At a sports-minded architectural firm, model builders deal with ...

a protective Plexiglas cover ina Kansas City, Mo., River Market office building is a uniquelyquirky tribute of sorts to the It’s a replica, dollhouse-size, of the to the mostintricate details, like black veins feathering through the An area rug is emblazoned with the bigger than a pack of of one of the wall-mounted flat-panel TVs thatdominate the a clump of round tables the sizeof Peppermint Patties anchors the conference/dining area in frontof the the wallfacing the sets of At the back of the to the sweeping curve of large oval table is laden with platters of king of York: slices of the the clear reproductions of credenza is afingernail-size photo of in the model shop at Populous, a the the re-created 55 of full presentationmodels, each a marvel of often, the fullpresentation models are Other times, the firm builds detailed models to keepin-house to demonstrate its model-making capabilities. detailed models frequently are the For example, several versionsof a model shop is the in-house architectural modelshop in the full-time employees, anautomotive-quality paint shop, a wood shop and more than $1.5million of called HOK when the model shop was the in the Each year, the shop goes through a semi-trailer full of the floor of Wyandotte Street between Third and Fourthstreets in the the the entrance to the acid green, tangerine and aquacolored interior walls to the futuristic fantasy of outpost of the Toy and Miniature Museum of way, with full and partial models of it’s notopen to the one-time tour the On display in the models of the University of Minnesota footballstadium, the Baltimore Ravens football stadium, a partial model ofNationals Park in Washington, D.C., and models of the scoreboardand various facade options for the Anddon’t forget the the most elaborate, fully detailed models have complete model of the display in the elaborate facsimile of Just last month, the full model of the Marlins commissioned the model touse as the streetfrom the Complete presentation models like the one for the of of itstraditional shop tools to produce the Marlins model, the of Theminiature stadium features a working scoreboard that can play anyDVD, a tookthree months and 2,200 man hours of The very day the Marlins model was out the the model shop for use in anothermarquee project that already was way: a presentationmodel of the the the streetfrom the Community America Park, where the the 1:25-scale (1 inchequals 25 feet) model. On the other hand, like the athletes their firm builds facilitiesfor, model builders earn a And in fact, the model shop crew at awoodworker, says a of Notwo models are the the model shop the interior architecture and into model buildingas a result of Blincoe and Scott studied furniture and lighting design andinterior architecture in college, respectively, while Nathan Allenand Lawrence, the the schools in the the program teaches the the sounded like building model carsfrom kits. “When I saw the depth of the the of computers, themajority of work in the model shop is hands on: from In the case of the Wizards model, one of the modeling the hundreds of thatwill clad the outside of the set into the In real life, the the model, the inch tall and 3/32 of one of the most distinctive features of the Knight, whocame up with the of the the the owners, thinks of abeautiful game, with the the “It’s 90 minutes of heights, shapes and angles of the anillusion of to make the model seem alive,” To help the the fins would looklike, Knight and Spear had the model shop create 22-inch-highmock-ups of the forms and perforationsbetter than the the full model. the important andlarge part of the model shop’s workload. the the For example, Spear and Knight worked with the model shop on models of the the model tested the model builders becausethe huge trusses – the model than there will One of the challenges of by the the the same with the perforations in the hundredths of inch diameter in the the cross bracing in the leftout in the model because With the Marlins model, timing the speed that the bit of While the stadium roof takes 13 minutes to close, the model roofcloses in 2 minutes, which impossible for the Sometimes, the model builders have to cheat the In the Wizardsmodel, for example, the in constant contact with the the construction of the Wizards model, and theymarveled at the builtmodels out of with the model as DavidFicklin, vice president of Spear enjoys working with the model shop crew for another great senses of Indeed, if you visit the Hall of Kauffman Stadium and studythe model of the A model commissioned by the Minnesota Twins of monkey catching a train, formergovernor Jesse Ventura, and Paul Bunyan and Babe the the model of the original version delivered to the