Tuesday, August 11, 2020

Nenova: Riverine

 After Orange, one of Nenova's struggling districts marked by a troubling history of redlining and brutalism (call it "heroic architecture" if you must), comes Riverine, an upscale, newer riverside development. The word riverine, a synonym of riparian, is rarely used in speech but makes for a good neighborhood name.

In Aquilia, the dryness and relative age of the buildings means that stucco is very popular as it is in the American west. Older buildings in other neighborhoods might still have a brick veneer (thinner layer) as siding, although the nostalgia of this building style means brick is still appealing in newer neighborhoods. This same nostalgia powers stone (limestone and granite) sidings, both full and veneer. In newer apartments, vinyl is the most common siding due to its inexpensive price and relative durability. My apartment complex has fiber cement siding, which looks similar to vinyl, but has an artificial wood aesthetic that doubles the price. In this neighborhood in particular, most buildings will be stucco, with some brick and stone and vinyl apartments. This has no influence on the map, but does help visualize the area.

This neighborhood will probably have the lowest population out of all Nenova neighborhoods, given that the vast majority of the area is taken up by a park. Much of the area is in front of the levee, in the floodplains of the Akogama river. This levee is east of the rail, and should only break in a once-in-two-hundred-years flooding event. Still, land this close to the floodplain (and rail) is unappealing for anyone with enough money to avoid settling there. However, its close proximity to appealing parts of the downtown (convention center, major office complexes) allows building here. Still, the two blocks very closest to the river are not allowed for residential.

There is an elementary school on Arton Street, a large and older church on Main Street, and several churches that are relegated to alleyways. Even the residential areas have concentrations of commercial development, and industry is not heavy and mostly concentrated on logistics. There are several smaller apartment complexes, but none as major as the one presented in the last blog. A decent approximation of the population of Riverine is about 250, compared to the 1750 (even with almost 50% vacancies!) population of the significantly larger and more dense Orange neighborhood.

The park, given its position beyond the levee, is often flooded and was an old neighborhood that had been demolished. The main road of that neighborhood was changed in some parts to the new bike path, though it has since been repaved. By the park is a wastewater treatment plant, though it is fenced off and hidden from view for the pleasure of park-goers. The design of that plant is mostly inspired by Newtown Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant in Brooklyn, using a similar digester egg system. Given its distance from the homes, it does not impact them much. However, it has a questionable environmental history, given that it does not reach the 85% pollutant removal, which though it does not necessary apply in Aquilia is a requirement set by the US' Clean Water Act.

Map link: https://opengeofiction.net/#map=15/-38.6353/143.1660

Thanks for reading,

Jacob


No comments:

Post a Comment