MINIATURE ARCHITECTURE.

I have a collection of small metal souvenir buildings, and only ones that I have seen for real, except for the Trylon and Perisphere (the centerpiece of the 1939 New York World’s Fair). For more detailed information on all this, please contact my therapist.

These little architectural caricatures sit on a shelf in my studio, and they‘ve influenced the way that I draw landmarks on maps. I’m trying to capture the key elements of the structures, and a strict aerial view is often not the best way to convey the feeling of a building, especially at a small size. There’s nothing original about this thinking, pictorial map-makers have been doing this kind of thing for a very long time. My two posts about Bollmann Maps showed the work of their illustrated map craftsmen.
https://wp.me/p7LiLW-Ak
https://wp.me/p7LiLW-X8

I clearly am not in the elevated category of Bollmann, as my maps have buildings that are closer to pictograms than they are to architectural renderings. Here are some examples of the metal buildings’ effect on my projects.

There are plenty of interesting buildings to draw in Rotterdam.

A detail.

The landmarks of Paris. My Eiffel Tower model came in handy here.

Post-2001 plans for Lower Manhattan. This and the previous two maps are from Condé Nast Traveler.

Jogging around Chicago.

And around Tokyo. Both maps are from Runner’s World.