Bella Plaza - NO CC

If you’re like me, you love using the neighborhood decoration Bella Goth statue for central plazas and traffic circles and the like, but have always been a little disappointed not to be able to send your Sims there to visit. Well despair no longer! I realized that an old trick I’ve occasionally used to make the huge tree decorations appear in wilderness lots could also be used with this statue, and that I could hide/replace the base with a fully functional lot that Sims could visit. Of course you’re free to just put a sculpture or a fountain in the center instead of the statue if you don’t want to go through all the trouble, but I love being able to actually include this statue in a lot!



All of the decoration base is hidden below the functional portions of this lot except where it emerges in the center, where it is surrounded by fencing, letting your Sims wander around the plaza at will without any unwanted clipping. The one exception to the deco being hidden is the two restrooms, located in the foundation. Each can be reached via stairs towards the back of the lot and is fully accessible and functional, but the neighborhood decoration will block the view of most of the space. I organized the layout such that the toilet stalls are all partially visible along the outside wall, so you can still direct Sims to use the facilities as normal. Sinks are hidden by the deco, but are available as well for Sims to wash up, you just won’t see it.

This is a very small and simple lot by my usual standards, only valued at $96,178 and with no complex items or clutter to slow down your game (the only NPC that should be generated is the Human Statue), but I did include several chess sets, fountains, and a grill and photo booth towards the rear of the lot, so there’s still reason for your Sims to visit this plaza if they just want a simple park to visit. As always, no CC is required for this lot, so you can just plug-and-play, so to speak. I’ve tested a clone (also used for the screenshots that include Sim activity) and ensured that it all works as expected, and encountered no unwanted behavior, but let me know if you do run into any trouble and I’ll try to get it corrected!

That’s all the technical information I think needs to be conveyed, but read on if you want another of my perennial vignettes to set the scene for this location…



Early in the morning, the sun’s rays gradually crept lower on the city skyscrapers, eventually illuminating the massive brass statue at the center of a downtown plaza. The sculpture’s frozen eyes looked out across the city as they had for decades, watching the scurrying of the local population as they went about their day.

At first only a few people passed by below, rushing to start their day’s work before many in the city had even awoken. A few stopped for a moment to enjoy the quiet plaza, and one old man sat on a bench for several minutes savoring a steaming cup of coffee in the morning’s chill air, but none lingered this early in the morning. As the sun rose higher, the bustle of the morning commute gradually increased, with dozens and then hundreds of passers-by crossing the plaza under the statue’s watchful gaze, on their way to another day’s work elsewhere in the teeming metropolis.



Eventually the morning rush subsided, and only a few more leisurely pedestrians strolled through the plaza. A mother with her small child, too young for school just yet, stopped to allow the child to splash in one of the fountains, the child laughing and playing in the water as young children always have, until eventually the two of them moved off into the nearby park. A little while later, two friends set up a game of chess at one of the concrete chessboards that dotted the plaza. The statue had watched over dozens if not hundreds of their games, and it was clear to anyone else strolling through the city center that this daily game was a longstanding tradition between these two- they seemed to know each other’s moves before they made them, and for a little while a small crowd gathered to watch the two masters at play. Eventually though, they too rose from the game, shook hands, and headed back towards their homes elsewhere in the city.



Lunchtime saw another rush of visitors to the plaza at the statue’s feet. Workers from many nearby office buildings took advantage of their midday break to escape from the drab walls and fluorescent lights of their corporate suites and enjoyed a quick lunch on one of the plaza benches, enjoying the open space even there in the middle of the city hubbub. A group of friends visiting from out of town decided to have an impromptu barbecue rather than pay high prices at one of the nearby downtown restaurants, and soon the savory smell of grilling hotdogs drifted through the plaza. As the lunchtime surge of activity gradually dwindled into the early afternoon, traffic crossing the plaza shifted again to predominantly tourists and those workers whose jobs had them out and about in the middle of the day- couriers, landscapers, and a few street performers- one man began to put on a human statue performance for the entertainment of visitors to the plaza, a tableau in miniature of the massive statue overhead.



The evening rush hour passed much the same as the morning commute, but once the surge had died down, there were still plenty of people out enjoying an evening on the town. Several middle-aged couples and family groups strolled through, well-dressed and clearly on their way to a show in the theater district, and a few local university students lingered by the fountains or on the benches, taking in the sunset reflected off the towering glass and steel buildings nearby. Some made quick sketches of the scenery for art and design classes, while others seemed content to just enjoy the ambiance as night fell. A few were clearly couples, enjoying a simple date night wandering the city and pleased with the simple joy of each other’s company rather than joining the throngs at the upscale restaurants and galleries of Downtown. As the bronze woman looked down at them from atop her stone pedestal, the evening light on the statue’s face was just right that she seemed to smile slightly, as the sun sank below the city skyline.