Modular building series proportions

[Off the wall]

I just bought my third copy of the Grand Emporium. Because, after all, how can this emporium be 'grand' if its the same size as a Parisian Restaurant or a Fire Brigade? I plan on having seven modulars on one side of a city block backing up to seven others on the other side. My first two GEs comprise one end of this city block and are side by side. I bought the third for the main purpose of adding an additional story to each of the first two. I may buy a fourth just to make it REALLY grand, eh?

Anyway, it seems as if collecting the modulars is one thing. But, building a city based on the modular series with the appropriate proportions is quite another thing.

Ideas? Thoughts?

[Darth Dino]

Hi

well, a double (tripple) GE, or other modular does not fir to the rest if they are single buildings. It became to high or wide. I like the diversity of the different buildings. They do mot have to be huge. If you want the GE to be big, put the PS in halves next to it.

Dino

[F0NIX]

Well, my opinion is that the GE looks better when it is larger. So adding a few floors or making a mod with a straight building or maybe a combination?

Just look at this : http://brikkelauget.no/diskusjon/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=1705 (the comments is in Norwegian only since it is on the Norwegian LUG forum).

Other buildings also looks good in large format, like Cafe Corner, Fire Brigade and Town Hall.

That is the nice things about those modular buildings, you can modify them by just adding a floor or two.

I have two of the Palace Cinema and modified both of them. One are built mirrored, and I have removed the wall between them and removed one staircase. That is possible to do with just the parts in those two sets. But I did some more refinements too them. I will make a post of the modification when I have taken some pictures of the buildings, and show what other modifications I have made.

[Off the wall]

I guess what I meant is that a grand emporium is going to be a heck of a lot larger than a pet store, at least in real life. Or a Parisian Restaurant. I suppose its a personal preference between wanting the city to remain as designed by lego or modifying it to reflect the idiosyncrasies and differences that one would find in a real city. And, since we've been down that road before, maybe my post is moot.

PS..thanks,F0NIX, I didn't see your post until I responded to the other post. You understand!

Edited October 13, 2013 by Off the wall

[Pop Bumper Pete]

I understand what you are trying to do

But a Lego building is meant to represent a real building, not be a scale model

I would love to have a realistic railway station, but it would need to be over 3 meters long, not counting the associatedshunting yards

[TheBear]

You will never be able to make it a realistic size, since it appears to be based on Harrods which is this big:

For me, the issue with the Grand Emporium is that there is not enough space inside to fit much of a shop. It doesn't help that the escalators take up so much of the floor space. I would think about what you want to put inside and how big an interior you want and then make the building big enough to accommodate that.

[Off the wall]

Maybe you don't. I just want the buildings on my modular street to bear some reasonable proportionality to each other. Not necessarily to vehicles, minifigs or anything else. I'm comparing building to building, apples to apples. If you are comparing a lego train station to a lego train, that is apples to oranges. A grand emporium would be larger than a Parisian restaurant. And, making it so would not take up an unreasonable amount of space.

And I have no interest in making an exact model of what the lego building is based upon. But, buildings are different sizes depending on their function. You will seldom see a car dealership as large as a basketball/hockey arena.

And, I don't expect an exact proportionality. Just that a truly grand emporium would be larger than a pet shop. Not asking lego to do that, but I think if I'm building my own, I need to take that in consideration.

Edited October 13, 2013 by Off the wall

[alois]

This building in my home town Arnhem doesn't seem to be that much larger. It's not an emporium, but the style and proportion are alike. So give your building another name and it will fit.

[Off the wall]

Okay, I'll return by latest GE purchase and just call what's left a resale/consignment shop. :-)

[Jctriguy]

And, I don't expect an exact proportionality. Just that a truly grand emporium would be larger than a pet shop. Not asking lego to do that, but I think if I'm building my own, I need to take that in consideration.

The GE is way bigger than the Pet Shop. One is 3 floors at full 32x32, the other is one floor at 16x32 (not really full 16 either since the stairs are included in that size).

Make it whatever size you feel is right for you. No rules that say you must keep the modular within the specs that Lego needs in order to sell them. They are all 32x32 and roughly the same height. Lots of people have modded the FB, GE, TH, CC to be taller or wider.

And, lots of places have the same size buildings regardless of the what they contain. Paris is a good example of a city that mostly has 4-5 storey buildings. Some buildings have shops on the first floor and apartments on the next 3-4 floors. Others have larger shops or offices that might take up 2-5 floors. Most older cities have more consistent building heights, newer cities have the really tall and huge buildings.

[Pop Bumper Pete]

Sorry , I was not trying to limit your vision

[Off the wall]

Sorry , I was not trying to limit your vision

Well, even if you were, that's not necessarily a bad thing. :-)

[Pop Bumper Pete]

Well, even if you were, that's not necessarily a bad thing. :-)

Nah, bigger IS better!!!

[Aanchir]

If you DO make the Grand Emporium bigger in terms of its footprint, please take advantage of the opportunity to add an additional set of escalators. Even if there's no functional issue with the set itself, a real building with only one escalator connecting any two floors would have an obvious problem — you could get up or down, but not both!

I think the Grand Emporium is definitely a big enough set to look decent in a modular layout. I've never known a whole lot of buildings that have the same retail store occupy more than three floors, though that may be in part due to the prevalence of shopping malls in the United States during my lifetime. But if you're willing to buy more copies and expand your Grand Emporium, by all means, do so! Just don't go so far that it looks like a skyscraper compared to everything else in the layout!

[Off the wall]

Aanchir....

I stayed at the Haywood hotel in Asheville, NC a couple of weeks ago. It's a four story corner building circa 1923 that was built by a retailer. The first department store was 'Bon Marche' and that changed to Ivey's in the late 30s. Now, it's a wonderful hotel that still announces which floor you are arriving at when you take the elevator. 'Fourth floor, women's wear'. And, in the foyer where the elevator is on the fourth floor, there is a nice display of clothing that they store sold back in the 20s through the 50s'. Ivey's closed in 1975 and the building was subsequently converted to a very nice hotel.

So, with that in mind, my GE will be limited to four floors. It won't tower over everything, but it will be larger than a fire station or a restaurant.

Just as a side note, I've been in 48 of the 50 states here in the USA. You will not find a better place to visit in America than Asheville, NC. I don't live there, but I may retire there. Arts, antiques, the Biltmore and a great place for foodies. Not to mention the beautiful fall foliage.

Sorry for that advertisement.

[LiamM32]

I just bought my third copy of the Grand Emporium. Because, after all, how can this emporium be 'grand' if its the same size as a Parisian Restaurant or a Fire Brigade? I plan on having seven modulars on one side of a city block backing up to seven others on the other side. My first two GEs comprise one end of this city block and are side by side. I bought the third for the main purpose of adding an additional story to each of the first two. I may buy a fourth just to make it REALLY grand, eh?

Anyway, it seems as if collecting the modulars is one thing. But, building a city based on the modular series with the appropriate proportions is quite another thing.

Ideas? Thoughts?

There is a reason for the similarity in size of the sets that you are not mentioning. The Grand Emporium uses all 3 floors for the same shop, and the building takes up a superaverage total floor-space for a modular buildings set. Most of the building in the Parisian Restaurant set is only 24L-wide rather than 32L like most side buildings, and the restaurant itself only takes up 2 of the 3 floors. From my judgement, the Fire Bridgade also seems to be smaller, with 2 instead of 3 floors. The silliest example that you used was the Pet Shop. The actual shop is only 1 of the 3 floors in half the regular width, making it take approximately 1/6 of the Grand Emporium space. Sure the size variation is wider in real life, but minifigure scale appears to be exponential rather than a consistant ratio. The Pet Shop and Grand Emporium are the two modular buildings that I have, so I have seen these ones.

I personally think it sort of silly to get multiples of an already large set to make a bigger model. I might appreciate the extra space to add a 2nd direction for the escalator. I think that bringing it to 4 copies would be to obsessive over useful, but spend your money as you please.

Well, my opinion is that the GE looks better when it is larger. So adding a few floors or making a mod with a straight building or maybe a combination?

Just look at this : http://brikkelauget....=3&t=1705��(the comments is in Norwegian only since it is on the Norwegian LUG forum).

Other buildings also looks good in large format, like Cafe Corner, Fire Brigade and Town Hall.

That is the nice things about those modular buildings, you can modify them by just adding a floor or two.

Seeing the image that you linked to, some people are just far too obssessed with making their models big. I have to disagree that it looks better. The didn't add much extra detail when they added to the size.

You will never be able to make it a realistic size, since it appears to be based on Harrods which is this big:

For me, the issue with the Grand Emporium is that there is not enough space inside to fit much of a shop. It doesn't help that the escalators take up so much of the floor space. I would think about what you want to put inside and how big an interior you want and then make the building big enough to accommodate that.

I went to Harrod's in London on my first European trip this summer. But even though that store in particular is the most similar-looking, it's a terrible example of a "realistic size". I have always lived in a North American city of 1.6 million, but I would have difficulty believing if anyone told me that Horrod's is standard-sized for a European department store. Maybe the wanted GE to be based on the most famous shop for recognizability, but shrunk it to a smaller-sized department shop.

If you DO make the Grand Emporium bigger in terms of its footprint, please take advantage of the opportunity to add an additional set of escalators. Even if there's no functional issue with the set itself, a real building with only one escalator connecting any two floors would have an obvious problem — you could get up or down, but not both!

I think the Grand Emporium is definitely a big enough set to look decent in a modular layout. I've never known a whole lot of buildings that have the same retail store occupy more than three floors, though that may be in part due to the prevalence of shopping malls in the United States during my lifetime. But if you're willing to buy more copies and expand your Grand Emporium, by all means, do so! Just don't go so far that it looks like a skyscraper compared to everything else in the layout!

I certainly agree about the escalators. That was a design flaw that I myself noticed when I was pictures of the set. The possible explanation that I could think of is that the escalator alternates directions, but that idea is too unusual to assume that we're expected to think of it as that. I have this set now, partially built.

I also really agree with the second paragraph. I like the more realistic scale of Modular Buildings over most other sets, but I wouldn't want to go any further than that. This is partially because of my lower budget; But after I have a good-enough sized department store, I would much rather spend my money on developing other features of the town.

[timmyc1983]

I agree with 'Jctriguy', if you look at the modulars I think they are all pretty well proportioned to each other. The GE, FB, PC and TH all take up the full 32 x 32 and in real life these would all be big buildings, certainly in Australia they are anyway. All the other modulars are first floor only with retail (even the Parisian Restaurant is mainly 1st floor retail only, aside from the deck upstairs) whereas all the 'bigger' buildings are two or three stories.....

Having said that, I think the GE does lend itself to further stories and looks great with them added, but I agree with Aanchir, I think you only need to add one or two stories before it gets too much and would look way too big...

[Off the wall]

If 'silly' is the best you've got, guess I'll have to buy a couple more copies of GE.

[roamingstop]

Fortnum and Masons in London would be a good example of a great department store on a small scale

[TheBear]

Fortnum and Masons in London would be a good example of a great department store on a small scale

It might be small by department store standards, but it is still 80 studs wide and 7 stories high.

[melbs]

to each his own, just build the damn thing and show it off here

[fhomess]

The escalator in GE is temporarily stairs as the very small sign indicates:

Escalator Temporarily Stairs. Sorry for the convenience. We apologize for the fact that you can still get up there.

Edited October 14, 2013 by fhomess

[Jctriguy]

If 'silly' is the best you've got, guess I'll have to buy a couple more copies of GE.

If you ask for opinions on an online forum, don't shoot people when they give them.

Be sure to post your finished street.

[arator]

I never used a ruler next to my lego, but i thought a 32x32 baseplate is like 10" x 10" or 25,5cm x 25.5cm. Just think of space it uses when you build a 3xGE or 4xGE. On that space I could build alot of other stuff