Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Village

It took forever - just over 6 months from my trip to collect the photos to uploading the final model - but it's finally complete. And it turned out pretty well:




A total of 22 models, with lots of neat stuff including a few churches:




A wide variety of houses:



And my first (and likely last) grain elevator:

Low Level Bridge

Model and Building information

I've often wished that Edmonton didn't paint so many of its bridges in funny colours. The Walterdale is green, the Dawson is blue, the ones straddling Groat are red, and on the Capilano they are green again. What's wrong with good, old, Victorian black?

Then there is the Low Level, which does have a bit of a greenish hue but which is basically just gray. And I don't like it. I guess that neutral colours work on fancy bridges like the High Level, but that the smaller bridges really do need something extra.

For the model Google's terrain was once again way off. The level of the water under the bridge slopes by 25', which means that the piers had to be different heights which makes no sense at all. The elevation of the south approach is also too low, so there is quite a major speedbump at that end.

Jasper Block and the CKUA

Model and Building information

Probably the most interesting thing about this model is that the CKUA building was originally the Alberta Block, and it was built at roughly the same time as the Jasper Block and in a similar style:


(Source: The Glenbow Archives)

While it would be nice to have another historic facade on Jasper, I quite like the moderne update and its cool, segmented windows. It just isn't a style that Edmonton has very much of, and it makes a nice change.

McKay Avenue School and 1881 Schoolhouse

Model and Building information

The tricky thing about McKay Avenue School is getting a good photo of its front elevation. That is where all the detail is, but it faces north so it never has good sun, it is in the shadow of several apartment blocks which just makes matters worse, and it is pretty much obscured by trees.



So for this model the front is mostly made up of pictures of the other sides, with the important and non-copyable parts - the doors, pilasters, datemarkers - spliced in after some colour-tuning. For a patchwork building it turned out pretty well.

Although it is not visible in the image, the one-room schoolhouse from 1881 that is located in the southwest corner of the site is also included in the model.

The Maclean Block

Model and Building information

The Maclean Block is celebrating its hundredth birthday this year, and it is the longtime home of the Edmonton institution that is Audreys Books.

I have to say that I'm not a huge fan of the purple awnings. But then again, its Audreys - how can Audreys not have purple awnings? There's also a fairly major cheat on the model's east elevation, because I was feeling lazy and knew that no one would notice.

The Arlington (1909-2008)

Model and Building information

I spent some time on the top floor of the Arlington about a year before it was destroyed by fire. I remember the deceptively large windows (those architects sure knew how to work proportions), the wonderful sliding doors separating the bedroom from the living room, the murphy bed, and the original hardwood floors coated by what seemed like an inch of varathane.

I don't have any photos of the Arlington, so this model doesn't use any textures from the actual building. Instead, the textures are repurposed from the Buena Vista Building on 124st and Derwas Court on 121st.