USUV HQ, also known as The Pearl, is a large structure near New Spawn and serves as the base of operations for the United Settlements of UltraVanilla.

History

USUV's original headquarters was located in Alliance City. This was a much smaller building which USUV had begun to outgrow with its expansion over time. In addition, it was felt that a more neutral location would be preferable to having the HQ be located within a member state.

USUV HQ under construction.

USUV voted to approve a new building in a neutral location near Spawn, and an ocean build was chosen for maximum flexibility of design. A competition was launched for a design of the new building, and four entries were received:

The Pearl by Beeper
USUV Tower by Hermanni
Water Spiral by Smoke
USUV Box by joethahobo

The Pearl won the competition and was therefore chosen as the final design. Construction began in July 2021 and the building was opened on 4 September at meeting XXV. On initial completion only the lobby, member offices, meeting chamber and gardens were fully completed, with the rest of the floors being empty. These have been slowly furnished over time and work continues to this day. Additional features such as a radio mast and an underwater expansion have been added over time.

Layout and Floors

Masterplan and layout of the building.

The building is split into many floors, each serving a unique role one of of USUV's functions. The building is still incomplete with many floors yet to be completed or even started, but the core parts of the build are in place.

Basement Levels

The basement levels are an in-progress underwater and underground section of the building which will greatly expand its scale when completed. Some of the planned areas of the basement levels include:

Restaurant and bar
Open plan events and exhibition space
High security vault
Armory and security training facility
Undersea glass walking tunnel to spawn
Metro station
Decorative railway station
Space for recognised organisations to make use of

Ground Floor: Lobby and Flagpoles

The grand lobby.

USUV HQ's lobby is an expansive and grand space, and is one of the largest floors in the building. It is highly decorated with USUV-themed carpets, a giant compass on the ceiling, seating areas, fountains, statues, decorated nether portal, notice board and reception desk. It was one of the first parts of the building to be completed and remains one of its centerpieces.

Outside, there is decking to allow for boats to dock at the HQ. Giant flags of the member states of USUV surround the building in multiple rings, taking inspiration from the real life United Nations buildings.

Floor 1: Archives

Houses all notable USUV documents including a full collection of past agendas and USUV charters. Full decor is planned to expand record capacity as well as make the area feel more library-like.

Floor 2: International Courtroom

A fully finished courtroom with areas for judge, jury, defense and prosecution. There is a viewing gallery as well as decorated lights and features. Private quarters for the elected judge are also planned on this floor.

Floor 3: Mailroom

Planned to have postboxes and mail offices for individual players and/or USUV member states, similar to other post offices on the server.

Floor 4: Finance Offices

An in progress general multi-function decorated office themed space which will flesh out the building.

Floor 5: Media Offices

A planned floor which will be used by the reporter and themed around radio, television, news and other media related items.

Floor 6: OPC Floor

Following an agreement between USUV and OPC, it was agreed that the OPC would be given a floor for their design and use.

A build competition is currently ongoing to design this floor.

Floor 7: World Relations

World Relations is a multi-functioned floor.

It features an ongoing project of very large maps of each world region, Spawn, Old Spawn and Outpost, and labels all member states which are in range of the maps. On the opposite wall is a globe and decorated copper features.

Scattered around the room are various lecterns with member state names on them, hosting official tour guides to each town which are used when USUV conducts town tours, or to help players find out more about each town.

There are various side rooms on this floor. The non-member states room recognises settlements which have either declined membership of USUV or are too inactive to be involved. The outside organisations room can be used by other groups and alliances outside of USUV for small meetings and other discussions.

The Community Settlements (USUV) room is themed around the Spawn building and holds info about community locations such as Spawn, Old Spawn, Outpost, Aurora and Borealis. The Independent Voters room is yet to be completed but is meant as a gathering point for USUV voters who claim the independent seats at meetings.

Floor 8 & 9: Member State Offices

Layout of the member state offices.

The building features dozens of offices that can be claimed by full member states of USUV to serve as embassy rooms, ambassador quarters, information points, or however else the individual settlements wishes to express themselves.

The internal decoration of each room varies wildly as each settlement makes use of their own style to represent the town.

The meeting rooms are split into three sections. Floor 8A features small rooms only and allows for simplistic designs, Floor 8B is medium-sized rooms which require more effort but offer more creativity, and Floor 9 is large rooms which allow for ambitious towns to fully express themselves.

Floor 10: Meeting Chamber

The showpiece floor of the building. The chamber is the largest meeting venue on the server and has capacity for up to 80 desks to be used by member states, ensuring that all settlements are guaranteed a permanent seat in the chamber.

The room features a giant display board and noteblock jingles to show outcomes of votes, as well as an automatic ballot collection system to make counting more efficient. There is an observer seat platform high above, as well as giant statues.

The outside of the chamber features "USUV" written in giant letters, as well as a hollow star which allows access by elytra directly into the room. A large globe is suspended in the middle of the room as part of the elevator shaft.

Floor 11: Elected Official Quarters

Features offices for all elected officials of USUV. Whilst in office, various officials may change the design of their rooms to their will. Also features a banquet hall which can be used to hold cabinet meetings, although this has not yet occurred.

Private recreational quarters are also planned but have not yet been completed.

Floor 12: Garden

An indoor garden which functions as a hangount and chill spot in the building, and a natural break from the built up environment.

Floor 13: Observation Deck

A lookout point to view the areas surrounding the headquarters. Has decking with signs pointing to nearby features which can be seen using a render distance extender mod. Features the USUV banner as a carpet design on the floor.

Radio Mast

The radio mast was added following the 1.18 server update to extend the building's height to the new build limit.