SkyscraperPage Forum - Models of Cities

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Models of Cities

I've been fascinated by city models ever since I attended the New York World's Fair (way back when). Anyway, I've decided to post a few I've found on the net. If you find any, please feel free to add them.

Shaghai (pics by Andrew Currie at flickr)

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/27/23...7d1c2e55_b.jpg

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/61/23...084b413b_b.jpg

London (pic by Halder Stream on flickr)

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/20/70...1ab4e9cd_o.jpg

Sydney (pic by mpgilbert at flickr)

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/22/28...63965469_o.jpg

Havana (pics by nfolkert at flickr)

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/21/32...ede5c430_b.jpg

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/23/32...3ef353e0_b.jpg

Singapore (pic by mikeleecs at flickr)

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/49/11...d06d683f_o.jpg

Moscow (pics by Natalia Grishkina)

http://www.englishrussia.com/images/...city_sale1.jpg

http://www.englishrussia.com/images/...city_sale2.jpg

http://www.englishrussia.com/images/...city_sale5.jpg

Nanjing (pic by paul ark at flickr)

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/48/15...fbd792f3_o.jpg

Cincinnati (pics by srhbth at flickr)

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/33/10...dd803133_b.jpg

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/27/10...d1f75f73_b.jpg

Here's a link to the Queens Museum of New York model:

http://www.queensmuseum.org/panorama/pictures.htm

Chicago (pics by J. B. Spector)

http://www.wired.com/images/article/...n_chicago2.jpg

http://www.wired.com/images/article/...n_chicago4.jpg

http://www.wired.com/images/article/...n_chicago3.jpg

New York (again)

Chesko's NY
Although the skyscrapers are the attention grabbers in Chesko’s Midtown Manhattan model, the real effort was in the details. Tackling the block-by-block miniaturization of this district called for the creation of more than 380 individual blocks.
Photos: Zachary Zavislak

http://www.wired.com/images/article/...design_ny2.jpg

http://www.wired.com/images/article/...design_ny1.jpg

This is some really cool shit Ex.

I will spend some time looking at these and trying to find some others.

I know the work that goes into building a thread like this. Your effort is to be....

Bravo!:worship:

^ Thanks bnk, look forward to your finds. :)

That Chicago and Cincinatti model looked incredibly detailed and awesome!

Great additions NYGuy. This one is amazing:

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2247/...0b325c4f_b.jpg

Thanks.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ex-Ithacan (Post 4120047)

Great additions NYGuy. This one is amazing:

Yeah, I haven't paid an actual visit to the Panorama myself (hard to believe) but I do find it amazing that you can view the entire city intact, all boroughs included. You get a feel for the true nature of the city. The Shanghai model is amazing. It should be mandatory that all cities include a citywide model for public viewing. I'll get to the Panorama, eventually.

Ex-Ithacan, this is a great thread.

Do you have photos of the model that inspired you at the NY World's Fair?
Was it Democracity......Futurama?

Hefei, Anhui, China

Most Chinese cities have a city model I think.

Here's one from the capital of the Anhui province, Hefei:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3281/...d693a82a8d.jpg

More can be seen here:
More angles of the Hefei model

I use to do stuff like this as a hobby. Except I would create my own skylines and design my own buildings.

My next project will be an airport.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality (Post 4122175)

Ex-Ithacan, this is a great thread.

Do you have photos of the model that inspired you at the NY World's Fair?
Was it Democracity......Futurama?

Yep, it was Futurama. I could have stayed there all day. The rest of the family wasn't as into it, alas, I lost the vote.

http://gawker.com/assets/images/gawk...cture%2091.jpg

http://blog.modernmechanix.com/mags/...ds_fair_17.jpg

http://www.westland.net/ny64fair/map-docs/images/gm.jpg

here's one i took of chicago:

http://www.pbase.com/mancusoj/image/101149932.jpg

i spent at least an hour staring at this thing.

This is the coolest idea for a thread. I love these models. That NY one is just amazing.

Here's an out-of-date model of a small slice of SF. It was done primarily for the Mission Bay development, but it includes some of the Financial District as well:
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3157/...935e5183_b.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2129/...ceb57cfa_b.jpg

That NY model is rediculously detailed and awesome. Wow. I've seen the Cincinnati model in person... it's at a museum in the old Union Terminal building (art deco gem)... very very cool in person. The lighting changes from day to night, lights come on in the models, streetcars run around, and a fire breaks out in one of the buildings only to be put out by the Fire Department.

The very first picture of Shaghai is incredible....

Awesome thread :yes:

Well done. The Cincinnati model I've seen in person and it's a fantastic piece.

^ That Moscow model is awesome, especially since it's made of wood. Thanks anm.

And thanks to all you other folks who've added pics, good stuff.

Wow those pics NYguy posted are amazing.

Wired just did an article on this subject: Biggest Little Cities: Models for Urban Planning. Lots of pictures at that link.

Shanghai model is ammmmmmmmmmmaaaaaaaaazing. Havana model sucks.

Good stuff guys, thanks. And keep 'em coming.

I tried finding one for Austin, but the only one I found was my own Lego model of it. lol You can see the pictures of it in my sig-line. I've updated it since those pictures were taken and added more detail to some of the buildings. Still lots of work to do though.

This really makes me want to crank on the laser cutter and just go crazy building a city model.

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/20...the-mini-city/

You, Too, Can Own a Piece of the (Mini) City

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/...museum.480.jpg
The Queens Museum of Art has launched its Adopt-A-Building for its panorama, a well-known destination for New York’s schoolchildren. David Strauss, a museum spokesman, is in the background.

By Anne Barnard
March 16, 2009

When even the Metropolitan Museum of Art is laying off staff, what do you do if your financial base is less Fifth Avenue than Queens Boulevard? The Queens Museum of Art has come up with a creative way of weathering the downturn and its attendant drop in donations to cultural institutions: Capitalizing on a unique piece of New York real estate.

The museum’s most famous asset is its 9,335-square-foot scale model of New York City, originally built for the 1964 World’s Fair. The Panorama of the City of New York has 895,000 structures, replicating every street, bridge and skyscraper in the five boroughs.

It is the physical and sentimental centerpiece of the museum, located on the old fairgrounds in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, next to the Unisphere, the enormous stainless-steel globe that was also built for the fair and has become an unofficial symbol of Queens.

Now, the museum is beginning an “Adopt-a-Building” program.

Starting Monday, you can “own” an apartment in the tiny world of the model for $50. A single-family house will cost $250.

And for $10,000, developers can have their brand-new glass-tower condo buildings added to the panorama — no matter how many units are languishing on the market. “Buyers” will even be awarded their own personal deeds.

Up to 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 the miniature world, the Trade Center still stands, for instance, 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 taker was the New York Mets. In a ceremony Monday morning, Claudia Ma, a City College architecture student, walked onto the panorama and, like a giant monster in a Japanese disaster film — but with more finesse — pulled off the model of Shea Stadium from its foundations. She fastened the new Citi Field into place, mirroring the real-life replacement under way not far from the museum. (Those nostalgic for the old Shea can now visit the model in the museum’s World’s Fair exhibit.)

In the audience was Queens Borough President Helen Marshall, who donated $250 to adopt her house in East Elmhurst.

The “Adopt-a-Building” will raise funds dedicated to maintaining the panorama and the educational programs built around it, including popular tours for schoolchildren. The models are to be built by City College architecture students.

City Room was intrigued by the possibilities, which immediately raised a number of questions both selfish and civic-minded.

First of all, what if you, like City Room, have the disappointing experience of locating your own corner but finding that your building — a 12-story prewar apartment house with distinctive yellow brick and lion’s-head cornices — is represented by a generic five-story tenement? (While viewers can delight in spotting exact details from the green roof of the Carlyle Hotel to the steel-ribbed Unisphere, not every structure merits an exact replica.)

“We’d be happy to update it if your co-op board would like to get together and pool your money,” offered David Strauss, the museum’s director for external relations.

But what if we’re a rent-stabilized building?

“I’d have to boil down the price,” Mr. Strauss said. But he warned jocularly that like stabilized rents, the price might rise by a fixed percentage each year.

Seriously, though, “There is always room for negotiation when working with the general public,” he said. “Like in the real estate market.”

O.K., now a question of more general importance for the urban psyche: If the museum starts updating post-2001 commercial projects like “The Edge” in Williamsburg, won’t it be anachronistic to leave the Twin Towers standing?

The museum won’t put a hole at ground zero, Mr. Strauss said. Instead, once the new skyscrapers planned for the site are in place, a model of them will replace the model of the towers.

“That’s something that obviously we’d like the developer to take care of,” Mr. Strauss added, hinting at the $10,000 donation. “But we’d probably do it anyway, since it’s such an important structure to the city.”

Unless a tribe of enormous aliens comes up with an Adopt-a-Building program for the real city to fund the completion of cash-challenged projects, that update may have to wait awhile.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ()_T (Post 4139859)

Houston...in 1950!

http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/m...de94439cd4.jpg

http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/m...65b96c6dd9.jpg

http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/m...db44861291.jpg
From DSCobb on FlickR

Wow Houston looked good then :yes:

New Orleans... 1913. It's a huge model, so it was tough to take pictures of.

http://i293.photobucket.com/albums/m...g?t=1238018013

Fascinating thread Tom. I don't visit this section of the forum very often, but from now on I'll have to stop by more frequently! :tup:

Here are a few of Cleveland, from the "2000 Plan" developed in the 1980s. Some of the towers were built, others - not so much (or at least, not in the form shown here) :dunno:

http://www.clevelandskyscrapers.com/2000plan.jpg

http://www.clevelandskyscrapers.com/2000plan2.jpg

http://www.clevelandskyscrapers.com/2000plan3.jpg

http://www.clevelandskyscrapers.com/2000plan4.jpg

Wow, Cleveland's skyline would have rocked! God it hurts not seeing the AmeriTrust Building not being built. :(

Holy smokes MayDay, that would really be one impressive skyline (and it's impressive right now for that matter). Get those guys on the stick and get some of those rascals built.

^^^I loved looking at that Cleveland model.
Thanks for posting MayDay.

absolutely fascinating thread! all these models should be in a central museum or exhibition somewhere/sometime. like you ExIthacan, i'm truly mesmerized by these models.

the ones of Shanghai and New York are very elaborate! what is the scale on them?

i'd love to see models of Canadian cities (past, present, or future) if anyone knows of any!

^ Nice addition LMich. I'm guessing most larger cities would have some kind of model, either of the present downtown or what the planned downtown would look like.

A better view of the downtown Detroit model in the RenCen lobby:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...of_Detroit.jpg
Mike Russell

http://riverdalepress.com/atf.php?si...ion=2009-04-23

Panoramic model has monumental missing piece

http://riverdalepress.com/images/fs_8357.jpg
BELL TOWER PARK, not seen from the air, but it sure looks like it.

By Kevin Deutsch
April 23, 2009 edition

Once your eyes adjust to the scale of the New York City Panorama, it's easy to spot Riverdale's most familiar sights in all their miniature glory. The Whitehall Building, Van Cortlandt Mansion, and the 242nd Street Station rise up from a shrunken Bronx in the form of petite replicas.

But look toward Bell Tower Park in search of Riverdale's best-known landmark and you'll find nothing but a small, lonely white patch. The traffic circle is there, as are the trees and homes and highway that surround it. Yet the Bell Tower itself, a 500-foot structure cherished by residents, sightseers and historians alike, doesn't exist in this alternate version of the city.

Urban planning czar Robert Moses and model-builder Raymond Lester may have taken painstaking care in creating the world's largest urban panorama for the 1964 World's Fair in Queens (now housed at the Queens Museum of Art), but when it came to Riverdale's 79-year-old tower and World War I veteran's memorial, also known as The Monument, the pair apparently didn't sweat the details.

There are about 895,000 individual structures replicated in the panorama, 25,000 of which are New York landmarks like skyscrapers, museums and major churches. They are custom built with striking detail.

Countless smaller structures are represented with generic blocks of wood and plastic. But The Monument didn't even get that. Does the museum plan to place a tiny tower on the barren spot?

"I'm not sure what went into the decision making in 1964, but we'd love to work with the folks in Riverdale to see if we can get it put on there," said the museum's director for external relations, David Strauss, adding that even though he's from Queens, he knows exactly where the real Bell Tower is in Riverdale. "The fact that I know the exact spot speaks to the idea that maybe it should be on there."

The Monument's Spanish bell was cast in 1762 for a Mexican monastery. When General Winfield Scott captured the bell during the Mexican War, soldiers brought it back to New York City, where it was housed at a fire lookout spot in Greenwich Village. It was later moved to a Riverdale firehouse and finally installed in its fieldstone and limestone tower in 1930.

Originally located about 700 feet to the north, both tower and bell were moved to West 239th Street and Henry Hudson Parkway in 1936.

One option for Bell Tower aficionados who want it added to the panorama would be to "buy" the monument as part of the museum's new adopt-abuilding program, which allows New Yorkers to "own" real estate on the panorama, be it a studio apartment, firehouse, or a historic landmark.

The rates under the adopta- building program are $50 for an apartment, $250 for a single- family home, and $10,000 for a landmark building or to fund a significant update to the model.

"Obviously, there was an oversight when it came to the tower. It would be nice if somebody stepped up and made the model more complete," said Bob Bender, chairman of Community Board 8's Parks and Recreation Committee.

How much would it cost a benevolent Riverdalian to buy a miniature version of the tower and ensure its addition to the panorama?

"We'd have to talk to some of our mini-builders and see what it would take," Mr. Strauss said.

The Monument isn't the only piece of New York City missing from the model. People tell the museum about missing local landmarks "all the time," Mr. Strauss said.

Sixty thousand structures were added as part of an update in 1992, but even then the Bell Tower didn't get its due.

As people pay to own their favorite New York buildings, the panorama will slowly evolve and, the museum hopes, more closely mirror the city in real time. In the meantime, the museum expects to keep hearing from New Yorkers who want their favorite spots added.

"People know their own neighborhood better than any mapmaker could," Mr. Strauss said.

^^^ 895,000 individual buildings! That boggles the mind.

Some more of the insane downtown Shanghai model. As someone else wrote, most cities in China have an Urban Planning Exhibition Hall with a big scale model like this.

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/21/34...dbe3c6ba_o.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3385/...39c509c8_o.jpg

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/9/856...0dbffc70a3.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3396/...416e8c34db.jpg

I'm in awe of how many man-hours and skill it must take to build something like that.

I kick myself for not checking out that Shanghai model when I was there. I heard about it on my second-to-last day but didn't make the effort to go. Stupid, stupid me.

There's a cool model of Washington at the National Building Museum, but they don't let you take pictures of it.