Old Post Office Building
1100 Pennsylvania Ave NW, Washington, DC
This project, contracted through HealyKohler Design in Washington, DC, required a lot of research and ingenuity in order to complete. The type of model to be built and the potential associated processes evolved from one of hundreds of CNC routed PVC parts to be assembled together, to hundreds of laser cut acrylic parts to be be assembled together, to the final product we settled on: ten intricate 3D printed ABS parts epoxied together to a plywood substructure and painted with automotive colors. Many Thanks to Karen Jabo (who also took the above pics of the model on site) and all the folks there at HealyKohler for their patience and resourcefulness. It was quite a journey!
Based on many historical survey documents and blueprints, I designed and built all the parts using TurboCad Mac Deluxe 9 on my MacBook Pro and sent the .STL files to Applied Rapid Technologies in Fredericksburg, Virginia for their expertise in 3D printing. After tweaking some of the files and a lot of hard work on their end (Thanks George & Bruce!), they were able to print all the files and get them back to me in record time. I then assembled everything and epoxied it all together to a 3/4" plywood substructure. The model measures overall approximately 12" wide x 18" long x 18" high.
The model was then painted with Createx Auto-Air Colors and clear-coated with Rust-oleum ultra clear for added durability. The model now resides in the Old Post Office building's tower, where you can get the second best view of the city when the Washington Monument is closed... and of course the Trump International Hotel is located below.