If the six-inch-tall Lilliputians from “Gulliver’s Travels” suddenly appeared in New York City, they would have no trouble finding a place to stay.
Miniature-scale models of many of the city’s highest-end residential projects grace real estate sales offices throughout the city, and with their furnished apartments, detailed landscaping, and LED lights, these little worlds do not look anything like your daughter’s dollhouse. They are even built with curved curtain walls and replicas of the innovative window systems found in high-end developments.
While architects have been making models since Andrea Palladio rose to prominence several centuries ago, the niche profession has grown up in the last few decades. At the moment, business is burgeoning in New York City because of the increase in preconstruction sales and high-profile development competitions such as the bidding to build on the Hudson Yards. So far, the model-making boom doesn’t appear to be slowing down because of concerns about a downturn in the market.
The craft is highly specialized. Model makers use computer-assisted design programs, laser-cutting, and modeling machines. Developers often spend anywhere from $50,000 for a basic quality model up to hundreds of thousands of dollars for all the bells and whistles, which can include secondary models and accompanying audiovisual displays.
The production often involves a whole design team: model makers for different parts of the structure, artists, computer technicians, audiovisual teams and even subcontractors who specialize in making model horticulture.
Real estate professionals say that a high-end model has become an invaluable promotional tool in the increasingly competitive housing market.
“We have seen a dramatic increase in developers using these models,” said Stephen Kliegerman, executive director of development marketing at Halstead Property. “With more and more developments coming out all the time and competition rising, developers need more tools to give buyers a visualization of a property.”
Andrew Harris of Madison Equities, which is developing the Chelsea Modern at 447 West 18th Street between Ninth and 10th avenues in Manhattan, said that models have a distinct advantage when it comes to marketing new property.
“It is fine looking at plans, it is great looking at renderings, but it is very difficult for the average purchaser to understand what the building they are purchasing in is going to look like,” said Harris. “But I think that the model does it wonderfully well.”
In addition to providing an overview of a development, a model can be useful in highlighting a building’s special features or amenities. For example, when the sales office for 40 Mercer Street was opened and selling units, it was home to an electronically operated model that mimicked the way the windows rolled back in the living room to access the outdoor spaces. The luxury residential building in Soho was developed by hotelier André Balazs and Hines Interests. “A model can convey in a way that a lot of the other materials cannot,” said Jasmine Mir, vice president of marketing at Corcoran Sunshine, which marketed 40 Mercer.
In some high-end models, prospective buyers can choose a particular unit and then run an audio-visual display showing actual views from the not-yet-built apartment. The displays are made by video-camera footage shot at the development site from a balloon, crane or even a helicopter, at heights approximating those of the apartments in the building’s design.
Frederic Bell, executive director of the American Institute of Architects’ New York City Chapter, said the process of making a model can offer a developer or architect a new way to see their project and help him or her improve it.
But, he noted that sometimes the models can raise false expectations. “It [a model] can be a little fictive because it can be aspirational—there are architectural models that are there to convince people to approve something that should never see the light of day,” said. “They can try to create something that may not be politically possible.”
Most of the models exhibited at building sales offices and architectural competitions in New York City are produced by a small cottage industry of local model makers—firms such as Lenon Models, Cubic Dimension Inc., and Saleh & Dirani, Bell said.
One of New York City’s top model makers is Richard Tenguerian, who designed the model for the Durst/Vornado proposal in the Hudson Yards competition. He built the model in his basement studio on Lafayette Street, where on a recent Thursday evening he was finishing up a multi-building complex with ground-floor retail that will likely be filled by a big national chain like Old Navy or Bed Bath & Beyond.
Tenguerian built his first model at age 14 while working at a summer job in an architect’s office in his native Lebanon. Later, he trained at the Pratt Institute before starting his Manhattan-based company, Cubic Dimension Inc. Tenguerian said a high-quality architectural model is the product of both handicraft and skill with new building technologies.
“Nowadays, people are used to the keyboard; they use the software, they use the laser, and they assemble it and call themselves a model maker,” he said. “But I come from the old generation, where craftsmanship was crucial.”
Tenguerian’s work has taken him all over the world, including Vietnam (where he is working on a model of a three-tower development for the architectural firm HOK) and Dubai, where he has made a dozen trips for various building projects.
And although much of his recent business is linked to the New York metropolitan area’s real estate market, Tenguerian said that in general, he does well even during slow periods for new development.
“What happened in the past, when the economy was bad here, there would be business in some other part of the world,” he said, and though “there have been dry spells,” he noted that he hasn’t currently been feeling the effects of a slowdown.
Tenguerian claimed that the craftsmanship of New York City model makers is unrivaled. One reason for Gotham’s superiority, according to Tenguerian, is that the profession began here in the 1980s, while other parts of the world are still catching up.
“In Dubai,” he said, “they have model shops where they can do perfect laser cuts, but they are more like factories, and when you see the finished product, it is like a train set. It looks cartoonish.”
Sometimes, to save money, New York City developers commission models from foreign countries such as China, said Tenguerian, adding that on several occasions he has received emergency calls from developers seeking his services in repairing a broken model imported from another country.
As with high-end architecture, quality is sometimes not always apparent to the uneducated consumer. “Some people cannot see the difference between $10 shoes and $400 shoes,” Tenguerian said. “Others can appreciate the quality and the look.”