1:2000 3D Printed Skyscrapers

[Doctor Octoroc]

Awhile back, I embarked on a project to 3d print Philadelphia which eventually turned into other skyscrapers from around the world. Lately, I've been adding some of the world's tallest and will probably keep doing so for the next few months, at least. I'm happy to take suggestions for others as well!

For starters, here's a link to my Shapeways shop containing the skyscrapers I've already completed. The first ten, as of this post, are from all around the world while the remaining models are all in Philly.

I actually started by building full blocks of Philly containing all ground details, planters, etc but wanted to separate the individual buildings from each block to make them available to print on their own as well.

As of now, i haven't actually printed any of them as I don't have the funds to allocate to the project just yet but I will be doing so in the future and I wanted to make them available to anyone else that wanted.

And then here are some screen grabs directly from Solidworks to show off some of the finer details of some of the structures.

Burj Khalifa in Dubai, UAE





CN Tower in Toronto, Canada





Taipei 101 in Taipei, Taiwan





International Commerce Center in West Kowloon, Hong Kong, China





Willis Tower in Chicago, IL, United States





Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia





Empire State Building in New York, NY, United States





I also did 432 Park Ave and One World Trade Center in New York, NY and Shanghai Tower in Shanghai, China but haven't taken screen grabs of those yet. You can visit the Flickr! photo album containing all of them here.

Each model has a 2mm thick base to stand on and to support smaller details like columns. I've included as much detail as possible that I'm confident will show up in the 3d print of each and any structure over 400m tall has been separated in two or more parts with lip/groove joints to allow them to be printable in materials with smaller build volumes but still be able to be easily assembled. Some models contain details as small as .075mm which will be more suggestive in the final print but I thought 1:2000 was a good scale to allow details but also not break the bank on the cost to print. All models have been hollowed to a 1mm shell to cut back on material costs.

I'd love to get some feedback, as well as suggestions for future models!

[spidey7312]

These all look great! I also like the new and updated Philly city block models. Could you show me a comparison between polished white, unpolished white, metallic, & frosted?

[Doctor Octoroc]

Originally Posted by spidey7312

These all look great! I also like the new and updated Philly city block models. Could you show me a comparison between polished white, unpolished white, metallic, & frosted?

Thanks! I remember you from the previous thread for the full color Philly blocks. Unfortunately, they didn't have the success rate I was hoping for hence the new (and improved, in my opinion) models for printing in various plastics with 'nicer' tolerances.

You can see the Shapeways renders for all of the materials on each product page by choosing the material from the drop down box on the upper right side of the listing - what you'll see are the separated parts for each model (2 or 3 for each over 200mm tall) - the default image when you first visit the page shows a render of the 'assembled' model that I uploaded to get the matching Shapeways render image to use in the actual listing. Since I haven't printed any of them yet, I can't show off the actual material prints, but the renders do a pretty good job of conveying the look. Here are a few below for the Oriental Pearl Tower that I just uploaded!

White Strong and Flexible and White Strong and Flexible Polished:



Metallic Plastic and Frosted Ultra Detail:



They're not the largest images since they have to create these renders for every material and every model uploaded but they give a good indication of the look of each material.

And here are some Solidworks screen shots showing the vector lines on the Oriental Pearl Tower.



Any suggestions for the next one?

[Doctor Octoroc]

Here's the newest skyscraper to join the 3d printed crew - the John Hancock Center in Chicago, IL, United States!





This was a quicker build than others since it's a basic tapered box shape with symmetric reliefs. I split the model at the top since the antenna are what make it over 200mm tall (models need to be under 200mm in any direction to be printable in various material options such as polished or dyed).

[spidey7312]

I'm impressed with the amount of detail on Oriental Pearl Tower.

I have a request for you, please do Key Tower in Cleveland, Ohio (more specifically, the whole block the building is on): http://skyscraperpage.com/cities/?buildingID=132

[Doctor Octoroc]

Originally Posted by spidey7312

I'm impressed with the amount of detail on Oriental Pearl Tower.

I have a request for you, please do Key Tower in Cleveland, Ohio (more specifically, the whole block the building is on): http://skyscraperpage.com/cities/?buildingID=132

Key Tower on its own would be easy enough - not sure if it would be a best seller but I'd be happy to add it to the shop if you're interested in grabbing one for yourself. The cost would probably be close to that of the stand alone One Liberty Place model currently there.

For now, I'm working through the tallest or most popular ones then I'll get to some of the tallest in each state.

[Doctor Octoroc]

Two new models finished!

First up, the Bank of China Tower in Hong Kong, China.



This one is a bit further down the list on the world's tallest but seems to be a popular one so I got to it sooner. Pretty basic, generally speaking, but fun angles all around! Solidworks screenshots below:



I went with vertical impressions for the windows versus horizontal ones like most of these 3d printable models. I felt it represented the form better in contrast with the diagonal framing, especially on the angled top portions. In order to represent the fact that the front and rear entrance are at different levels, I created the sloping features along the sides of the building as shallow extrusions leading from the front to the back so the ground level at the rear would match its real life location but the model itself would maintain the 2mm base feature - otherwise, the back entrance would just be floating in the air.

Next is the Jin Mao Tower in Shanghai, China - the third tallest of the 'big three' under the International Commerce Center and Shanghai Tower. These three are referred to as the 'past, present and future', respectively.



This one took some time to get the proportions just right since the stepping in and tapering out of the many layers makes it difficult to find the right position of features in relation to each other, especially near the top. Here are the Solidworks screenshots:

[Doctor Octoroc]

Another one added, the Chrysler Building in New York City, NY, United States!



I'm really happy with this one. It's not dissimilar from the Empire State Building in the layout and arrangement of windows but many of the elements are unique to this structure, such as the ornamental designs around certain roof portions and the gargoyles/statues on the corners of two levels, not to mention the iconic curved, tiered roof design with triangular windows.

I never knew that the back side was angled - this provided a unique challenge to duplicate the elements on the front side while having them follow the facade at the appropriate angle.

[Doctor Octoroc]

New model finished - the Ostankino TV Tower in Moscow, Russia!



A relatively simple one with most of the detailing on the middle portion - since much of the tower consists of thin mesh elements surrounding solid forms, those details are more suggestive and akin to those on the top portions of Canton Tower above its roof.

[Doctor Octoroc]

Here's another one - I'm just barreling through these! It's Kingkey 100 in Shenzhen, Guangdong, China!



This one was pretty simple, save the curved entrance feature. Originally, I created the one side and mirrored it, not even thinking about the fact that the entrance feature is only on the one side, so I ended up recreating a bunch of features on a duplicate side of an earlier version of the model to create the other side.

Unlike other structures with exposed details, KK100 has many of its details behind glass, so I decided to build them as they could be seen through the glass exterior to give it more character.

[Doctor Octoroc]

Another one for the top 10 tallest buildings (not including towers) in the world (as of right now), Zifeng Tower in Nanjing, Jiangsu, China!



This one took a lot of researching to get the reference material since it's not a popular one. I'm not sure why, it's a fantastic structure! The main issue was finding reference material for the overall shape and details on the roofs. I sort of fudged those since the only material I could find were satellite views in Google Earth. But much like Shanghai Tower and the Jin Mao Tower, I had to resort to China's version of Google Maps for street views to get the right details on the ground level as well as on some of the sides of the building.



I'm going to search out some cool shorter structures (200-400m) next, including the request for Key Tower.

[JDRCRASH]

Wow this is awesome! Maybe you can do a few LA buildings as well?

[Doctor Octoroc]

Originally Posted by JDRCRASH

Wow this is awesome! Maybe you can do a few LA buildings as well?

Thanks! I'm quickly getting to the US Bank Tower in LA, just sort of working my way down to the ~300m range. Of course I jumped down in the list considerably to do the Chrysler Building and Key Tower (by request), and I started by doing exclusively a bunch of buildings in Philadelphia, PA, so I'll probably hit that one soon!

Other structures on the to-do-sooner list include Tuntex 85 Sky Tower in Taiwan, Berliner Fernsehturm in Berlin, Bank of America Tower in NYC, Almas Tower in Dubai, Mercury City Tower in Moscow, and the London Shard.

And here's the newest model, Al Hamra Tower in Kuwait City, Kuwait!




I love this building and modeling it was a ton of fun, between the unique shape and the continuation of those forms on the base section.

[Doctor Octoroc]

And another new one, Berliner Fernsehturm in Berlin, Germany!



Relatively simple, compared to other towers, with the exception of the base which has multiple tiers and angled panels. I also made sure to represent the shallow pyramid texture on the spherical observation section.

[spidey7312]

Looks great as usual

[Doctor Octoroc]

I ordered prints of the Oriental Pearl Tower, Tokyo Sky Tree and the CN Tower - just got the shipping notification and should have them by the end of the week! Will post pictures when I receive them.

[Doctor Octoroc]

Originally Posted by JDRCRASH

Wow this is awesome! Maybe you can do a few LA buildings as well?

It's been awhile, but I finally got around to your request!

Here's the US Bank Tower in Los Angeles, CA, United States, including the courtyard area.



This was one of those that I didn't think would take very long but with all the windows and roof details, plus the courtyard (which is very tricky to discern from satellite photos and Google Earth street views alone), it ended up taking a few days. I wasn't sure at first if I wanted to add the courtyard but it adds so little to the cost of printing and so much to the model! The primary reason for doing so is that given the hilly nature of LA, many of the buildings have features on the front on a different elevation than the back. This would mean an inaccurate location of certain features without either a blank face below the areas at higher elevations or without providing some terrain for context. I generally decide that the latter is preferable, as I did with the Bank of China building. This meant including the courtyard and other structures attached to the base of the main tower was optimal.

It's funny, people rarely think about the details on the ground since most photos show the structures behind other buildings and you can't see them. I also couldn't find many other models with these features included so I like being able to do so and making mine unique in that way!

[spidey7312]

https://www.shapeways.com/product/HE...ionId=62769667

I don't think this one is 1:800 lol

[Doctor Octoroc]

Originally Posted by spidey7312

https://www.shapeways.com/product/HE...ionId=62769667

I don't think this one is 1:800 lol

Haha, yeah, I forgot the '1' in front. Someone requested 1:1800 versions of some of the models to match the scale of his collection. Better fix that!

[Doctor Octoroc]

New model finished, the Bank of America Tower in New York City, NY, United States!



I often struggle with which ground details to include, primarily when it comes to parts of the structure that aren't the main tower, so with this one I wasn't entirely sure if I should include the boxier sections with the angled portions but as it's part of the overall look of the building, I did.