Opened in 1991, the St. Louis Science Center was a major expansion of this public planetarium and space travel museum, involving a bridge over a major highway. As part of the public relations campaign, the architects commissioned a model of the expansion. With an overall size of approximately 5 feet by 8 feet, at a scale of approximately 1″ to 10′.
With a precision milled foam landscape, exactly matching the engineering topographical maps, laser-cut and etched walls for the main expansion, and a model of Gyo Obata’s planetarium, machined from one solid block of acrylic. Fans of McDonald’s Happy Meal toys may recognize the Tyrannosaurus Rex and Stegosaurus. I machined the foam topography, performed the CAD work to cut all of the laser-cut pieces for the main building, and constructed the surrounding buildings in grey.
I invite you to compare these snapshots of the model I helped build to the full sized building featured on the vernerjohnson.com site.
