 |
Modelmaker.com 12390 Metro Pkwy Ste.2 Ft Myers, FL 33966-1313 Phone: 239-225-0550 Fax: 239-225-0551 info@modelmaker.com |
Contact Us |
|
| Topo Tables | |
|
|
| Quail West | |
|
|
| Reflection Lakes | |
|
|
| Marriot | |
|
|
|
|
| Vero Beach | |
|
|
| Site Plans | |
|
|
North Star |
|
The Regatta |
|
The Woodlands |
|
Glenridge |
|
Greenfield Commons |
|
|
|
| NFL Sunday Ticket | |
|
|
| High Rise | |
|
|
| Indian River Bridge | |
Vinoy Place |
|
Condo Hotel |
|
|
|
| II Lugano | |
|
|
| Condo Tower | |
|
|
| Medium Rise | |
2020 |
|
Valencia |
|
Clearwater |
|
|
|
| Low Rise | |
Calypso |
|
Florida Design Communities |
|
Regatta |
|
Beach Front |
|
|
|
| Residences | |
|
|
| Humphrey | |
|
|
| Brown | |
|
|
| Exclusives | |
Water Examples |
|
|
|
| What They're Saying | |
|
|
| Ft. Myers News-Press | |
Delaware Bridge |
|
About Us |
|
|
|
| About the Vinoy Display | |
|
|
| Letters from Clients | |
|
|
|
|
| Home Page | |
|
|
| Links | |
|
|
| The Blue Book of Building and Construction |
Job shift leads to a model life
Ex-weatherman switches career to architecture
By DICK HOGAN
The News-Press
Since Phil Whitelaw left his weatherman job with WINK- TV eight years ago, he's been a model worker.
That's model, as in building architectural models, commissioned by developers or architects to let customers better visualize how a project will look in real life.
Weatherman to modeler is a strange transition, but Whitelaw can remember the first time he thought about it in the early '90s when he was a weathercaster with WINK- TV.
"One day while job-hunting, I turned to a friend, pointed to a picture in that day's paper of Mayor Wilbur Smith holding up a model of the proposed Red Sox stadium. I said 'I wonder if you could make a living doing that."
Less than an hour later, he was doing just that. Word about what he had said got around in a flash and he had his first job: a model of developer Keith Trowbridge's Paddle Creek project.
"I take all this to mean God is good," said Whitelaw, a born-again Christian who believes The Lord helped guide him to the new profession.
It helped that he was gifted with the needed talents and his college degree is in Fine Arts.
Models crucial for planning
Trowbridge, now director of the Sanibel-Captiva Chamber of Commerce, said developers use models because most people don't think three dimensionally.
A model can be pricey, he said, "but if you sell two more units at $500,000 a until, it doesn't take much to pay for it."
He noted that the profession goes back to the days of sailing ships, when half-models were built to help craftsmen construct the vessels.
Whitelaw does most of his work for big commercial and residential developments, increasingly out of town in markets such as St. Petersburg.
But he's called on sometimes to do more exotic projects, such as the elephant retirement home run by Ringling Brothers in Polk County.
He's also working on a "topographical table", a scale model about half the size of a pool table on which all of Florida Gulf Coast University's master plan is laid out.
"It helps laymen understand what we do" said Jack Fenwick, him self an architect, who commissioned the work for about $6,000.
Structures convey reality
Two-dimensional representations can be difficult to understand, he said. "A building's got some height to it, but its just blobs of color on a two-dimensional drawing."
There are numerous tricks of the trade that help a modeler suggest reality, Whitelaw said. On the FGCU model, for example, different colors of shredded sponge appear to be different types of forest seen from above.
Technology entersfield
Some models are done the old-fashioned way, by hand, but high technology also has entered the field, he said.
Some models are built with pieces of plastic cut by a laser, guided by an architectural schematic on a computer file.
That technique tends to work better for large projects such as a big condominium or office building, while an individual house might benefit more from the more subtle touches hand work can provide.
Whitelaw also has worked for video, making models of the famous spires on Churchill Downs grandstand for CNN promotions of the network's Kentucky Derby coverage.
And he'd like to get into the motion picture business, where models are sometimes used instead of a much more expensive full-scale structure.
Even after years of model making, Whitelaw says he's still pleased to see people do a double take when they see a lifelike model.
Ultimately, a model works with the viewer's imagination, he said: "The theater of the mind is something great. There's something about a good model that's very powerful."
Dick Hogan, News-Press
[ edited ]
