As Stark continued to speak, a model of a future city gradually came to life in Shiller's mind.
Just as Stark said, it is indeed very suitable for Gotham.
The main problem with Gotham now is that no matter how the logistics system is changed, it will always be in a state of extreme saturation, meaning there is no redundancy for emergencies.
And don't forget, future disasters, whether natural or man-made, happen frequently on Gotham's grand stage. If a mishap stalls the city for even half a day, development might as well cease. Every day would be spent patching things up, to the exhaustion of all.
But now, Stark introduces a groundbreaking concept of a 3D city, or more precisely, a whole new Hive City, wherein each cell is an independent structure with its own independent ecosystem, not unlike a living hell.
To achieve this, simply constructing one building after another on a flat plane is not enough. Space cannot be fully utilized, and hence, three-dimensional structures must be constructed.
Roads can be built not only on the ground but also running through the city. Car parks and parks can be suspended mid-air, and apartments and houses can be stacked on top of one another.
This concept has indeed been proposed by others before, but just as Stark said, Gotham is an ideal testing ground. Due to historical development, many areas of Gotham have spontaneously formed in this mode, like Living Hell for instance.
Indeed, Living Hell is a slum, extremely dirty and disorderly, but that doesn't mean it's not a part of the three-dimensional city. Living Hell has initially reached what Stark mentioned—domain independence, high-space utilization, and independent urban ecosystem, the most crucial characteristics.
This means that once the water supply, power supply, and living environment issues are resolved, a small part of the hive is completed.
The same goes for the other areas in Gotham. Renovating them one by one would instantly complete a hive after another.
By then, you would just have to combine these hives and use a transportation system that links throughout the city to keep them connected, and Gotham will become a real 3D city.
This is a unique advantage to Gotham. For other cities to achieve this structure, it would require an almost complete rebuild.
The plan presented by Bruce was incredibly forward-thinking. In Bruce's design, he developed a modern city with near-perfect urban ecosystems and logistics systems. The one issue is that to achieve this effect, Gotham would have to be nearly rebuilt completely.
The manpower, resources, and various costs required are astronomical. Even Wayne Enterprises would struggle to handle the rejuvenation of such a large city.
Moreover, rebuilding would result in many people needing to be relocated, another issue concerning Bruce and Falcone.
You can't just evict everyone to live on the streets while their houses are being torn down, can you?
And to accommodate these people, new houses would have to be built. This only doubles the construction costs and time needed. For these reasons, they viewed this plan as a last resort and hoped Shiller could propose a better suggestion.
Stark truly lived up to being a genius, cursed or otherwise. Or perhaps it's not a matter of knowledge, but that Stark, in comparison to Batman, was more out of the box and creative.
A 3D city, even up to this era in Marvel, had yet to be achieved successfully by any city. Perhaps some cities naturally possess such characteristics due to their geographical conditions, but they haven't fully realized it – maybe only prototypes exist in certain areas.
But if this plan were to be implemented in Gotham, it does indeed achieve a low reconstruction cost, short execution time, and leaves ample room for transportation redundancy.
Soon, with the help of JARVIS' processing power, the enthusiastic Stark presented a detailed plan. It even had three versions and six renovation proposals. He then proudly asserted, hands akimbo, "Who is the greatest genius in the world now? Of course, it's Stark!"
"Indeed." Upon seeing the plan, Bruce responded, "Your friend truly is a genius."
Though he didn't understand why the symbiont in his mind started making a series of frightened sounds upon seeing the text, then hid from sight, Bruce was still very satisfied with it.
"Is he interested in developing in Gotham? Wayne Enterprises will give him a rather tempting offer," asked Bruce.
"That's quite difficult, he doesn't lack money, and he's rather self-important, probably wouldn't accept employment from anyone."
"A common trait of geniuses," said Bruce. But it didn't bother him. There are many geniuses in the world, and not all of them could work for him. Additionally, with Gotham's reputation, most sane people wouldn't come.
After showing this proposal to their well-paid urban planning experts, they all found it eye-opening. Without computer assistance, current urban planning proposals usually lack details, which are typically confirmed only after construction begins.