The St. Louis Downtown Scale Model / The Singapore City Gallery

There's a post at Ecology of Absence featuring this semi-homeless model of downtown St. Louis dated from 1999,

This is a model of downtown.  I would like to propose that other models of the other 78 neighborhoods in St. Louis be created as well.  I'd like to see them all in one large atrium with people walking amongst them pointing down at landmarks they recognize.

Around this artium would room after room of architecture competition entries, master plan information, featured projects, and interactive feedback options everywhere.

Crazy?  No, this is becoming a normal feature of many cities.  Even Chicago has one.

I've been to several now, but the one I spent the most time in was in Singapore.  Let's explore it now.

On the ground floor, just past the fountain and the featured exhibit of the season, there is an ever updated model of Singapore's City Center.

Walking past that model, you can spend a while exploring whatever the themed exhibit of the month is.

Here are some displays of Singapore's residential structures and how they've changed over the years.

This is a temporary model of the Jurong Lake District which was on display for several months as part of a larger installation on greenspaces.  The model is cleverly placed on top of one of the fountains.

Two old civic buildings were retired from public service and there was a competition held to find a way to repurpose and connect both buildings into a single museum.  A room was set aside to display the various entries for the public to join in on the conversation.  In the future, if you happen to visit the National Museum, think about what it could have looked like.

While walking around the exhibits, you may very suddenly see another scale-model.  This one is of the entire island/country of Singapore.  That's right, the whole island fits in a room.  The Exhibits around it change over time.

When you get tired of the exhibits, head up to the second floor.  You'll find a little movie room there and Germit the Mediacorp "Artiste" will tell you how great Singapore is.  Ignore him and go right on up the stairs to the third floor and look down.

If you stand at those little boxes, you can interact with the model.  Not exactly sure where something is, just look it up and see.

Quite often, the gallery does fill up with students on field trips.  They generally pair off and try to fill in the blanks on worksheets.  Sometimes they gather up and an architect or planner will make a presentation.

Keep walking.  On the third floor there are many things to see about historic preservation, resource management, land reclaimation, and general planning theory.    When you're done, you'll head down some stairs and find yourself next to the big model of Singapore's Central Region (which includes more than the model of the City Center on the ground floor). 

Walk around the model for an hour or so and learn what you can from the little computers, then head out to the brochure rack.  Pick up a few neighborhood walking guides before you head out.  Do see the neighborhoods as they are, and then return to the gallery to retrace your steps on the models.  You'll be glad you did.

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Now ask yourself, "Does my city have an urban planning gallery?" 

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Not all city models need to be static like Singapore's.  There's a whole world, though sadly fictional, in Hamburg.