GaryReggae's BAT Exhibition

wes.janson · October 29, 2008, 07:11:26 PM

I have never seen fire escapes on schools, much less on any building built in the past 30 years. Most schools occupying more than one floor would have designated interior concrete stairways leading outside equipped with fire doors. With the 3-4 hour fire rating that most of these doors have, fire escapes no longer serve a purpose.

GaryReggae · May 01, 2009, 04:29:38 AM

*BUMP!*

Sorry, not much progress to report and my GMAX is not working at the moment but I have been working on adding more detail to the TV centre, it is hopefully nearly finished now. At this very late stage I am considering getting rid of the garden in the grounds and replacing it with a small workshop block - modelling gardens is not my forte and the original idea of having it as props would involve constructing a very complex LOD structure which I tried before and it caused the render to fail.

With regards to the school, it is interesting that you mention fire escapes. The board of governers for the RL school protested to the council (who run the school) about the lack of a fire escape, however the council dismissed it as too expensive. The larger two-storey block is OK as it has a stairwell at each end - so if there is a fire in one stairwell, the other is accessible. The smaller classroom blocks only have one internal stairwell and there was indeed a fire, however fortunately, it was while there was nobody in the building.

I agree that it is unusual in the UK for this type of building to have a fire escape, I'm sure modern building regulations probably dictate that new buildings must have an external fire escape unless there is more than one stairwell but back in the 1960s, things were not so tight.

On another subject, I am also planning some low-rise walk-up flats. I'd like to do something like this (1950s Art Deco style flats):

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<small><a href="http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&source=embed&hl=en&geocode=&q=so14+1ll&sll=53.774689,-3.999023&sspn=0,326.513672&ie=UTF8&ll=50.913587,-1.396723&spn=0,359.975495&t=h&z=14&iwloc=A&layer=c&cbll=50.906014,-1.39894&panoid=X7RtX5Ae5M1wSFAwvq6Znw&cbp=12,22.273012999018782,,0,5" style="color:#0000FF;text-align:left">View Larger Map</a></small>

Also, something like the infamous Park Hill flats in Sheffield but that's a longer term thing.

rooker1 · May 01, 2009, 04:36:09 AM

Fantastic news to see that you are still working on this.

Robin

Pat · May 01, 2009, 07:22:53 AM

Hey there Gary its good to hear your still pluging away at your BATs... Can't wait to see some new pics...

Pat

Earth quake · May 02, 2009, 01:50:05 AM

Good news Gary.
I wondered when you would give news of your bat. Haste to know that " TV center " is soon finished, and for gardens, you can use the 3d model of tree by Swi21, on LEX.

One question, do you have advance the ASDA supermarket ?

toxicpiano · May 03, 2009, 12:29:42 PM

Park hill, huh? Gutted or non gutted

GaryReggae · May 05, 2009, 05:17:04 AM

Thanks for your replies!

@ Earth Quake: No news on ASDA yet, it is nearly finished and just needs detailing and finalising of textures (the devil is always in the detail as they say!).

@ Toxicpiano: Hmmn yes, I don't know wjy they are gutting Park Hill, I thought it was a listed building (I recorded a BBC documentary about it on Friday which I look forward to watching)

GaryReggae · May 09, 2009, 06:48:10 AM

Good afternoon folks, I've been busy this morning with yet another new BAT.

As Rolf would say, "Can you tell what it is yet?"

It's another council housing project, this time a 14 storey block with a smaller block adjacent to it. It's based on a real building, however I have had to change bits because the real building is on a slope so the smaller block is, in reality, only five or six storeys, but on mine, it's about 10. I wonder if anyone will recognise this, it featured quite prominently in a couple of episodes of a UK TV show last year...

Orange_o_ · May 09, 2009, 07:37:52 AM

The bat is made well, but I like less the texture of the roof, it is too simplistic

superhands · May 09, 2009, 07:55:34 AM

is it off 'skins'

Earth quake · May 09, 2009, 07:59:01 AM

Awsome work Gary !

I really like this new bat, perfect work.

But I agree, the roff is not really good.

I'm impatient to use your ASDA Supermarket and this bat in my city

GaryReggae · May 09, 2009, 08:05:12 AM

Quote from: bighead99 on May 09, 2009, 07:55:34 AM
is it off 'skins'

Yes, well done! The flats featured in series 2 of Skins - Maxxie lived in one of the flats and so did Sketch.

Ignore the roof texture, I have only put very basic textures on to show this, the final version will be much more realistic.

superhands · May 09, 2009, 08:13:32 AM

well i didn't think I'd get that right. it must be the fish oil I've been living on for the last few weeks cause my memory isn't that good usually

great work btw.

-dave

Earth quake · May 09, 2009, 09:00:51 AM

Thank you for this information Gary

GaryReggae · May 09, 2009, 02:47:24 PM

The real building for this is in Bristol, just North of the city centre, next to a very Brutalist hospital building that makes my attempts at designing a Brutalist hospital look like something Prince Charles would approve of!!! It's called Carolina House and there are two very similiar blocks adjacent to it although they have different colour schemes.

While it featured in 'Skins', there are a number of inaccuracies in it! Episode 2 of series 2 makes you think that there are two blocks close to each other, as Sketch looks directly into Maxxie's bedroom, however in reality, the blocks are so far apart that you'd need a telescope to do that! There are also scenes of the front door to Maxxie's flat, which clearly shows the front door is located off an outside walkway and it looks as though it is only a few storeys high, however the flats in the main tower don't have outside walkways, only the flats in the smaller block do!

The low-level paved area has garages underneath which is a great excuse for 'recycling' the garage doors from my old 'garage block' BAT!

More from this tomorrow or I might start work on the Park Hill flats although it won't be the whole of the estate as it is massive (the largest listed building in Europe according to the BBC documentary about the flats last week). I think I'll just do one block and see how it looks.

Pat · May 09, 2009, 06:07:51 PM

Gary that is looking real great there that flat!!! I cant wait to see how this is finished off...

GaryReggae · May 10, 2009, 04:50:59 AM

Thanks!

Park Hill is here at last:

This is in the very early stages, there's not currently any lifts or stairs as I need to add the towers for those. I never realised the facade of this building was so complex, the window patterns seem to have no logic to them at all but I don't know what the layout of the flats is so there might be a reason.

I think I'll put some boarded up shops on the ground floor as that seems to be the case with the real thing.

PS: I don't like the angle of the left-hand wing so I will change it so it kind of reflects the angle of the RH wing.

Earth quake · May 10, 2009, 05:05:28 AM

Nice bat Gary and more original.

I agree ,changed a bit the angle on the lefthand but the texture are (as usual) perfect.

also, perhaps ameliorate the roof texture.
impatient to see this building finished !

Could you make a summary of your bats?

GaryReggae · May 10, 2009, 05:33:51 AM

Thanks!

Here is the latest update on my BATs:

UK High Street 1 - FINISHED
Clarence Pier - FINISHED
Concrete car park - finished
Southampton tower blocks set (Millbrook, Maybush, Redbridge, Canberra and Sholing Towers)
Suburban shops 1 (fish and chips and newsagent) - Nearly finished
Suburban shops 2 (barbers and pet shop) - early stages
MapWorks - over halfway through this massive building but it cannot be released until the real-world building has closed (2010-2011)
UK High Street 2 - (Dixons and Wetherspoons) - early stages
UK High Street 3 (Burger King, Jessops) - early stages
UK High Street 4 (Woolworths (ha ha!), Oxfam and Carphone Warehouse) - very early stages
UK High Street 5 (HMV, M&S) - very early stages
UK High Street 6 (Art Deco cinema, WHSmith and KFC) - about halfway
UK High Street 7 (BHS) - about halfway
UK High Street 8 (Wilkinsons) - very early stages
UK High Street 9 (Tyrell & Green deaprtment store) - very early stages
UK High Street 10 (Maplins and bowling alley) - very early stages
UK High Street 11 (Boots and Top Shop) - very early stages
UK High Street 12 (Postmodernist Virgin Megastore and Blacks outdoor shops)
UK High Street - ASDA - Nearly finished, only detailing and final texturing to do
UK High Street - Debenhams department store v2 - FINISHED
UK High Street - Market Square Shopping Centre (inspired by the original Bullring) - very early stages
UK High Street - Post Office - early stages
UK High Street Shopping Centre 1 (inspired by MerseyWay in Stockport) - very early stages, only the frame and floor slabs in place.
60s semi detached house - FINISHED
60s shopping centre - FINISHED (one of my first BATs so could do with improving)
Arthur Scargill Comprehensive School - early stages
Arthur Flowers House (AKA Police HQ) - FINISHED, again could do with improving
Castleman House - FINISHED, again could do with improving
CityCentre - a megalot designed to house all city centre functions in one megastructure. Very early stages and probably overambitious.
Coal power station - very early stages
Debenhams (v1) FINISHED

GaryReggae · May 10, 2009, 05:44:17 AM

...CONTINUED

Fryern Junior School - needs interior detailing, roof junk and nightlighting but nearly there.
1950s seaside resort & pier - Early stages
Caroline House (those flats from Skins) - early stages, needs detailing, infill of walkup block, end walls of point block, infilling of garages and so on.
Central Health Clinic & Ambulance station - just under halfway there - main block complete but other buildings need finishing.
Coventry Maket - very early stages
Edwin Jones Insurance offices (tower based on the TV Centre office tower) - early stages
Park Hill flats, Sheffield - early stages
Rubber Factory (v1) - FINISHED
Rubber Factory (v2) - over halfway but still a lot of work to do.
Stock Exchange - early stages
Television Centre - Replacement of garden with workshop building and final texturing are the only outstanding items.
Tricorn - very early stages, even though I have all the plans, I have not done much with this yet as it is very large and complex.
Hospital - one block finished, the rest only exist as a concrete frame at the m oment
Key worker flats - very early stages
Museum-Brutalist - FINISHED
Tax Office - FINISHED but withdrawn from circulation
R$1 Victorian terraced house - halfway
Unit42 Keyworker Apartments - Need detailing and texturing but otherwise nearly there.
Withewood Mansions - early stages