If a building becomes architecture, then it is art.
Arne Jacobsen
350 5th Avenue.
233 South Wacker Drive
30 St Mary Axe
600 Montgomery Street
1 Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Boulevard
Recognize any of those addresses? No? Ok. How about these:
The Empire State Building
The Sears Tower
The Gherkin
The Transamerica Pyramid
The Burj Khalifa
They represent the fusion of glass and steel with fame and prestige. In Project Highrise, it’s your job as the architect to add your building to that list. But how exactly do you transform mere plots of land, these anonymous address coordinates, into names recognized the world over? What differentiates an Empire State Building from a nameless point on the Manhattan skyline? In this month’s Architect’s Notes, we’ll examine the features of your tower that bring fame and renown.
As your building grows and becomes more complex, you’ll begin to gain prestige. When you achieve certain population milestones, you’ll see your prestige rise. More people living and working in your building will mean that more people will know about your building.
A high population starts the prestige gains. Click for larger.
When your tower is starting out, you’ll only be able to attract some basic tenants to rent space. These are tenants who aren’t picky about their address and will rent pretty much anywhere, but they also don’t want to pay much. Do you want to attract higher-end and higher paying tenants? You’ll need to gain prestige. Want to attract the headquarters of a famous company? You’ll need to gain prestige. Do you want a fancy French restaurant with curated menus or a chic jeweler to grace your shopping concourse? You’ll need to gain prestige.
While money can’t buy fame in Project Highrise, it can buy famous art pieces – from fountains to paintings to statues. Small artworks will add a minimal amount of prestige: they’re nice pieces for the tenants and visitors to notice as they walk by, but nothing too terribly impressive in their own right. By contrast, large works of art will add significantly to your prestige level. You can project your fame by placing a statue in your plaza or commissioning a famous mural for your lobby. These will not only impress the tenants, but they’ll attract visitors in their own right to come and behold your good taste.
A chic lobby speaks of status and taste. Click for larger.
Prestige will also unlock other avenues of development. There will be many city contracts that will only be available if your building has earned enough prestige. Some building advisors (who can greatly improve the function of your building) will only work with you if you have reached a required level of prominence.
Building up prestige is one way that your tower will go from mere high rise building into a skyscraper recognized the world over. There are other ways to help boost fame, but we’ll save those for another installment.
