MOD: Cafe Corner 10182 Straight

[mtMOClug]

The Cafe Corner is the undisputed classic of all the modular buildings. Every City AFOL should have one... the down side to this is that every club has at least 3. Which is a bonus if you want to make multiple floors of the Hotel as a group. I'm all for colaborations... they're a whole lot of fun. That being said, since the Cafe Corner has been around for a while... it was time to make some modifications. You'll soon figure out, I modify practically every official LEGO set... if I don't the parts get farmed. Anyway... on to the Cafe!

As you can appreciate, this modification took considerable effort and time. I started at the ground floor and worked upwards. Originally, I had flattened the building and had it sitting on a 32x32 baseplate. Although it looked okay, one of the club members pointed out that it lost a significant amount of detail. (Pic if interested) I came to the realization I was simply being lazy not wanting to dig into the brick farm and not giving the Cafe Corner the respect and time needed - I was trying to cut corners.

The mod quickly moved onto a 32x48... and got very interesting. Finding just the right balance for the ground floor windows and doorways took some experimentation. The ground floor was built and rebuilt 4 times. Next step was the 2nd floor. This again presented its own challenge in terms of brick/window spacing and where to blend the corner feature of the original Corner Cafe set into the flat version. WIP 2nd Floor

After moving the window feature to the left end of the building, it was onwards and upwards to the 3rd floor. The biggest challenge here was getting the colour scheme correct around the flat corner feature over the hotel entrance. I wanted to add a little more 'meat' above the windows as well. Replacing the windows, and adding the dark red curved slopes filled in the gaps nicely. You may notice I'm lacking a dark grey frog... there's been an extra window added. I'll pick one up off of Bricklink someday.

The roofline was finished off... and the HOTEL sign added. I do realize the original sign is recognized as being a classic step forward for TLG into the world of SNOT. But for me personally, it drove me crazy that the sign lettering was backwards when viewed from the opposite side... and became even more obvious when the building was inserted into my layout. A roof sign was my solution, and also fit close to the time period for the style of building.

A couple final notes. Since the building is primairly for public club displays, it is no longer modular... for ease of transportation and storage. The interior will not be completed... only the first few studs on the ground floor inside the windows to add some window dressing. If you attempt to straighten your Cafe Corner... you're going to need a lot of filler bricks for the back walls.

Edited July 8, 2009 by mtMOClug

[samthelegoman1]

Looks nice!

[BlueBard]

A wonderful MOD of a great set!

I specially like how you MODed it keeping the 10182 design, like if it had been separated in many modules. A really nice job

[prateek]

I saw this on Brickshelf a few days ago. It looks good. But just one question, how many 10182's did you have to buy to make this?

[mtMOClug]

Thank you for the encouragement everyone!

I saw this on Brickshelf a few days ago. It looks good. But just one question, how many 10182's did you have to buy to make this?

Believe it or not... I bought only one set... I should have bought two and added another brown storey. My parts farm is of a size and variety that I have most everything I need to complete a mod. At first estimate, I figured I had put 700 more bricks and elements into the MOD. However, I think that guesstimate may be a little high considering there were also some elements left over from the original set. Sorry I didn't keep track of exactly how many... I realized my oversight after the parts were sorted back into the brick farm. I'd have to say a total of 400-450 extra bricks/elements were added to the build, and that would include subtracting the leftover parts.

Edited July 8, 2009 by mtMOClug

[Tom Bricks]

I like what you did at the top of the windows on the 3rd floor and the new sign. I think it would look better if the tower was in the center though.

[Commodore Hornbricker]

You are right this is one of my favorite sets! Nice MOD. I really like the double doors and the entry way on the main floor. Nice job!

[Holodoc]

Nice Mod. Just the idea is cool!

But it lacks some alternation on the upper floors. It all looks too repetitive. Maybe if you place the tower in the middle of the building?

The hotel sign is a great addition.

[mtMOClug]

Ah yes... placing the tower in the centre. Trust me, this was agonizing. I don't have the pics to show you, but I did attempt placing the tower section over the Cafe entrance. It ended up looking more like a twisted school house. I thought long and hard about what to do with this feature. I started thinking more in terms real world engineering and architecture while trying to find a solution to the tower.

If the tower was truly made of stone, that weight would have to be carried by the stonework under it on the 3rd floor, and consequently the heavier stonework of the 3rd floor would have to be supported by the 2nd floor, etc. right down to the ground floor. The Cafe entrance does not have the extra stonework. At the Hotel entrance/lobby is the staircase - a grand staircase if you will - which typically would be winding its way up through all 3 floors. This area in the building would demand more light... for the time period of the building - more windows. The tower on this mod has larger windows because of the stud count required to fit the rest of the repetive windows and arches into the design, and balance the numbers of windows on the third floor over the number of windows on the second floor. There are 5 windows on the 3rd floor, over 10 windows on the 2nd... all perfectly aligned. The tower windows provide the light for the grand staircase.

Also, since I removed the SNOT HOTEL sign, fitting the new HOTEL sign onto the roof would have been another whole challenge which would have created an imbalance if placed either to the left or right of a centred tower.

In the end, moving the tower over the Hotel entrance was a comprimise... but also from a structural point of view, almost necessary. I walked away from this build many manytimes trying to figure out a solution. Another thought was, since the building is now straight, is the main feature of the building the Hotel or the Cafe? I leaned more towards the Hotel overall when viewing it from a distance. At street level, the Cafe would dominate to entice the wandering minifigs for a little nourishment.

When the building itself is put into my layout, to the left of it is a 16x32 building 3 storey building, and then Green Grocer (sorry, no pics yet). In anticipation of the tower of Green Grocer and Cafe Corner having side-by-side towers, I built Green Grocer mirrored... the tower/turret is on the left. To the right of Cafe Corner is modified Market Street (will post pics in a bit). At some point, I really should get a pic of all these buildings together.

I truly appreciate your comments, they always make me re-think of the possibility of solution or approaching the build from a different direction.

[Sandy]

Great work! You obviously put a whole lot of thought into this process, and it came out superbly.

Nevertheless, now that you've straightened up the Café Corner, you should make the other two modular houses into corners.