Crossroads Central Control Tower: Art Deco Skyscraper...Request?

[Crossroads Inc. 68]

*shakes dust off self*

Oof Hello there!!

Its been a while, several years in fact since ever posting here.  But like a long lost love I find myself coming back!   There MAY be one or two who might remmeber me from when the site started early on.  I had a long time obsession of sorts with an island I later hashed out and posted.  The centerpiece of that island was something however I never got around to doing.  Namly an Empire State like Art Deco Tower I called the "Crossroads Central Control Tower"!

Well after years upon years, and coming back to reinstalling the game and, (sadly) starting from scratch, I have taken my first tentive steps to making manifest another step of my high aspirations BEHOLD!

Yeah its a bit primitive, but the layout, preportions and dimensions are finally in line with what I had in mind.  Each "brick level" is supposed to be one floor based on the standard sizes of the ESB. The Current form is a bit rough and hope to put in more fine detail.  Really I have never made a SC4 model in my life and am looking for input and feedback

[Hiandby4 1]

Pretty good Idea but its hard to give feedback about your building because it's made out of lego but still I think that you have to make it taller because you want a superlative  building in the epicenter of your city looking superior over all others. Also next time use a program like B.A.T not a lego generator. Nice idea, good start.

P.S. Out of curiosity what program are using?

[Crossroads Inc. 68]

Well Like I said, I've never done a BAT Building before I used the lego builder (Bricksmith) Because it was the closest to a 3D modeler as I have

as for the size, well Originally I had this image of it in NYC and at the time I didn't want it overshadowing the ESB or the other famous buildings. But as you say since it is the center piece of my little Utopia it really should be larger and such.

As far as feedback. Well a part of me wonders if I should have posted this on a Skyscraper forum or something, as I am kind of looking for feedback in terms of "How this would look as a Real 1930's Art Deco building" sort of thing.

But yeah, aftering being a member for almost Ten years, first time ive ever tried to do something. ;>

[GMT 389]

good ol lego cad software...

i never used bricksmith but mlcad with povray for rendering. good times good times.

uhm ya enough reminiscence...

[SimHoTToDDy 2,939]

I approve of the Legos ( I secretly fiddle with mine to this day!).

As for the shape, it is difficult to get the dramatic shapes and proportions with something like Legos (unless you scale WAY up). That being said, your general shape is about right. I don't know the exact angle in the zoning law that forced architects to create the "wedding cake" set backs, but I would try to conform to that as well. You will notice that the ESB has a base with much grater area than even the next tier, allowing for the large uninterrupted vertical segment of the tower. Keep this in mind for your design.

At the very least, I think you should upgrade to something like sketchup so you can generate a more accurate depiction of the tower you intend to make. If you really want to take the plunge into BATing, you could start off with gmax (or 3dsmax if you have a student .edu email).

Best of luck,

-Todd

[Crossroads Inc. 68]

Well a good deal of the '"wedding cake"" buildings during the 20's and 30's was more the Art Deco Style, though it was partial brought on by certain NY zoning laws.

That said My Tower is a "Tower" part of the central theme of it is that it has to be full Symmetrical. Most Skyscrapers of the 30's were partially symmetrical.

If you cut them in half, usually horizontally they were Symmetrical, but rarely could you cut them through both ways. My design will be fully symmetrical on all sides.

Of course in a way this should make it much easier to build

Also I just downloaded sketchup and am going to spend the night trying to mess around with it to see what I can do.

In the mean time, A friend of mine who DOES know something about 3D modeling produced a "Futuristic" version of my tower here:

I love the details on it, and am using it as a guild for some of the details I want on my version. the main bit is the 8 pointed Gear at the very top.

The 8 pointed gear is sort of the symbol/national flag of "Crossroads" and the way it was done with the "CR" in the middle is just how I hope to have it look on mine.

[Crossroads Inc. 68]

Also,where are some good places to go for BAT tutorials?

[Jasoncw 11,841]

For the massing I would definitely not go for symetry.  For art deco you want a really dynamic massing.  Off the top of my head, the only buildings that are completely rotationally symetric have multiple buildings on the same site, which are arranged dynamically with each other (Marina City in Chicago, World Trade Center in New York City).

I'd also watch out for strong corners.  The setbacks usually deemphasise strong corners (although the interplay of all of the smaller corners is enhanced).  You should also try to emphasis the building's verticality by layering the setbacks and articulating them in such a way that the massing seems like a bunch of individual rectangles being extruded from the ground.

The impression should be that a sleek strong tower is emerging triumphantly and iconically from an angular semi-chaotic lower section.  The overall impression should be oppulant but sleek, dynamic, and bold.

The Omnibus (there's a link at the top of the page) has a tutorial called BAT Essentials which has everything you need to get started.