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I enjoy seeing residences that take sustainable design and combine it with good architecture.  Especially when the sustainable residence serves a purpose, like helping to sustain the surrounding environment.  Check out this posting by Inhabitat.  It’s a beautiful home in the middle of New Mexico’s ranch land.  This development helps protect over 10,000 acres of previously used ranch land  from becoming another suburbia wasteland.  Preserving the natural beauty of the surrounding landscape for all to enjoy.  Howard Williams – Director Sales/Marketing

A few years ago Archetype 3D built an architectural model of a residence in Arizona.  Similar style architecture and another great example of building with the environment in mind.  Check out some pictures:

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I recently posted photos of a 3D scoreboard model we created. Well, my client James Keppel of 33 Thousand Feet has just provided me with photos of the real thing. It’s an impressive structure and the dominant feature of the arena. It is also a reminder that model making isn’t just for fun. We help designers, engineers and developers create and sell actual projects.

The real scoreboard is located at the HP Pavillion at San Jose – home of the San Jose Sharks.

One fascinating part of model making is never knowing what we are going to build next. James Keppel of 33 Thousand Feet Inc. has a cool company that designs environments and creates branding. He hired us to make a 3D model of a scoreboard for a hockey arena. The exterior panels had to be removable to show the interior structure, catwalks, and maintenance areas. Our model was about a 2′ diameter and could be hung from a single point. To accomplish this, the model structure had to actually be structurally sound, something we are not concerned with when building most architectural models. I had no idea of what went on inside one of these giant signs, but I found out how complicated they are.

Craig Matin – President – Archetype 3D

Does anyone still make kit models? I built so many as a child but I was always wondering who made these cool parts that fit together so nicely. So now I am a 3D model maker which I describe as “Building the kit – and then assembling it”. So here are some of the kit elements of our current project the Vail Ritz Carlton Resort Model. Realize of course that I personally had little to do with making this model. Mike Johnson and Lydia Brown are my key managers / model makers  and Micheal Steinkoenig and Austin Hein did much of the construction. I just take the credit.

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Craig Martin – President of Archetype 3D

Laser cutters and 3D printers along with computers and specific software are now the tools of the modern model maker. When I was in school building models for stage sets that I designed, it was all about Exacto Knives, illustration board and bass wood. I developed a blister on my index finger and later had to build myself a splint to protect my knuckle against hyperextension when cutting through tough material. Now I draw the shape in Illustrator or CAD and send it to the laser to be cut from acrylic. My models back then looked great when finished but the process was much different. We still use Exacto Knives, bass wood and even illustration board on occasion but the process is unrecognizable from my college days. There is no point to this except to say “Good Luck” to all the students in studio classes right now. Here are a few images of my first college models. We all have to start somewhere; remember to take and keep pictures of ALL your work.

model for the play "Street Scene"

The white models are for a Tennessee Williams and Noel Coward plays

Who out there had a tree house as a child?  Raise your hands!  I know I sure did.  My dad built one for me that I am sure is still standing today, some 20 years later.  It was amazing: built- in ladder, trap door,  screened- in windows all the way around, vaulted ceiling, the list goes on.  It was just what a boy needed to feel like the master of his domain.  My friends and I even had camp-outs in it during the summer (although I remember running inside in the middle of the night more than once, scared someone was going to get me!).  I Just read this article on treehugger.com about tree houses and it brought back a flood of memories and desires to live like the Swiss Family Robinson for the rest of my life.  Treehugger has a slideshow titled 8 Tree Houses Fit for Treehuggers that you should check out.  These are amazing homes and getaways that, I’m sure, would do us all some good!

Archetype 3D did a 3D model for the Children’s Botanical Garden in Kansas recently, designed by EDAW, Inc. (www.edaw.com).  It was such a fun project that really turned out well!  It’s great to know that designers are still staying in touch with the child inside and are designing around the beautiful environment we live in!  – Howard Williams, Director Sales/Marketing

Check out some pictures of our model:

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Craig Martin – President – Archetype 3D

Most detailed architectural projects take four to six weeks to construct. More complicated model can take a bit longer. Then came the day that I got a call from a very good client requesting we build a model of their lodge for the opening of their sales office in two weeks. The timing worked out very well as the other projects we had been working in the shop did not have immediate deadlines. The client also had their act together with a full set of plans. Experience has taught me that no matter how complete the plans, there are always surprises on these complicated buildings. So I requested a charrette (a collaborative session in which a group of designers drafts a solution to a problem) for the next day. We had the architects, landscape architects, color designer, and developers all come to our shop for a one day decision making session. The rule was that all choices must be made that day with no changes allowed later. It was an intense meeting with some great collaboration. We created color and material samples on the spot and had them approved. All the plans were gone over and accepted. Only because we all had the same goal and were willing to support each other, exactly two weeks later we delivered the “Cirque” to the sales office at Copper Mountain Colorado. Now that was intense.

Model making is an easy job. We get a set of plans from an architect or designer and we decide on a strategy and we start building until it exists. Assuming you have the skills to build, the knowledge of materials, the ability to visualize the final product and the willingness to experiment to solve problems, anyone can do this. The only real wild card is the designer. Your deadline and his are usually about the same time. You are not going to get your model done before your deadline, why should he? You’re going to find better ways to build the model as you progress and he is going to figure out better design features while you’re building it. Stay on your toes and expect the unexpected and everything will be fine. Here are a couple of fun model examples which experienced some crazy changes along the way

Craig Martin - President - Archetype 3D

I’ve been making models of buildings for a long time but had little experience in moving into actual new construction until now. Moving into a building that doesn’t yet exist has distinct advantages, the most obvious being that we were able to design our space to be a model shop instead of modifying an existing space. Although I got a full set of plans from the architect, electrician, engineer, and lighting consultant, this place is still full of surprises. One of these surprises is a series of small mysterious buttons placed on several walls in key locations. The electrician explained that they are to turn the lights back on after the timer shuts them off. I come to find out that the city of Louisville, Colorado, in an attempt to be green, plays the role of the Dad who yells at his kids “Don’t leave the lights on. What, do you think, that I am made of non-renewable energy?” The timer is programmed to shut off the lights after all employees leave the building. The guys who thought this up obviously never worked in a model shop. Employees have been known to work at all hours and even though I do my best to keep my people on a regular schedule, things come up that require late night model making. The electrician explained that if people are working late and the lights go out you just hit one of these mysterious buttons and you will get a couple of more hours of light. “Great” I said. “Does the timer also cut the power to the table saw, band saw and joiner?” “No”. “Huh, so I am risking cutting off a finger in the middle of the night because the lights go out while we are working?”

We never set the timer. This means I have the difficult task of telling my employees “would the last person out of the building please turn out the lights?” I know it is a huge task and honestly not every employee I have ever hired is up for the responsibility. But I don’t allow power tool use unless there is more than one person in the shop. Hopefully one of them would have the sense to turn off the lights before locking up. If they don’t? Oh well, that at least is an acceptable risk.

Now when someone asks you to build a 3D model of a wind turbine, you would think that they would want it motorized. No such luck on this project although a small fan in front of the model gets the turbine blades rotating very effectively. I am thinking of building another one for our display room here at the shop. Of course I would hook it up to a solar cell and let the sun rotate the blades in an absurdest attempt to be green.