I find the city fabrication is a bit too sprawling.  In the 8-10 games I've played, its far too easy to to get to the second city size and feel as if i've redefined urban sprawl. 

One suggestion: Have each stage of city growth accomodate a certain number of tiles.  During each of the stages of city growth the look of the city could reflect the various technologies researched as you research them.  As you increase your stage of growth areas of the city could represent various facets of research, altering the look and creating the sence of personalization. There are five stages i think..

Stage 1 could be a 1-2 square acumulation of structures changing as various research completes.  Perhaps with a mott&bailey flavor..

Stage 2 could bump up to a 2X2 area and maybe start to have the fort/castle look.  Each square could represent an area of research.  Fort/castle square could be magic and change as the various towers/observatories/libraries are built. one square could relate to War with command post/barracks/tilting area... 1 or 2 squares civil with markets/housing/gardens...

Stage 3 could grown into a 3x3 area giving each area of research 2-3 squares for visuals... etc.

The build method wouldn't really need to change, you could select you building and when it pops out of the Que the city would reflect the new structure.

The shape could arrange itself to the environment somewhat allowing for a strategic use in loactions where you want to block a pass or limit movement.

Farms,mines,crystals,horses,lumbering and other resources could but dont need to be part of the city at all.

Other suggestion: instead of the above, make each of the building tiles outside of the city square (the very central starting square) 1/4 the current size.

I think Elemental will be awesome and am glad to participate in the beta.