Cardstock Model: Old City Hall of Rochester MN

 

This city hall of Rochester, MN was built in 1932 and was used for that role 67 years.  It is now used as a living space (see here).  I made a stylized model of it (the building is quite large) and I had to omit the back end so it would fit on my fireplace mantle. 

To build it you just need to:

1. Down load the three (3) PDFs from these links:
1. Rochester_MN_SW_1_Ave_224_OldCityHall_page_1_of_3.pdf
2. Rochester_MN_SW_1_Ave_224_OldCityHall_page_2_of_3.pdf
3. Rochester_MN_SW_1_Ave_224_OldCityHall_page_3_of_3.pdf
2. Send them to Officemax or a similar print service.   Choose 8.5"x11" size and 100-lbs cardstock.  And color.  
3. Assemble tools/materials:  scissors, a utility knife to score edges, and Elmer's glue.  Oh, and a toothpick to spread the glue on the tabs.

Assembled card stock model of old City Hall

Photo from Google Maps

From an old postcard

The 1/150th Japanese N-scale model being made in Inkscape

Cardstock Model: Mantorville Opera House

 

A short ride from Rochester, MN is the Mantorville Opera House.  There the Mantorville Theater Company puts on plays and melodramas.  I made models of some of the Opera House and some of the buildings near it.  This blog entry makes the Opera House PDF model available.  

To build it you just need to:

1. Download the pdf from this link
2. Send it to Officemax or a similar print service.   Choose 8.5"x11" size and cardstock.  And color.  
3. Assemble tools/materials:  scissors, a utility knife to score edges, and Elmer's glue.  Oh, and a toothpick to spread the glue on the tabs.

Image from Google Maps

Cardstock Model: Office Building Shared by Mayo Brothers and Father

 

Rochester, MN is home to the Mayo Clinic.  Started by brothers Charles and William Mayo, they shared an office with their physician father early in their careers.  It was in the "Cook Block" building.  It no longer exists, but I made an N-scale (1/150th Japanese scale) card stock model of it.  Feel free to download and build it.  Just print the two pages on 8.5"x11" card stock (I send them to Officemax for a really nice print job).

The two PDF files for the building can be downloaded here:

1. Rochester_MN_CookBlock_OriginalMayoOfficeBuilding.page_1_of_2.pdf
2. Rochester_MN_CookBlock_OriginalMayoOfficeBuilding.page_2_of_2.pdf

Photo of assembled card stock building

Cook Block photo from Wikimedia.org

Two Inkscape Projects to create two PDFs...

Cardstock Model: Office Building Westby, Wisconsin

 

Back in 2004 my wife and I stayed at a B&B in Westby, Wisconsin.  On the main street was a small office building that caught my eye.  I took a snap with the thought of making a card-stock model of it.  Sixteen later, here it is.  Someday I'll update it with textures for color printing.  I left photos the PDF file of the building itself and the steps I took to create the model.  The N-scale PDF file can be found here.

Cardstock Model: House I grew Up In

 Most have fond memories of the house they grew up in.  My house was warm, loving, and always there.  I made a very rough model of my house from some photos and memories...somewhat stylized.  It's simple and will someday make a better one.

You can download a PDF of the model here.  

Old Chateau Theater of Rochester MN to SVG - Part III

Using a photograph of one of the window dormers as a guide, I created a vector image of the window detail.  I didn't want to add too much detail, as in N-scale things are pretty tiny as it is.  Though I may go back and try adding detail.

I also started tinkering with the medallion (see yellow below), but I did that freehand sort of (without referencing a photo).  I'll see if I can somehow take the actual pattern of the medallion from a photo.  My SVG front of the building is still pretty rough.  But it's fun to tinker with (and learn how to use) Inkscape.

And for reference what I'm trying to model...

Old Chateau Theater of Rochester MN to SVG - Part II

Dimensions & Math

The best I can estimate is that the old Chateau Theater in Rochester, MN is about 70' wide and 165' deep:

For Inkscape, I'm using a standard 8.5"x11" canvas.  I'm using metric units.  I created a simple spreadsheet in Google Docs to determine the size in mm that the SVG elements need to be when creating the file:

num of feet	inches in foot	scale	scale inch/foot	scale mm/foot
1	12	160	0.075	1.905

Here's some various angles from satellite.  In addition to the marquee, there will be some angles to deal with such as the slope on the wall/roof where the window dormers are in front.  I may just do flat surfaces at the beginning, and then in subsequent revisions add more detail.