Village in a Box - (hopefully) Realistic 1970s Apartment Building (No CC)

SCREENSHOTS
Downloaded 121 times 7 Thanks 5 Favourited 869 Views
 Say Thanks!
Note: This building may be laggy on less powerful hardware. There's a very good reason why by default, rental lots are limited to 6 units. Also, For Rent is required in order for it to function like an apartment.

Rationale
I am a real estate photographer, so I've had a lot of opportunity to see many different buildings and homes. This building is not based off of any one real building or unit, but is rather a composite of various architectural cues that I've seen during my time doing real estate photography. I have tried to keep this as realistic as I could for a building that was built in the 1970s.

I have seen many buildings very similar to this. They tend to not be very stylistically or architecturally interesting, nor do they often have much in the way of topiary or gardening. To try and keep it realistic yet somewhat visually interesting outside, I muted the exterior styling but still added some variation to its style. There is a little bit of gardening, but the front and side green space are not intended as usable space, much like in real life.

I added the entry sign near the mailboxes, as many of these buildings, particularly if they're inner-city and technically infills, have a name, perhaps something fancy like "The Susan" or "The Malcolm" (real life names I've seen and find funny for some reason). So, I created a fancy-looking sign that one could imagine to have the same sort of naming convention.

Building Features
There are 19 individual units. In similar, real buildings there is typically little in the way of variation between floor plans, usually just a few different ones. As this is meant to replicate an older building, I chose to include a shared laundry room as I find that older buildings like this tended to lack in-suite laundry. These buildings also don't tend to have amenities like common rooms or gyms, which I didn't really have the space for anyways. The building does have a utility room, which while technically "shared" space, is in real life accessed only by building staff. We have three HVAC units posing as boilers or forced air furnaces, and two water heaters that... heat water. There's also a fuse box, which is cool too.

Available units range from studios, lofts, 1 bed 1 bath, and 2 bed 2 bath units. Most are single level, but several of them have two levels. Units 301 to 308 are all two levels (spanning 3rd and 4th floors), and unit 107 is also two levels, spanning 1st and 2nd floors. Unit 107 is inspired by a real life unit I saw that had two levels, where the bedrooms and bathroom were on the lower of the two levels, and the primary entry was also on the lower level.

Units are also numbered realistically: 101 to 107 are on the ground level and the front of the building, 201 to 208 are on the second floor, and 301 to 308 are on the third floor. They even alternate with odd numbers on the front of the building, and even numbers at the rear, just like in real life.

Units are designed to appear as though there were changes made over the years. Some units look original, others appear to have been renovated. Some were well cared for, others are a little bit run-down. Some units were renovated recently, while others were renovated years ago, like in the 90s or 2000s. Some units were renovated extensively with changes to floor plans, others only got essentially a "new coat of paint". Some units got nice looking renovations, while others had "questionable" changes.

I similarly tried to make lighting in the units similar to what I see in real life. In real life units, older units tend to have dimmer lighting and no built-in fixtures in living rooms and bedrooms, instead relying on switched outlets for lamps in these spaces, though this isn't always the case. Newer units tend to have more and brighter lighting. Also, the balconies are expectedly not large, as I tend to see in similar buildings.

Each unit features its basic fixtures, as you'd expect when you move into a place in real life. Cabinets, kitchen appliances, laundry (if the provisions were added during renovations), bathroom fixtures, lighting, stuff like that. They're otherwise empty and ready for you to move your pixel guinea pigs *cough* Sims into. And, if you're a true real estate connoisseur, there's ample opportunity to make a hefty income here.
Other Download Recommendations:

  • Apartment building

    by Bunny_m 15th Aug 2016 at 2:54am

    more...

    +8 packs 6 18.8k 35

    Lots & Housing » Residential

  • Greenhouse Manor - No CC

    by Chaosking 23rd Jun 2018 at 2:09am

    more...

    +24 packs 34 52.8k 132

    Lots & Housing » Residential

  • Chateau Bellevue - No CC!

    by Chaosking 21st Feb 2019 at 6:51pm

    more...

    +26 packs 13 48.5k 115

    Lots & Housing » Residential

  • Mansion Kolthoven

    by BrigitteV 8th Aug 2019 at 4:09pm

    more...

    +23 packs 3 9.1k 13

    Lots & Housing » Residential

  • Simooli Hills Apartments - TS4 - NO CC

    by Simooligan 7th Jun 2022 at 9:45am

    more...

    +36 packs 11 8.8k 18

    Lots & Housing » Residential

  • Badeni Palace (no CC)

    by PinkCherub 31st Aug 2022 at 8:09am

    more...

    +15 packs 3 13.5k 13

    Lots & Housing » Residential

  • Apartment house

    by kilari99 28th Oct 2022 at 8:59am

    more...

    +11 packs 5.7k 7

    Lots & Housing » Residential

  • 45 West Apartments

    by Henrik 4th Feb 2024 at 2:06am

    more...

    +28 packs 3.7k 3

    Lots & Housing » Apartments

  • Atrium (No CC)

    by Metamorp 23rd Mar 2024 at 11:14pm

    more...

    +9 packs 1 3k 3

    Lots & Housing » Residential

  • Pri Tpa Town

    by manicpot8to 8th Apr 2024 at 4:12pm

    more...

    +35 packs 3 2.7k 4

    Lots & Housing » Apartments

More downloads by LOLZpersonok: See more
Back to top