Looking for Unusual Building Ideas

[Anonymous]

The House of Ill Repute[X-)][}:)] [{(-_-)}][}:)] [censored][}:)] got me thinking that there must be some very unusual business's or Business's that are housed in unusual buildings out there. I'm suremany of us would be very interested in what is out there.[:0]

As I said in the House of [X-)][}:)] [{(-_-)}][}:)] [censored][}:)] thread There was a small bar in Sheet Harbour on the Eastern Shore Nova Scotia where someone had bought an Oil Storage Tank (Several Thousand Gallon), which had never been used, and converted it into a bar called "The Tank".[oX)]

[Anonymous]

You could consider modelling some re-worked warehouses now turned into luxury apartments - there's a whole load of these in Bristol (UK), and there's even a small preserved steam railway running over some of the old dockside tracks in connection with an industrial museum. There must be similar things in the US? How about some of the small RRs in New York which had all their trackage as street running and ran into/through buildings along their routes? Suppose (modeller's license!) someone managed to re-activate one of these as a tourist line, you could run any number of small switchers, with a short string of cabooses as passenger transport. The Walthers "Oscar" and "Piker" cars could also be used. Would be an interesting model!

[Anonymous]

There are several car wash's in Calgary with a wash bay in a building which is shaped like a large steel bucket. By the looks of it the bucket building's bay could hold a large semi-truck.

[michaelstevens]

Fergie,
Here are a couple of links to "coffee pot" buildings;

http://www.route40.net/scrapbook/in/index.shtml

http://www.phmc.state.pa.us/bhp/news/overview.asp?secid=25

There's a better picture of the second one via "philly.com" -- but they'll want money for it !

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by michaelstevens

Fergie,
Here are a couple of links to "coffee pot" buildings;

http://www.route40.net/scrapbook/in/index.shtml

http://www.phmc.state.pa.us/bhp/news/overview.asp?secid=25

There's a better picture of the second one via "philly.com" -- but they'll want money for it !

That brought back a memory or two of a place I forgot about when I was a kid. It was a place in Richmond Hill (North of Toronto) on Yonge Street Called the Copper Kettle and yes that's what it was a Giant Copper Kettle, Wonder if the Misses will notice if ours is relocated? mmmm.......

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Fergus

The House of Ill Repute[X-)][}:)] [{(-_-)}][}:)] [censored][}:)] got me thinking that there must be some very unusual business's or Business's that are housed in unusual buildings out there. I'm suremany of us would be very interested in what is out there.[:0]

As I said in the House of [X-)][}:)] [{(-_-)}][}:)] [censored][}:)] thread There was a small bar in Sheet Harbour on the Eastern Shore Nova Scotia where someone had bought an Oil Storage Tank (Several Thousand Gallon), which had never been used, and converted it into a bar called "The Tank".[oX)]

Fergus, check this out,



http://www.horailroad.com/fsm/fsmlayout.html

http://barmillsmodels.com/

[Jetrock]

Conversion of industrial warehouses to lofts/condos is happening all over--it has been going on for a while in places like New York and San Francisco but is just starting here in Sacramento. Many of these places were served by railroads until fairly recently so it wouldn't be unthinkable to put trains on the tracks, and as there are plenty of warehouse models out there (and DPM modules for building them) they're economical and require little conversion.

I'm fond of interesting small structures from the Thirties--weird little Art Deco things with odd shapes like gas stations and diners. They are well-suited for layout use, having a small footprint, and are nice to put next to large structures to give them a bigger feel. There are a few Art Deco kits out there, but they're a natural for scratchbuilding from styrene as they were mostly angular and white/smooth in appearance--easy to build from sheet styrene if you have some good photos to work from. Some had curved sides--there was a good article in MR a year or two ago that featured an Art Deco car dealership with a curved wall, Deco details and glass-block windows.

These kind of buildings are well-suited for modern layouts, as many of them are still around and are in those older parts of town near the railroads.

[DSchmitt]

Giant Orange orange juce stands were once common in California. The juce was sold from a large orange ball shaped building. There were always flat roofed open seating areas nearby so that patrons could sit in the shade.

The was one open in 1962 at the Intersection of Dixon Ave Weat and US Highway 40 (now I-80) The intersection was about 1-mile out of town. The structure was still there until at least the 1980's. I saw one the remains of one from Highway 99 a few years ago, but I don't remember where.

I read somewhere recently about an effort to preserve one, so maybe more info and some pictures will turn up.

[der5997]

Fergus: In Spruce Grove and Stony Plain Alberta (both on CN's mainline west out of Edmonton) there are two government of Alberta Liquor stores that were converted into churches in the 1990s. While the buildings are pretty much ordinary warehouses, the idea could give you a scene to model perhaps. [8D] I might be able to scare up some photos if you are interested.

John . Sober Island.

[bluepuma]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Fergus

The House of Ill Repute[X-)][}:)] [{(-_-)}][}:)] [censored][}:)] got me thinking that there must be some very unusual business's or Business's that are housed in unusual buildings out there. I'm suremany of us would be very interested in what is out there.[:0]

Your note made me think of the Oscar Mayer weinermobile that dates back to the 50's - Oscar Mayer packs lunchmeat, baloney, hot dogs, has a series of vehicles to promote their name with market appearances, plastic weeny whistles, a short guy that used to be indentified as Oscar Mayer. Some ot that stuff must data back to the 30's when people had too much time on their hands. In Los Angeles there was a Brown Derby resturant that had a corner entrance, that corner was shaped like a Derby. There were hot dog stands shapped like a hot dog in a bun with stools for a quick lunch, chicken resturants with a huge chicken head/beak on top of the roof. One resturant known for it's baked goods Van De Camps had light blue buildings shapped like a dutch windmill, with blue neon blades rotating slowly all the time, it was a coffee shop/resturant, function like what they call a Diner in NJ/NY. There was a Cliftons Cafeteria at two locations in downtown LA, one hand a northwoods theme, the other, a south pacific theme, tropical fish walls, neon palm trees. It extended outside the building on the first floor, waterfalls, fake redwoods, pine or palms.

There were egg selling stands shaped like chickens along the highway. My favorite were the meat market, butchers shop with a painted mural of pigs and cows with halos going up to heaven, fish/seafood places shaped like huge fish or with a lobster roof.

When air conditioning was new, lots of bars, places in warm climates (desert) emphisized with Polar Bear or penguin figures, buildings that resembled a Igloo or iceburg, blue/white. Cocktails signs, Ice Cold Beer.

There were mexican resturants shaped like a huge sombero (mexican hat), and today there are probably still Victoria's Station which had box cars around the outside, tended to look a bit like a building with sidings in two directions. Guess they didn't have the passenger cars, diners, used freight cars, perhaps a caboose. There is in Peoria, IL a resturant with passenger cars on two sides, and a G-scale train runing inside near the ceiling. By chance, that was where my wife and I had our Wedding Dinner, kinda cool, the cars are heavyweight in pullman green. They form two outside walls, filled in below and above.

Common also were Dairy stores, drive thru, the Driftwood Dairy always had the huge fiberglass dairy cow outside on the grass, later on top of the roof, the building shaped a bit like a dairy barn. Other unusual buildings looked out of place, but were a billboard
for the business, based on the shape, type. Drive in - Stans drive in had a huge shapely girl in boots, short skating skirt with legs, a tray, a majorette style hat. She stood on the corner, the waitress dressed similar, round sort of drive in.

Liked the mural on the slaughter house in east LA, had cows, pigs, sheep, whatever in fields, and then on the way to the house, finally, halos going up to heaven. Painted as a scene, but also as a function, parents could explain to their kids. We were all more matter of fact a few generations ago when it wasn't uncommon for a family to kill chickens, stuff.

Had forgotten about the BBQ places painted with pigs and barBQue flames, sauce colors, smiling pigs in chef hats, like the mexican resturants with scenes painted on the side or the Chinese resturants with chinese pagoda style roofs.

[bluepuma]

I forgot to mention the billboard 2-3 stories up in the air that had a real car lifted up, tilted on it. Yea, next to a car dealer in a showroom building. I used to wonder how they got that up their when I was a kid. The car may have been a Cadilac 1955-57 or so, or convertible.

Yea, bill boards help sell cars, even the pictures of new models.

There is an office building furniture supply store next to the Santa Monica freeway east of downtown LA, before Sears that has a couple of floors lit up at night where people driving by on the freeway can look in their showroom windows about 3-4 stories up.

[chutton01]

QUOTE: You could consider modelling some re-worked warehouses now turned into luxury apartments - there's a whole load of these in Bristol (UK), and there's even a small preserved steam railway running over some of the old dockside tracks in connection with an industrial museum. There must be similar things in the US?

Too late, Walthers already beat you to it... http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/933-3099

Of course, re-use of old buildings is very common - I converted the Bachmann Plasticville automotive dealership into a carpet/rug showroom (painted, weathered, and detailed, it made a pretty good side carpet showroom).

One business I don't see modeled much, even on modern layouts, is Self-Storage units, whether converted from old warehouses and other multi-story buildings, or built new (either as a field of one story multi-garage-doored units, or a multi-storied stucco finished building). These self storage units are practically everywhere around here, especially in industrial and commercial districts.
I think several Shurgard storage facilities around here have a lighthouse (with operational light!) in front, if you want something unique and interesting, yet prototypical http://www.rwmurray.com/projects/projpages/shurgard.html

One will definitely go on my next layout, right next to the 1 store stucco finished no windowed gaudy-signed strip club [^]

[bluepuma]

QUOTE: Originally posted by DSchmitt

Giant Orange orange juce stands were once common in California. The juce was sold from a large orange ball shaped building. There were always flat roofed open seating areas nearby so that patrons could sit in the shade.

Had forgotten about those, remember them, probably stucco over wire frame, the drink perhaps like Orange Julius or Orange Bang!

The last of that style was Jack In The Box, all were shaped like a Jack in the Box box, two story, stand on the bottom with drive through and a huge plastic Jack In the Box clown with speaker for taking your order. Late 60's to '75 before they started changing them, and MacD lost their arches. Taco Bell used to look more like a Mission in the 65-75, and of course, the hot dog drive through in a A frame style building, or IHOP in a larger A frame style.

Our MR should have instructions for making some of those buildings from scratch with paper/board, plaster or whatever. The scratch builds are always so huge, complicated, but I'd like to see some smaller projects, easier, I don't need a depot, but could use a supermarket from the 50s in N scale. I could use a old Taco Bell, not a new one, even a old Dairy Queen, not a poor man version Dari-King.

I'd like to see some less complicated scratch builds, but it looks like just to get started, I've got to buy lots of stuff. MR Help!

[bluepuma]

btw - this started because of Wicked Wanda's but there is so much more

I just want to figure out where my Orange Juice building should go, perhaps about the size of a Tangerine in N scale.

How about the Theme motel, Indian teepee style but the Teepee's are motel cabins along the highway in any indian area, west or east along highway 20 or 13.

One of the most impressive buildings I ever ran across was a Mormon Temple in Oregon, south of Portland, lake oswego ??? area perhaps. I came across in in the woods like a magic castle, with Gabriel at the top. Took my breath away, so unexpected, I was staying at a hotel nearby in Sept. 90. One side was next to a major highway, like the one near San Diego, I-5 inland.

[Jetrock]

If someone wanted to challenge their styrene-forming skills, they could try modeling one of those 1950's era "Orbit" gas stations with their huge curved-trapezoid overhangs...definitely distinctive architechture, and seen until fairly recently.

A minor sort of "structure conversion" for somene building a Twenties layout would be a speakeasy: an otherwise nondescript building, a restaurant or whatnot, with an alley entrance featuring a strong door, a couple nicely-dressed miniatures outside the door and a slightly-larger-than-your-scale figure in a suit standing in the door, with some light and perhaps a little pre-recorded jazz music coming from the door. Simple and relatively cheap (a bulb, a mini recorder, and a couple of minis) but it definitely adds some period atmosphere.

[emdgp92]

I remember when the McDonalds' around here lost the arches. You could still see arched versions around Pittsburgh, PA in the late 1970s -early 1980s. They were all gone after that.

[Jetrock]

In North Sacramento there is a "retro-McDonald's"--it was built only a few years ago but was designed to resemble the old classic McDonald's with the arches.

Speaking of which, it's perfectly appropriate to model a 50's diner on a modern layout--there are enough of them out there--and Walthers does that lovely Mel's Diner model that fits the role to a "T"--just populate it with the members of the local hot-rod car club

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Jetrock

In North Sacramento there is a "retro-McDonald's"--it was built only a few years ago but was designed to resemble the old classic McDonald's with the arches.

Speaking of which, it's perfectly appropriate to model a 50's diner on a modern layout--there are enough of them out there--and Walthers does that lovely Mel's Diner model that fits the role to a "T"--just populate it with the members of the local hot-rod car club

We've got a few of the retro's here in So. Fla.

[Anonymous]

Back in the 70's there was a manufacturer who made HO scale retro McDonalds.

Also in southern California we used to have these doughnut stores with a huge doughnut on top of the store. In fact a real doughnut would be about HO scale for the doughnuts that used to be on top of the stores. But then using a real doughnut would be a crummy way to make the model. LOL!

[Anonymous]

On the other side of Pittsburgh from where i live there is a building that houses the Marconi Communications Company.

http://www.pwapgh.com/portfolio/marconi.html

its a rather interesting building...i think its in Cranberry Township (i know there are other pittsburghers on this forum...help me out guys)

[vsmith]

QUOTE: Originally posted by DSchmitt

Giant Orange orange juce stands were once common in California. The juce was sold from a large orange ball shaped building. There were always flat roofed open seating areas nearby so that patrons could sit in the shade.

The was one open in 1962 at the Intersection of Dixon Ave Weat and US Highway 40 (now I-80) The intersection was about 1-mile out of town. The structure was still there until at least the 1980's. I saw one the remains of one from Highway 99 a few years ago, but I don't remember where.

I read somewhere recently about an effort to preserve one, so maybe more info and some pictures will turn up.

I have a great book called "California Crazy" about the vernacular architectural style that developed along road side America. Buildings shaped like ships, tamales, coffee kettles, etc.

My favorite is on the cover, its a two-story eatery made like a sitting Bulldog with a corncob pipe in his mouth (ever see the movie "Rocketeer"). Near me is a shrimp boat perched on the side of the street used as a restaurant called ths Shrimp House (What did you expect?), and Carney's, a fast food joint using old railroad passenger cars.

For modeling porposes how about using a old childs toy coffee or tea kettle as the bases for a roadside diner? Or a small sitting dog figurine kitbashed with some doors and windows? If your modeling anything after 1920 these were very common along the roadsides and towns of America.

[leighant]

I recall Houston in the 1950s used to have independent off-brand gasoline stations with a building in the shape of an old-fashioned oil can.

Like to build more architectural styles than your space or justification allows. Like to build fully-framed board-by-board buildings and disappointed that viewers can't see the inside of the buildings without taking off or leaving off the roof. Build your layout a MOVIE STUDIO BACK LOT with a Western town, a third-world jungle village, an Old European town, a Victorian street and a 1950s version of the future, all jumbled up within a square foot or two. And since the buildings are only false fronts, you get to model the backside framework, struts, supports.

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Railroading_Brit

You could consider modelling some re-worked warehouses now turned into luxury apartments - there's a whole load of these in Bristol (UK), and there's even a small preserved steam railway running over some of the old dockside tracks in connection with an industrial museum. There must be similar things in the US?

I know this is off the topic, but here in Delaware ING re-worked two old RR buildings into office space. 1 was an old B&O stations the other was an old PRR frieght house. Both look great.

http://www.netreach.net/~ggibson/outland/021ING/index%20ING.html

[shawn-118]

Last summer my girlfriend and her sister went on a road trip through Alberta then down through Montania, Idiho, and finaly in to Washington. Along the way they came across a gas station that had a B-52 bomber as the cover over the gas pumps. I'm not sure which state it was in, but thats not something you see everywhere.

[Jetrock]

Actually, if you want to talk about unusual buildings, an airfield would be an interesting choice. An airport would be a little too gargantuan, but if you model a rural area, a single-strip airfield for crop dusters and private planes wouldn't be out of line--if it was set a bit behind the mainline, using a scale smaller than your modeled scale would be a good way to create a sense of forced perspective--either that or have larger scale planes closest to the edge of the layout and smaller scale ones a foot or two back. With some good modeling, this could create the effect of a much deeper area on an otherwise narrow space.

[DSchmitt]

Near Sacramento there was, may still be, a farmer who apparently used the road for a runway. His airplane hanger doors had direct access to the road. There was no runway in sight. The was on one of the levee roads along the river. I don't remember if it was a State Highway or County road.

[krump]

QUOTE: Originally posted by der5997

Fergus: In Spruce Grove and Stony Plain Alberta (both on CN's mainline west out of Edmonton) there are two government of Alberta Liquor stores that were converted into churches in the 1990s.

- in Maple Ridge, BC the old Church building I grew up in, is now a bar / pub / restaurant (the Church continues in a much larger building).
- how about exhibition grounds with rollercoaster, a glass house, a morgue, a straw bale house, an igloo, a YURT[^] ...

have fun building

[Anonymous]

I'll bite and yes I'll probably regret this

What's a YURT?

[der5997]

A Yurt is, I think, a felt tent, sometimes on wheels,[:O] used by nomadic peoples in places like Mongolia.
When you think about it, it would be a reasonably unusual building, especially for the Musquodoboit, Eastern Shore and Sydney RR. [8D] Now, working out how it got there, that's another story.........[:-,]

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by der5997

A Yurt is, I think, a felt tent, sometimes on wheels,[:O] used by nomadic peoples in places like Mongolia.
When you think about it, it would be a reasonably unusual building, especially for the Musquodoboit, Eastern Shore and Sydney RR. [8D] Now, working out how it got there, that's another story.........[:-,]

Guess what. according to my 13yr old who just looked over my shoulder reading this, said....

"you don't know what a YURT is! It's a mongolian.... Geez Dad everyone knows what a Yurt is" Apparently not[V] Yes I regret asking and yes I should of asked him first[:I]

Thanks der5997