I think he took creative liberties there. The Twin Towers and One World Trade Center are included; he started the project in ~2004
> “One of the reasons Joe is so insistent that every single building is here is because he would never want someone to come and see it and not be able to find where they live and see their story,” Sherman tells Artnet.
Trucker built a scale model of NYC over 21 years https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45261877 - 18 comments, 6 months ago
https://www.muzeumprahy.cz/en/visit-langweils-model-of-pragu...
https://www.madrid.es/UnidadesDescentralizadas/UDCMedios/not...
Models are such a great tool, artistically, culturally, and scientifically. Joe's NYC model really helps put the scale of the city into perspective.
There's also the San Francisco Bay Model, located in Sausalito, CA:
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Army_Corps_of_Engineers_B...>
There's a model of Biblical Jerusalem at Temple Square in Salt Lake City, though I've no idea of its actual accuracy. This is located in the North Visitor's Centre: <https://www.myutahparks.com/things-to-do/attractions/temple-...>.
There's another such model at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem itself: <https://www.imj.org.il/en/wings/shrine-book/model-jerusalem-...>, and several others elsewhere in the world.
There are several models of ancient Rome, including appropriately one in Rome itself, the Plastico: <https://mymodernmet.com/scale-model-ancient-rome/>.
The Thorne Miniature Rooms at the Art Institute of Chicago are another delightful experience: <https://www.artic.edu/highlights/12/thorne-miniature-rooms>.
Seems to me like papers' infamous (at least in the UK) references to victims' or alleged perpatrators' house prices, to instruct our sympathy, when it's not otherwise at all relevant.
This isn’t someone working as a full time artist, this isn’t someone living off a trust fund, this isn’t someone selling their creating for millions for the money laundering. This is just a “man in his shed” with a blue collar job doing something awesome.
It says “anyone can doing something awesome”, you don’t need a fancy upbringing or million dollar backing.
I’d love to learn more about the technical challenges. For example, how do they handle buildings that aren’t perfectly aligned to the cardinal axes?
This is all round and not precise numbers, considering he had to have days where he couldn't build, I'm guessing on the number of structures, and he started in 2004 (22 years ago), accuracy is not possible. But still, even if we fudged it down to 100 structures a day: This is BONKERS.
The man has a prodigious skill at building simple models and painting them. I am incredibly impressed. And I am curious if he did it all alone or if he ever had help from friends/family, even just simple cutting of the balsa wood into simple templated shapes for him to later construct. (To be clear, even if he had help it takes nothing away from how impressive this is)
I would however like to know what his research was like. Was he just following Google Maps/Earth? They were released in 2005 and 2001 respectively and NY has had coverage from the get go.
pics: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Relief_Magnin
Both are absolutely incredible. I find the growth in size numbers difficult to really comprehend even though the scale difference is an "easy" * 2. I wish I wasn't so so bad at visualizing things.
Of course, saving time was clearly not the point of the project. It's awesome.
Micro-machines seem to be taking their time.
I should check it out, it would be fun to see my house recreated as a model.
I love projects like this; no delusions of trying to change the world, just doing it because the creator thinks it would be cool to do.
I'd say the point is "An Ordinary Guy did X". Vs. an engineering genius, or somebody with deep pockets, or a Hollywood special effects model builder, or 3D printer junkie, or whatever.
That he had to get extremely focused on the task, and devote years to it, is pretty well spelled out in the article's title.
Blue collar, dedicated, skillful effort over decades immediately co-opted by nonsense-spewer.
> “One of the reasons Joe is so insistent that every single building is here is because he would never want someone to come and see it and not be able to find where they live and see their story,” Sherman tells Artnet.
Its not like they broke into his shop and shared his model with the world before he could, it is currently an exhibition at the Museum of the City of New York.
Unless the person quite literally lives in that museum, I don't think "quite literally" is in any way accurate.
> Its not like they broke into his shop and shared his model with the world before he could, it is currently an exhibition at the Museum of the City of New York.
I'm not saying they did. I'm saying what they said was a load of rubbish.
I disagree. Employees often take some form of "ownership" over their buildings, especially in long term and public education facing facilities like museums. It isn't difficult to understand why they said "there is our museum". Human language connotes ideas as often as it does specifics, and there is nothing rubbish about that.
