Empire of Petersburg

[Methene]

I have been tinkering the game with quite some time now, but this will be my first mayor diary (last one doesn't count). It is based on a map of Paris and uses exclusively custom content (i.e. no Maxis growth).

A little data:

The Empire of Petersburg, with the capital at Sankt Petersburg, Petersburg District; Second largest city is Kronstadt.

Sankt Petersburg has a population of 1,500,000 people, and has an extremely well preserved historical centre.

Anyway, enough talk:



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The image shows the recently pedestrianised Cathedral Square. Following opposition from the Old Town Police Department which has offices in the corner of the square, and motorists, the Governor of Sankt Petersburg has managed to push the legislation through with the support of an Imperial Decree. Initially populated with townhouses belonging to the wealthiest families in the city, as they moved out the houses are now high end hotels and shops.

Cathedral Square Metro station on M2 (the second oldest line on Petersburg Metro), is located directly under St Peter's Column, requiring quite an engineering feat in expanding the foundation of the column. As the civic centre of the city, the square sees everything from Christmas Market to Rock Concerts.




The old town is completely enclosed within the original medieval walls, resulting in a New Town being built in the 18th-19th century over previous slums, farmland and church lands. Ironically, in the early 20th century the Old Town had become slums and the New Town was thriving. However, City Hall investments have revitalised this gorgeous area of town.

During the 18th century expansion of the New town to the south west of the Old town, the New Imperial Palace was built on a hill overlooking the Quayside.



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Unlike the Old Town, where the architecture is a mix from numerous period, the majority of the architecture in New Town is Neoclassical, with the streets wider and radially planned.




The last (master planned) expansion of Sankt Petersburg is New Petrograd, built during the 1970s-1980s on land previously owned by monks from the Monastery of St Mary, which held all land on the western bank of the river and refused to sell until quite late. The least development is the least pleasing, but the tower blocks offer a decent quality of life to respond to an acute housing crisis for the poor in the 70s-80s.

Still the buildings are constructed with decent materials, and allowing for a lot of empty space for the comfort. Transport links are poor to the neighbourhood, but more on that later.

This is the teaser I wanted to show, a bit of each area of the city. Future updates will be more structured, focusing on presenting more complete neighbourhoods. The historic centre is mostly complete, but I've recently got a taste for lotting so I want to redo some parts.

[Terring7]

Great start

[Nardo69]

Nice start. From what I can see by now you're doing a nice job both on historical and modern city building. I just wouldn't have ended these road at the big plaza with a cul-de-sac - a connection over the corner would be a good minimalistic solution IMHO.

Let's see where this will lead us.

Bernhard 

[io_bg]

Great start of your MD! I'll have to agree with Bernhard about the road endings. I hope you'll fix them in the next update
Happy New Year!

[Tomas Neto]

Awesome start!!! Great work!!! 

[scott1964]

Nice start. 

[Tyler]

This is really nice. You got the European feel spot on! Hopefully there will be more soon