#30
15th Oct 2012 at 11:19 PM
Here's a map showing what I've gotten done so far. I've got 3 distinct neighborhoods of Eastport (my rename of the LN city) going so far, and as soon as I finish a couple other things I'll have at least 5 or 6 by the end of the week. Red is the West End, dark blue is the Lower Docklands, and light blue is the Upper Docklands. To clarify a bit... north is left on this screenshot.
The West End is based on Boston's Back Bay neighborhood, and maybe a bit of the South End neighborhood as well. It has 3 apartments, a local watering hole, two bookstores (one is non-rabbit hole), two grocery stores (one is non-rabbit hole), a gym, and a disco club (named Club Oberon).
The Lower Docklands is my least completed neighborhood so far, but I have a distinct plan for it so I'm counting it on the map right now. It's based on the South Boston waterfront. Right now the only building I've done is a nectary that takes the form of a beer brewery (the Norcross Brewery). Other buildings in the Lower Docklands will have an industrial feel to them, and I may or may not make it a purely community neighborhood without any apartments.
The Upper Docklands is based on any number of New England urban working class neighborhoods. Because I'm most familiar with it, I drew a lot of inspiration from the Allston and Brighton neighborhoods in Boston, and Somerville too. It's meant to have the feel of a working class neighborhoods where there are also a lot of young adults living in their first apartments after college, having moved there because of the cheap rents. It's mostly triple and double decker houses with each floor being a 2 or 3 bedroom apartment. All in all it has 7 apartments with a total of 17 bedrooms, so it'll likely be one of the most densely populated neighborhoods in the city, which makes sense given that Somerville is the most densely populated city in New England, and it's outside Boston.
I've been slowly chipping away at a few other parts of town too. On the other side of the rotary from the West End I've already put in a theatre, restaurant, and cafe. I'm planning on turning the arena and some of the surrounding lots into a university modeled on Harvard University, and zoned as a library and art gallery.
Down the main avenue from the West End I've started decorating Imperial House, which will be the new center of government for the city (in my overall Sims story Eastport is in an alternate Earth, and is the capital of a city-state known as the Eastport Imperium). I've gotten the exterior decorated, but not much done on the inside yet.
Around the EA city hall building I've been modeling one side on Victorian "painted lady" type houses (think opening sequence of Full House) to bridge the gap between urban and suburban neighborhood. On the other side I've started building large semi-urban condo complexes. Eventually I'll tear down the EA city hall building and use that lot for either a park, or more houses. Probably more houses
Anyway... let me know what you guys think so far.