53rd Street outside MoMA

[nk]

I've decided to make a model from outside MoMA that I saw on 08-08-08. Here are some crappy BlackBerry photos





The street has since been repaved so I have only these, my sketches and images from Google Maps...who would have thought I needed archive photos from only three years ago.

I started by making a small small sketch to nail down the composition followed by a scale plan on ragboard





Then I started making the plates. During the process the Chopper was invaluable. The plastic is 10 thou and 5 thou card. The metal is brass that has been folded to give the correct scale thickness and then annealed on the stove burner.





I'm this far on two of the seven plates. More details to add and some tidying up to do, but its taking shape.


Thanks for looking.

[nalmeida]

Looking great already.

[marc_reusser]

Very cool.  I look forward to seeing this project progress. Looks like there will be some nice opportunity for details, texture and coloring.

M

[Ken Hamilton]

Narayan's pavement dioramas defy description.  By the looks of the reference
photos, this will be another masterpiece.  Can't wait............

[Ray Dunakin]

Cool project!

I've gotta get a Chopper one of these days.

[finescalerr]

You are the only guy I have come across who can turn a thirty scale foot section of miniature pavement into art. -- Russ

[mad gerald]

I'm this far on two of the seven plates. More details to add and some tidying up to do, but its taking shape.

... I'm just curious what this great number amount of plates are for ... a "hidden" or temporarily entrance to a subway ... and how do one remove them ... ? Can they be handled by 4 men or do you need a truck with a crane?

[pwranta193]

Love the project - to your question, I believe that there used to be street access to the under ground of major buildings through panels like this: http: //pqliving.com/street-elevator-action/

For something like MoMA, there was likely a ton of storage basement for incoming/outgoing artwork, displays and crates...

Yours would be closer to this size - but the odd number of panels is throwing me...
http://www.aclifts.com/material-handling/images/sidewalk-image-1.jpg

In the old days, I believe that buildings with a great deal of their "mechanicals" in the basement had to have access points like this. In Portland and Seattle we have sidewalk grating that you can see down a couple of floors in some cases (both cities have "underground tours" so that you can see the old city and its guts), seeing steam pipes, access doors, etc.

Oh - and seeing your version of the Chopper, it may be time to retire my first generation model... mine is on brown fiber board, without the cool stadia lines and chopping arm  

[mad gerald]

Love the project - to your question, I believe that there used to be street access to the under ground of major buildings through panels like this: http://pqliving.com/street-elevator-action/

Yours would be closer to this size - but the odd number of panels is throwing me...
http://www.aclifts.com/material-handling/images/sidewalk-image-1.jpg

... thanks for the explanation, I simply disregarded, that building and townscape can differ quite a lot, comparing the Cities in the US of A with German cities ...

... there was likely a ton of storage basement for incoming/outgoing artwork, displays and crates...

In the old days, I believe that buildings with a great deal of their "mechanicals" in the basement had to have access points like this. In Portland and Seattle we have sidewalk grating that you can see down a couple of floors in some cases (both cities have "underground tours" so that you can see the old city and its guts), seeing steam pipes, access doors, etc.

... there comes the Chicago Tunnel Company to my mind ..  

... For something like MoMA ...

... only one question left: what does MoMa stand for, where is it located respectively? Does it mean Museum of Modern Art - then it will be located in NY ... (and I answered my last question myself)

EDIT: Well, THIS is way cool .... I typed in "MoMA, West 53rd Street, NY, United States" using Google Maps - and had a look at the original scene you're modelling (may be Google Street view was there 2-3 years ago), being thousands of miles away ... 

[pwranta193]

Narayan,

What scale is this in?  Being new to your work, I don't know if you have a preferred scale - I should probably be able to decipher it from the lines on the cutting pad... but I'm lazy this AM

Gerald - you probably laugh when I use terms like "old" for US cities... since Seattle and Portland are about 160 years old...

[Mr Potato Head]

What does MoMA stand for? Silly its short for Moammar Gadhafi!
If you did'nt know he's a big time modeler!   
MPH

[mad gerald]

Gerald - you probably laugh when I use terms like "old" for US cities... since Seattle and Portland are about 160 years old...

... um, well, no ... OK - confession: chuckling a little while thinking of having visited the places parts of my ancestors lived the past 400 years ...  

What does MoMA stand for? Silly its short for Moammar Gadhafi!

... hmmmm, over here moma is associated with THIS ...

[ldk59]

What does MoMA stand for? Silly its short for Moammar Gadhafi!
If you did'nt know he's a big time modeler!   
MPH

"Museum of Modern Art" would be my guess

[nk]

Thanks for the comments gents. Much appreciated. Sorry for the delay in replying, I am in Durango, Colo visiting family with limited computer access...with no spare time to ride the Durango-Silverton train!

And to answer a few questions:
The model is in approx 1/24 scale, which is my preferred scale (actually 1"=1mm is what I really use)
MoMA stands for the Museum of Modern Art. I visit it almost every time I am in NYC.
I don't know what the plates are for. My guess is that its for access to utilities along the street and into the buildings. I know it is definitely not to load/unload art or for access to art storage.
I've seen these plates lifted with chains attached on an excavator, but I didn't have time to hand around and inspect what was underneath.

I'm working on how to replicate the crusty/flaky look of the steel. I have a few experiments to carry out. As soon as I have results, I'll post some more updates.

[nk]

Time at the bench has been scarce for all kinds of reasons, but I have made some progress:

I finally made seven of these plates. The first two I made with brass parts but it proved to be so fiddly that I gave in and went with styrene:


Then I had to make the edge retainers with the notches in exactly the right spot. That took a lot of thinking time, and once worked out went very smoothly:





And then I ruled up a sheet of 80 thou plastic to use as a base onto which I assembled the access plates



glued the retainers in place and cut it to approx size