Dakar A

[MOC] Purple Pharmacist

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27431560213_cb4ef3e2d2_b.jpgPurple Pharmacist by Duncan Adkins, on Flickr

What makes something a 'dark ages'? Is it just any time you take away from the hobby, or is it something that's up to the interpretation of the MOCer? Regardless, it seems like it's one of those things where you know it when you see it. And with that overwrought musing over, I'd like to jump back into this great old hobby headfirst with this MOC here, the Purple Pharmacist!

27431770034_b16c37d750_b.jpgPurple Pharmacist Sketch by Duncan Adkins, on Flickr

Designed in the vein of the official modular buildings, and with a careful adherence to not go crazy with the unlimited pieces and unlimited space offered by LDD, this is a 2553 piece homage to the official sets. My process for designing started with a nascent idea that I wanted to try out some of the new purple pieces in the Friends sets- particularly Lavender. However, I found out that it is very limited in the number of pieces it comes in when those pieces are to be applied to a modular, and I thought that Medium Lilac meshed much better with the nougat of the brick bricks that I ended up wanting to use. Plus there are 1x2x3 windows in medium lilac/purple! With the simple idea that I wanted to use purple in mind, I delved into books, sketch paper, and Google image searches in order to put together a mood board of what types of architecture I'd like to pull from, as well as what colors I'd want to use. Then I came upon this:

800px-Over-the-Rhine-12th-and-Vine.jpg

This italianate building in Cincinnati, Ohio's Over-the-Rhine district was almost exactly what I was imagining I wanted my building to look like. With all that in mind and planning finished, I built! Some of the trends from the modular buildings I took into account with my build were liberal use of striping, a primarily grey first floor facade, unique but meaningful color blocking, and a façade that is intricate in design, but not 'busy'. The ivy on the front was one big part of the 'intricate but not busy' paradigm- it added a lot of interest to the front and differentiated the top and middle floors, while not looking out of place and not clashing with the rest of the build.

27943149172_a0c47c9bb3_b.jpgPurple Pharmacist by Duncan Adkins, on Flickr

Outside of the façade I took some liberties though! I wanted to include a pergola in a build ever since seeing woooootles' Wasabi District Avenue Residences, so I did! Outside of that, the rear was mostly bland, as there will likely be little attention paid to it if this ever gets built. ;P

27431559523_196947a66d_b.jpgPurple Pharmacist Rear by Duncan Adkins, on Flickr

27431772344_f0717fdea9_b.jpgPurple Pharmacist roof by Duncan Adkins, on Flickr

The way I designed the building posed a problem though- since I designed the façade before building out the rest of the building, all the way to the top, I had a design that I liked a lot, but it severely limited my options when adding the breakapart functionality of a classic modular building. It wasn't too bad between the ground floor and middle floor, or middle floor and top floor, but the relatively complicated and fragile structure of the cornice would have prevented adding in another plate layer. So I had to get creative- instead of popping off, the roof slides out! The rear wall and two outcroppings with tiles at the front hold the roof plates up, while the chimney actually serves as a 'clip' to hold the entire superstructure on! It works out perfectly, since the roof can be built entirely out of 4x10 dark grey plates.

27793956850_3f1105c016_b.jpgPurple Pharmacist Interior by Duncan Adkins, on Flickr

Since I was trying to stay true to a limited part count for this one, only the first floor has a completed interior- but it's a fully stocked pharmacy with multiple shelves, a scale, a fancy curved desk for the pharmacist, and newspaper rack to sell people on while they wait for their prescription! On the residential side of the stairs, there is a bike rack and a hat rack, as well as the door out to the back patio.

Unfortunately, it will be some time before this MOC has a chance of seeing the light of day. The 1x4/2x4 medium lilac slopes that are integral to the gable do not exist in any usable variety, and so construction is going to be held off until that piece...exists. Which is why I posted it here as only renders and screenshots instead of glorious full color photographs. In the mean time, you can look forward to my Police Headquarters MOC, which will be posted and explained in detail as soon as it's built! Constructive criticism welcome; it's good to be back!

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I really like this build. Not overstated and proportioned well. I really like the use of glass above the awning.

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Well, I thought that first reference picture looked familiar, it's my neighborhood. Very nice build, I can see your influences, and I think you did a good job with our... eclectic colors.

Always happy to see Cincy get some architectural awareness!

Edited by TheWarden

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Well, I thought that first reference picture looked familiar, it's my neighborhood. Very nice build, I can see your influences, and I think you did a good job with our... eclectic colors.

Always happy to see Cincy get some architectural awareness!

Wow, that's awesome! I actually have family in Cincy, but I've never been to the Over-the-Rhine area when visiting them. However, now that I've made this, I sorta have to!

I really like this build. Not overstated and proportioned well. I really like the use of glass above the awning.

Thank you! The awning was actually sort of a happy accident- in the reference building, there was the second, smaller level of windows, but when I had it all accurately mocked up in LDD, it looked too plain- so I added the awning in about the only place I could. But I agree, I really like how it turned out!

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Very nicely carried out! I love the seating in the back.

Thanks! I was trying to emulate the typical weatherproof, yet classy patio furniture you see in home and garden catalogs. I think it came out well in that regard.

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A very classy MOC! I love your colors and details. Glad to hear the original is still standing in Cincy.

In the US there is a sad tendency to build with "short nails," which can mean that buildings have very short lives, especially out west. Leaving us with a bunch of falling down junk and eye sores. It is refreshing to visit a place with a significant number of well designed old buildings that are not falling down. Your MOC represents these kinds of buildings.

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A very classy MOC! I love your colors and details. Glad to hear the original is still standing in Cincy.

In the US there is a sad tendency to build with "short nails," which can mean that buildings have very short lives, especially out west. Leaving us with a bunch of falling down junk and eye sores. It is refreshing to visit a place with a significant number of well designed old buildings that are not falling down. Your MOC represents these kinds of buildings.

It's actually interesting the history of that area- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Over-the-Rhine. It's really pretty architecturally right now, but that's mostly a product of gentrification. So it has a bit of a tainted backstory, which I think is really interesting.

Really nice modular :classic:

Thank you so much!

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