11-27-2010, 11:39 AM
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.