Port Chester and Surrounding Areas

[skell]

I've started up a new region recently and decided to share some of what I've been working on.  The region I used is called Guaymas. I'm not sure where I got it anymore but it has good coastline, harbors and mountains to play with. 

Port Chester Overview


Here's the overview of the city of Port Chester. Strangely enough, there is no port in this town. The original settlement had a small port but in modern times the harbor was too shallow too allow large ships to enter safely.  To the west there is a deep water port that is under construction complete with a navy base (I just love the SNM stuff).  The city center of Port Chester is going through major changes recently so I'm going to wait to show any of it.  Downtown will be just north of the central fat peninsula which is going to be primarily medium density residential stuff.  Directly to the north is going to be the industrial district of town, though the city center does have some industry remaining.  To the northeast is the first town that I'm more or less satisfied with.

Sharpwood



Welcome to Sharpwood, the name of the northeastern section of Port Chester. Currently it has about 10,000 residents, a bit of commerical office and shopping space and surrounded by a few farms.  Most of the future work on this town will be to add some cosmetic trees and perhaps water in the farmlands and a decision of what to do with the extreme northeastern hill section.  Probably this will go undeveloped.  I chose to keep industry out of this section primarily because the rail lines did not connect well into this city. 



Here's the neighborhood tucked next to the lake.  This residents have more to do with Port Chester central than Sharpwood itself. The drive to any shopping is a good ways.



Here's a shot of 'downtown' Sharpwood. I think the spa BATs and JB Simio's Smalltown stuff work very well together here.



Another glimpse of downtown.  It looks like at least one rich dude has moved into town.



The suburban shopping center. Not too outrageous but supplies the essentials to the local residents. For anything fancy, Sharpwood residents have to drive into Port Chester itself.

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Let me know what you think.  If I get time this weekend I plan to work on the industrial section of Port Chester located due west of Sharpwood.  I've been fighting with getting the railyard pack to look even satisfactory. Hopefully I'll also get a few shots up of Port Chester. So far it has several distinct neighborhoods. One that is almost complete uses primarily gascooker's terraced housing and the Highstreet commercial stuff. Very cool looking. It still have a few wholes where I can't get what I want to grow. Also there is a neighborhood that is populated by German immigrants who elected to build the very bland medium density buildings, Braumfeld Haus.

One thing I've started playing with, as seen in Sharpwood, is the ploppable water. I like Pegasus' pond kits but the ploppable water looks much more organic.

[stocktons_pimp]

its off to a good start

::

[tooheys]

Looks like an interesting region to work with.

Your off to a nice start, the residential areas look good with a nice mix of buildings  .

Great to see you working with the plopable water, perhaps experiment with placing some rocks, fallen logs etc under the water, IMHO it provides an even better look.

The suburban shopping centre is a tad regimented, small to large, perhaps mix the lots up a bit.

Overall though, well done and will be looking out for the next update.

Cheers

Dave

[bat]

Really nice start there! And great work on that region so far! Nice city!

[skell]

Dave:  Looking at the shopping center again, I agree that it is too regimented. Definitely a change needs to happen. I think with the lake, I might go in and put some rocks, etc. down and maybe raise a bit of it back up and create a small island.  The middle area is way too open. Thanks for the input.

[suplado!]

cool rural town...really like the farm fields around...

[Schulmanator]

Well done! the wide angle pix look real! You have a great selection of lots and flora.

[Nexis4Jersey]

i like the look of your queit little town!

[skell]

Finally an Update!

It's been a while since I posted any shots of my Port Chester area. Not that things have been quiet. I've been spending time getting several small towns situated to provide demand, etc. in my larger towns. Plus I've been working on adjusting tile sets so that I can create more coherent looking neighborhoods. So the town Sharpwood shown above is bound to get something of a facelift in the future.

Here are two shots of part of the region right now.  Hallton, a major town in the center, has grown some and several parts have been rebuilt. To the southeast, a few coastal towns have popped up with their economies which had been based in the long forgotten (i.e. undocumented in my SC4) past on fishing has switched to tourism and support of sport fishing. Tonight I might work some more on those towns partly to show off the great new marina set by Pegasus... but I digress.





As we check out Hallton itself, the western edge of town has recently seen some industry pop up. To support this growth, the nearby residential sections of town have been filling in with tenements and townhomes.  In this first picture, the residential neighborhood is slated for rebuilding in the next couple days. I plan also to detail the industrial sections with trees, parking and filler to make it look more like an industrial park.



Here, closer to downtown, the increasing density of the residential areas can be seen. I've been getting a lot of use out of the 19th Century set of homes and tenements to give several of my towns a young, almost slapped together look. Around downtown is the minor league baseball park.

[skell]

Continuing the Update:

A bit to the south of the last shot, a peninsula juts out into the bay. I feel like this neighborhood should have a name but I haven't thought of anything good yet. The people working here take advantage of the short bridge over the inlet that connects the peninsula to downtown. Right now I've wrapped most of the downtown area in the sea walls. I gives the area a bit more permanence. Also right now I've been trying to keep the skyscrapers to a minimum in downtown. I feel that at this population ~80k, the squat office buildings fit better.



Moving a bit to the east along the bayside, one comes to the Old Quarter. I've been working recently on growing just the Gascooker terraced townhomes here though clearly I haven't marked everything as historical.  At the north of the Old Quarter are some buildings in a French style demonstrating the diversity of the city. I'm not sure if I'll keep the German style buildings with the courtyards right now, but they look satisfactory. 



As one journeys north of the Old Quarter, downtown eventually comes to an end.  One can see City Hall here.  As a side note, I had the large City Hall but then had to bulldoze it to rework some roads. Then it was gone from my rewards menu.  Think it will come back?? 

Across the train tracks is the much older established industrial area and the residential neighborhoods housing the workers to the east built in the UK style of rowhomes. This might be my favorite neighborhood in the region.



In this shot, the area just east of the pond I also plan to clean up in the future. To fit with the terraced housing nearby, it will probably largely consist of the gascooker suburban housing.



Hopefully I'll get some close-in shots posted too in the near future. 

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Eventually I will get around to showing Port Chester. In the region shots I posted today, it sits at the very edge of the second shot. I've been rebuilding its residential neighborhoods and still need to invest a good amount of time in designing the Naval base that will be its focal point. Also, one town was built probably to its peak, but I'm holding off on doing anything because right above the town is a shelf of land that I did not build on because I am saving it for the site of a prominent college using JB Simio's upcoming pack. Is it me or is he doing spectacular work?

As always, I hope you enjoy and come back when I update again.