Modeling Historical Buildings Standing and Not.
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Just wanted to get a feel for how many modelers on this forum model historical buildings still standing, and those that have gone away?
Thought it would be interesting to find out what resources are used, and how it might be playing out in painting a better historical record for your Town, City or Village.
I personally enjoy digging up information and finding those treasured pictures that give you just the right view for a detail you weren't able to see before.
Anyone else?
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I modeled a historic building for a project that is now under construction.
It was called Monroe Shops - in Dallas, Texas. Apparently it was a maintenance facility for Trolleys back in the day. Now we are re-occupying the building for DART police. Adaptive reuse for the police of the modern transit system.We were fortunate to have drawings to go by from the client and previous renovation. But we also got a great deal from a local University's library of images throughout the years. I could always go to the images to see how it was supposed to look, because sometimes it was documented incorrectly in the field verification documents.
I ended up only working with a section of the interior where we were housing a historical trolley car in the lobby - but it was fun learning all the history while doing the research for the project.
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It all depends what you call historical building. Around the main square of the historic centre of my city, non of the buildings are younger than a hundred years (but some are near 300 years old and the mosque in the middle was built in the 16th century, during the Ottoman conquest). See this page for instance. The "newest" building is the town hall built in 1908 after the previous one (from the mid 19th century) exploded because a stupid pharmacist who had his shop on the ground floor kept gunpowder in the back of his shop
I regularly re-model Ancient (Roman, medieval) buildings however. To me, a hundred year old(ish) "reconstruction" of something almost built, like these BauHaus buildings is rather modern architecture than history.
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@gaieus said:
It all depends what you call historical building. Around the main square of the historic centre of my city, non of the buildings are younger than a hundred years (but some are near 300 years old and the mosque in the middle was built in the 16th century, during the Ottoman conquest). See this page for instance. The "newest" building is the town hall built in 1908 after the previous one (from the mid 19th century) exploded because a stupid pharmacist who had his shop on the ground floor kept gunpowder in the back of his shop
I regularly re-model Ancient (Roman, medieval) buildings however. To me, a hundred year old(ish) "reconstruction" of something almost built, like these BauHaus buildings is rather modern architecture than history.
Europe diffidently has a different history then what we have here in the USA. So your point is well taken Gaieus. I might have needed to be more specific as to who I was address my question to.
Thanks for what you shared.
The interest that I have is finding out what is being used as resources for those that model history here in the US.
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LOL - Gai
The newest building is 1908! That's awesome!
Monroe Shops was built in 1914. They just don't build and maintain buildings in the states the way they do over there. -
Ah, show off Europeans. It's not that we don't ever maintain buildings in the US, we just don't have them that old...
But (internet's amazing) it got me thinking we have some pretty old ones. A very quick Google search gave this architect's site:
Check "virtual reality archeology" and select from various Native American sites. I am partial to Chaco culture buildings
Did he use SU. I don't know yet.
[Edit: Ah, he uses Cinema4D. http://www.cgarchitect.com/news/newsfeed.asp?nid=4680 ]
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Come on, guys, of course no offense was meant - I was just explaining what our attitude to old and new here is.
I worked as an archaeologist at our World Heritage Site that happens to be from the 4th century a.d. Now that's kind'a old for me, too.
YouTube - Cella Septichora - Sopianae
[flash=480,385:1vkkdug5]http://www.youtube.com/v/UNzVpzpi0EA&hl=en_GB&fs=1[/flash:1vkkdug5]If everything goes well, some time in the near future I will start modelling (reconstructing) some two dozen of its building.
Yet I completely understand the nature of the question; modelling anything that does not exist any more.
Edit: Here is an interactive panorama of the big building you saw above. I am planning to present the whole WH site with these interactive panoramas (of course, those of the reconstructions)
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None taken Gaieus! That sounds like great work you are into. Hope to see your models soon. You see even these very old sites in US are 9th-12th? century
The architect above, Dennis Holloway has had his virtual models used by the park service for visitor education etc. I think that would be fascinating work. He has also been selected by First Nations people to do some of their public buildings.
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Nice! I have plans to visit Chaco again next summer.
Pueblo Bonito...nice! -
Hey Jax...
I have been thinking about modeling an old Depot in my birth town for a little while.
I was getting ready to contact the local Historic Preservation after doing a few google searches to see if there were any plans on the building documented anywhere. Since they are looking at restoring the building it looks as if they had as-builts done, at least partially - and they are located on the Library of Congress website. Looks like a good starting place for anyone looking for historical documents.
Texas & Pacific Railway Depot, Seventh Street, Natchitoches, Natchitoches Parish, LA
Photo(s): 13 | Measured Drawing(s): 2 | Photo Caption Page(s): 2
(loc.gov)
I got lucky and was linked from this website that discusses the history of the building.
http://www.nps.gov/history/nr/travel/caneriver/tex.htmHope this helps in whatever project you are hunting down.
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