Where to build offices?

[KeanoManu]

Ever since I played the game the first time I've wondered where offices should be built and I've yet to figure it out.

They're a form of advanced industry, but they doesn't feel right in the industrial part of town. Or is that where they should be built?

Should I combine commercial and office zones in my CDB? Or is it maybe offices that should make up the base of the CDB?

Do residential zones dislike being close to offices?

Should I view offices as commercial or industrial blocks?

 

[JerkyJerry]

Good questions:
First do you mean CBD = Central Business District? Well I'm going to pretend that is what you mean.

Ok, first lets say offices are an advanced form of industry. They don't produce two things that industry does produce: ground pollution and noise pollution

Should you combine commercial and office zones? Well, yes and no. Residents don't like pollution. Commercial buildings produce noise pollution.
Offices reduce/block noise pollution.
Residents do however like to shop.
So you now have to figure out a way to let the residents shop/live but not be affected by the noise pollution the perfect answer is.............?

Residents like to be next to offices. Offices provide jobs and no pollution.
Industry provides jobs but also infects residents with pollution . Then residents need more medical services and die.

You should not view offices as commercial or industrial blocks because your residents do not view them that way.

(Example: I'm currently running my city with 561k cims (and growing) and not a single industrial building )

 

[Myquandro]

The way I see it in RL is that offices can be found on business parks on the edges of the city (as a city continues to grow it might eventually feel like it is in the city of course) like industrial area's. Bigger cities also get offices in the center of the city closer to public transportation.

What I've done in CS is that after my city expended my first industrial area gets surround by residential and I then replace those industries by offices and build a new industrial area further away from the city.

 

[ShilkaLive]

One thing I absolutely don't like about offices is that they barely generate any traffic. I made some office parks in my town, but they are really 'dead zones' in my city. So when it comes to game mechanics I guess you could lower traffic in areas by mixing offices in. I guess it all depends what your going for, as Myquandro sais, if you're going for a realistic look, look at the real world, make bussiness parks, a bussiness centre etc. Some offices in industrial parks would be realistic too, and I guess it would water down pollution, and traffic a bit.
Since the game isn't that hard, I'd go for the realistic option anyway. Just look at your hometown, or other cities in reality and wonder where the offices are in real life.

 

[barrygreybeard]

I have started to encapsulate my noisy commercial with silent offices, in that way residential can butt up quite happily to offices/commercial areas, that's the theory anyway, I will see how things develop.

 

[KeanoManu]

Thanks for the answers. And yes, I of course meant CBD = Central Business Distric.

So basically there's no definite answer to this. But most people seems to assume that they can be built everywhere.

 

[DomUK]

Don't forget that Offices have employees who need to get to work while Commercial Zones need people to shop in them. One strategy is to place office zones on the far side of an Commercial zone to draw customers through the Commercial zone from residential zones. Another I'm thinking about trying is to mix the Commercial and office zone so that the offices draw in people on public transport and hopefully also satisfy the Commercial zone as shoppers.

 

[Simcity5]

What do offices do apart from provide jobs and taxes. They dont seem to produce or consume anything. It seems more like some kind of cheat building.

 

[GrauPanther]

What do offices do apart from provide jobs and taxes. They dont seem to produce or consume anything.

Isn't it just like the real world ?

 

[KeanoManu]

Isn't it just like the real world ?

That's unfair. In real world they consume alot of coffee.

 

[ReginaRC]

I build them wherever I want them. I like stuffing them between commercial and residential. I build a few out near the industrial areas (because it's kind of nice for the businesses not to have to drive clear into town to do their banking or travel a long way to their accountant, etc. And yes, I know they don't really visit those places, it just makes sense to me). I have one district that's all high-rises with residential in one part of the center and a ring of office buildings around it. It's a little more complicated than that but that's the jist of it. Sometimes I use them as filler in areas where I want more buildings but not more traffic. They're kind of nice that way.