Building on Broadway - The Model!!

[Lee]

Here are some photos of the 1/87th model of what the Building on Broadway will look like when it is finished. Sorry about all the reflection off the glass..............but ;D (You can see the real construction happening in the real thing section)

see the guy in the brown jacket with the luggage? That is where I stand when taking most of the pictures of the construction.








the court yard

[cfesmire]

Incredible work. Of course it probably came at an incredible price too. Really magnificent detail and I assume all taken from the blueprints.

[Lee]

I am bumping this up to the top because there has been some interest in the model by those looking at the real thing.

The model is probably built to 1/8" equals a foot with 1/87th scale figures and vehicles.

[Albert]

I love this kind of dioramas, and I wonder where they go when the agencies finish the promotion of their new buildings.

[Lee]

It will probably get thrown out, I am sorry to say. To the people in the construction industry, the model is just a tool to be used and discarded when it's use is done with it.

There doesn't seem to be a home for old models anywhere that has room for more. Jerry has built a couple dioramas that are much more note worthy than what you see here, but there they sit in the corner of his living room with no place to go to be properly displayed.

[hovehicle]

Great looking structures Lee! That is something that would look good on most modern layouts! Maybe a tad smaller in length though! Thanks for posting the photos.

Vito L.

[Sabuu]

Lee: outstanding job, great modelling! I'm really jealous!!!

[skunk]

1/8" equals a foot... I really do miss living in a metric world.

Well, with twelve inches to a foot that would mean that it is in 1:96 scale. Close enough to use 1:87 cars.

Now imagine being allowed to populate and superdetail this model - with a big budget for cars, of course.

[BillC]

albert said:

I love this kind of dioramas, and I wonder where they go when the agencies finish the promotion of their new buildings.

They generally go to the owner or leasing agent. From there, they usually go to storage until the maintenance crew gets tired of moving it around at which time it mysteriously disappears...

I was once part of a team that built a model railroad/slot car layout for a building owner to use as a holiday display. One of the things we incorporated into our layout was the architectual model of the building (the thing was huge!).

[Sylvain]

As an architect, I agree. Most of the times this sort of models end thrown away. When the building is built, and sold, no really need to keep them. Except when the building is a really important one for the city (and even then, I could tell you stories), or by a well known architect. Or if someone has the good idea to keep it to decorate the lobby of the building. There are certainly thousands of models of this sort made each year, and they're not so expensive. No one really care about what will happen to them, not even the model maker most of the times.

[swampdaddy]

Sure: I've seen some neat architectural models around here that I would have put on my layout (even at 1/96). I've asked for them after a project is done (building finished, or even a discarded project).

And, you would not believe the nasty rejections, verbal abuse and distain I've received in person and by letter. And, then, sometimes months or years later I inquire and find the model was casually tossed in the trash. LOL.

In this area the banks and churches seem to treat the models the best often displaying them in lobbies, etc. as noted in an earlier post.

I once built about a 100 Life-Like "park lights" back when those came in kits around 1965-6 (3 to a pack) for a model a friend was building. The lights were in plastic of green fluted cast iron poles (in wide use in older cities in the east); I assembled them, painted them black as is common in my city and then installed the oversized bulbs they came with. Then gave them to my friend for the model he had been commissioned to make - got paid well for that in 1965-6 dollars.

I saw the finished model, which was quite nice, of several row house apartment buildings meant to blend into the look of an adjacent park. The buildings were approved by the zoning commission and built. The model disappeared and the builder said he was going to keep it and failing that (no more room at his house) he said I could have it.

No one at the firm that paid for the model had any idea what happened to the model less than 1 year later. Probably in the trash by the janitors for that one too.

Sorry for all the whinning: but, I do wish more of these pretty good models of buildings would survive on layouts and in displays.

Maybe we need a museum for architectural models. How about the one for "Delta City" in the Terminator 2 movie? Scale is large but it was neat looking.

Great photos of the "Building on Broadway" model.

all for now, Harry

[Sylvain]

Some models are already lucky to be given (or sold) to museums, or archives centers, like the IFA (Institut Français d'Architecture) in France.

As some of you know, I'm working for a museum of architecture the Cité de l'Architecture (Palais de Chaillot, Trocadéro, Paris, France) which will re-open in September (Busy weeks this summer…), and there are a few realistic models of this sort in the collection. One is a very large and impressive model, made in the 50's, of the French house for 1958 Brussel's World Fair. Scale is 1/100 (centimeters), and there are a few cars in front of the building, 1/87 of course. As the model has to be repaired, the old Norev models used in the 50's have been replaced by new Busch, Norev and Wiking cars. Just one mistake howewer I think: I won't have used Norev's Simca 1500 for a late 50's building…

[3nero]

hi all
i'm new here
i build arctectural models for a living.
many models are left on display in the buildings they represent.
but the "glass" cover acts as a mini greenhouse and if the model is sitting in sunlight the interior heats up causing the styrene and other plastics to warp and deform. the longer it's left to bake the worse the damage gets. some models come back to us for repair and others are beyond repair and a chopped up and some parts salvaged. some models are to big to store or display and are sent back for destruction.
if a nice model comes back to us in good shape it will go on display in our lobby if there is room but only until we get sick of looking at it or the space is needed for a better model.
the cars and people are always reused if they can be as are trees and street furniture. the base, cover and buildings are usually run through the bandsaw and chopped to smaller reuseable parts which eventually get used in the making of other buildings and bases.
if a model was a real pain to build great pleasure is taken from it's destruction

[Lee]

When I first posted this thread there was only one response. Since I bumped it up to the top, the responses have been interesting.

It would be nice if those of you involved in the professional model world would post pictures of some of the treasures that you get to see.

Back in the mid 60's I had a friend who was a senior designer for Fluor Corp. Then they were doing oil refineries and had a "working" model made of each project from the plans they had drawn up. I say working because it was not a display piece but a three dimensional piece that would show the flaws that cropped up from two dimensional drawings. My friend said that even though the models were expensive to make, they saved the company millions in finding the design errors before the actual building of the refinery.

As I understand it, back when Fluor started building the models, there was not much available in the way of modeling supplies to work with. Two of the Fluor model makers realized that there was a market for various types of pipe fittings used in model making. They started Plastruct as a sideline business to make such pieces.

[3nero]

ahh plastruct
i know their stuff very well
great time savers

that reminds of a model we built a few years ago
it was of 9 detached 4 story apparment buildings

i built the buildings from the plans supplied
while someone else built the base from the site plans.

however when it came time to place the buildings on the base they would not fit. after many curse words and phone calls it turned out that whoever measured the site made some mistakes and there was not enough room for the 9 buildings as planned, but all the appartments had allready been sold

some hasty redesigning was then needed and 4 of the now 8 buildings where given a 5th floor.

imagine if the mistake wasn't discovered until halfway through the construction

i sometimes drive past the real appartments and they always remind me of day 5 appartment buildings where smashed in temper by my boss ;D