Harborage

Harborage - located near Gaia's south pole - is a coastal "mall city", a building similar to a mall, airport or school, which serves as an indoor habitat with air conditioning in the summer and heat in the winter. Mall cities were once lauded for their walkability and comfort, but only a handful have been built. Malls gained a bad reputation after it became clear that most malls in the Old Real were constructed to take advantage of a tax loophole that simply never existed in the New Real.

Harborage started out as a railroad construction camp built in 11914 GHE. Technolag reversal in the 11940s hit the city hard, as it had no means to grow once railroad construction petered out. In 11966 GHE, the town of Harborage was selected as the site for a mall city by Enbox, which at the time had not yet developed the Modular Apartment Framework.

The mall city project was initially successful, with three stages of development planned and a fourth on the drawing board. Included in the project was a seaplane airport and a central train station, as well as Modular housing Units for workers constructing the new buildings that came to redefine Harborage. The first stage of development was completed in 11981 GHE, however just two years later Enbox pulled out of the project due to financial issues, and the unexpected success of the Modular Apartment Framework which provided a much higher profit margin.

Construction of Modular Apartment frameworks in Harborage were tied to the mall city due to the cold climate, but the mall city itself gradually declined between 11983 and 12016 GHE, eventually gaining a very seedy reputation. From the 11990s onward, the mall city was known to locals as "the project".

In 12016, a devastating fire took out the heavily-trafficked parlors near the center of the project. Most of the parlors closed down permanently due to financial losses. Following the fire, many former residents of the project needed new homes, and the city was granted funds by the Council of the Descendants to renovate the project and expand the city to the standards of other Gaian cities.