by Patti Connor
Staff Writer
To the uninitiated, the term architectural model may conjure images of a series of blocks tossed together in a random fashion so as to vaguely resemble a building.
It’s true that there was a time when models were little more than the most rudimentary prototypes constructed from the most basic materials — cardboard, balsa wood and bass wood. Most of today’s architectural models are considerably more sophisticated. Some, in fact, require so intricate a design, that architectural firms actually turn over the business of building them to companies that specialize solely in their construction.
The complexity of their fabrication is only a part of the story. Ranging in size from a scale of one-eighth or one-sixteenth, up to “taller than the average person,” when it comes to architectural models, there are only two restrictions: budget and a space large enough to accommodate them.
“I’ve known firms that actually have removed windows to get them into the building. And I’ve personally shipped one in a container, which when you’re sending it by Airborne Express, can get to be pretty expensive,” said John Groll, project coordinator of Art Associates Inc., a Toledo-based firm specializing in architectural models.
Most architectural models today are made of acrylic or plexiglass. Once cut by hand, a particularly painstaking process, models today are cut by laser. For landscaping, trees are fashioned from a spongy material of flocking or felt, while parking lots and roads are hand-painted.
“Nowadays, you can buy just about anything, from cars that are one-eighteenth to one-sixteenth scale, on down to tiny theater seats,” he said. When it comes to actual size, “one-twentieth of a scale is about as small as you can get,” said Groll. “Any smaller than that and you’re dealing with Monopoly pieces.”
Sometimes, an architectural model is worth a thousand words. He recalls making a small laptop model for a new church that was being built.
“The model itself was very, very tiny, it couldn’t have been more than 11-by-14 inches. It was a lap model, so it wasn’t heavily detailed. It was ideal, because they could see what the church would look like, once it was finished,” he said.
With today’s technology centered around computers, why would one want to construct an architectural model, when it would be a great deal easier to build a computer-generated one?
Said Groll: “If, for example, you have a 1,500-acre subdivision with a buildout life of 15 years, people actually can see what it’s going to look like. Also, if you buy a lot, sometimes you can’t see exactly where you’re going to be within the community. This way, you can pinpoint the location exactly.”
Cost also mitigates in favor of architectural models. Using a computer, “you’re talking about an animation cost of 24 frames a second. So, it works out to be not only time consuming, but it can become very expensive, as well,” he added.
That’s not to say that architectural models can’t also be costly.
“The labor is probably the biggest expense. If you’re talking multi-stories, by the time you’ve framed the windows and done everything else that’s involved, I’ve seen some that have gone for well over $100,000. But if you’re talking about spending $100 to $150 million on a building, $100,000 is worth it, just from what you’ll get out of it in sales,” he said.
David Duff, design principal at the Jacksonville office of CannonDesign, sees the biggest challenge of building architectural models as “understanding what the building is trying to say.”
“As an abstraction, rather than a literal rendition, you have to be able to identify what you’re trying to say, before you’re able to build it,” he said.
For Duff, especially challenging was a model of the new Duval County Courthouse the firm did recently for its design competition. Approximately four feet square, “since it was constructed entirely out of plastic, shipping it was a real trick.” The model was assembled by a full-time, professional staff, over a period of about four weeks. With its classical Corinthian columns, cornices, or pieces at the top of the building that project out at the roof line and windows pinched into precast stone, as with most historical, buildings there was a fair amount of detail and carving involved.
“By virtue of sheer scale and the fact that it was a classical piece of architecture, it certainly became the most intricate one I’ve dealt with in a while,” said Duff.