Some Models from the Last Month

Second Empire

http://www.davidleventi.com/portfolio/new-york/4/

http://picturesqueitalianatearchitecture.blogspot.com/

http://architectura.cesr.univ-tours.fr/Traite/Notice/Vignole1583.asp?param=en

Manufacturers of stuff....
www.balmer.com

Great photos of Italianate cornices....Some good references.....

http://blog.classicist.org/?p=632

http://brooklynheightsblog.com/archives/28100

http://imgarcade.com/1/cornice-architecture/


A Bing search for "Drawings of Cornices"
"Column Capital Architecture"
"319 Designs for Cornices"

http://www.metmuseum.org/collection/the-collection-online/search/362576

http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=did;cc=did;rgn=main;view=text;idno=did2222.0001.607

https://www.behance.net/gallery/Work-in-Practice-Passivhaus-Renovation-Brooklyn-NY/5458503

http://www.architecturalmolded.com/index.html

There is no standard New York City lot size. However, in much of the older parts of the city, i.e., those originally built up in the 19th, especially the later 19th century, building lots tended to have widths in the range of 15-25 feet and depths of about 100 feet (half the short dimension of a rectangular block). The average improved (built-on) lot was about 20 feet wide; unimproved lots were frequently multiples of 25 feet in width, and then subdivided by the developer. This be seen clearly in the case of Manhattan, where a 100 foot wide unimproved lot might end up as six improved lots each 16 feet 8 inches wide. Today the average building lot on the island of Manhattan is about 60 feet wide though the range of widths is even greater than it was in the 19th century. There were nominally some 141,000 25 x 100 foot lots on the island of Manhattan not long after the Civil War; the peak number actually surveyed for sale and improvement was perhaps 125,000 around 1890; the number actually built on closer 105,000 - but the statistics are complicated by the fact that even as new lots were being added to stock at the northern end of the island, older ones were being combined downtown, thus reducing the total number. Today there are some 42,600 building lots on the island of Manhattan, and some 809,000 in the city as a whole. (Note that the number of buildings lots is less than the total number of all blocks, which includes open spaces, vacant land, parking faciities, etc.) 

Bricks and Brownstones by Charles Lockwood.


http://mass.historicbuildingsct.com/?cat=56


http://images.lib.ncsu.edu/luna/servlet/view/all/what/Elevations/Second%20Empire?os=0&pgs=50 

Odell House Concord NC

http://d.lib.ncsu.edu/collections/catalog?f[work_facet][]=Odell%2C+John+Milton+House+%28Concord%2C+N.C.%29

Great blogspot.

http://victorianhouseplans.blogspot.com/search/label/victorian%20houseplan

 Paramount Studio's link to their backlots.....

http://www.paramountstudios.com/stages-backlots/backlots/brownstone-set.html

Building Survey.....used this one before...Has the Carey Building....

http://www.buildingsurvey.net/drawings.html

NYT Article on the architect


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._E._R._Carpenter

Brooklyn Bridge

Found a wonderful image with fairly clear dimensions this morning.

This gave me fairly definite numbers for the base. The second tier above the base starts at 19'6 above the waterline.

Brooklyn Bridge

Blueprints lie.

Having established the top and bottom points of the arches, let the midpoint of the arches begin at 24'10.5" from the midpoint. This is not a known distance but fairly matches the blueprint.
Then the width of each arch should be offset 16'10.5" from the midpoint of the arches. This is a known distance from the blueprint.
This creates a 16' middle column(between the arches). This is not a known dimension.
This also creates 28'3" maximum outer column width on the upper portion of the bridge. This is not a known dimension, but looks like a good number.

The circles that will create the arches are specified to be 46' diameter intersecting (at least) at the peak of the arches. I created the leftmost circle using the 3pt method and determined I would have to make its center Y at 201'8.75", up from the 201'4" working baseline of the arch base. This let me extrapolate all other circles using linear dimensioning to line them up.
This meant I would have to create 4.75" lines from the baseline to lower intersection of the circles to create a seamless arch.
(Oh heck, I just left them alone...)

Soooo.
I got the tolerance to 1/16". Not bad for Sunday night after a long weekend.
Not sure how or if to fix it...
Anyways, it's late now and that's enough work for one week. At least I got a few things right.
That's one thing about drafting. You can always fix things later.

The Colosseum in Rome

Unlike earlier Greek theatres that were built into hillsides, the Colosseum is an entirely free-standing structure. It derives its basic exterior and interior architecture from that of two Roman theatres back to back. It is elliptical in plan and is 189 meters (615 ft / 640 Roman feet) long, and 156 meters (510 ft / 528 Roman feet) wide, with a base area of 6 acres (24,000 m²). The height of the outer wall is 48 meters (157 ft / 165 Roman feet). The perimeter originally measured 545 meters (1,788 ft / 1,835 Roman feet). The central arena is an oval 87 m (287 ft) long and 55 m (180 ft) wide, surrounded by a wall 5 m (15 ft) high, above which rose tiers of seating.

The Brooklyn Bridge Manhattan elevation is 276.5' x 140' x 59'
 

Roman Theatre

So I created items O and P  and flew them into blender.
Then I did a boolean on the step and stair units with a cube I created to delineate the part I needed to erase. This created a lot of unneeded faces on the resulting object, but it erased the parts of the steps and stairs that needed to go away.

I thought it was gonna be harder. I thought I might have to go back and edit each stair and step element in Draftsight. That would have been a major pain.

Now on to step 6. The length of the "scaena" ought to be double the diameter of the orchestra.

Double the orchestra is 160'. Cool, got that done earlier. Element 88_scaena, I edited it and closed the thing to box.
The stage height is already set at 5'.

The height of the podium, starting from the level of the stage, is, including the corona and cymatium, one twelfth of the diameter of the orchestra.
The diameter of the orchestra is 80'
Therefore the height will be 80" (oddly enough the height of the average door)

Above the podium, the columns, including their capitals and bases, should have a height of one quarter of the same diameter, and the architraves and ornaments of the columns should be one fifth of their height.
This refers back to this drawing...

The podium is actually the detail slightly smaller than the door height.
It's the protruding detail that the columns set on.
The 1/4 CD is the columns mentioned above.
That means they are 20', now becoming B (not including the 5' podium)
The architraves and ornaments are marked 1/5 B. (4') Essentially the end of this order, above it starting a new one.

So first I will go back to Draftsight, figure out where all columns should be, give them a rough diameter and see what the look like.

So they will start at 11'8' and go up to 31'8".
They're are eight of them.

Using the basic drawing as template, the scaena is 14.5 cm.
the offsets for the eight columns (from the left side) are 4.15, 4.9, 6, 6.7, 7.8, 8.55, 9.7, 10.45

These extrapolated to imperial are 45.79' 54.069 66.207 73.93 86.07, 94.34,107.03,115.31

45 9 1/2, 54 13/16,66 2 1/2,73 11 3/16, 86 7/8, 94 4, 107 3/8, 115 3 3/4
These will be offsets from the left of the scaena. 

Columns appear to be displaced from the wall 0.2cm or 2' 2 1/2"
 For now make the columns 3' diameter

Made some adjustments to the size of columns....for now.

Time to be done for the day........

Even now you can see how the Roman Theatre, improving on the Greek Theatre, is a vast complex, not just seating for a big stage.



view The parapet above, including its cyma and corona, is one half the height of the parapet below. Let the columns above this parapet be one fourth less in height than the columns below, and the architraves and ornaments of these columns one fifth of their height. If the "scaena" is to have three stories, let the uppermost parapet be half the height of the intermediate one, the columns at the top one fourth less high than the intermediate, and the architraves and coronae of these columns one fifth of their height as before.

Draftsight

Soooo.
After putting the basics of Makehuman and Makewalk working with bvh files in Blender behind me, (I get sidetracked and have to pursue what I have to pursue) and after figuring out how to make Draftsight behave like autocad, that is, drawing on the z axis comfortably (set view to orthographic-left) its time to get back to the Roman theatre project.

After seeing what this free program can do, it's hard to believe anyone would pay for autocad lite.

I started working on this section on Saturday, but I couldn't get the cube I created to do a boolean operation with the existing seating. So I will do it a different way.

---------------------

After solving the issue of how to get the seats and stairs in the orchestra section situated, its time for item 5. Namely the O and P sections of the drawing.

From Vitruvius' Ten Books on Architecture

CHAPTER VI

PLAN OF THE THEATRE

1. The plan of the theatre itself is to be constructed as follows. Having fixed upon the principal centre, draw a line of circumference equivalent to what is to be the perimeter at the bottom, and in it inscribe four equilateral triangles, at equal distances apart and touching the boundary line of the circle, as the astrologers do in a figure of the twelve signs of the zodiac, when they are making computations from the musical harmony of the stars. Taking that one of these triangles whose side is nearest to the scaena, let the front of the scaena be determined by the line where that side cuts off a segment of the circle (A-B), and draw, through the centre, a parallel line (C-D) set off from that position, to separate the platform of the stage from the space of the orchestra.
2. The platform has to be made deeper than that of the Greeks, because all our artists perform on the stage, while the orchestra contains the places reserved for the seats of senators. The height of this platform must be not more than five feet, in order that those who sit in the orchestra may be able to see the performances of all the actors. The sections (cunei) for spectators in the theatre should be so divided, that the angles of the triangles which run about the circumference of the circle may give the direction for the flights of steps between the sections, as far as up to the first curved cross-aisle. Above this, the upper sections are to be laid out, midway between (the lower sections), with alternating passage-ways.
3. The angles at the bottom, which give the directions for the flights of steps, will be seven in number (C, E, F, G, H, I, D); the other five angles will determine the arrangement of the scene: thus, the angle in the middle ought to have the "royal door" (K) opposite to it; the angles to the right and left (L, M) will designate the position of the doors for guest chambers; and the two[147] outermost angles (A, B) will point to the passages in the wings. The steps for the spectators' places, where the seats are arranged, should be not less than a foot and a palm in height, nor more than a foot and six fingers; their depth should be fixed at not more than two and a half feet, nor less than two feet.

the roman theatre according to vitruvius

[148]4. The roof of the colonnade to be built at the top of the rows of seats, should lie level with the top of the "scaena," for the reason that the voice will then rise with equal power until it reaches the highest rows of seats and the roof. If the roof is not so high, in proportion as it is lower, it will check the voice at the point which the sound first reaches.
5. Take one sixth of the diameter of the orchestra between the lowest steps, and let the lower seats at the ends on both sides be cut away to a height of that dimension so as to leave entrances (O, P). At the point where this cutting away occurs, fix the soffits of the passages. Thus their vaulting will be sufficiently high.
[149]6. The length of the "scaena" ought to be double the diameter of the orchestra. The height of the podium, starting from the level of the stage, is, including the corona and cymatium, one twelfth of the diameter of the orchestra. Above the podium, the columns, including their capitals and bases, should have a height of one quarter of the same diameter, and the architraves and ornaments of the columns should be one fifth of their height. The parapet above, including its cyma and corona, is one half the height of the parapet below. Let the columns above this parapet be one fourth less in height than the columns below, and the architraves and ornaments of these columns one fifth of their height. If the "scaena" is to have three stories, let the uppermost parapet be half the height of the intermediate one, the columns at the top one fourth less high than the intermediate, and the architraves and coronae of these columns one fifth of their height as before.

From Durm
the theatre at aspendus

7. It is not possible, however, that in all theatres these rules of symmetry should answer all conditions and purposes, but the[150] architect ought to consider to what extent he must follow the principle of symmetry, and to what extent it may be modified to suit the nature of the site or the size of the work. There are, of course, some things which, for utility's sake, must be made of the same size in a small theatre, and a large one: such as the steps, curved cross-aisles, their parapets, the passages, stairways, stages, tribunals, and any other things which occur that make it necessary to give up symmetry so as not to interfere with utility. Again, if in the course of the work any of the material fall short, such as marble, timber, or anything else that is provided, it will not be amiss to make a slight reduction or addition, provided that it is done without going too far, but with intelligence. This will be possible, if the architect is a man of practical experience and, besides, not destitute of cleverness and skill.
8. The "scaena" itself displays the following scheme. In the centre are double doors decorated like those of a royal palace. At the right and left are the doors of the guest chambers. Beyond are spaces provided for decoration—places that the Greeks call περιἁκτοι, because in these places are triangular pieces of machinery (Δ, Δ) which revolve, each having three decorated faces. When the play is to be changed, or when gods enter to the accompaniment of sudden claps of thunder, these may be revolved and present a face differently decorated. Beyond these places are the projecting wings which afford entrances to the stage, one from the forum, the other from abroad.
9. There are three kinds of scenes, one called the tragic, second, the comic, third, the satyric. Their decorations are different and unlike each other in scheme. Tragic scenes are delineated with columns, pediments, statues, and other objects suited to kings; comic scenes exhibit private dwellings, with balconies and views representing rows of windows, after the manner of ordinary dwellings; satyric scenes are decorated with trees, caverns, mountains, and other rustic objects delineated in landscape style.