Tech company to build science ghost town in NM

$200 million for a city able to support 350 000 people? Really!?

$200 million for a city able to support 350 000 people? Really!?

Well, not really, since they won't actually live there, so you don't have to care about stuff like furniture for the homes, or painting the walls etc. Just put up skeleton houses that can be used to test various stuff.

Doesn't cost much to erect a timber frame and cover it up with plywood and plastic weatherproofing.

Doesn't figure to be much of a "ghost town" considering people will have to be there to gather results. They would still need to install various sensors of every imaginable type wouldn't they?

Doesn't figure to be much of a "ghost town" considering people will have to be there to gather results. They would still need to install various sensors of every imaginable type wouldn't they?

The cost of the actual experiments probably doesn't count into the cost of building the place, and you only need a couple people - the rest can be automated.

Hmmm - call it "Eureka"?

They're forgetting the cost needed to keep squatters out. I'm sure an entire city will get a few. This means security. this means they'll need to build those security features needed. Walls? ditches? locks? cameras? Those costs in that 200mil?

Although, if they put "live munitions testing site" on it... that could keep costs down. (snicker)

What a nice lengthy and informative article..

What a nice lengthy and informative article..

I know.. this really seems to be an interesting topic to follow. I would be really interested to see how this all turns out.

Let's assume the average family contains four people per 'household'. 350,000 divided by 4 is equal to 87,500. That's 87,500 households. 200,000,000 divided by 87,500 gives us a cost of approximately 2,285 dollars per household. Clearly this leaves no room for electricity, streets, businesses, et cetera. This also does not take into account the cost of the land (20 sq. mi.). I am dubious of either the amount of currency required for this project or of the project's stipulations. Somebody appears to be making a "boo boo" somewhere. Again, this city is meant to "support" 350,000 people. I suppose, due to the lack of information in this article, we need to have some things properly defined. But, the essence of the article is not lost on me. It sounds like a very interesting idea.

ost of approximately 2,285 dollars per household. Clearly this leaves no room for electricity, streets, businesses, et cetera.

Since all the households will be merely plywood boxes with no gas/water/electricity (for next to no cost) all the money will probably go to the infrastructure.

All the things they are trying to test there is not for the individual household (traffic flow, wireless communications infrastructure, transport, ... )

200,000,000 divided by 87,500 gives us a cost of approximately 2,285 dollars per household.

That's the reason why I think most of the houses will be simply cardboard dummies for design and architecture, or a simple drop in shed that houses the experiments and allows companies to experiment in different methods of bringing power, water, commuting etc. to that location.

The amount of work required to build 87,500 homes would surpass the cost of $200 million.

why not just wait out and take advantage of the depression - must be some towns in FLA that will soon be as good as abandoned.

They should spend more than 200mil ,build in a nice area, build the houses and roads up to code and sell the houses after the experiments are done.

Hmm: Which author(s) wrote about having 'Emergency cities' ??
{Go, go, Google !!}
James Blish and Norman L. Knight, 'A Torrent of Faces'.

Why is everyone assuming they're going to build houses of ANY type? This is a simulation and the article is unusually vague in how they plan on running the simulation. The houses could just as easily be modeled using computer software.

It's hard to even speculate on what they're intending to do with the information given

Way more info here:

http://www.bizjou...ive.html

I bet that would make for a sweeeet paintball course.

Why build a ghost town when it would be more efficient to just use Detroit?