Do we need an LL made meeting area/ hang out?

It has a style that strongly reminds me of the Spanish missions that dot California.

Just so you know, the person building this was hired by LL to come in and design the new WA. Alexandre Alexander is the name, I believe.

I just went to see this place for myself, very very well done.

I could nit pick about a few of the shadow faults, BUT, I dont think this person is done yet, there may be some lighting soon which will make more sense of the shadows.

I do know this person has full knowledge of the physics of light and can't wait to see the end result!

who is it??! c'mon..... you know you want to tell us.

So, Dore is being redesigned, *AND* the Welcome Area?

Are we looking forward to TWO new wonderful builds? Or just the one?

I'll tell ya for one miiiiiiiiiiilion Lindens.

There looks to be at least a significant build in each of the four sims (similar in appearance) that radiate out from the four corners area where the fountain is. The train station-looking structures with high arched glass ceilings. There were some benches and tables in the one I saw in Dore, along with potted plants and trees.

:: waits for deposit of 1 Million $L into Second Swiss Bank ::

This looks literally awesome =)

Optimally, the roofs should be phantom. Then you get the benefit of the look without the annoyance of being stuck if you just want to fly off.

Same with waterhead, please =)

Someone said that a benefit of having non-phantom roofs (rooves?) would be that planes and other aircraft don't come crashing down on you when they land badly (or deliberately try to annoy you). However, given my own experiences wanting to fly up, it seems to me that the overall benefit would outweigh inconveniences.

Three actually. I've contracted the architect to build for me an extremely large and ornate pompadour, replete with baroque-era flourishes. I will then enter and win every sexy av contest.

Only if that pompadour has a matching thong.

Great job to Alexandre!!

Our new "Alexandre the Great"... and he has conquered our hearts with his fantastic build!

Okay, I am attentive. What happened to Stage 4? And was there ever a Stage 1-3?

Ah, Kasandra, fill me in if I'm missing something out, but Stage 4 was called as such because it was centered on the corners of 4 sims, thus increasing capacity and performance, the workload of avs quartered off. (I never heard of a Stage 1-3.)

Stage 4 has now been replaced by the central junction of the new Welcome Area, with a similar principle in mind I'd imagine.

Cheerio.

Consider me educated.

I love the idea of community gathering places, and hopefully this new WA will be one. In theory Waterhead could be another one (assuming, I gather, that we fix the roof problem).

What else does a place need to become a gathering place besides naive newbies? Why hasn't Waterhead become a place to hang with friends? I'm wondering if it has something to do with neighborhoods, and neighborhood hang-outs (where 'everybody knows my name') versus larger, less personal spaces.

Advertise the fact that Waterhead has free games and more people will hang out there. Otherwise, people will just treat it like any other telehub, and not pay attention to what is there because it is just a temporary halt on their way to where they actually want to go. You could also host classes in that amphitheater or whatever it is off to the side.

Welll, I really think SL should get Ingrid to redo the community space in boardman.

Everytime I go to boardman, I think "wow this is so cool" and then I go to the center market and go "oh man, this is so sad".

Meins has a very cool community space as well. I like it because it doesn't try too hard, it utilizes a cool art object that naturally / organically draws people.

AMEN

Waterhead is gorgeous EXCEPT the damn roof.

/STAMP

This is a design pattern that needs to be universally communicated throughout SL.

I don't know actually. I am one of the people who flies up immediately at telehubs but yesterday at Waterhead I naturally had to go along a bit before flying up. The roof made me spend more time there and I got caught up in talking to interesting newbies.

I don't think it works like this. I think people hang out at the welcome areas often for attention as they are guaranteed an audience.

I've never come across a neighbourhood hang-out. I'm not sure that with the entire world seemingly 5 mins away such concepts even work. There are hangouts that have regulars - these are clubs offering free money and the like - but what would make people choose a community space over a commercial one?

I think telehubs are part of the problem here - people TP from space to space and fly up high avoiding all others until they reach their destination. People don't need to mix and therefore don't.

I've been to many of the parks in world but never seen anyone else there.

How does one create a community in this world?