Staunton - A Google SketchUp City

[Vellu]

Good to see Staunton alive again - although I was looking forward to seeing that midwestern city from you. It would've been great! Maybe a side project?

The map looks good. Should give an interesting city. Hmm, you say East End is going to resemble Boston's North End, so it will be pretty lowrise? I'm wondering how such a prominent location has been left without highrise development. Has the whole district been preserved as a landmark or something like that?

[Dac150]

Looking forward to seeing the new and improved Staunton. The new layout looks very promising; and I agree that you should hang onto the iconic buildings.

[Aleks]

welcome back!

cant wait to see the new staunton

[Patrick]

Originally Posted by huggkruka

On the west side I had the idea of an old truss railroad bridge that has been rebuilt to accomodate car traffic.

I think I'll keep the Jefferson Bridge, It's been with us for so long, I consider it one of Staunton's icons, along with Galcorp and the Gloucester Building. However I do like your idea for the West Side Bridge, I've always wanted Staunton to have a truss bridge, I think It'll look great connecting the downtown to the seaport.

Originally Posted by Vellu

Hmm, you say East End is going to resemble Boston's North End, so it will be pretty lowrise? I'm wondering how such a prominent location has been left without highrise development. Has the whole district been preserved as a landmark or something like that?

If you look at the map you'll notice Downtown is currently completly looped by freeways, these where all constructed in the 1950's as part of a huge urban renewal project, thus demolishing blocks and blocks of historical buildings leading to a huge preservation battle. Today, the East End and South End are all whats left of Downtown Staunton before skyscrapers.

Today I made most of Staunton's layout, I'd show it to you guys but it's not completely finished. Here is the actual grid I made in photoshop and traced over in Sketchup. These are just the streets, not the actual shape of the city.



A new thing I will feature is elevation in Staunton, I picture surrounding areas like New Ganton and The South End (pictured here) a bit hilly, so here's my first attempt. You can see Galcorp and Gloucester in the back, they're now right across the street from each other. I'm not sure if the whole Galcorp complex will return, Galcorp might just be one tower again. This will be the "highest" point of the skyline so two additional Galcorp buildings would just take up too much space.



This is really great, I never realized how restricted I was with the Manhattan layout, I can finally put in some new ideas! Expect more soon!

[Aleks]

lol, i was looking for something completely different and this came up!

haha, i had to post it asap!

[Pingyao]

Good job. Always like these preliminary thoughts on city designs. I think you're going in a good direction with the elevation terrain. I personally find it gives me more work to do and complicates bases of buildings somewhat, but your first image appears to deal nicely with that. The pay off is you achieve a more visually interesting scene. I'd really like to include terrain in my city, but I don't think I'd have to patience to pull that off now.

The road map looks fine, I assume you'll have on ramps, flyovers etc for the freeways at key points. I'll be interested to see how you deal with the 4 interchange points at each corner of Downtown. Oh yeah whats the scale of that road layout - how many miles width ways?

[Flamesrule]

I'm looking so forward to this new Staunton! Seems very well planned out. I can't wait!



Also have you ever done a wikpedia styled history of Staunton?

[treras93]

Yay! Staunton's back, and with terrain! This is already going to be the best version yet.

Have you just not gotten to the land in the background of that last shot or will there not be any hills over there?

P.S. you've inspired me to start on another city, just thought you should know

[Dac150]

Very nice to see you break things up and get a little creative with the terrain; this should turn out pretty cool. I also like how this is inspiring others to start making cities again; perhaps this is the start of a new boom?

It would be cool to see you do an ‘office park’ themed area and model it off of Stamford or White Plains. I see you are already doing that for a section within the peninsula, but as an outskirt section would be pretty cool as well. Perhaps have it backed up to a freeway...

[huggkruka]

Coincidence? I don't know, but I've had three days off from school and there seems to be some pent-up Sketchup urges in me.



Might post some nice renders once it's done(or if, it's 10x10 km)

[evanmack]

You should do a video tour of Staunton, which would be awesome! So people can get a better sense of the layout, but why is sooo much like NYC, the buildings and all? I liked the original.

[Austin55]

Since your starting over, you should really put ALOT of thought into planning, take that map and label everything where you want it and maybe fiddle with plain white buildings to get a sense of what your doing.

And of course, not stoping! you have single handedly temporarily resurected this forum. (I need to work on my grammmer lol)

[Patrick]

Originally Posted by Pingyao

I'll be interested to see how you deal with the 4 interchange points at each corner of Downtown.

Oh god I'm dreading that for sure, I really don't know what I will do, I've always had problems with freeways and such in Sketchup!

Originally Posted by flamesrule

Also have you ever done a wikpedia styled history of Staunton?

You know, I've ALWAYS wanted to but just never really found the time, I've made some attempts but always deleted them, one day I will for sure!

Originally Posted by treras93

Have you just not gotten to the land in the background of that last shot or will there not be any hills over there?

P.S. you've inspired me to start on another city, just thought you should know

Downtown will mostly be flat, I'm just too lazy haha, only the older neighborhoods will be raised. And I'm very glad to hear that

Originally Posted by Dac150

It would be cool to see you do an ‘office park’ themed area and model it off of Stamford or White Plains. I see you are already doing that for a section within the peninsula, but as an outskirt section would be pretty cool as well. Perhaps have it backed up to a freeway...

I've always wanted to do those, I've always pictured Staunton having a few edge cities, like Houston's Galleria/Midtown area. I have yet to get that far away from Downtown to do so. And I wont be doing an office park Downtown, the "Financial Sector" will be like Wall Street to NYC, so mostly older buildings should reside here if all goes as planned.

Originally Posted by huggkruka

Coincidence? I don't know, but I've had three days off from school and there seems to be some pent-up Sketchup urges in me.

Glad to hear that, can't wait to see more of your city!

Originally Posted by evanmack

Why is sooo much like NYC, the buildings and all? I liked the original.

Well that's what this new revision is all about, I have gotten to close for comfort, Staunton always ends up becoming NYC with different buildings, so expect Staunton to have it's own character again, hopefully!

Originally Posted by Austin55

And of course, not stoping! you have single handedly temporarily resurected this forum. (I need to work on my grammmer lol)

I'm pretty interested in Staunton again, I've got some ideas, hopefully I don't loose interest anytime soon! I doubt I will, unlike the last Staunton, I'm not resurrecting buildings and updating them, I'm adding new ones now.

---

So I don't like doing this, but here is Staunton "without makeup", I wanted to give you guys an Idea of the overall layout. Ignore the exposed map, Gloucester Building, and the early version of Chinatown hill.

I'm excited to see how Downtown turns out, if all goes as planned Downtown will be as dense as ever.



So the big white building is One Justice Plaza, Police Headquarters. The block in front of it will be Foley Square, so expect City Hall and the Supreme County Courthouse to be nearby. Behind is a "filler" block with rather unimportant buildings. Sloan Pharmaceuticals (1969), Winn Cards, Inc. (1926, reclad 1991), and the Arqunette Building (1929).

[treras93]

Looks sweet as always!

i gotta say i'm really loving the new layout. it looks so clean and cool.
is that last shot a render?

[Pingyao]

Looking tasty, I like the setting out so far and its good to see a fellow texture artist at work I like the way you describe the block behind as a filler, its got a beautiful old tower in the Arqunette Building, if it wasn't for the damn antennas someone's decided to blight the top with!

[Dac150]

This is clearly going to be a much more interesting and dynamic downtown. I like to see that risen terrain and how it’s going to directly fuse with the larger buildings; should make for some cool street scenes.

Ever consider having a small river flow through the downtown? Nothing large, but something small weaving through the density would be nice.

[ertiikus]

I Heart Staunton

[Patrick]

!!!



Orion Enterprises, (1991) Lewis & Clark Bank, (1993)

[Flamesrule]

Niceo!


Like it very much.

[Austin55]

I was just about to tell you to take some inspiration from the way you did oceanside. Looks like you did.