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When Peter McCann got into the architectural model making business over 30 years ago, there were no computers in his shop. "Everything had to be done by hand," McCann told SkyriseCities on a recent visit to his Toronto studio. "We would get blueprints in from the architects and they’d ask for a certain scale for the model." In the early days, these blueprints would arrive in different scales and McCann would draft his own uniform set of drawings to build each model.
It was a trip to Waring Hoffmann Baker's Toronto model shop with his brother — architectural water-colour rendering artist Michael McCann — that got Peter McCann interested in model making. He went back to school to study architecture and went on to found his own company, which now employs 17 people. Since opening up shop, McCann has worked on high-profile projects including SOM's Burj Khalifa — designed by Gordon Gill who later co-founded Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture — and the Salt Lake Temple in Utah.
Recalling the studio's early days, McCann described the difficulties of working by hand. "Let’s say you need to do the mullions on a piece of glass. So you’d have to cut it with an X-Acto knife and then if you made a mistake, you’d have to sand it with 200 [grit] sandpaper down to 400, down to 600, then polish it out because you don’t want to lose that piece." The first computer in the studio was for accounting, not fabrication, although McCann couldn't wait to bring laser cutter technology into his shop.
"I was looking at the laser and everybody was against me getting a laser. Like everybody." While his peers were focused on digital fabrication using a CNC router, McCann knew he wanted a laser despite the $50,000 price tag it carried at the time. "So I got one. Even today when I see the laser machine working, I still laugh. Because it can score, it can cut, there’s no mistakes like with the X-Acto knife."
As fabrication hardware advanced, so did the software that architecture firms were using to design their buildings. "You always have to follow the new technology. And with AutoCAD coming out, the buildings became more complicated, so it was kind of a catch-22. Models today are very complicated, way more complicated than what they used to be when we were doing them by X-Acto knife."
McCann hit the laser's limit when Adrian Smith + Gordan Gill Architecture asked him to build a model for their Masdar Headquarters design. "I’m thinking ‘How am I going to build this? I can't CNC it. I can’t laser it. It’s got to be 3D printed.'" Citing the poor quality output of early printers as the reason he'd held off, McCann moved quickly when he found a machine with sample prints that met his standards. "We started printing off that machine, and because we'd bought that machine, they were giving us a discount for them to 3D print at cost. So I needed a lot of 3D printers; I had every one of their 3D printers working in their office, plus mine, going like 24 hours a day for that project."
While 3D printing has become an important tool for McCann, the finishes can still make or break a project. "You can build a model that is perfect, but when you get down to the painting, you can make that model look great or you can make it look very poor, because the painting is so important. We had to do all these layers of paint [on the Salt Lake Temple] because the stone in Salt Lake City was a very special stone with all these veins coming through. So we’re putting in the veins and we’re doing layers of paint on it, and when they came to visit to see the model, they said ‘Wow, I feel like I’m standing in front of the temple right now.’"
New technology hasn't just changed the fabrication process, it's become a part of the models themselves. "Everything’s on LED lighting now. Whereas before we’d have rope lighting, the old kind of Christmas lighting, and then wheat germ lights, stuff like that. But now it’s all LED lighting. So it’s better lighting, not as hot." Not only is it cooler, it's also responsive. "What we’ll do is we’ll put in the lighting so that they can light up each individual floor or each individual condo. So we give them an iPad and they can ask 'Can I see that 9th floor?' or the condo that they want to buy. And they’ll integrate it with TV screens and stuff like that."
While all these technology upgrades have become standard in architectural models, there was nothing standard about the 27-foot model for the world's tallest tower, the 2,723-foot Burj Khalifa. "My clients phoned me from Dubai and said 'Peter, how would you like to build the tallest tower in the world?' I said 'Well of course, I’d love to do that!'"
McCann estimates that it took about six months to build the model. Anchored by a base that was 34 feet in diameter, the Burj Khalifa model was too tall to assemble vertically in McCann's shop. Once complete, the individual pieces had to be packed into crates and shipped to Dubai at a cost of about $80,000. A team of 40 construction workers were waiting on site to lag the model into the concrete below, put up scaffolding, then wire and assemble the model. "When we brought all the crates in, nothing was broken and everything fit like a glove. I was blown away by it, because with a model there’s thousands and thousands of parts that need to be assembled. It amazes me what we can accomplish sometimes, and this was a testament to our tireless and talented staff."
In his career, McCann has seen the international building community through three major recessions, seen the architectural community through a rapid change in design and fabrication technology, and collaborated on the tallest tower in the world. We look forward to finding out what McCann's studio will assemble next.
