Building drawings

[torikoos]

Torikoos, what part or city in Ca are you modeling? Many times buildings are repurposed out here instead of being torn down. The buildings you will see still in use will depend on the age of the city. Vernon and downtown Los Angeles are old cities that had a lot of brick buildings. After the earthquake in Long Beach in 1933, many of the old brick buildings were upgraded to newer earthquake standards that can be seen by 3 foot wide "towers" of bricks cut out of the walls and replaced by reinforced concrete. Much of So Cal was farm land until after WW2 when the building boom first started. City of Commerce was built on farm land after WW2 so many of the buildings there are of the concrete tilt up type. As Los Angeles metropolitan part of Los Angeles County filled up with new construction, everything "sprawaled" to outlying areas. Orange County used to be mostly orange groves and packing houses. I don't think there are any orange groves left in Orange County. The entire county is now either housing or warehousing and factories. The newest development that started occurring even farther out in the area around Ontario and Fontana (near California Raceway) is what would be called mega-warehouses. These are concrete tilt ups that often have a foot print covering multiple acres. The result is that you get a mix of buildings in various towns based on how old the town is.

Fantastic info Russ! I'm trying to achieve a general feel of California, but slightly to the North of L A. Ever since I saw pics and footage of the California Northern loco's, I want to add them to my roster, but need to give them a home that fit's their real surroundings although I'm taking some creative license here by adding in my own freelance railroad 'North Eastern RR'. (my avatar shows one of the NE engines)
I know that name doesn't really work for California, but it's because I originally modeled a different region in the US (north east) and I myself am from the north east of my country of birth (Netherlands), so I kept the name.

Anyway back to structures etc. for me it's hard to get a feel for the place without actually living there, or being able to visit, so I rely on google earth etc to do a little browsing from time to time. Architectural styles in California is something I need to find info off. Obviously, these areas were settled last, while the east coast of the US has the older cities etc, this surely makes a difference in styles, besides other influences like Mexico being close, natural causes (you mentioned earthquakes etc), weather patterns, established industries etc.
I'm not sure the majority of structure kits can be used. All the DPM stuff for instance, looks very much based on older towns and cities etc.

Any suggestions to point me in the right direction would be great!

Koos