GLOBAL 3D ARTS BLOG – Page 6 – GLOBAL 3D ARTS BLOG CENTRAL

June 15, 2016

1879 Corbin Lee Mansion

1879 Corbin Lee Mansion

Occasionally we are asked to create architectural renderings with no drawings and little information. Usually, we create renderings from blueprint drawings and architect elevations, but we can re create structures by using examples from structures built in the same era, old pictures, etc. We can also include era specific added details.

We can bring your vision to life!

The rendering below was made from hand drawn sketches and example pictures provided by the client.

This is a Second Empire style home build in 1879
in New Danville, Pittsylvania County, Virginia by architect Thomas Benton Fitzgerald for Thomas Jefferson Lee and Eliza Corbin Lee. It had an estimated 10,000 square feet and included 24 rooms.

***See below the complete story of the Corbin Lee Mansion***

Please contact us for all your rendering needs. If you would like a free quote, don’t hesitate! Contact us today!

What our Clients are saying. . .

“I have been very pleased with the services rendered by Global 3D Arts. From the outset they knew that it wouldn’t be an easy project. Having only a sketch from 1879 to work from, they didn’t shy away from the project and the results they delivered are outstanding and not only has it given me a piece of family history that I can hand down, they have given a community back a piece of history that has been lost. Global 3D Arts is to be highly commended for their work and dedication to quality.”

— Jonathan Hackworth

The Corbin Lee Mansion Story

The grand mansion was erected in 1879 for North Danville’s wealthiest and most vivacious citizen Thomas Jefferson Lee and his wife Eliza Corbin Lee. Born of humble beginnings in June 1847 in Albemarle County, VA, Lee moved to Pittsylvania County around 1863 and at one time working in a cotton mill and another time as a carpenter and finally as a worker in a tobacco warehouse. Lee was inquisitive and quickly learned the tobacco trade. In 1866 he married Eliza Corbin, daughter of Jackson C. Corbin and Sarah Dawson, and Lee started his land acquisition(s) in 1869. Lee came to own vast amounts of property both in the town of North Danville and Pittsylvania County. He was associated with numerous businesses, both public and private. As quoted by his pastor at his funeral:

” The sphere of his operations rapidly enlarged, until he became identified in one way or another with nearly all the business enterprises of Danville, both public and private, on both sides of the river.” – Pastor A.C. Bledsoe / Calvary Methodist

Thomas Lee was instrumental in the construction and planning of the Calvary Methodist Church, member of the board of directors of the Citizens Savings Bank, of Bethesda Lodge No. 57 I.O.O.F. and of several other groups in North Danville. He served as mayor and president of the town council as well. Lee owned and operated Lee’s Warehouse , the Arlington Hotel, charter member of the Academy of Music, etc…. As his wealth and influence grew, Lee established himself within the community visually by erecting the largest home in North Danville. Thomas J. lee enlisted the help of his close friend Thomas Benton Fitzgerald who owned the brickyards to design and erect a dwelling worthy of his stature in the community. Lee purchased a 2.8 acre lot next to Thomas Fitzgerald’s home and in 1879 had erected a mansion sprawling 10,000 sq ft. and 24 rooms. The property included a 5 bay stable and formal gardens in the lower portion of the property. Knowing that the home was “excessive” for just he, his wife and adopted daughter, Lee opted to share the mansion with the pastor of the church, thus making his mansion both a parsonage and personal residence.

In 1883 there was a Race Riot in Danville and due to fears that further fighting could possibly break out and even spill over to North Danville, Thomas and Eliza housed the white women and children of North Danville in their mansion for 24 hours under armed guard; paid for by the Lees. In Dec. 1883 Lee and his wife decided to sell the mansion to a friend W.P. Hodnett and erect a dwelling more in style for the times and smaller than their current situation. Lee again enlisted T.B. Fitzgerald and two years later the Lee family and their pastor’s family left the mansion for a more “modest,” 6,000 sq ft. Italianate Mansion just 4 lots down the street. The Lee’s again used their house as a parsonage until the church contracted Fitzgerald to erect a parsonage.

After the Lee’s left their former home in 1886 for their new dwelling, Hodnett drastically altered the massive mansion. He removed the middle hallway and restructured the roof entirely. The survey maps of 1910 show that he possibly demolished one whole side, but it is not clear. Having divided the mansion into two separate dwellings the massive 2.8 acre city lot was now divided into three separate lots. By 1930 all traces of the once grand mansion were gone. A two story duplex, a 1940’s shoe box shaped apartment building, and a modest 1950’s cottage now stand on the lots once occupied by the grand Corbin-Lee Mansion of North Danville.

The mansion, built in Second empire style, was located on the corner of Benefield St. and North Main St. The mansion and grounds occupied city parcel(s) # 01466, # 00563, and # 03835. Survey by T. Mitchell Bass in Dec. 1883 gives the dimensions of the lot as follows:

Beginning on a point on the Franklin Turnpike thence along said Turnpike in a northern direction 206 ft. thence off from said Turnpike in a westwardly direction in a line with the rear of the stables upon said lot 297.5 ft. thence along a line parallel of said Franklin Turnpike 174 ft. thence with the present yard and gardens fence to the beginning of the said Turnpike, 305 ft.

Thomas Jefferson Lee passed away in 1887. His wife remarried; a man named W.H. Bunting of Halifax County, VA.

Thomas Benton Fitzgerald

Eliza Corbin Lee

Josephine Corbin Lee

June 2, 2016

Panavision Panaflex Camera Model

While most of our modeling work is architectural, we can take care of all of your model making needs!

We created this model of a Panavision Panaflex Camera for a movie prop.

Please contact us for all your scale model needs. If you would like a free quote, don’t hesitate! Contact us today!

April 28, 2016

Family Home Model

This family home model was made as a Christmas gift. We can work with limited information! It was modeled as an artists interpretation since all we had to work from was photographs.

This model also has a removable roof and second story for future interior detail.

Please contact us for all your scale model needs. If you would like a free quote, don’t hesitate! Contact us today!

January 18, 2016

Sika Interactive Model

This interactive trade show model will be used to showcase many of the products that Sika offers.

Sika Corporation, based in Lyndhurst, NJ, is a leading supplier of specialty chemical products and industrial materials serving construction and industrial markets including transportation, marine, and automotive. Its technologies are focused on sealing, bonding, damping, reinforcing and protecting. Sika’s product lines include concrete admixtures, specialty mortars, epoxies, structural strengthening systems, industrial flooring, sealants, adhesives, specialty acoustic and reinforcing materials.

You can learn more about Sika here.

The model works with a tablet to light up different parts of the model to correspond with the product information on the tablet.

Check out this video to see how the model interacts.

Please contact us for all your scale model needs. If you would like a free quote, don’t hesitate! Contact us today!

January 18, 2016

Aspen Model Home

This model was modeled to an 1/8 scale with a 2’x4′ base. It features flat roofs with solar panels, several pools, an outdoor fireplace, and interior lighting – not to mention, handmade trees native to this home’s location.

Besides the unique design, the topography of this home is also unique. Located on a mountain with lots of slope and elevation change, which makes for an interesting base for the model.

Check out the video for this model in 360 degree rotation.

January 18, 2016

Elizabeth River Tunnel Models

These models were made for SKW Constructors, a joint venture of Skanska, Kiewit, and Weeks Marine – the design-build contractor for the Elizabeth River Tunnels Project in the Hampton Roads Region of Virginia.

U.S. 58, the route between the cities of Portsmouth and Norfolk Virginia via a tunnel under the Elizabeth River, is the busiest 2-lane route east of the Mississippi. Since the existing Midtown Tunnel was built 50 years ago, population in the region has increased nearly 70 percent and tunnel usage has gone up by almost 600 percent. Additional capacity is urgently needed. The Elizabeth River Tunnels project – which will deliver a major increase in vehicle traffic capacity on the route in late 2016 – is a public-private partnership (P3) project involving the Virginia Department of Transportation (the project owner), the Elizabeth River Crossing OpCo LLC (the project concessionaire), and SKW Constructors (the project design-build contractor).

The Elizabeth River Tunnels Project includes:

* The construction and operation of a new two-lane tunnel under the Elizabeth River adjacent to the existing Midtown Tunnel
* Significant rehabilitation – including fire-life safety improvements – to the existing Downtown Tunnels and Midtown Tunnel
* Extension of the existing MLK Freeway in Portsmouth to provide a direct link between I-264 and the Downtown Tunnels and U.S. 58 and the Midtown Tunnels
* Complete operations and maintenance responsibilities for the existing and new Elizabeth River Tunnels

Please contact us for all your scale model needs. If you would like a free quote, don’t hesitate! Contact us today!

January 18, 2016

300th Anniversary Williamsburg Magazine Models

Our models make great gifts!

We were able to construct sixteen, 1:160 scale models of the Magazine, located in Williamsburg, VA. These models were used as gifts to commemorate the 300th Anniversary of the Magazine.

This “good substantial house of brick” was constructed in 1715 as storage for the arms and ammunition dispatched from London for the defense of the colony. It assumed added importance during the French and Indian War, when, for the first time, the colony supported large-scale military operations. Just before the Revolution, it was the scene of a notable confrontation (the Gunpowder Incident) between Williamsburg residents and Lord Dunmore, the last royal governor of Virginia.

Read more about the Magazine and Colonial Williamsburg.

Please contact us for all your scale model needs. If you would like a free quote, don’t hesitate! Contact us today!