Staunton, NJ - A Fictional Google Sketchup Metropolis
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Hi everyone!
My name is Patrick, I thought I'd share my ongoing nearly 7 year project: Staunton, New Jersey.
Staunton is a fictional city of mine located in northern New Jersey just outside of New York City. Staunton is home to over 1.7 million inhabitants, making it the 5th largest city in the nation. The city has gone through several revisions over the years, currently we are at Staunton #8. I've never finished Staunton, usually by the time I finish modeling the downtown area, I have completely new vision of the city and start over.
Some things have stayed the same over the years, the tallest buildings are the 83 floor, 1169 foot One Galcorp Plaza, completed in 1979 (6th tallest in the nation) and the 79 story, 1108 foot Gloucester Building, completed in 1932. Downtown Staunton is located on an peninsula, bordered by the North and South Rivers. South of Staunton is the city of Jefferson, home to 900,000+ people, to the North, the city of Ganton, home to about 200,000 people. Staunton is based primarily off of New York City (as it would be it's sister city in real life) with influences from Sydney, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Philadelphia.
Here is a look at Staunton over the years:
Staunton #1 (2006)
Staunton #2 (2006) Switch from self made to photo-textures, sadly this version is lost forever.
Staunton #3 (2007)
Staunton #4 (2007)
Staunton #5 (2007 - 2008) I loved this version of Staunton, closest I ever got to completion.
Staunton #6 (2008 - 2009) I refer to this version as the big step backwards.
Staunton #7 (2010) Short lived but a huge step in the right direction to a more Sydney-like layout.
Staunton #8 (2011 - now) 2 year hiatus soon followed as I entered college and lost interest in sketchup, just started it back up! After 2 years I finally have a clear version of what I want Staunton to look like. This is the final version, I will be posting more life-like pictures once the city starts to fill in a bit more.
I documented Staunton's evolution on the Skyscraperpage.com message forums, unfortunately some of the old images no longer show up but at least the posts are still intact. The sketchup sub-forum was quite active back in the day but died around the time I stopped regularly attending to Staunton. I'm hoping that Staunton finds more success here at Sketchucation!
Stay tuned for frequent updates!
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Looking awesome, would make a nice animation (rendered)
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Wow. Excellent progression. Some of those are just flat out better than Google Earth.
Are all of those captures from in SU? The textures are excellent.
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Thanks for the comments guys! Bryan, all of those are captures from Sketchup, with the exception of the last image which was rendered in Kerkythea.
The heart of the financial district is finally coming together. Here is where some of the largest buildings in the city in terms of floor space are located. These shots were rendered in Kerkythea and modified in Photoshop.
Looking down Market Street toward the Staunton Stock Exchange.
One Allied American Plaza and GrantProvident Square towering over the financial district.
Callahan Point, with the imposing facade of the AtlantiCorp Center in the foreground.
Looking east down Warner Street, Sloan Insurance is to the right.
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@bryan k said:
Wow. Excellent progression. Some of those are just flat out better than Google Earth.
Are all of those captures from in SU? The textures are excellent.
My thoughts too, you just did a better job than Google
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Thank you mortenstorgaard! I really appreciate it.
The skyline is slowly gaining mass, here is a skyline shot - looking south beneath the Ganton Bridge.
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Looking good.
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Hi Patrick,
Welcome to Sketchucation forum.
Wow, very nice model. I like it a lot.
Keep them coming.
Best,
_KN
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Nice work. I prefer #4. 7 reminds me of Newark too much
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Thanks guys!
I created a diagram to keep track of Staunton's tallest, It should be noted that Staunton will eventually have a uptown, so the lineup is bound to change. (click to enlarge)
Downtown skyline looking west from the Atlantic Ocean, good morning Staunton!
Much more to come so stay tuned!
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I haven't had much free time at all lately because of school so I don't have anything new to show, but Staunton will finally see it's first train station soon!
Another morning in Staunton...
Lurking in the shadows of the Stock Exchange district.
High above the financial core of the city.
Hanging out at Kent Plaza, looking up at the Gloucester Building with One Allied American Plaza in the foreground.
Looking towards the Atlantic Ocean with Staunton's biggest players in the foreground, what a view!
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Seems not fictional!
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It just keeps getting better!
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Here is an overview of downtown, I've been concentrating mainly on Terminal Square which can be seen in the foreground. Staunton's Union Station can be seen center-left, connected to the STA (Staunton Transit Authority) Transportation Center. The older building just right of the STA Transportation Center is the U.S. Post Office Building, the Post Office Annex is the three-winged building behind the train tracks.
The view thousands of commuters see every morning when they walk out of the train station.
Staunton's Post Office, dwarfed by it's neighbors.
Looking across the STA Railyard at the Post Office Annex Building.
Terminal Square as viewed from the top of the STA Bus Terminal/Parking Garage.
Galcorp Plaza and it's surroundings.
On the corner of United American Avenue and Callahan Boulevard.
Lastly, a more updated overview of downtown, be sure to enlarge this one
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Wow. Great! Question on technique. Are these all done in the one file or are the building components from other files? Is it a large file or slow to work with?
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@pbacot said:
Wow. Great! Question on technique. Are these all done in the one file or are the building components from other files? Is it a large file or slow to work with?
Each city block is a component, the city is like one giant puzzle. The file is getting pretty large but because each block is a component Staunton still runs pretty smoothly. I don't design the blocks in Staunton since it would be considerably slower than making it in a new file and simply pasting it over. In older versions of Staunton, where I hadn't made each block a component, it took ages just to move around the city.
Not much new to show just a couple new filler buildings here and there, I did manage to bust out a couple renders:
The downtown waterfront on a crisp early morning.
Kent Plaza, surrounded by some of downtown's most prestigious office space.
Looking south from Ganton with the STA Bus Terminal, Union Station, and the STA Transportation Center in the foreground. The land left of downtown will be home to a low-rise neighborhood.
The Staunton Bridge is back!
The sun sets on Staunton's former tallest building, The Gloucester Building.
The Jefferson Bridge is back also, here you can see the land where Fort Staunton park will be going, Staunton's finally going to get the big waterfront park it deserves, goodnight Staunton!
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