City Models Around the World

Souvenir building collectors display their collections together and create mini cities and skylines. Some miniature replicas are grouped by specific city, while other collectors place buildings randomly thereby creating amalgamated cities. Other models are created of entire cities. Pat S. sent this tip about a model called Knuffingen Airport which is based on Hamburg, Germany’s airport. Other city models I’ve found include a post-war bombed model of Hannover, Germany and a floating blue model of buildings in the Netherlands. A detailed model of Moscow takes up and entire room. But, the Queens Museum of Art claims to have the world's largest architectural model Entitled the Panorama of the City of New York.

Tactile Models & Maps

Isn’t it great when you discover the name and reason for something you’ve noticed from time to time? The 3-D maps I’ve written about in the past are actually called tactile models or tactile maps. They are not just to help sighted visitors get a better geographic understanding of an area, but also to allow blind people to experience the architecture. Scott D. sent me some links to other maps and I found even more recently. Bronze is a popular material for tactile maps because it sustains ware of constant touching, threats of vandalism and effects of exposure to ocean salt air. The Dog Rose Trust has been involved in the production of tactile scale models for many years. While these models have Braille and clear lettering on them, they are for everyone to use. People who are blind and visually impaired say that a tactile model gives them the best idea of a building or environment. At the Cabrillo National Monument near the city of San Diego, tactile model of the Old Point Loma Lighthouse and outbuildings enables visitors to experience the lighthouse area as it once was. The second set of bronze tactile models installed interprets the Old Point Loma Lighthouse and its setting in San Diego Bay. These models were installed in a plaza with an audio station at the end of the walk leading to the lighthouse. A 3-D historical marker is a miniature of the Top of the Ocean Restaurant which was an ocean liner shaped restaurant on the Tacoma, Washington waterfront from 1946 through 1977. The marker is mounted below a replica of the building at the site where it stood.

Adopt a Miniature Manhattan

The Queens Museum of Art in New York is employing a creative fund-raising effort called an Adopt-a-Building program - miniature buildings in fact. Building Collector reader Howie G. alerted me of this news. The museum’s most famous asset, a 9,335-square-foot scale model of New York City, originally built for the 1964 World’s Fair, has 895,000 structures, includes every street, bridge and skyscraper in the five boroughs. The city model is the centerpiece of the museum which located on the old fairgrounds in Flushing Meadows Corona Park near the Unisphere. Through the Adopt-a-Building program, you can “own” an apartment in the model for $50. A single-family house in the model will cost $250. For $10,000, developers can have their brand-new glass-tower condo buildings added to the panorama. Basically, donors are helping to update the miniature city model. Until now, the panorama has represented a snapshot of New York, frozen in time. In 1992, workers updated 60,000 structures to reflect the city’s constant churn of construction and demolition, but it has been untouched since then. In this miniature world, the World Trade Center still stands and the luxury towers now lining the Long Island City and Williamsburg waterfronts are nowhere to be seen. Now, the panorama will evolve gradually along with the city — at least, for those who pay. The first adopters were the New York Mets. In a recent ceremony, a City College architecture student walked onto the panorama and, like a giant monster in a Japanese disaster film, pulled the model of Shea Stadium from its foundation. She replaced it with the new Citi Field into place. Adopt-a-Building will raise funds dedicated to maintaining the panorama and the educational programs built around it.

Model Cities

Most of us are content with buying miniature buildings, but others build entire miniature cities from scratch. Artist Michael Chesko hand carved city modes from balsa wood. Building Collector reader Scott D. sent me this link he found about another web site featuring city models. A blog named Tinselman, authored by Robyn Miller, wrote about models similar to the “3-D maps” I’ve posed about in the past. Spending countless hours toiling with Xacto blades and fingernail files to shape the balsa wood into miniature skyscrapers, Chesko first created an imaginary city named Britannica. He then focused on a scale miniature of Midtown Manhattan which took over 2000 hours to complete and measures 36" x 30” with a 1:3200 scale. Chesko describes himself as an eccentric mix of engineer, model maker, amateur cartographer and artist. His wooden cityscapes have been exhibited in various places in New York City including the Skyscraper Museum.

Inauguration Planning for Washington, D.C.

The eyes of the world are beginning to focus on Washington D.C. this month. When Barack Obama is sworn in as the President of the United States on the steps of the U.S. Capital on January 20th, everyone will want to witness this historic event. Today, I’ll begin a multi-part series on souvenirs of the Capital, White House and other places of interest to souvenir building collectors.
This scale model of downtown Washington D.C. including a miniature White House and Washington monument sits on a 40x40 foot planning map that is spread out on the floor of the D.C. Armory. The large map is being used to help plan Inaugural logistics for the January 20th Inauguration of President elect Barack Obama. The city is expecting one of the largest crowds ever for a presidential inauguration.

Constructing our Federal City

The digital rendering, above, is of the U.S. Capitol as it looked in 1814. I thought you might be interested in a feature, recently published in the Washington Post Magazine, about the beginnings of Washington, D.C. From its swampy topographical origins to Pierre L'Enfant’s city plans to phased construction of major monuments and buildings, the story is interesting to architecture enthusiasts. Featured are Interactive reconstruction of notable landmarks and panoramic images of the federal city from 1791 up to today. Included are the construction phases of the US Capital building, The White House, Washington Monument and the Lincoln, Jefferson WWII Memorials. Video called “visualizing Early Washington” by the imaging Research Center at the University of Maryland is embedded in the main story. I learned that the Capital’s dome was not yet constructed when the building was burned by the British in 1814. Let me know what you think of this feature and if you’d like to see more like it or prefer posts only about souvenir buildings.

Sweet City

Artist Meschac Gaba created an imaginary cityscape made entirely of ordinary white granulated sugar icing. The city combines famous buildings such as the Eiffel Tower, Empire State Building, Sydney Opera House, Taj Mahal, Petronas Towers, London Eye, Reichstag, Arc de Triomphe and London 'Gherkin'. The 30 by 20 foot piece includes over 600 buildings. His sugar city has been exhibited in many countries. Originally from Benin, Gaba now lives and works in The Netherlands. ‘Sweetness’ was created against the background of slave labor on the sugar cane plantations in Gaba’s home country of Benin.

Raiders of the Lost Ark Map Room

The ultimate in antique 3-D maps has to be the map room from the first Indian Jones movie. Building Collector reader Scott D. reminded me of the scene in "Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark" when College professor and antiquities collector Indiana Jones, played by Harrison Ford, searches for the location of the Ark of the Covenant in the Egyptian desert. During the dramatic scene, Indy sneaks into the underground map room containing a precisely-detailed miniature of the city. Using a headpiece to the Staff of Ra, wooden staff of precise length and alignment of the sun, he identifies the location of the Well of Souls…and location of the Ark. The 1981 film won 4 Oscars that year which, as building collectors know, can only be attributed to Steven Spielberg’s inclusion of the miniature buildings. The new film, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull opens May 22. Will miniature buildings be included again?

The Getty Center links to Building Collector

The Getty Center’s blogger, Vicki Porter, took a fancy to my post about their 3-d map. She found additional photos and created a post of her own. Check it out here. Also, see my other 3-d map posts.

Getty Center 3-D Map

To enable visitors to get their barings and directions to various galleries on the grounds, The Getty Center created a 3-D scale model map. I was drawn to the nice cast steel replica during a visit to the complex of art galleries and museums which sit atop a Brentwood hill over-looking Los Angeles. The Center is the current home of the J. Paul Getty Museum as well as a research institute, grant program, and leadership institute. Opened in 1997 and designed by architect Richard Meier, The museum is free to the public, however, there is a parking fee. See more 3-D maps.

Toronto 3-D Map

Inside the lobby of the Toronto City Hall, visitors can find this large 3-D map of city. It looks like it was made some time ago using plastic or acrylic. Located on the west side of rotunda near the front door, the scale model encompasses the area bordered by Dufferin Street to the west, Bloor to the north, the Don River valley and west edge of Riverdale to the east and Lake Ontario to the south. Do you know of other 3-D maps? Let me know in the ‘comments’ link below.

Google Earth Virtual City Tours

For arm-chair travelers and architecture aficionados, Google Earth takes you on a virtual tour to any destination in the world. The software combines the power of Google Search with satellite imagery, maps, terrain and 3-D buildings to put the world's geographic information in front of you. Fly to any destination - just type in an address, press Search & you’ll zoom to it. Tilt and rotate the view to see 3-D terrain and buildings or look up to explore the sky. You must download & install the free software. You can zoom in or out of a city using controls in the upper right. See an over-head view or tilt your view to ground level. Check the ‘3D Building’ box in the layers area to see vertical buildings rendered. Be careful, the controls are very sensitive. It takes some getting used to, but once you understand the controls are powerful. You can zoom by landmarks like you’re flying and control your views like you’re directing a movie. Also check out a City of London Timeline.

Walk "ON" L.A.

You can walk through L.A., walk along L.A., walk to L.A., but did you also know you can walk 'ON' L.A.? We were at Santa Monica’s beach a while back and noticed an enormous roller and upon closer inspection it had building on it. It’s the Santa Monica Art Tool: "Walk on L.A." created by sculptor Carl Cheng in 1988. Constructed of cast concrete and steel, It was commissioned by the City of Santa Monica Percent for Art program as part of the Natural Elements Sculpture Park with funds from the NEA and the Santa Monica Arts Foundation. Its located on Santa Monica beach, just north of the famous pier. The 13-ton concrete cylinder leaves an impression 2"-high scale map of Los Angeles in the sand when rolled over the beach. The work has delighted beachgoers for nearly two decades, but sand, sun, salt water and thousands of visitors who climb on it has taken their toll.

3-D Map: Williamsburg

While traveling, I occasionally discover what I call a 3-D map. This one is a brass sculpture which sits outside the visitor’s center of Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia. It’s a layout of the historic area including the Wren Building, Bruton Parish Church and Duke of Glouchester Street. As you can tell, it was raining the day I was there and the water looks like a flood.