Back in the 80s, when I lived near Sausalito, one free Saturday I visited the US Army Corps of Engineers Bay Model. It is a huge and incredible scale model of the hydrology of the whole Bay Area and a part of the Sacramento-San Joaquin river delta. It is larger than a football field. The day I visited there was almost no one else there and I got a leisurely two hour tour.
I have read that, today, it is very popular with long lines.
There's also the not-maintained (because outdoors and no longer used) Mississippi River Basin model, built near the site of a WW2 POW camp in Mississippi. Italian and German POWs provided the initial labor for site preparation.
It covers 200 acres (~80 ha), vs 1.5 acres for the Bay model.
If you have an interest in going (I've never been despite growing up in the area and having family there still), I would advise waiting for cold weather - it is perfect snake habitat, and water moccasins are both venomous and relatively aggressive.
The JFK one can be seen in the lobby of the TWA hotel (https://www.twahotel.com/photos). If you have a layover, or can come early, this whole lobby is worth a good 25 minute walkthrough.
All I could think looking at the (amazing) dioramas was how much time they could save with something like the EufyMake Printer that could print out all the textures they're making by hand (or 3d printing).
Interesting how the older dioramas seem slightly yellowed/sepia-toned. I'd always that thought that was an artifact of older photographs (and I certainly remember the world being just as vividly colored back then), but if these are "historically accurate," maybe I'm mistaken?
AV-Pro works from period color chips, not from faded photos. They replicate every Pantone card the airline handed the terminal architect. Those original chips are already the buttery, camel, avocado and rust you see in the model
It probably felt brighter and more vivid at the time, because we were seeing it under our mental-white balance of fluorescent lights and comparing it to nicotine-pantinaed older materials. Today in our mental white balance model, we have titanium-white plastics and “cool-white” LEDs that didn't exist then
Big model related:
Back in the 80s, when I lived near Sausalito, one free Saturday I visited the US Army Corps of Engineers Bay Model. It is a huge and incredible scale model of the hydrology of the whole Bay Area and a part of the Sacramento-San Joaquin river delta. It is larger than a football field. The day I visited there was almost no one else there and I got a leisurely two hour tour.
I have read that, today, it is very popular with long lines.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Army_Corps_of_Engineers_B...
There's also the not-maintained (because outdoors and no longer used) Mississippi River Basin model, built near the site of a WW2 POW camp in Mississippi. Italian and German POWs provided the initial labor for site preparation.
It covers 200 acres (~80 ha), vs 1.5 acres for the Bay model.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mississippi_River_Basin_Model
If you have an interest in going (I've never been despite growing up in the area and having family there still), I would advise waiting for cold weather - it is perfect snake habitat, and water moccasins are both venomous and relatively aggressive.
This sounds like a perfect way to make a low-budget monster movie. Bring Kevlar waders.
There's a similar large scale (~200 acres) model of the Mississippi River Basin https://friendsofmrbm.org/
The JFK one can be seen in the lobby of the TWA hotel (https://www.twahotel.com/photos). If you have a layover, or can come early, this whole lobby is worth a good 25 minute walkthrough.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9DEIWOKCIA to see a walk around and build of the diorama.
TWA hotel? Did I wake up in the 1960s? How is TWA hotel a thing in 2025?
The former TWA Flight Center at JFK was converted into a hotel.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TWA_Hotel
All I could think looking at the (amazing) dioramas was how much time they could save with something like the EufyMake Printer that could print out all the textures they're making by hand (or 3d printing).
Adam Savage review: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SD8r1UBwLL0
The over the top airport diorama - Minatur Wunderland.[1]
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOL-FnTwhUQ
Interesting how the older dioramas seem slightly yellowed/sepia-toned. I'd always that thought that was an artifact of older photographs (and I certainly remember the world being just as vividly colored back then), but if these are "historically accurate," maybe I'm mistaken?
AV-Pro works from period color chips, not from faded photos. They replicate every Pantone card the airline handed the terminal architect. Those original chips are already the buttery, camel, avocado and rust you see in the model
It probably felt brighter and more vivid at the time, because we were seeing it under our mental-white balance of fluorescent lights and comparing it to nicotine-pantinaed older materials. Today in our mental white balance model, we have titanium-white plastics and “cool-white” LEDs that didn't exist then
Interesting. I also noticed a huge difference before/after cataract surgery. :)
Remember the movie Welcome to Marwen (2018)?