I absolutely loved his design, which is why I started with it. Mainly, I needed more houses per block that would evolve further without being TOO much bigger.
This design is probably a little too big for your tastes though.
EDIT: Should be fine now. Noted fire problems at the cottage stage by GodOfRandomDeath, but problems should go away after that. NOTE: For players that have certain rules regarding entertainment, this wouldn't work for you obviously. This block is designed so that the people only get the entertainment they need, you won't achieve all your culture ratings with this unless you overcompensate elsewhere. EDIT: Had to add some shrines due to changes made. Also, the shrines to the east along the outer ring are serviced by a distribution center as seen in VitruviusAIA's original design. You won't be able to get manors this way because of the desirability limitations. Even if it's big and pointless for many, hopefully it will provoke others into making more blocks for us to see and use. =) [This message has been edited by Continuity (edited 10-25-2004 @ 03:13 PM).]
Size: 27x17
Population: 2,944 (92x32)
Workers needed internally: 113
Evolution: Fancy Residence
Difficulty: Very Hard (or lower)
I started a Sandbox mission on Very Hard to test this. After getting the city operational, I left my single block alone for many hours and watched as nothing devolved, caught on fire, demolished, etc. It wasn't perfect because of my inner ring size. (50 tiles without an intersection)
The entertainment idea was based off of VitruviusAIA's spiral-like design as seen in his block I linked to. The destination walkers generated from the juggler school, etc move along the northern outer ring and down to the inner roads giving the northern houses entertainment. They procede to the center of the block where the stages are, passing the southern portion of houses, giving them entertainment. The innermost houses are constantly receiving random and destination walker treatment.
I'm sure many people notice and possibly shake their heads at my usage of shrines, but it was necessary in order to achieve the amount of desirability needed for Fancy Residences in every plot. I've cut back on shrines and replaced them with gardens/small statues wherever possible. You'll also notice that since I have shrines that connect to the outer ring, I needed achitects along that ring as well.
The design promotes drawing of workers from all sides of the block, but you must keep certain structures like docks away a couple spaces, many buildings can still be placed right up alongside the block without devolving the houses.