Sketchup Model of the Original Penn Station in New York

On October 29th, 1963 workers began demolishing a architectural masterpiece in New York City, just 53 years after its construction was completed. At the current site of Madison Square Garden, the building was designed to stand 500 years but lasted just 1/10th of that. It was a beaux arts jem and the pinnacle of architect Charles McKim's career.

At this link you can find a 3d model, based on McKim, Mead and White (McKim's architectural firm) published plans and many photos and even some film.

Many of those photos are show here, with a similarly placed SketchUp "camera".



My goal with this model was to get a feel for walking within this lauded building since it is now impossible to do so, and to thereby understand better the great sense of loss described by those who are old enough to have first hand experience with this great building.

I have to say that by downloading and viewing (viewer available here) this model you too can get a sense of this historic building.

Almost Done

My real job has been really busy as of late, so I haven't had much time to model. That said, the Penn Station model is very nearly complete, and I'm starting to think about how I will present it here.

My goal is to put in the final geometry touches by 1 July and to upload it to the warehouse. However, unlike my other models, I think I really want to find or build really accurate surface textures in order to match other top models of classic buildings in the 3D warehouse. That exercise itself will take a good amount of time, so hopefully I can find it.

Update (4 Aug) - the model is finished, including exterior textures and is ready to be uploaded to the warehouse. I'm just writing the blog post and doing the photo album. Everything will be up in seven days.

Old Penn Station: No Source Ignored

As mentioned previously, it's difficult to model a building that doesn't exist. Plans and photos help, but don't always give the complete picture.

I read about some films that Lorraine B. Diehl, author of "The Late, Great Pennsylvania Station" selected as having footage of the original Penn Station.

One of the films was Stranger on a Train. Fortunately this is one of NetFlix's "Watch Now" selections, so I fired up my browser and watched the film.

At 1:27:13 (h:mm:ss) into the film, the protagonist jumps into a taxi in New York and commands to the driver "Penn Station".

For about 70 seconds we see Penn Station in its 1950 glory, including footage of one of the carriage ways, a glimpse of the arcade, the main waiting room, and even a little bit of the concourse through a window.

(P.S. I tried to do some screen captures from the Video of Penn, but I wasn't successful and it started getting late. If I find a workaround I'll update the post with the captures.

Wow, the Scale!

I'm several hours into the model now and I'm shocked over and over at the pure scale of the building. I used the blueprint drawings for the major dimensions, but occasionally I have to eyeball a building element. Whenever I do so, I'll guess, say 3 feet, and then I measure it out in the model. It is never large enough. Something that would be 3 feet in the houses that I normally model would be right, but for a similarly proportioned item in Penn I have magnify by 3-4 orders of magnitude!

One saving grace of the design is the repetition and symmetry. I have lots of recursive and mirrored structures (groups and components), which keeps the model smaller and helps the model perform. Here is a screen shot so far:

Chasing the Ghost of Penn Station

Wow, I should have learned from this abandoned model that modeling something that no longer exists is difficult. And this building has been gone for over 40 years!

When I worked on the Tappan Zee Model it also required some significant research, but I found what I needed on the Internet.
However, despite finding some useful resources online, I wasn't able to get any of the key measurements I needed for my Penn Station project.

Fortunately I had plans to be in New York city, so I would actually have to do research in a book! I took a trip to the New York Public Library, another NYC landmark and Beaux Art beauty.




In room 300, the Art & Architecture Reading Room, I found a book of Penn Station plans that was actually published by the architect, McKim, Mead, and White. It was very exciting to get the exact information I would need to accurately model Penn Station completely to scale.

My New Mission

I've spent a lot of time New York City, and as someone who has an interest in architecture, I was quite surprised to find out about an absolutely classic building that I never new existed. Of course I have the excuse that it was destroyed many years before my birth.

I was made aware of this building when looking for the New York sports stadium, Madison Square Garden, in the 3d Warehouse. I saw that, despite being a fine model, it had several 'one star' ratings. The explanation for these low scores (unfairly to the modeler) was that the current MSG was a ugly and hated replacement for the beautiful Beaux Arts building that was the original train station at the location.



Upon reading the history, outlined in greater detail here, (an informative site with an unfortunately bad design) I was then shocked that this original building is not represented in the 3d Warehouse despite it's iconic status.

To me the most appealing aspect of the design is the experience related in arriving into Manhattan by train, "like a king" whereas now the experience is more like entering "as a rat". Since I specialize in modeling interiors, I'm going to attempt to model this former building so I can experience that king like entrance virtually.

A Family Room for a 1950s Ranch

As opposed to a totally new house, my most recent project is an addition to a 1950s ranch. I added a family room with vaulted ceilings, converted it from a 1.5 bath house into one with two full baths, added a fireplace and improved the flow by swapping the kitchen and the dining room, adding a mud room from the garage. Below is a preview of the new exterior.



Once it's complete I'll post a full image set.

Play House

This was a small model I did for fun. It is a child's play house that includes lots of different elements. It has a sandbox in the bottom, a climbing wall, slide and swings surrounding it, and inside it has bunks for camping (for pretend or for real) and a hatchway to the lookout roof.

The various gates can be locked depending on the ages of the kids who are using it. This way a variety of ages can enjoy it and it remains a challenging toy even as the children grow a bit older.

Like all my models, if you have Sketchup installed, you can download this from the "My Models in the Warehouse" link that is under "Useful Links".

Salem Towne House

An example of the center hall Greek revival, the leading progressive design of America in the 1790s, where each room is designed to impress, but this one is modernized for today's family. For social occasions it features the traditional entryway, large dining room and formal living room. But when it's just the family at home, the massive master suite pampers the heads of household and also leaves plenty of room for the kids and house guests. Whether entertaining or just at home, everyone congregates in the heart of the home anyway; which in this case is in the natural spot: the extremely large eat-in kitchen that is strategically positioned on top of the two car garage.

2.5 Bathrooms
4 Bedrooms
1.19 Acres
2 car garage

5100 Sq. ft. Interior Space
875 Sq. ft. Exterior Space (Deck)

Retaining Wall
Hidden Door and Servant Stairs

Salem Towne House Guided Tour

Salem Towne House Video Tour

Layers vs. Groups

I started using Layers once I started building some bigger models, and I found them to be quite useful in order to break things up (basically to hide, en masse, the same areas) allowing me to focus on one particular area or another.

Then as I used more components, I noticed the group functionality, and at first I was confused about the relative uses of layers, groups and components. Why did the Sketchup team include all three ways of linking together elements?

Then I was introduced to the Outliner, which I consistently but mistakenly refer to as the organizer, because that is what it does so well (see last week’s post). At first, once I discovered groups, I completely eliminated the use of layers.

Now I feel like I have come up with a good division of labor between groups and layers (and components). In the screen shot shown, you can see how I use the three. You can see that the master bath is a group (highlighted in blue). Then, for houses, I always have the same four layers: Layer0, Lot, Fixtures and Furniture. 'Layer0' (white) is the default for anything I hand draw. 'Lot' is for the earth and terrain that surround the house (not shown; for many people the lot would simply be a flat rectangle representing the garden or "lawn"). Then I have 'Fixtures' (red) and 'Furniture' (green), both of which include the components I've used. (Components assigned to the Fixture layer stay put, and those in the Furniture layer can be rearranged).

The advantage of relegating the lot and the components to their own layers is that when making macro changes to the structure of your house, with a few clicks you can quickly clear the clutter away. With them hidden it also really helps with performance because it reduces the slow orbiting and panning that occurs in large and complex models.

In summary:

Layers - Use these to hide elements that you don't need to see all the time
Groups - Use these to organize your model, breaking it up into smaller pieces
Components - Use these for items that you reuse repeatedly in your model, like chairs or toilets

I [heart] the Outliner

I look at a lot of models in the 3d warehouse, and download and view many of the full house models, particularly when they include interiors.

One thing that I'm repeatedly amazed by are complex models (as full houses always are) that are completely flat model structures, meaning a series of components surrounded by lines and faces with no groups or model specific components.

A friend of mine ran a marathon in four hours, and had a chance to mingle with the other runners. He said to the 1st place finisher, "I have no idea how you can run 26 miles in under two hours." And the winning runner said back to him, "I have no idea how you can continue to run for four hours straight."

This is what I think of when I see these models with no groups. I have no idea how anyone creates a full house (or any complex model) WITHOUT heavy use of grouping and then organizing those groups with the Outliner, while maintaining their sanity.

In my opinion, using the Outliner is critical, allowing you to break a large model into a series of smaller models, as shown in the image. It also allows you to make better use of components and as always, using good quality names for the objects in your model will help enormously.

For a great introduction to using the Outliner, please view Aidan Chopra's video on youtube, "Putting it all together, after the jump.

In my next tips and tricks post I will talk about using groups in conjunction with layers.

Next Project - Sneak Peak

My next project is a more traditional colonial, one that is more the taste of my girlfriend then mine. However, despite its staid exterior I will be adding some fun and unique features to the interior.

Here is a sneak peak of the rough model until it is completed.