wa-wá Bank Building from its early days, the tower was soon renamed as Figueroa at Wilshire. It was logical: the tower was built at the intersection between S. Figueroa St and Wilshire Blvd. Uploaded with ImageShack.us It was designed by Albert C. Martin & Associates. It's a 53 storey and 219 m height (719ft) skyscraper, and with its geometric shape, like a hexagon, it has violently altered the old downtown skyline. And as seen in the picture above, it has a crown that it can be lit up at nights. Uploaded with ImageShack.us The tower faces the noisy highway to be an important center of business beyond Bunker Hill skyscrapers, in what the mayor called: the 'Figueroa St Corridor'. And for the very first time, Sims like the building, because whenever they walk around, they can not resist themselves to the impulse to start counting how many hexagons the building can have or it fact how many it has as it rises up. Uploaded with ImageShack.us By 1991 another building, located in 777 S Figueroa St was in construction, but we'll talk about it later. Just a few months after the opening of the Figueroa at Wilshire building, on 9th St, corner with S. Figueroa there was a crane, and Sims were busy in the construction site of a new tower. Uploaded with ImageShack.us But there was something new, or something different in Downtown. Probably it has been there during many years, but Sims couldn't notice it... It was something in the air, and something across the streets... Uploaded with ImageShack.us Riots, strikes, and litter on the streets made of Downtown a strange place to live... It happens when, being a 'super' mayor, you put all you simleons only to build highrises and parks... Then, when you forgot about education, health, or building just a simple landfill waste, is when you find your Sims angry and very mad at you...And in 1991, in the middle of riots, protests and tons of litter, the tower at 9th St with Figueroa, finally was completed. Uploaded with ImageShack.us It's the TCW Tower: 39 floors and 158m (517ft) tall. Uploaded with ImageShack.us Here's the 'new' skyline, with the old Occidental Building at the right side of the image. Uploaded with ImageShack.us An aerial view of downtown, with the L.A. river soon to be channelized Uploaded with ImageShack.us The opening day of the TCW Tower, Sims were wearing a clothespin on their noses, because... Uploaded with ImageShack.us Oops, I'm gonna get mine now! Brb!

Sorry, but I have to say it: since I'm building my own downtown LA (see my CJ) this square in the middle of the picture is perfect as Pershing Square during the 80's just before the last redevelopment of the the square. But not only that, there are many buildings I could use. So, once again CONGRATULATIONS! You did a good and a very realistic job. Now, where can I get this square from?

Great! I also can smell the LA noir atmosphere! I love the troleys, and the old pavement of streets, I'd like those buildings for my downtown LA! LOL Thanks for sharing! amazing!

Thank you Ben for following my city! And my congratulations to everybody in the list!

15- Under Construction You've seen it in the posts nº4 and nº5 on this thread. You also read it in the media... The opening day of the City National Plaza complex, also know as the Arco Twin Towers, the mayor of Los Angeles, mister Fletcher Bowron said: 'Downtown is not gonna be the Manhattan in Southern CaliSIMfornia'. He said it in 1972. Of course, he was lying. Because the last part of a long illness created by the City Planner Advisor, mister Parking Lot, in 1969 and known as 'Skyscraper mania' will go ahead during the 90's and it won't stop until the year 2000. Do you remember the magaSIM 'SIMangeleno Reviews'? Of course you do. Here's the cover of the MagaSIM from April, 1989, released short after the completion of the Library Tower. Uploaded with ImageShack.us Yes, once again and during 3 or 4 more years, Downtown was 'under construction'. This time, works were done along S. Figueroa St. There was 3 new skyscrapers under construction. One would have thought that it was a contest to check out which tower would be completed first. Uploaded with ImageShack.us This is downtown as viewed between 1989 and 1990. Cranes, cranes and more cranes along S Figueroa Street. At that time if you were looking for a job, you better get a helmet first, and not a suit and bow tie. In fact, those works to redevelop S. Figueroa Street are what today media called: the Figueroa Corridor. That 'corridor' goes from 1st St. to Pico Boulevard, from north to south, across S Figueroa St. It features apartments or condo towers (like the Bunker Hill towers) office skyscrapers ( Union Bank Plaza, Arco Plaza, etc) hotels and resorts and entertainment...Bye bye to all those parking lots... Uploaded with ImageShack.us Uploaded with ImageShack.us Money makes the world go around. Cranes too, at least in Downtown L.A. And thanks to mister Parking Lot, the City Planner, they never stopped working. Not even in the evenings. The same on Bunker Hill. Now that the traffic problems in Grand Avenue have been solved thanks to the Traffic Advisor, mister James Jams, mister Parking Lot, the City Planner, without asking anyone, he just approved the construction of a new tower there... The tower will be built soon between Grand Ave. and Olive St. at the 4th St intersection... Uploaded with ImageShack.us Excuse me. I don't feel like typing anything else for this City Journal. I want to read the press of the those years... Uploaded with ImageShack.us An old church to be tear down? Wow! Mister Parking Lot do not have respect for nothing and no one. He doesn't respect God either. And so do property investors. Uploaded with ImageShack.us As it's shown in the picture, due the works for the new skyscraper S. Figueroa St got narrower from 2 lanes to only 1. Uploaded with ImageShack.us Uploaded with ImageShack.us The old Church is gone! Adiós... ¡Hasta la vista! Uploaded with ImageShack.us But incoming traffic from Wilshire Blvd runs in front of the construction site with no problem. Uploaded with ImageShack.us And a few blocks away from Figueroa St and Wilshire Blvd, the noise of cranes, steel, concrete, trucks, workers has became unbearable! Uploaded with ImageShack.us Uploaded with ImageShack.us I'm so stressed out with all that noise! I'll be right back. I got another paper to read. Uploaded with ImageShack.us Oh a music festival in the new park? Sounds interesting. Well, sounds good for miss La Vanda Flower, the former Environment Advisor. She always loved the golden flower-power years. She's out of fashion but I won't miss her at all. On the other hand I'm glad that Willy was finally found, even inside of a lunch bag of a worker, He'd be probably hungry. Willy, I meant. Or probably both. Ok. Coming back to downtown under construcion... In Figueroa and Wilshire... Let's hope that a new building could replace and look any better than an old church... Go figure! But, in exclusive... I already have the look of the base of the tower... Uploaded with ImageShack.us How would it look like when completed? Meanwhile, and if you like the unknown, the mysterious, and the supranatural here I bring you a good magaSIM to read! Uploaded with ImageShack.us See you in the next post.

Realistic. That's the word for you. I'm still a learner but watching your wotk, I think I'm going to learn some more. Thanks for sharing. I love it!

Hello mates. I'm working with a big city, and there's a rive in the middle. A long and wide river. I would like to channelize (canalize?) all the river... Do you know what kind of thing should I use to do so? Im not talking about those single pieces to built a channel. Here the river is done, I only need 'walls' to change the river into a channel. I've got small pieces which could do the job perfectly, but they're just pedestrian spaces. Is there any kind of 'concrete' or something similar to download here to use it for my idea? As you can see, I'm lil bit lost. Thanks in advance. To get you a better idea, this is the city with the river I'd like to channelize...

14- Traffic problems on Grand Avenue! Life is a true challenging. Before the years of the 'bunkerhillization', this section of Grand Avenue in Bunker Hill was like a beatiful boulevard leading you to a residencial place with great victorian homes. Sims used to put on their 'sunday suit', and after going to the church, they would have a walk on Grand contemplating the lovely victorian homes, dreaming of buying one of them some day. More later, as a result of the 'bunkerhilization' all those victorian homes and resorts were torn down. Grand Avenue was widened and during more than a decade, it was closed to traffic. No more dreaming walkings on Grand! As developers were thinking on what to built on Grand, the avenue seemed like a dusty road crossing the Mohave desert: there was nothing across the avenue. Victorian homes were gone with the wind. One day they built a skyscraper there, some years later they built another one, which it means cars, buses, traffic congestion. In 1989 with the completion of the Library Tower, traffic jams and accidents at 4th and Grand Avenue happen everyday. If you were about to go to work to the new California Plaza tower, or to the Library Tower coming from east, you'd take the Hollywood Freeway, and you'd exit on Grand. If you come from south, northbound of the Harbor Freeway, exit at 5th St will take there. As a result, and in addiction with the incoming traffic on 4th, coming from west, 4th and Grand Ave intersection has become a nightmare from drivers. Sims are always late to work due the traffic jams and accidents on 4th st and Grand. That's life. From a residencial boulevard, to a new widened avenue closed to traffic, And now, when it's been only 5 years since it opened to traffic again, Grand Avenue needs new improvements... Uploaded with ImageShack.us Uploaded with ImageShack.us That's the way things are... The City of L.A. had some extra Simleons after selling the Hollywood sign to a millionaire... What about to build an overpass on Grand and fix the problems with traffic at the intersection with 4th? The mayor and his advisors thought that if they don't act now, things would be worse in the future... Not only a new skyscraper was approved... There were some more importants projects to do on Grand, and first of all they need to fix the problems with the traffic congestion... So, put your shoulders to the wheel! Uploaded with ImageShack.us Uploaded with ImageShack.us Uploaded with ImageShack.us Uploaded with ImageShack.us Uploaded with ImageShack.us Uploaded with ImageShack.us In real life, works to fix the 4th St. and Grand intersection were done circa 1954. Uploaded with ImageShack.us Final note: The word 'mayor' is misspelled. I typed 'major' when I was writing the lines for the comic. I apologize, as english is not my natural born language. Thank you very much.

I've been playing to SC4 Rush Hour for more than 10 years and I havent got a clue about how to take good pics for a CJ! Thanks to Craig-Abcvs for ... well, for everything and for making me feel like silly! LOL

13 - The Lighthouse Tower of Los Angeles. Uploaded with ImageShack.us The U.S. Bank Tower, formerly known as the The Interstate World Center and also known by locals as the Library Tower, is the perfect lighthouse that a megacity like Los Angeles needed to guide the Sims throught the night. The tower has 73 storeys and it is 1.018 ft (310 m) height. Its tall and brilliant crown, visible miles away from downtown, acts like a lighthouse . The crown marks the exact position of the building during the night and as a result it is almost imposible to any Sim to get lost around the city. The building is the tallest thing ever built by a Sim not only in CaliSIMfornia, but west of the MisSIMssippi river. It is also a unique skyscraper with a very interesting historical records. Uploaded with ImageShack.us Designed by Pei Cobb Freed and Ellerbe Becket, the only 'excuse' to built such a megastructure like this one, was the redevelopment of the Central Library Square and its gardens, and the renovation of the Library itself after the 1986 arson fires. As the building was rising up through the skyline of Downtown many Sims were wondering if the mayor, mister Fletcher Bowron, has gone nuts to allow the construction of such a huge tower. Short after that, all the operation was soon caught in the media... Uploaded with ImageShack.us ...especially the opening day. Uploaded with ImageShack.us Because the Library Tower was in 1989: -The tallest building in CaliSIMfornia. -The tallest west of MisSimssippi river. -Because local building codes, it is the tallest skyscraper with a roof-top heliport. -Until the completion of the Taipei 101, the Library Tower was the tallest structure ever built on major active seismic region. and it was designed to resit an earthquake 8.3 on the Richter scale. -When opened, the tower didn't have a logo on its crown. Some years later it was perfectly visible the 'I' of First Interstate Bank logo on the top of its crown. Nowadays we can see the sign of Us Corp, which it means that the tower is tallest building with a highest placed logo. Uploaded with ImageShack.us When opened, works for the renovation of the Library Square haven't finished yet, but here there's an idea of how did the square look like by then. Uploaded with ImageShack.us The picture above shows the annexe new building of the Central Library, which in fact it is nothing but an expantion of the original Central Library. New gardens have been added and finally, Hope Street now runs one block away behind the Mellon Bank Building, not seen in the picture. The most important thing it is that the historical Edison building was not torn down and it looks like that it is no more isolated in between the new skyscrapers. The same thing with the Central Library building, which is now more integrated into the urban landscape. Uploaded with ImageShack.us Uploaded with ImageShack.us Yes. The space between the Citygroup Center and the Library Tower, the one where until 3 years ago used to run Hope St. is now taken by a new landscape: the Bunker Hill Steps. Here they are, looking north. Uploaded with ImageShack.us The Bunker Hill Steps opened to public in 1990. They are a kind of a neoclassical extravagance steps, Italian-Spanish style, with a Greco-Roman big fountain on the top. Here they are, looking south, as viewed one block away from Hope St: Uploaded with ImageShack.us Here's the crown of the tower lit up on any given night Uploaded with ImageShack.us Downtown skyline during a sunset, looking south, with a view of Pershing Square on the left, and in the middle the Library Tower. Among others, the Aon Center Tower, both City National Plaza towers, Union Bank, Citgroup or the 444 building, with the Wells Fargo and One California Plaza are also at sight. Uploaded with ImageShack.us Uploaded with ImageShack.us Downtown with the new skyscrapers and its industrial area, looking south as viewed from Elysian Heights in 1989. Uploaded with ImageShack.us Uploaded with ImageShack.us Looking north, lit up at night. The tower looks like an enormous lighthouse. Uploaded with ImageShack.us Uploaded with ImageShack.us

Yeah, I like to idea too! Let's what's going to happen in the future with that village. I can't wait to know more!

12- A fire for a big tower Uploaded with ImageShack.us The Ernst&Young Plaza is a 534 ft (163 m) tall building located in 725 South Figueroa St. Completed in 1985 is a part, along with the 777 Tower, of the 7+Fig Center, which is a place where they learn to all the Sims how to use their credit cards. Here's a real life picture of the Ernst&Young Plaza with the 777 Tower behind it. Uploaded with ImageShack.us Here's our Ernst&Young Plaza in Sim City Downtown Los Angeles. Uploaded with ImageShack.us Nothing to do with real life, right? I swear that I've spent days, either in Sim City Devotion and here, looking for something similar and I haven't been luck. What a pity! Or the thing I found was too low or it was too hight, or simple very huge to put it down there... So, the one I finally choose it is not the best but... Just as we say in spanish: menos da una piedra, which it means 'it's better than nothing'. Uploaded with ImageShack.us Uploaded with ImageShack.us Downtown Los Angeles, 630 West 5th Street, Central Library building, April 29, 1986, 9'50 AM. Uploaded with ImageShack.us The Central Library has caught fire! Uploaded with ImageShack.us Originally named Richard Riodan Central Library, the Central Library is a very old building. Built in 1929 it was yet ready for disaster: although the building was safely evacuated, its vintage construction precluded the ventilation of heat and smoke, and limited firefighter access. Some 400,000 volumes—20 percent of the library's holdings—were destroyed, with significant water and smoke damage done to the surviving works. Uploaded with ImageShack.us Uploaded with ImageShack.us Uploaded with ImageShack.us Damages were enormous, and the city couldn't face up with the effort and the costs for the rehabilitation of the building. As a part of the soltution, the LAPL (Los Angeles Public Library) sold the 'air rights' to developers, enabling the construction of the eponymous Library Tower across the street. Uploaded with ImageShack.us The skyscraper was subsequently renamed as the First Interstate World Center, and the only thing Sims could get clear of its construction, was that the tower was built as a part of the renovation of the Library Square after the arson fire. Works for the construction of the tower begun in 1987 and it was completed in 1989. Here is a detail of the renovation of the Library Square in 1987: Uploaded with ImageShack.us Uploaded with ImageShack.us Working day and night to built the tallest building in the city... Uploaded with ImageShack.us Uploaded with ImageShack.us

I really enjoyed your work. It's awesome! You said you did all this womderfull things with your old and orginal Sim City 4? After all I've seen... who wants the SC Rush hour??? I really loved it!

Now I'm working on the research of skyscraoers like the original ones. And the US bank Tower, the icone of LA is coming soon!

Hey, thanks a lot!

Thanks a lot. I guess this is all about. Glad you like it.

wow! it's amazing! thanks for sharing!

11- More commercial offices. So, here we are back again on Bunker Hill trying to guess what is being built on its top, working day and night. Uploaded with ImageShack.us Uploaded with ImageShack.us Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome, for the very first time on this thread to the... California Plaza Project ... Uploaded with ImageShack.us The California Plaza Project consist so far of two unique skyscrapers, One and Two California Plaza. The first part of this mega project begun in 1984 with the construction of the One California Plaza, the MOCA as an important part of the project, the Colburn School of Performing Arts and the Omni Hotel. The second part of the California Project had to wait until 1992. Uploaded with ImageShack.us One of my favourite buildings of Los Angeles ever, looks cool in Sim City. It's located in 300 South Grand Avenue. Uploaded with ImageShack.us The One California Plaza, completed in 1985 was designed by Arthur Erickson Architects, with 42 storeys and 176 me (577ft) height. When opened brought back again some urban life to this part of Bunker Hill. The picture shows the new tower, and behind it, the Colburn School of Performing Arts still in construction. Uploaded with ImageShack.us Uploaded with ImageShack.us Short after the completion of the One California Plaza, bulldozers and cranes were use to built some new buildings just next the Wells Fargo Tower. Uploaded with ImageShack.us On the left site of the next pic the Colburn School of Perfoming Arts is at sight, along with the MOCA and the base of the One California Plaza. At the right site, the crane finally is gone and now the new condo towers are available in Grand Avenue, known as Grand Condo Towers. Uploaded with ImageShack.us Uploaded with ImageShack.us Night view. Uploaded with ImageShack.us During 1985 two more skyscrapers are going to be built in Downtown Los Angeles Sim City. One is the Wedbush Building, located in 1000 Wilshire Boulevard, in between Wilshire, 7th St, and Fernando St. Uploaded with ImageShack.us What about to use this one unstead of the original Wedbush? Once again, there was nothing better around. Uploaded with ImageShack.us The crane is working on the construction site for the other building: the Ernst'n'Young Plaza.

10- A Convention Center, parking lots, and a small new black tower. I forgot something. Silly me. What would it be of a big city without a big and a huge Convention Center? Yeap, you know well that a Convention Center is the perfect place to steal catalogs, to be very rude, to take home whatever kind of samples, and finally, to spend the entire day standing up and not to buy anything there. Here's our particular Convention Center. Uploaded with ImageShack.us Uploaded with ImageShack.us Built in 1970 by architect Charles Lockman it opened to public in 1971 and it was expanded between 1993 and 1998. Originally built as a rectangle, it's located between Pico Boulevard and 11th st, the section now named Chick Hearn Blvd on South Figueroa street. Uploaded with ImageShack.us Here it is the original center, in construction, Also, the Harbor freeway and Sta Monica Freeway junction it's at sight. Uploaded with ImageShack.us In this one, we see the Occidental Building on the lower right of the image (today the AT&T headquarters building).Notice that we today there's nothing that parking lots, there was an entire neighbourhood. Not a nice place to live, with the highway around the corner, but we see some homes and some commercial buildings. Uploaded with ImageShack.us The northeast portion of the original Convention Center was demolished in 1997 to make way for the Staples Center. And this is a thing that I haven't considered and the time I was making my recreation on Sim City. Now, in order to see what I did, let's pretend that the original Center is the one with blue colored roof and numbers in its facade, and the expantion is the one from the original game. Like this: Uploaded with ImageShack.us My Convention Center is located in Pico Boulevard, but as you can see, it is not so far from South Figueroa Street. Uploaded with ImageShack.us When it was built, in between 11st and South Figueroa St. there was only empty spaces or just parking lots: Uploaded with ImageShack.us Uploaded with ImageShack.us Uploaded with ImageShack.us Here's a trial of such craziness of streets, avenues, highways and parking lots... Uploaded with ImageShack.us Uploaded with ImageShack.us Ok. Now. going back to that new 'downtown'... I remember a black tower, a small one, in front of both City National Plaza twin towers, just next side of the Union Bank building. Uploaded with ImageShack.us I'm talking about the Manulife Plaza, a 21 storey skyscraper built in 1982 by AC Martins Architects and located at 515 S. Figueroa Street. Of course, the building you're about to see it is not the original one from Los Angeles. In fact, its orginal name is Torre Negra, and it is located in Madrid (Spain). I thought its very similar and I put it at its place... Uploaded with ImageShack.us Uploaded with ImageShack.us But back to Bunker HIll it seems that developers are busy... The year is 1984. Uploaded with ImageShack.us Uploaded with ImageShack.us Let's go now step by step Uploaded with ImageShack.us The picture above shows Olive St and Grand Avenue looking south. Sims are busy: it seems that there is a structure in construction. Next there's the MOCA (Museum of Contemporary Art), which was built in the final days of 1983 commissioned by the CRA (Community of Redevelopment Agency) The question was simple: if investors and developers wanted to built something new on Bunker Hill, the CRA wanted them to pay first the construction of the museum. That's why short after the MOCA there is something rising up... Uploaded with ImageShack.us But at the same time there was a new tower in construction in Bunker Hill. The Mellon Bank Building was built in the early days of 1984 and it is located in 400 South Hope street, and it was the structure to be built on 'new' redeveloped Hope Street, after the Wells Fargo Center, Here it is as viewed in 1984. I couldn't get the orginal skyscrapper, so I put the a US Bank building from somewhere. It is not the same shape neither the height, but it looks cool to me. Uploaded with ImageShack.us Downtown looking north, with some cranes on the top of Bunker Hill, as viewed in 1984 Uploaded with ImageShack.us Downtown looking north as viewed in 1984. The L.A. river is at sight, and in my recreation it is not channelized yet. The industry area is perfectly seen facing the river. Uploaded with ImageShack.us The same view, looking south. Uploaded with ImageShack.us