Building Eighth Avenue…

Eighth Avenue, W 142nd to W 148th St, 1940 — as laser-cut kits

Both sides of Frederick Douglass Blvd under the el at 1:76.2 (OO, 4 mm to the foot). The east side's 36 buildings are each built as their BrickIT! kit: engraved 1 mm brick skins with their stone parts, 2 mm cores behind, floors and corner keys inside, and 53 resin fire escapes.

The west side's buildings stand where the city's footprints put them, at their measured heights (or representative ones where none survives), but their facades are generic - not yet kitted. The el is ElevateIT!'s 145th St layout, its ironwork and the station as the cab ride builds them, with five-car trains of MUDCs (the 47 ft el cars, vestibuled 1923-24) on all three tracks, calling at 145th St; their colour is representative. Corner buildings keep their real returns; the rest are 30 ft deep for the backdrop. Hover a building for its address.

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