Rocane - a sketchup city - Page 7

Vellu · #**121** Posted **Mar 29, 2009, 11:21 AM**

The 40-story Johnson Building on 2nd Avenue was completed in 2000 as headquarters for the international Johnson Pharmaceuticals - it being the first major pharmaceutical company to base their operations in Rocane. The Johnson Building is 591 feet (180 m) tall.

The 22-story International Building is an office building located on Main Street. It is 335 feet (102 m) tall and was completed in 2002. Its biggest tenant is the law firm Rogen, Hill and Associates.

At the boom years of the mid-00's Daniel Garden Development took on two major projects: the Garden International Tower and the Garden Hotel and Plaza (in the middle in this picture). In 2008 Daniel Garden Development started to struggle badly in the worsening economic situation. They were running quickly out of money, but managed to complete the Garden Hotel and Plaza in February 2009 - just before they went bankrupt. The Garden Hotel and Plaza is a 60-story hotel and residential building. It is 856 feet (261 m) tall.

[SP]Neo · #**122** Posted **Mar 29, 2009, 1:58 PM**

great addition to rocane as usual i like the trump-style tower. but you didn't tell anything about the sticky white tower on the right in the sec picture. it looks damn tall.

FREKI · #**123** Posted **Mar 29, 2009, 7:58 PM**

Damn impressive work mate!

sketchupaddict · #**124** Posted **Mar 29, 2009, 11:22 PM**

Wow! Thats a great sketchup city you have there!

Vellu · #**125** Posted **Mar 31, 2009, 10:08 AM**

Thanks again, guys!

Quote:

Originally Posted by [SP]Neo

you didn't tell anything about the sticky white tower on the right in the sec picture. it looks damn tall.

That would be the Rocane Needle.

More about it later - next weekend, I guess.

Vellu · #**126** Posted **Apr 3, 2009, 1:06 PM**

Construction on the Garden International Tower began in 2007. At the same time Garden Development was working on the Garden Hotel and Plaza a few blocks southeast. When the financial crisis hit Rocane in 2008, Garden Development started to run out of money quickly. They finished Garden Hotel and Plaza in 2009, just before they went bankrupt. That left Garden International Tower half-finished. From the bankrupt's estate the building fell in the hands of Wright Wellington, Garden's biggest creditor.

In late 2010, when things were looking a bit brighter again, Wright Wellington found a new developer for the building and it was finished in late 2011. The building was named Waterline Tower, although it's not exactly at the water line. The Waterline Tower has 81 stories and is 1148 feet (350 m) tall. It became Rocane's tallest building and held that title until the completion of the Rocane Needle in 2015.

On the right here is the 60-story KSoft Center on 1st North Street. It is 755 feet (230 m) tall and was constructed in 2013 for the KSoft Inc. software company. On the left is the Gateway Center, an 35-story office building built over Market Street. It is 492 feet (150 m) tall and was finished in 2018.

Vellu · #**127** Posted **Apr 5, 2009, 8:10 AM**

Plans for a new supertall, named the Rocane Needle, were announced in 2008. Construction didn't manage to start before the economic crisis exploded, and the plans were put on hold. Excavators appeared on the lot in 2012 and the construction began. The Rocane Needle was completed in 2015, when the economy was already swiftly recovering from the recession of 2008 - 2012. It became an instant hit - as well as Rocane's tallest building.

The Rocane Needle stands at 1476 feet (450 m) and has 100 stories. It contains offices, a hotel in the middle and condominiums in the top floors.

Market Street looking east in 2020.

Rocane's skyline in 2020.

Some random shots:

The old St.Matthew's Church amidst skyscrapers.

Downtown skyline from the Century Park.

Downtown from northeast.

A view looking northwest on 9th Avenue.

And to wrap things up, a diagram showing the history of Rocane's tallest buildings by roof height.

Vellu · #**128** Posted **Apr 5, 2009, 8:22 AM**

So, there you have it: Rocane from 1880 to 2020. I think Rocane's mostly a pretty good SU city. There's a few things, though, that didn't turn out so good, in my opinion.

- The skyline got a bit too crowded for my taste. I guess there should have been more mid-rises and less over 200 meter towers. The tallest buildings could have been more spread out, but I limited the land area I was working on to keep the model manageable.

- Some of the buildings ended up looking too much like the real life buildings that inspired them.

- There were too much of historic lowrises left.

- There should have been more open spaces in the city.

Well, presenting Rocane was fun. Hope you liked it as well. Thank you very much for your inspiring comments!

Btw. those of you who want to explore Rocane more, you can find it in the 3d Warehouse, where I uploaded all the models before I started presenting it here.
http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehou...3f&prevstart=0

huggkruka · #**129** Posted **Apr 5, 2009, 10:29 AM**

Fantastic. The Needle is such a great design, it would fit nicely in Chicago or LA, I think. This is a great city, 10/10. And it's done! That's got to be a first.

Flamesrule · #**130** Posted **Apr 5, 2009, 9:14 PM**

it's sad that its already done.10/10. It's one of the most realistic cities and one of the best cities in the scyscraperpage sketchup cities! Great job!

[SP]Neo · #**131** Posted **Apr 6, 2009, 2:38 AM**

great city! i really enjoyed it. thank you very much for sharing it with us.

Aleks · #**132** Posted **Apr 8, 2009, 11:21 PM**

Wow! That was the first city I've ever seen to be completed in this forum! Amazing work, great stories, everything is nearly perfect.

I love nearly all the buildings too. I do though have a problem with the Waterline and the Gateway Center. I don't really like Waterline and the Gateway Center seems out of place. Everything else is really really nice though!

Will you keep posting pictures of this sexy city? It's too nice to let it rot!

Vellu · #**133** Posted **Apr 9, 2009, 2:02 PM**

Thanks, guys!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aleks0o01

I love nearly all the buildings too. I do though have a problem with the Waterline and the Gateway Center. I don't really like Waterline and the Gateway Center seems out of place. Everything else is really really nice though!

Will you keep posting pictures of this sexy city? It's too nice to let it rot!

Now that you mentioned it, I remembered one thing that I forgot from that "things that didn't turn out so good" list: some of the futuristic buildings didn't turn out ok. The Waterline Tower is too massive for its location and the Gateway Center is just ugly.

Every now and then I think that I should make renderable versions of Rocane's buildings, add more street-level detail and give you some rendered shots. Perhaps I someday will, but now I'm too into Navaho Springs.

Flamesrule · #**134** Posted **Apr 9, 2009, 11:39 PM**

about how long did it take you to make this city? Its probably the top 5 citites in the skyscraper page. Also whos going to add this city to the map?(or did we already?)

Patrick · #**135** Posted **Apr 11, 2009, 2:10 AM**

Sad to see the city finished, but again Rocane is amazing, now we have Navajo Springs!

Vellu · #**136** Posted **Apr 13, 2009, 2:31 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by flamesrule

about how long did it take you to make this city? Its probably the top 5 citites in the skyscraper page. Also whos going to add this city to the map?(or did we already?)

Well, I worked on Rocane for about two and a half months, about 4 - 5 hours almost every day, so I guess that's about 300 - 400 hours. Rocane was pretty much my dayjob on my very long vacation last summer.

I added Rocane and Navaho Springs to the map.

Flamesrule · #**137** Posted **Apr 13, 2009, 2:51 PM**

thats a relief!

maikeli · #**138** Posted **Oct 6, 2009, 9:51 AM**

The CWI center looks like one of the old twin towers

verticalextropy · #**139** Posted **Oct 6, 2009, 2:04 PM**

Just soooo god dang beautiful! I haven't checked this city since the 1940s, and I'm so very pleased!

Keep it up, next page,

verticalextropy · #**140** Posted **Oct 6, 2009, 2:10 PM**

As seen from the rolling park it kinda looks like Houston, only better