World Capitol Project

[Flamesrule]

Man, that must've taken you a while to make. How long id the movie make? I really like the outcome of it.

Keep it comin!

[JHoward88]

^^^ The video took about 50 hours or so for the computer to render. You know what they say: Rome wasn't built in a day.

Imagine that there were no world wars in the twentieth century. Instead, Germany, the USSR, and the United States all became allies. National Socialists, Communists, and Capitalists all worked together, forming the Tri-Party Congress. Together they forged a powerful coalition government; and as a result, the economic and political turmoil of the early twenty-first century was averted. In that alternative timeline on September 11, 2001, there were no terrorist attacks. Nobody died, and this was New York:



Imagination aside, I made the above photoshop so that you could see the fictional buildings superimposed against a backdrop of real-world buildings for a true sense of scale.

This is the current Sector Map, showing current and future development districts:



Sector 1 - The Federal District (Completed)

Sector 2 - Capitalist District (50% Done) - These are buildings which are directly related to the Capitalist Party or are otherwise unregulated by the various federal powers that be. Just about anything can be built in there.

Sector 3 - International District (Completed)

Sector 4A - Private Imperial Contract Zone (Early in Development Phase) - This area is home to private businesses operating by contractual authorization from the ICC.

Sector 4B - International Imperial Contract Zone (Not yet begun) - This area will house offices of international businesses welcomed with federal permission. Early concept work has begun for the first building in this zone, which will be leased to IBM. More details later.

Sector 5 - Mass Residential Development - This is what I am currently working on primarily. Phase I introduces housing for 20,000 people. Phase II will be much larger.

Sector 6 - Industry, Science, Agricultural Tech Buildings and other Services - This sector is to be designed in rough conjunction with Sector 5.

Sector 7 - Retail, Public Commerce, more Residential Areas - This will be the first "liberal" part of the city, as the Empire opens its doors to the modern retail phenomenon. I'll get to the backstory concerning that later on.

Sector 8 - Docks, Waterfront Area - This part of the model will, when all is said and done, probably be on the west end of a peninsula. Sector 8 will reveal the shape of the coastline.

After Sector 8, the model will probably expand toward the East, right side of the map. At minimum, I hope to have Sectors 1-6 completed this year. Sector 7 and 8 design work may not begin until 2011.

Finally, here is a quick shot of some of the light-density housing units being designed presently for Phase I of Sector 5:



Each three-story modular houses 12 ~600 Square Foot units rated for a capacity of up to four citizens each.

[Vellu]

Very consistent and believable work! That superimposed shot is very well done. Those buildings really are gigantic!

[JHoward88]

New Proposed:

[Foun10Head-X]

I like the classical 40s post-modern look and they're so detailed. Good job on it.

[JHoward88]

The model now contains more than 300,000 faces, with the unveiling of IBM center:



The Tri-Party Congress passed a motion 4-2 allowing foreign corporations residence within the Empire and permitting the construction of an international business district. The terms of the bill require that all participating companies receive an express congressional requisition for their services.

International Business Machines, the international information services company, unveiled a new independent branch which operates under the title of "Imperial Business Machines" within the Empire and reports directly to High Command of the same. While it remains financially linked to its mother company abroad, all other aspects of its business are strictly imperial.

The IBM Subsidiary will be responsible for maintaining the Empire's Government data and computing systems, in addition to offering standard public products and services.

[JHoward88]

The Sector 5 residential zone has been officially named the Volksheim District. Three large residential towers serve as the project's centerpiece, each standing 355' tall. An outlying grid of medium-density residential buildings surround them.


The present view showcasing new residential towers and surrounding apartment buildings as seen from Volksheim Street facing North:



As a side note, computing power continues to be a growing problem. While I plan to purchase a new computer system as soon as finances prudently permit, until that happens progress is likely to be somewhat hampered.

[Vellu]

I think the IBM Building is my favorite so far. That residential zone looks quite intimidating.

[JHoward88]

Thanks Vellu.

I thought I'd thow in another sneak peak from Sector 5, which - in spite of the lack of frequent updates - is indeed making significant progress. I have updated my plans for the residential district to include some mixed use high-density commercial development.

Several new towers are going in which surpass 600 feet, as well as at least one new supertall at 1000+ feet. Additionally, the amount of planned high density residential area has increased. While the final population figure for the zone isn't final, I am certain that it will be much higher than the earlier predicted 20,000.

This is the base of Squeak! Communications tower, exhibiting some decorative public statues in the new Volksheim Downtown District. Note that this is the first instance in which buildings are situated on a traditional urban grid layout, marking a major step forward for the urban development of the project overall:



I expect to have Volksheim 100% finished and integrated into the main model within the next week or so, at which time I will release a full detail update. I'm putting a great deal of thought into this particular phase, which is why the more interesting parts are being kept under wraps until the unveiling.

[Flamesrule]

Awsome work you've got going!

Like the render!

[JHoward88]

^ Thanks, Flamesrule.

Sufficient progress has been made for me to now share with you the first major still view of the Volksheim District.

With a total height of 1190 Feet, the Valkyrie-Phoenix Tower (left) is comprised of 80 stories situated above 10 parking levels. The building primarily houses offices related to the Empire's emergency response department. Valkyrie-Phoenix Tower is now the city's 5th tallest building complex.

Other notable new major buildings include the RCBL Radio Towers which have a total height of 670 feet (immediately adjacent to Valkyrie-Phoenix Tower and connected to it by skybridge), and Squeak Communications Building (666' Tall).*

Dominating the east side of the district, the New Babylon Arch Towers stand with a total height of 666' (sharing identical height with the Squeak Communications Building) and have 44 floors of residential space. They are the latest phase of the mass residential housing initiative.

Meanwhile and in the shadow of larger buildings, a new downtown district, Opera House, and headquarters for the Fellowship of Federal Fraternities (FFF) stand amongst a network of lower-key apartment complexes.



In the future, New Babylon Expressway - a high volume elevated traffic viaduct - will travel through the massive arch as it makes its way into the inner core of the city.

*The RCBL building was given its name as a subtle tribute to the four victims (Rachel, Barbara, Curtis, and Lewis) who died in an explosion at a Slim Jim factory in Garner, North Carolina on June 9, 2009. The complex consists of four towers, the height of each tower corresponding with the respective age of one of the victims. I chose to design and name the building in their honor because I enjoy Slim Jims; and ever since that factory explosion, I have found that I think of the victims every time I buy a canister of the snacks which they inadvertantly gave their life to produce. Squeak! Communications, meanwhile, was given its name as a subtle tip of the hat to a real life local communications company called "Click!".

Shifting gears a little bit, if any of you would like me to name a future private sector building after yourself or your city/project, just let me know (and feel free to specify the potential building's style/details and function). I would be happy to dedicate a little bit of future real estate development to my fellow architects on SSP.

[JHoward88]

An updated depiction of the skyline, showing the Volksheim addition at its current development stage:

[Pingyao]

Its growing well, in a scary kinda way. I love the atmospheric shot of that hunched over statue. That would give me the shivers if I lived there!

[Innsertnamehere]

Ouch, jhoward got banned....... i guess this is dead...

[Pingyao]

Crikey!!!!! Thats dramatic, wonder what he did? What a shame this project is so unique.

[Innsertnamehere]

he always liked to post comments with.... thought behind them, and maybe his thoughts went in the wrong direction. or it could just be this project...

[Duffstuff129]

Originally Posted by Innsertnamehere

he always liked to post comments with.... thought behind them, and maybe his thoughts went in the wrong direction. or it could just be this project...

http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=183372

It's a shame, he actually contributed quite a bit of good discussion material to many (non-political) threads, but he revealed that he was a homophobe and it caught up to him.

[JHoward88]

Fellow Architects, I apologize to each of you personally for the drama.

Originally Posted by JHoward88

It would appear that I am back from my time off. To whoever is responsible for bringing me back, thank you.

When I registered at SSP, I came here to express my interest in urbanism and architecture. I arrived with no desire to disrupt the prevailing peace and harmony of the forum. Insomuch as I have, I apologize.

Furthermore, it is possible that the spirit of my position regarding the earlier topic at hand was misunderstood. I place a fundamental, personal belief in the self-evident innate equality of all individuals, and strive to endorse their universal human rights. This applies to sexual orientation.

I have worked with gay people. I have interacted with them socially. I harbor no malice toward them; nor do I despise them. I view them and treat them as my equals, and would readily lay down my life to protect their civil liberties.

All of this being taken into consideration, my opinion of their cause(s) is not necessarily positive; and yet I believe that one of the things that makes free, liberal thought work well is that we can dislike each other (or other points of view) without disrespecting each other (or differing points of view).

Again, if my comments caused any individual here to conclude that they were delt with a posture of designed disrespect or premeditated divisiveness, I apologize entirely; and as I never came here with a desire to initiate debate anyway, I am more than happy to promise that in all future proceedings, I will act with more care and sensitivity.

I unilaterally acknowledge that personal views and opinions which I may hold and on occasion express could be (and at least occasionally probably are) misguided or wrong. That doesn't mean that I will stop believing in them; but it does mean that I fully respect those around me who choose to disagree with - or even revile - my opinions.

I reiterate my thanks for the second chance on this board, and trust that - gay and straight alike - we will move forward in a spirit of common interest and friendship.

- Joshua Howard

http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...=1#post4923524

And on a more positive note, the streets of Volksheim come to life:

[Pingyao]

Welcome back jHoward, glad World Capital Project is back to life. LOL I spy Adolf!

[JHoward88]

^^^ I didn't realize until you mentioned it that he is standing up in that car. Actually, I realize now that I accidentally also have one of my street lights going through the hood of his car. I suspect if he were here he would feel somewhat violated by this project.

DEVELOPMENT UPDATE

Right now I am wrapping up Volksheim. I still must design 10 city blocks and add street lamps and road detail to the rest of the project, add minor touches throughout, and create the New Babylon Expressway elevated auto viaduct.

The viaduct will continue travelling East, passing the Science Department HQ and Health & Education Administration HQ centres. The Department of Public Works & Corrections and attached detention facilities must still be built soon; but what I am really excited about is a new transit hub.

A canal just north of the Volksheim district will allow ships to travel inland. An airport will be built on an artificial island adjacent to it. The hub will connect air and sea with the regional highway and inter-city monorail. The monorail will offer connections to the entire inner city as it develops, and immediate service to the nearby East-West rail line. This hub will be the site of a large retail district:



Meanwhile, I have completed the intro sequence for my propaganda video, which adds an extra 3 minutes to the beginning of the animation sequence which I shared previously. The next big video release will add another 7 minutes of actual 3-D rendering to the end of this:

Update: original video removed. Most recent video rendering is located later in this thread.

PLOT UPDATE

Since the beginning of the project, I've been trying to figure out where I was going with it in terms of plot. I've finally settled on the official cover story.

This fictional World Capitol is the result of an alternative historical timeline. In my fictional universe, Ancient Egypt and Babylon were allied Empires. Greece and Rome were also allies. By 1,000 AD, the Egypt-Babylonian Empire and Greek-Roman Empire had united to form a unified Western Civilization.

Meanwhile, the eastern civilizations unified. By the dawn of the 20th century, the United States dominated North and South America. Greater Germania dominated Africa, the Middle East, and Europe. The U.S.S.R. controlled all of Asia and the Pacific.

The age of reason had emerged sooner, allowing the various world Nations to enjoy relative peace for thousands of years. In 1908, leaders of the U.S.S.R. and Germania met for the purpose of merging their governments to form an Empire known as New Babylon. The United States remained separate, but allied. At that point, the United States represented all of North, Central, South America, and Australia, while New Babylon represented all other Earth Continents.

The event was celebrated with what was touted as the largest building project in the history of humanity: The creation of a new supercity intended to serve as the seat of Civilization.

The project itself is intended to combine four distinct stylistic elements: Soviet Russia, Nazi Germany, the United States, and a mix of Orwellian and Biblical style portrayals of global government. The project begins in 1908, and will end with its completion in the present day.

It is my goal to eventually write a work of poltiical fiction/allegory potentially based on this fictional universe (in whatever form it ultimately takes) in years to come.