Blueprints/Drawings

[Anonymous]

Being new to the hobby I am very interested on the how to's on acquiring Blueprints or Drawings of some buildings I am planning on trying to build.

I have no idea were to start or how engineers and architects submit drawings for approval or government agencies control the issues.

Example: where are State, County, or City plans and drawings stored or what is the name of the state agencies to contact for info.

If a company wanted to refurbish a building or structurally improve something who would they contact for drawings etc.....

Any help would be appreciated !!!!

Scott
Chandler, Az.

[Anonymous]

In Montana blueprints are submitted to the local Buidling Official and Fire Marshal for approval. In rural areas of the State they are submitted to the State Buidling Offical and State Fire Marshals office. The plans are reviewed for compliance to the building and fire code.If a building is owned by the Feds, they dont submit plans to anyone. Some architects keep copies of blueprints and the business/buidling owner should have as set and either the Fire Marshal or building official has another set. Most times there are numerous changes to the plans and new/revised are issued with the old ones being discarded.


John

[Anonymous]

You might contact the building department of the village, town or city in which the building is located. It varies how long they keep drawings of completed structures on file in their offices. Once the project is complete and all inspections are done and approvals are issued, there is little need to keep drawings readily available and they are often consigned to basement storage centers where floods, fires and dampness take their toll.

A major structure usually has an architect or engineer on staff or retainer and they would certainly have a set of current and probably historical drawings on hand. I've worked on renovation designs of some early 20th century buildings where the owners were able to provide not blueprints, but the original ink on velum drawings of the buildings. These were truly works of art in themselves and I wasn't surprised when the owners wouldn't let me keep one or two sheets to hang on my wall. (He actually saved them from the dumpster when they bought the buildings.)

An historical building, especially one on the National Register of Historic Places might have had a survey done and these could be available through a local or state historical society or the Register.

Wayne

[Anonymous]

Muddy Creek is lucky, or maybe we've just been unlucky. Most of the historic structures we have dealt with (for restoration or adaptive reuse) have no drawings saved at all, and neither does the Authority Having Jurisdiction (who may have never had a set anyway, depending on the age of the building). Most of the AHJs in our area take even the new drawings and file them on some unnamed pallet in a warehouse where you cannot find them, and I can't begin to tell you how many relatively new buildings I've been to where, even if they are as-builts, they're probably not right or up-to-date.

That having been said, nonetheless, take his advice and try, because it's very good advice--you'll never know if you might come up with a set on a building you want to do. Don't be disappointed if you don't get anywhere.

Many railroad structures were not run through the permitting process, and then at least some of the the RRs saw to it the drawings got canned. For example, SP/TNO had a big burn barrel set up at the Hardy Street roundhouse in Houston back in the 60's and destroyed literally tons of documents. Only some were rescued and likely are in private collections. Others may be in SF, if you can afford to go out there and if UP will let you look and make copies. Other RRs saved many of the structure drawings and donated to the various hist. societies and libraries--your local library or hist. society may have more info than you can reasonably handle. USRA did a study in WWI that ID'd and documented every piece of fixed plant at the time, and those were at one time available through the National Archives.

BUT--since most modelers I know are only interested in the facades anyway (e.g., I don't know of anyone who models working plumbing!), there's usually a lot you can do through historical photographs, or get measurements and photos if the building is still on the ground, but get permission first, if it's private property. Also recognize that many abandoned properties are physically dangerous for a number of reasons, only some of which are structural, and just because it appears abandoned doesn't mean it's not still private property. Besides, what you're going to find out is that unless you have almost unlimited space, you can't build a full-scale model of many buildings anyway and have them look right and blend in, and fitting more than a few small ones is just untenable as a practical matter. For example, a SMALL 6000 sqft psgr depot (say 30'x200') scales out in 1:87 as around 2' long, and that doesn't include the track, and most freight stations are a whole lot longer, as are many medium size psgr depots. Such a structure utterly dominates a scene (as would a small industrial building) and would obviously be a showpiece, but you need a lot of room to display it in context. So cheat! Get the idea across and compress the building, and commit the idiot who shows up with a scale rule. That makes the process a lot easier if you have trouble getting prints. Besides that, if it's a long-gone historic building you're doing, who's going to be around who can actually attest to the exact shade of the bricks with any accuracy?

Good luck, and good hunting.

[leighant]

One item in my collection is a book of house plans from about 1950.