Macquarie House

 
3D Warehouse Model

A fine freestanding Georgian simplified classical style warehouse constructed in 1829-30 and a rare survivor of its type. The building is an invaluable townscape element. Historically significant for its associations with the prominent merchant Henry Reed, for whom it was built, and with Batman and Fawkner, who reputedly requisitioned stores here for journeys across Bass Strait which led to the settlement of Melbourne.

See Also
Australian Heritage Database (Place ID 12206)

Statistics
Edges: 532
Faces: 220
Materials: 8
Size: 600 kb
Time: 2hrs

This is the first model I’ve uploaded that is a replacement for a model already on 3dwarehouse.  The original model had terrain embedded in the model which covered a couple of city blocks and caused z-fighting when rendering.  It was also the incorrect scale, being 50% taller than the actual building.  Since it’s been a year and the original author has not fixed these issues, I decided to recreate it.

 

Customs House

3D Warehouse Model

Customs House was built in 1885 and is listed on the Tasmanian Heritage Register (#4202).  The scale and grandeur of the building reflects the importance of the port functions of early Launceston. Sadly, today the wharves which were contiguous with this building are gone and a very necessary levee bank visually divorces the building from its immediate riverside setting.  This building once housed what was thought to be the most important of government functions and currently contains the offices for Customs and Border Protection in Launceston.

See Also
Australian Heritage Database (Place ID 12169)

Statistics
Edges: 2258
Faces: 905
Materials: 9
Size: 1 mb
Time: 5hrs

This was a good building to model – not too complicated but still rich with features.  Most notable is the large columns at the front of the building and the transparent texture which makes up the parapet.  Getting a clean texture of the front door and windows without the columns required a bit of texture work but it pays off with the end result.

 

Launceston Post Office

 
3D Warehouse Model

Launceston General Post Office, dating from 1889, is historically highly significant. Built as the main post office for Launceston, it has fulfilled this role over a lengthy period, being the central point in the city for a wide range of services which have evolved over the decades. Following Federation, postal services were taken over by the Commonwealth, and post offices were one representation to the general public of the new federal system of government. The GPO has a long and strong association with the development of Launceston and particularly the central business district.

The Launceston General Post Office has undergone changes but is predominantly intact following alterations made to the original design early in the twentieth century, in the 1930s and later. The first floor of the building has been substantially refurbished and partitioned to provide office space. Works were completed in 1998 which also included a business centre and a cafe being incorporated into the building (2001).

See Also
Australian Heritage Database (Place ID 12171)

Statistics
Edges: 2893
Faces: 1206
Materials: 30
Size: 1 mb
Time: weeks…

You can judge me by this model alone.  I’ve spent the last few months on and off with this model.  It’s a little more detailed than necessary however it’s a very important building in Launceston being the General Post Office and all.  The roof satellite image is a little low res but there’s enough (insane) roofing there to give it some shape.  If you’re making buildings nearby, use this as a guide; I built it with the LIDAR data so the elevations should be spot on.  Enjoy! :)

 

Pilgrim Uniting Church

 
3D Warehouse Model

The people of Pilgrim meet in an historic building (1866) that has been extensively refurbished. In 1982 three of the city congregations, that had become part of the Uniting Church in 1977, decided to form one congregation in the city centre. The Paterson Street Methodist building was chosen as the site for this new congregation, embarking on a pilgrimage into the future, hence Pilgrim Uniting Church.

See Also
http://www.pilgrimlaunceston.org.au/

Statistics
Edges: 1637
Faces: 622
Materials: 13
Size: 559 kb
Time: 12+hrs

Another iconic building in Launceston’s skyline is the Pilgrim Uniting Church.  With its tall spire reaching as high as any other building in Launceston (I think).  This one took an hour or so to get the rough shape and I thought it would be pretty quick to finish off.  However the photos I took had a lot of cars and street furniture in the way which meant tedious image manipulation to rub it all out.  Then I decided to do the forecourt with the gate and fence aswell which requires transparent textures.  Lesson learnt with this model: take pictures with the least amount of visual noise as you can.

 

Utas Launceston – School of Computing and Information Systems

 
3D Warehouse Model

The School of Computing and Information Systems (CIS) is part of the University of Tasmania. CIS consists of approximately 40 staff and 2200 students. Staff and students have access to the latest technology across 10 computer labs. CIS is also home to HIT Lab AU.

See Also
http://www.utas.edu.au/
http://www.cis.utas.edu.au/
http://www.hitlab.utas.edu.au/

Statistics
Edges: 819
Faces: 301
Materials: 15
Size: 304 kb

I wanted to see if I could model a building using only photos from my phone’s camera.  Short answer is yes, but there was lots of stitching involved and the colours in each photo varied greatly.  I highly recommend not using your phone camera to make Google Earth buildings. 

The interesting part of this building was the shade sail outside the labs.  This was created with a 3 segment arc from the wall to the far lower pole to create the main backbone.  Then it was a matter of connect the dots making a number of triangles for the sail (from post-to-post and post-to-backbone).  When that was done I made arcs along the outer edges to give a stretched sail look.  Last job was to Ctrl+Erase the lines from the inside of the sail, creating smoothed faces rather than facets.

 

Kings Bridge


3D Warehouse Model

Kings Bridge was originally a single lane metal arch that connected Launceston with the West Tamar region. The first span was completed in 1864, fabricated in Manchester, England, and transported to Launceston, assembled on a pontoon, floated into position and then lowered on to its abutments on the receding tide. The single lane bridge was a large civil project for a small colonial town.

Forty years later, in 1904, a duplicate adjacent span, fabricated by Salisbury’s foundry in Launceston, was similarly erected and floated into position. Today it is difficult to imagine it was completed this way, as the second half was so faithfully copied. The give away signs are just that: a plaque on either side giving credit to their origins. The designer of the first span was William Thomas Doyne, (1823-1877), a civil engineer born in Ireland.

At the request of the West Tamar Road Trust, Doyne designed the elegant bridge to cross the South Esk at Launceston. It was described as a wrought-iron arch spanning 190 feet, its parts were made in Manchester and shipped from London in 1863.

Kings Bridge was officially opened on 4 February 1864 and cost £12,000.

Statistics
Edges: 948
Faces: 424
Materials: 12
Size: 641 kb

I saw Sydney Harbour Bridge by ilesoft and was amazed at the quality so I decided to try a bridge closer to home.  Using the same ideas as ilesoft I created some transparent PNG textures to describe the arches.  This kept the geometry simple but pushed the filesize up unfortunately.

 

Myer Building

 
3D Warehouse Model

The Myer building is one of the tallest buildings in Launceston. It is situated in the Brisbane St Mall.

See Also
http://www.myer.com.au/

Statistics
Edges: 1375
Faces: 598
Materials: 27
Size: 210 kb

I’ve never noticed the shape of the Myer building until now.  It has the main structure that you recognise from all over town, but this winding lower half sprawls out into the Paterson St carpark.  This building wasn’t too hard to create; there were just a lot of textures to get due to its sprawling nature.  It was quite hard to get the height right and I’m not sure it’s even correct.  I know the rear is correct because it was aligned with the Launceston City Council data (the grey buildings).  Going by the skylines of Launceston, I think it should be about right…

 

Telstra Exchange

3D Warehouse Model

Built in the 1960/70′s, the Telstra Exchange is one of the tallest buildings in Launceston. It contains equipment for both telephone and broadband networks including seperate hardware for Internode ADSL2+ services.

Statistics
Edges: 266
Faces: 96
Materials: 5
Size: 135 kb
Time: 3hrs

Took a little longer than expected because I couldn’t get clean shots of all 4 sides.  So there was a bit more touching up with the texturing than I thought.

 

John Hart Conservatory

 
3D Warehouse Model

Erected by the Launceston Corporation from the John Hart Bequest A.D. 1932. Refurbished in 2010 as a joint project between Launceston City Council and the Federal Government through the Regional Local Community Infrastructure Program.

Statistics
Edges: 1383
Faces: 422
Materials: 6
Size: 92 kb
Time: 1hr

The face count is a little high for such a simple structure.  This is due to the curved stairs (which have been completely modelled in 3D), the recessed windows with curved frames, and the ends of the building with the curved roofline.  The windows and stairs could have been simplified to reduce the face count by 80%.  However the building sits on its own in City Park and there won’t be a lot of other geometry on screen when this building is seen.

 

Henty House

3D Warehouse Model

Henty House was built in 1983 and currently contains Government Offices. The building is a prime example of the Brutalist style of architecture. There is an equal chance the building will be demolished in the near future or put on the heritage register. These two extremes represent the commonly held community opinion.

See Also
Art Deco & Modernism Architecture Tasmania – Henty House

Statistics
Edges: 1213
Faces: 474
Materials: 18
Size: 329 kb
Time: 9hrs

I wouldn’t call this building good or bad, just fascinating.  After creating this building in 3D I gained a lot more appreciation for its style.  It might not necessarily work in Launceston (I’m not sure where it would work…) but it’s quite interesting none-the-less.

To model this I flattened a texture of the side of the building onto a box and drew from the image, slowly carving out the levels to get the iconic shape.  From there I worked down to the 1st floor balcony and footprint profile.