Tiny buildings. Make me happy.

November 22, 2014 8:53 AM

Miniature buildings, beloved by many but collected by few. (SLNYT) Whatever your view of their intrinsic value (or lack thereof), it’s hard not to have an emotional reaction when confronted with the 1,200 or so small buildings on display here: the little churches with their soaring steeples, the quaint storefronts, the homespun bowling alleys, Art Deco theaters, Ferris wheels and farmhouses, all of them handmade and many dating to the late 19th century.

With slide show and video for your enjoyment. Squeee!!!

posted by carmicha (10 comments total)

This is great. The sort of thing that somebody needs to be collecting and I'm glad it's this guy's passion.
posted by MartinWisse at 9:12 AM on November 22, 2014 [1 favorite]

We gay folks end up being the archivists of a whole lot of esoteric stuff. I've got a pair of uberwealthy clients in a nearby city that live in an insane house filled with garish Victorian furniture that would freak out the Addams family, antique birdsong automata under giant glass domes, funerary hair sculpture, and gravestones for children.

As a guy with a closet packed to the ceiling with midcentury manual typewriters and a tiny apartment filled with electric fans, I have to wonder if its some genetic thing based on the displacement of child-rearing skills.
posted by sonascope at 9:20 AM on November 22, 2014 [5 favorites]

Seth, the cartoonist, has been building a model town called Dominion for years. I can't find a definitive link to it so just use the Google.
posted by lagomorphius at 9:47 AM on November 22, 2014 [1 favorite]

With the miracle of tilt-shift photography there is no longer a need for actual small objects. We just make real stuff look tiny and call it a day. Like this.
posted by cccorlew at 10:00 AM on November 22, 2014 [2 favorites]

Model buildings are charming, for sure.

I like car stuff, but have tried to keep from collection car models, though I have a few. Reason I don't collect (aside from money and no need for more madness): dust. Any and every collection of stuff gets covered in it, of course, and with some items they're so fragile or have textured surfaces which make it impossible to keep them clean. Wish I knew what that secret was...
posted by maxwelton at 10:48 AM on November 22, 2014 [1 favorite]

I've been to that house and have seen all those little houses. Tried for years to explain them to friends, and finally, NYT comes to my rescue. Mr. Burke's self-published book will be on my shelves, soon.
posted by FauxScot at 10:54 AM on November 22, 2014 [2 favorites]

Saw a very inexpensive English Christmas village complete with a foxhunt--horses, hounds, and the most adorable fox. The church was lovely. I turned. And walked. Out.
posted by BlueHorse at 12:56 PM on November 22, 2014 [2 favorites]

I love miniature stuff like this too. Thanks!
posted by Katjusa Roquette at 5:21 PM on November 22, 2014

I don't wanna hear your excuses! The building has to be at least... three times bigger than this!
posted by arcticseal at 8:26 PM on November 22, 2014

“Neither common nor rare, they have never taken shape as a category of American artifact,” Mr. Burke conceded.

This may be true in a general sense, but a counterpoint may be the Thorne Miniature Rooms, one of the more popular attractions at the Art Institute of Chicago.
posted by dhartung at 10:27 PM on November 22, 2014 [2 favorites]