To the surprise of no one reading this, many urbanists have called Chicago a model American city.
The proof is in this quite literal model — a miniature, 1:5,000 scale model.
As a follow-up to their widely popular Manhattan series, Microscape — a collaboration between William Ngo of architectural design firm TO+WN Design and Alan Silverman of visualization firm AJSNY — has set its sights on Chicago for its second-ever scale model.
You know the Chicago Architecture Foundation’s miniature scale model of Chicago that’s now a permanent fixture at Railway Exchange Building? Think that, but smaller.
How small? The replica model is taken from nine square miles of the downtown, and then broken down into 36 6’x6’ squares. Each square equates to approximately one-half a mile (or around four city blocks).
You can either buy a single square or all 36 squares to create your own mini empire.
That thing about “make no little plans”? Well …. we’re convinced Daniel Burnham would be impressed nonetheless.
Using aerial photos of the city, Microscape utilizes a meticulous mapping technique to produce its highly detailed 3-D printed models. The result is a showpiece for not only architecture fans, but anyone who loves the City of Big Shoulders.
The project reached its Kickstarter goal late last year and the company just started taking pre-orders — you’ll wanna head on over to Microscape for more details.
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