There was some controversy about this project because area business owners, (just a handful), didn't like the height. To the east and southeast there are 2 taller towers planned by another developer, and to the east the main bulk of Austin's downtown skyline. To the south and west there are a lot of restaurants and other small offices. Mostly law firms and other small office space. The project is a 390 to 400 foot condominium tower that is planned for an area of downtown that is bounded to the north by old historic homes, (from the 1860s to 1880s), that have been restored and reused as light commercial space. He wanted to show people how the building would appear on the skyline in that area of downtown compared to other nearby highrises, and others that are also being planned nearby. Since the trains are fairly large, about ~10 to 12 feet tall and ~ 60 feet long, I want to include them.Ī developer in Austin contacted me about using Legos as a visual reference for their project. Those will just show up as small "slats" on the street. I'm also planning on adding light rail once it comes to downtown. I include those to help with the realism. These are all over downtown and Central Austin, Central South Austin and Central East Austin, (near downtown). There's 17 of them remaining out of 31 original towers. Austin also has what we call "Moonlight Towers", these are 165 foot light towers that were bought and installed by the City of Austin back in 1895. All the little 2-story historic buildings from as far back as the 1850s. Not just the skyscrapers, but also all the smaller older buildings. So when I do it I've got images of that block from all angles and levels. I also go downtown and sketch out the block that I'm planning on modeling. I also use books, magazines, calendars, postcards, and of course my own pictures. To do the model I use GoogleEarth for images, Live Local Search, various other aerial photographs where I can find them. In collecting the heights I also ask for building widths which further help in modeling them. Most of the heights have come straight from the building's blueprints. I collect building heights as a hobby so the heights of the buildings are correct. I'm also an editor at Emporis which is a website that catalogs skyscrapers from around the world. For the block sizes I've measured those with GoogleEarth. Most downtown streets in Austin are 80 feet wide, that includes 44 feet of lanes, (curb to curb), the rest is sidewalks. I researched the street width information from the City of Austin. I'm not sure of the exact scale of my models, but I do know they are to scale. Kevin i'm hoping to become a developer in abilene and i was hoping if this actually works in gettimg an idea across. (the buiding in the right-center foreground is a scaled-down replica of New York's Flatiron building by another club member). This is a picture from a show MichLTC did on March 3-4, 2007 at the Rock Financial Center in Novi, Michigan (a Detroit suburb): This gives me the opportunity to display my Lego buildings as part of a complete city. Since I started building about 3 years ago, I have built one large structure a year (plus several small to medium size buildings).Ģ007: The 47 story Penobscot Building (still under construction):Īfter I completed the Fisher Building model, I found out about the Michigan Lego Train Club () and I joined it. Dispite this, I am hoping to build many of the significant structures of Detroit. Unfortunately unless someone pays me and lets me use a space the size of a stadium (for free), I will not be able to build an entire downtown. By building in what is called "minifig" scale (about 1/48 scale - based on the height of the chubby little Lego people), I can show details such as the individual windows and doors. What Kevin is doing is trying to create an entire downtown in Lego bricks.
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