29 replies to this topic

[sonicstarlight]

B-OM-1E

Hello all!

I have just finished my second CC-Standard MOC. This creation is based off of the wonderful buildings in the SoHo/Cast Iron historic district in Manhattan, known for their simple details, muted colors, large windows, and street facade fire escapes. In many ways it was a reaction to the Grand Emporium, which would also like right at home in this neighborhood.

The building itself uses only white, light bley, and dark bley, with a couple hints of black on the base and rear facade. All color is a result of the plants and decorations.


Like the Grand Emporium, I have put a skylight on the roof. Keeping with the theme, the sidewalk has a flower on it.


On the rear of the building, there is a small greenhouse on the ground floor with a balcony above.


Detail of the greenhouse (apologies for the glare on some of these shots).


Here is the first floor with the cash register, refrigerators, and entry to the greenhouse.




The second floor features all the garden supplies a minifigure would need. There are hand trolleys, planters, shovels, brooms, a lawnmower (lifted from the Apple Tree House), insecticide, and of course garden gnomes.




Third and final floor has even more flowers, taking advantage of the skylight overhead.




Here is a shot of the florist with my previous building, the "Modular Market Village". I felt that creation was a little too dark so I wanted to make my new building much brighter.


And finally, here it is with the official modulars. It is a bit tall, but I think still fits in quite nicely.



More pictures can by found in my flickr gallery here. Questions and comments are extremely welcome. Thank you for looking!
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[prateek]

Oh wow! This is awesome. I really like the sloped roof the best. I agree that it fits in well with the official ones.  

BTW, Do you still have the first MOC you mdae?

[KielDaMan]

Wow what a lovely creation sonicstarlight! I love the simplistic approach on the overall design of the building, and it still looks very beautiful. The white-grey color scheme really looks clean, and what's more impressive are the interiors and the greenhouse at the back. The small details are amazing, like the 'crawling leaves' (for lack of a better term) on the back wall, the flower bunches in the front, and the gardening tools inside. Very impressive job!

[metalgearsolid]

Great creation! Love the greenhouse and garden gnomes.
Did find the stairs on the outside to be rather distracting tho. Possible to move them inside?

[Svelte]

Lovely work!

I especially love that greenhouse.

[WhiteFang]

Very nicely done. It's so vibrant looking with all of the fresh flowers. hanging at the balcony.  

Thanks for sharing this marvellous creation with us and this is now blogged in,

[sonicstarlight]

Thank you for the kind words KielDaMan and Svelte, and big thanks to WhiteFang for posting this on Classic-Town!

prateek, on 06 September 2010 - 01:18 AM, said:

BTW, Do you still have the first MOC you mdae?

Yes, I can't bring myself to ever take it apart. There are more photos of it with the florist in the flickr link.

metalgearsolid, on 06 September 2010 - 01:47 AM, said:

Great creation! Love the greenhouse and garden gnomes.
Did find the stairs on the outside to be rather distracting tho. Possible to move them inside?

Do you mean the fire escape on the front? These kind of fire escapes are quite common on the cast iron buildings I was using as reference. Green Street in Manhattan is probably the best place for them - there is a nice shot on Wikipedia looking down it.
http://en.wikipedia....reen_Street.jpg

[metalgearsolid]

Oh I see! No such buildings in my part of the world. Great accuracy then! :)

[lightningtiger]

AWESOME and BEAUTIFUL building 'sonicstarlight'   - I like the flowers in the frdiges and the second floor garden centre - excellent exterior too !
Great work and keep on bricking 'sonicstarlight' keep on bricking !

[Cecilie]

Very nice building! And I love the garden gnomes   The greenhouse is also a very nice touch.

Edited by Cecilie, 06 September 2010 - 05:53 AM.

[MetroiD]

Luverly! Especially all the details in the interior - that's a top job right there. 4 floors filled with flowers goodness, that must be any florist's idea of heaven. Btw, I also like the contrast with your last modular, although in my point of view they're a tad bit too "different" to sit alongside each other. Perhaps another modular MOC to sort of connect them there? ;)

[The Yellow Brick]

So many flowers *drools*, This is one Impressive Building,

[Brick & Mortimer]

Very nice MOC! Impressive building  

Cecilie, on 06 September 2010 - 05:53 AM, said:

...And I love the garden gnomes The greenhouse is also a very nice touch.

couldn't agree more!  

[elkapitan]

wow nice moc the details are so nice...wondering around how many pieces in total

[Fires-storm]

Well done, this just about made me cry with joy at the sheer beauty of it! The style, the flowers, the sheer level of detail, well done, and truly keep bricking!

[Lorentzen]

Wow - what a wonderful MOC - I love the fact that it has feature on the front, the back and inside on each of the floors. And I've never seen your other MOC, which I also love very much. You are very skilled indeed :)

[sonicstarlight]

Thank you all for your kind comments  

Cecilie, on 06 September 2010 - 05:53 AM, said:

Very nice building! And I love the garden gnomes  

Those were a last second addition to put something else on my self - literally the last pieces added to the set. They are actually pretty convincing for simple 4 piece builds.

MetroiD, on 06 September 2010 - 10:31 AM, said:

Btw, I also like the contrast with your last modular, although in my point of view they're a tad bit too "different" to sit alongside each other. Perhaps another modular MOC to sort of connect them there? ;)

Yeah, I agree that they don't necessarily go well together side by side. Ideally I would have a commercial street and a residential street, but due to the size of my apartment they are all just wherever I can cram them in most of the time.

I'm already thinking about my next MOC, but I don't yet have anything nailed down in terms of design.

elkapitan, on 07 September 2010 - 03:09 PM, said:

wow nice moc the details are so nice...wondering around how many pieces in total

I wish I knew. Without hesitation I can say it has more pieces than any of the official sets, even excluding the 300+ flowers in it. I can also confirm that it cost me a lot more than an official set, although I did tend to over order parts online in addition to all the pick-a-brick cups I filled in the Lego stores.

[Lego Maniac 101]

AMAZING.  I love the ivy.

[LEGO Guy Bri]

Another fantastic MOC 'ss'. It looks great! Lots to look at, great job on the all the details. Keep up the great work

[LegoDadRobb]

It looks like someone repurposed the city bank as a florist - much happier!

I'd love to see what you could accomplish with a full-fledged greenhouse/atrium lot.

Great details - I especially liked the flower in the sidewalk.

[sonicstarlight]

Nice to see this one find a second wind!

LegoDadRobb, on 10 August 2011 - 01:43 PM, said:

It looks like someone repurposed the city bank as a florist - much happier!

I'd love to see what you could accomplish with a full-fledged greenhouse/atrium lot.

Great details - I especially liked the flower in the sidewalk.

Thanks! I patterned this off of buildings that were traditionally built for industrial uses, but it does have some very bank-like details. It's funny because I actually am in the process of repurposing a bank for a modular (the one from Diagon Alley) so maybe all this economic doom and gloom is subconsciously making me turn all financial institutions into something more cheerful.  

[illord]

The use of flowers to add colours to the building overall scheme is really smart. They add a plus to the entire MOC. Really like it.  

[Norrington]

As a fan of Victorian cast-iron storefronts, I really appreciate this.

I get a sense of architectural blending here--the Greek revival sort of pediment, the first floor (ashlar?) and the sort of columns/posts on the front façade, sort of like a classical arcade.

Very nice!

[sonicstarlight]

Norrington, on 13 August 2011 - 01:48 AM, said:

As a fan of Victorian cast-iron storefronts, I really appreciate this.

I get a sense of architectural blending here--the Greek revival sort of pediment, the first floor (ashlar?) and the sort of columns/posts on the front façade, sort of like a classical arcade.

Very nice!

Thanks! I'm actually thinking about revisiting this one and making some minor adjustments, especially with the pediment - I had originally intended it to be smaller, like the buildings in first few examples here, but I think I was still too inexperienced a builder at the time (not that I have it all figured out now ). I swore that once I photographed one of my buildings that I wouldn't alter it further, but this one needs a little more time in the oven for me.

[Norrington]

sonicstarlight, on 13 August 2011 - 02:52 AM, said:

Thanks! I'm actually thinking about revisiting this one and making some minor adjustments, especially with the pediment - I had originally intended it to be smaller, like the buildings in first few examples here, but I think I was still too inexperienced a builder at the time (not that I have it all figured out now ). I swore that once I photographed one of my buildings that I wouldn't alter it further, but this one needs a little more time in the oven for me.

If you alter the pediment by making it less wide/tall like the example you gave, that will definitely give it a more Italianate type of character (much like the one you posted). I've never seen an Italianate house in white (well, not a stone or cast iron one, anyway), so my concern would be that the color scheme would look odd.

Personally, I'd extend the pediment out more towards the street, making the pediment hang over the cornice by 1/2 or 1 stud, and make it more neo-classical/Greek revival looking.

Like-a-so:


That way it will continue to be a blend of sorts (i.e., with the thinner, single storey columns making up the front arcade, and things like that), but bring out the Neo-classical features in a more dignified fashion, I think.