OpenGeofiction
Finally fixed scale for Quentins State International University, made more realistic
Posted by Ernestpkirby on 18 October 2015 in English.For those of you who remember when Quentinsburgh was just starting out, you may remember that other than downtown Quentinsburgh itself, one of my earliest edits was the creation of Quentins State International University, then simply Quentins University, and work on the surrounding areas, such as having Unionway 304 going through the center of the campus.
However, like I said, those were some of my first edits. They certainly showed that as well. Buildings were huge and randomly placed, and when I had attempted to fix it before, it had just made the campus even bigger and made it look even worse.
However, I decided to make it a project of mine to redesign the entire campus to make it more realistic. Looking at OpenStreetMap to see examples of urban American-style universities, I think I finally was able to redesign it to look somewhat realistic. The buildings look about the right size, the freeway exits no longer have sharp jagged curves and the paths and parking actually make sense now.
http://opengeofiction.net/#map=15/-3.3648/-2.5175
The north part of campus still needs some work, as do the surrounding areas like the harbor, but I’m pretty proud of how far i’ve gotten at making this campus look better. Any thoughts?
Discussion
Comment from Demuth on 19 October 2015 at 14:42
It looks good!
Comment from Sarepava on 21 October 2015 at 23:56
It looks great with loads of detail, but I’m not sure about having a freeway slice straight through the campus. It’s not really conducive to concentrating and studying with road noise at all hours of the day, and the wisdom of frosh week or spring break + nearby speeding traffic is a little questionable. Perhaps this might go in a tunnel?
Comment from Ernestpkirby on 22 October 2015 at 00:04
Well, the freeway is a bridge, or really more of an embankment, and the basic idea was that it was originally going to go around the campus but the curves would have had to have been too jagged. There are sound walls and such to minimize noise. It’s just hard to show that on the map itself. Part of the backstory was based off of that bridge being forced though campus before the planners started working harder to make development work better. But yeah. The freeway is elevated enough that the students would never be encountering the road part directly- unless driving on it to get to school- as there are trees and soundwalls, tunnels and paths that go under it, etc.
Comment from Demuth on 22 October 2015 at 15:52
Yes, and you can sort of also divide it into two campuses maybe. I don’t know for sure, but University of Illinois Chicago is right up against a highway, it’s actually possible that some of it might be on both sides…
Comment from Ernestpkirby on 22 October 2015 at 16:09
True. I know North Carolina State University is divided by a major roadway as well, though it’s not an interstate. I actually have kind of come to a compromise. The freeway is still there, but a new alignment is under construction that goes to the left of the campus near the harbor. It will change up how Quentinsburgh Blvd works, creating a north and south roadway that will make for better traffic flow at the exits, but it will be a while before it’s fully built. I imagine the old alignment being turned into a bikeway and pedestrian street through campus once it’s all said and done.
Comment from Luciano on 22 October 2015 at 16:26
There are plenty of North American university campuses that straddle major highways. Off the top of my head, Boston University sits on top of the Massachusetts Turnpike (osm.org/#map=17/42.34945/-71.10106), and my favorite, CSULA (California State Univ. Los Angeles), where the campus basically occupies the open area around a major freeway interchange (osm.org/#map=16/34.0675/-118.1725).