City houses update with pics

Beautiful.....just beautiful!!!

Alan

What a fantastic structure! Thank you for sharing this.

-Duncan

WOW! That is a great looking building. I enjoyed watching how this project came together.

The building looks great! I love the hunter green windows...it goes well against the masonry (brick & limestone). There is one thing I did pick up on....the chimney's at the flat roof don't look quite right to me...in my opinion of course. They seem to short and neeed to be approx. 6-8' scale feet high (if not a little higher) and have either terracotta decorative flues projecting from the tops (I envision 4 at each chimney) or maybe copper clad semi-peaked raised chimney caps. See pics below. Aerial photos from the Newbury Street area in Boston, MA.

PS: Do you plan on applying mortar to the mortar joints at the stone to stone joints? A contrasting gray might make it "pop" a bit.

Love your work. Great job once again.

Nick B

Middleton, MA.

Excellent!  I vote for keeping the flues as they are, unless you want to call attention to them.  That in itself is not bad, but then you have to ask if you want the viewer's eyes to wander up there or not and where might they go next

John,

The only reason I brought attention to the chimney's is because I'm in the commerical masonry restoration side of things here in Boston....and since such a great effort & detail has been put into that model....I'm sure he would appreciate any type of "prototypical" feedback...The viewer's eye are going to wander upon the roof anyway...plus he could always throw a couple of birds up there along with a chimney sweep, and maybe the building manager's desk.........lol

Nick B

Middleton, MA.

Fantastic work!  I enjoy watching the progress.

Gentelmen,

I sincerely appreciate your comments. Its especially valuable when a professional in the business takes time to provide guidance.

In the case of the flue heights which is really an interesting modeling challange considering I am modeling a building that dates back to the early 1900's is wheather I follow the architects drawing or update it model to reflect a more recent restoration?

My background is in computer development so I claim no expertise in architecture except what I learn doing each modeling project. My intituation is that most cities have a building code that states the minimum height a chimney must be over the peak height of the building. However in New York City I have numerous roof photos showing the the original brick chinmney almost at roof level with multiple gas flues mounted on them.

Nick I love the photos of the Boston building. When was the restoration done.

I still have plenty of work to do on the model. Thus far I have decided to detail the interior of 7 rooms. I just completed erecting the interior walls and installing lights in each of the rooms.

Les Lewis

Les,

If memory serves me correctly right around the mid 70's and then again around the late eighties...Not sure what "period" your modeling....But just food for thought.

Nick B.

Boston Metro Hi-Railers - Wilmington, MA.

Nick,

The peak for trolleys in CT was just prior to WW2. The CT Co never purchased a PCC car. This is in contrast to Boston which trolleys are still evolving.

As an aside attached are photos of a row of houses I modeled about 10 years ago that I photographed and measured from around the Boston commons. The sequence is not in proper order. I found the Boston area to be a great source for modeling buildings in a scale appropriate for my layout.

Les