In Build Your Own City!, the pair covers three broad categories, residential neighborhoods, commercial neighborhoods and public spaces. It also has a section showing off one-off builds that don't fit into any of these categories, a section discussing techniques for building cities on the micro-scale, as well as complete instructions for a rather impressive corner-condo building that would be a nice centerpiece in anyone's LEGO cityscape.
In the residential section, the buildings depicted tend to be a bit more standalone with small yards, whereas the builds for the commercial segments are closer together with shared walls between locations, often with storefronts sharing the same base plate as houses. The commercial neighborhood builds also tend to find ways to maximize their limited space by adding rooftop elements or more floors, while the residential ones have a bit more room to breathe. In both cases, all of the buildings look like they would fit in the locations described.
The public places segment gives ideas for building parks, monuments, ponds, statues and even an art museum, all of which will help to add a considerable amount of realism to a scene you might be building. Also, scattered throughout the book are instructions on building various little items seen in their examples. These instructions cover everything from pianos to soda machines and even couches and traffic lights. There is even a small segment on how to build windows in a different manner so that your buildings can have varied and interesting facades.
The LEGO Neighborhood Book 2 puts a lot of emphasis on determining exactly what details will really help to sell the look you are going for. Everything between the style of lamp posts used, to building ornamentation and interior decorating, is covered in this book as well as some minor architectural notes about how to achieve Art Deco, Parisian, or Oriental designs. While building on the mini-scale requires a certain lack of detail, what detail you choose to represent can go a long way in selling the look you are going for (and even more so on the micro-scale), and that is a point that Brain and Jason Lyles seem to really want to drive home in this book.
If you are a LEGO builder looking for more inspiration to flesh out, or start up, your own city, then this book can go along way in giving you both ideas and techniques to follow. There are even some ideas concerning best practices, in case you want to bring your buildings to a convention and help join your work up with larger pieces being collaboratively developed.
