the 387 houses of peter fritz

June 6, 2013 8:14 AM

In 1993, while browsing in a junk shop, artist Oliver Croy discovered 387 model buildings, each neatly wrapped in its own garbage bag--the architectural creations of Austrian insurance clerk Peter Fritz.
posted by Combustible Edison Lighthouse (14 comments total)

OMG those are really, really awesome.
posted by shothotbot at 8:17 AM on June 6, 2013

!
posted by drezdn at 8:22 AM on June 6, 2013

These are lovely!
posted by Lemmy Caution at 8:29 AM on June 6, 2013

Those photos really need something in them for scale. I thought they were the size of a quarter at first glance. End photo makes them seem fairly large like shoe box size.
posted by cjorgensen at 8:57 AM on June 6, 2013 [1 favorite]

The article mentions this, but the first thing I wondered was if Peter Fritz was a model train enthusiast.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 8:57 AM on June 6, 2013

Reminds me of Seth's Dominion City.
posted by Paul Slade at 9:08 AM on June 6, 2013 [1 favorite]

Yeah, these are really neat.
posted by Windopaene at 9:26 AM on June 6, 2013

this image gives a little more sense of scale.
posted by fuzzypantalones at 9:37 AM on June 6, 2013 [1 favorite]

These are great. I also though they were tiny at first.
posted by bongo_x at 9:54 AM on June 6, 2013

They're somewhat on the big side for HO model train sets and too small for larger scales.
posted by MartinWisse at 10:01 AM on June 6, 2013

Love!!!
posted by TWinbrook8 at 11:39 AM on June 6, 2013

Except that every model train enthusiast I have known barely cares about the plastic buildings, they care about the frickin' trains.

(Back in the day, probably still, model railroad magazines featured incredibly detailed architectural models by professional "kitbashers", down to lovingly recreated ghost billboards or a spot of leaves in a roof trough. It's been years since I've seen any in real life, though.)
posted by dhartung at 12:35 PM on June 6, 2013

These are fantastic. It was a rare and marvelous find. I'm so glad that Oliver Croy saw them, identified their greatness, and was able to buy them and preserve them.

I'm also really really jealous.
posted by julen at 1:08 PM on June 6, 2013

I'm really disappointed I can't see them live or that there wasn't at least a decent gallery featuring pictures of each of the models.
posted by Mitheral at 12:46 AM on June 8, 2013