LEGO Skylines

[Ex-Ithacan]

Not sure why I haven't checked out this thread before. Awesome stuff. You guys are artists.

[jsr]

Originally Posted by DecoJim

Spencer,
Great job on both the Aon Center and the Rockefeller Center.
I remember when you showed me the part of your model of the RCA/GE building 2 or 3 years ago! I had been wondering when you would finish it.

By the way, the technique you used on the Aon Center is impressive. A year or two ago I had wanted to use a simpler version of the same idea on a minifig scale model of the One Woodward Ave. (former Consolidated Gas/MichCon designed by Minoru Yamasaki) but could not locate enough of those 1x2 or 1x8 rail plates on Bricklink. Those parts are almost perfect for the Aon.
-Jim

The G.E. Building model was seven years in the making. Here is a photo from one of our train shows back in 2002 where you can see it was partially finished in the lower left. I scrapped that model however due to inaccuracies in its proportions and started from scratch for this one.



The rail plates work well for Aon. In the back of my mind I always saw myself using this technique for that building, but the parts had been somewhat rare and pricey for many years. I used about 1300 of the white 1x2's (or equivalent 1x8's) and they cost me between $0.08 - $0.13 each.

I thought about using this technique when I built my WTC too, but again the parts were too expensive at the time. Now when I compare the Aon and WTC models, I think this technique would be too thick for the WTC columns at the common building scale I use. I would have had to build the WTC at least twice as large as I did.

[jsr]

Originally Posted by Austin55

So now I ask, whats next?

I dunno. Perhaps I should go for the Brass Ring?

[Austin55]

Looking through your photostream I think something else big and glassy would be cool. Like I said, Patronas would be awesome. Or library tower, it is a fitting landmark. Maybe some Chinese ones like 2IFC, Bannk of China or Shun hing square. Or something from Frankfurt. Those are some of the only Classics you haven't (Arleady) done. I am very fond of my Classics :hatTIehat is just my (hopefully helpfull) opinion

[DecoJim]

Here is a shot from the Michigan Lego Train Club display at the recent Owosso Train Festival (July 23-26, 2009) in the historic town of Owosso, Michigan. As has been the case for the last few years, the tallest buildings are my replicas of the Penobscot (11 feet high), David Stott (7.8 feet high) and Ford (4.5 feet high) buildings. Another club member had a replica of One Woodward Place (5 feet high). This is the first time I have displayed my replica of the entire Penobsot block which consists of five buildings (Penobscot Building (1905, 13 stories), Penobscot Annex (1913, 23 stories - only six completed at this time), Penobscot Building (1928, 47 stories), Ford Building (1909, 19 stories) and Savoyard Center/Peoples State Bank (1900, 1 story).




Photo Credit: Me.
Click here for additional photos of the display

One thing this show revealed was how little most people know about skyscrapers. Quite a number of visitors to the train festival mistook the Penobscot for the Empire State Building and others asked where King Kong was. While the Penobscot (1928) and Empire State (1931) both share the Art Deco style, the buildings are quite dissimilar in shape and details.

[1ajs]

your joking right? hows that even possible to mistake?

[DecoJim]

Originally Posted by 1ajs

your joking right? hows that even possible to mistake?

No, sadly enough, I am not joking. To the average person, any sufficiently tall art deco tower that is not the Chrysler building must, by process of elimination, be the Empire State Building. I do not think these people are really aware of any other buildings from that time other than those two NYC landmarks.

[Austin55]

I went to Chicago on a school field trip recently, My friends (most are about 15 or 16) Could recognize Sears Tower, JHC the Navy Pier and Cloudgate (though most didnt know it by its actuall name). Some Could also recognize the Aon center and Trump Tower (the had seen it on the discovery channel) and alot of them asked me about the Spire, and what it is. This made me happy.

The chaperones in the group were totally different, most couldent tell the difference between sears and JH, thought the lake was an ocean, etc.

It seems the "kids" knew better.

[1ajs]

Originally Posted by DecoJim

No, sadly enough, I am not joking. To the average person, any sufficiently tall art deco tower that is not the Chrysler building must, by process of elimination, be the Empire State Building. I do not think these people are really aware of any other buildings from that time other than those two NYC landmarks.

how sad

[DecoJim]

Originally Posted by 1ajs

how sad

In all fairness to most people, their lives do not revolve around architecture and Detroit in particular has been portrayed so badly in the media that some people think it is just a collection of shuttered auto plants and other miscellaneous ruins. There are many Michigan residents who never go south of 8-mile road (the northern city limits). Detroit in fact has the third best collection of pre-depression art deco skyscrapers and high rises in the country (after NY and Chicago of course). Some of these buildings are endangered but others have been recently restore or are in good condition with reasonable occupancy rates considering the circumstances.

On the plus side, a few of the older visitors not only knew that my tallest building was a model of the Penobscot, a few said that they actually had worked there at one time. Another train show exhibitor recognized my David Stott building before I even had assembled its modular sections!

[jsr]

Originally Posted by Austin55

http://architecture.lego.com/en-US/P...uggenheim.aspx

Anyone want to guess what the "Discovery series" is?

I attended a presentation by Adam and the design team at LEGO on the creation of the Fallingwater model at this summer's Brickworld event. One of the interesting things mentioned was that they wanted the LEGO Architecture line to expand into becoming more of a teaching tool rather than just static display models that you built once and then stuck away on a shelf. Adam designed the Fallingwater model so that the individual floors of the house are removable and you can study their relationships with each other and the rest of the structure.

Instructions for set #21005 Fallingwater

Based on that, I'd spectulate the next "Discovery Series" is probably going to incorporate models that offer more flexiblity as a learning and teaching tool. The good news is this probably means larger and more detailed models.

[Rizzo]

Originally Posted by DecoJim

In all fairness to most people, their lives do not revolve around architecture and Detroit in particular has been portrayed so badly in the media that some people think it is just a collection of shuttered auto plants and other miscellaneous ruins. There are many Michigan residents who never go south of 8-mile road (the northern city limits). Detroit in fact has the third best collection of pre-depression art deco skyscrapers and high rises in the country (after NY and Chicago of course). Some of these buildings are endangered but others have been recently restore or are in good condition with reasonable occupancy rates considering the circumstances.

On the plus side, a few of the older visitors not only knew that my tallest building was a model of the Penobscot, a few said that they actually had worked there at one time. Another train show exhibitor recognized my David Stott building before I even had assembled its modular sections!

As someone pointed out earlier though, I think the generation under 30 is a bit more adept at identifying major architectural landmarks correctly. Kids these days are constantly flooded with images from the internet, they tend to pick up on some architectural common sense here and there.

One thing I can't stand is how my friends from Chicago call the Penobscot, The PenoBOscot. Then again I shouldn't expect so much because they really aren't that interested in cities and buildings as much as I am.


Do I see the Dime building rising? I'm trying to model that before September. I want to play with the 3d plastic printers before it gets busy. Pop in a sketchup model and a little bit later, "bing" out pops the building in plastic.

[DecoJim]

Originally Posted by Hayward

As someone pointed out earlier though, I think the generation under 30 is a bit more adept at identifying major architectural landmarks correctly. Kids these days are constantly flooded with images from the internet, they tend to pick up on some architectural common sense here and there.

One thing I can't stand is how my friends from Chicago call the Penobscot, The PenoBOscot. Then again I shouldn't expect so much because they really aren't that interested in cities and buildings as much as I am.


Do I see the Dime building rising? I'm trying to model that before September. I want to play with the 3d plastic printers before it gets busy. Pop in a sketchup model and a little bit later, "bing" out pops the building in plastic.

You are probably right; the old remember because they used to work there, the young get it from the internet; its the middle aged people that are clueless.
Penobscot is a rather unusual word (its from both a Native American tribe and a river in Maine).
The Dime building is being built by another Michigan Lego Train Club member, it is about 1/2 done.
If the printing thing works out, you will have to post your 3-D printed building(s) in a new thread!

[jsr]

My next project has started...

[DecoJim]

Originally Posted by jsr

My next project has started...

So you ARE building it!
It is somewhat uncharacteristic of you to reveal this project in the early stages (usually your projects are cloaked in more secrecy than a Soviet rocket development program).
At over 4 feet high, it may be taller than some of my minifig scale high-rises.
Hopefully you will not have problems with the windows like the prototype did!

[Austin55]

So can we expect it to be done by Friday? Kidding, ofcourse. This one will be exciting. Will you post construction updates?

[1ajs]

oooo

[jsr]

Originally Posted by DecoJim

It is somewhat uncharacteristic of you to reveal this project in the early stages (usually your projects are cloaked in more secrecy than a Soviet rocket development program).
At over 4 feet high, it may be taller than some of my minifig scale high-rises.

You're right. I typically work in secret. I happen to like surprises, so I assume others must as well. This one will be different though.

I greatly enjoyed watching the Burj Dubai rise over the past four years on this website, so I thought it would be interesting to do something similar with the Lego model.

By my calculations it will be 4.3ft in height. I have already prototyped small portions of it but there are still some technical challenges to overcome.

I will be posting updates (perhaps I will start a new thread specifically for this) so that everyone can follow the progress and watch it grow. My personal/building time is pretty erratic these days, so I have no guarantees when it will be finished or even how often I will post updates. Most of my buildings take at least three months. The Burj Al Arab took 7 months.

[1ajs]

mail man brought me some goodies

[DecoJim]

I was wondering if you were still working on your skyscraper. I see that it has some symmetry after all (it would be cool too if it did not). I could not tell at first based on your unorthodox construction approach of building up several stories before you even completed the foundation . I like your construction crane!