SBCS member Howie is featured in a front-page story in today's Wall Street Journal. Society President Darron and InFocusTech owner Mike were also quoted in the article about collecting souvenir buildings. I thought it was funny that, in typical WSJ style, the newspaper created a drawing of an Eiffel Tower in Howie's hand to accompany the beginning of the story. Writer Paul Glader focused on the increasing value of the really-small real estate. Buildings in the news abound with a second story, also in the WSJ by Ralph Gardner Jr., informs us about his personal quest for adding to his own souvenir building collection a Rockefeller Center replica. Included in the first story is a photographic slideshow of Howie's collection and a video with Architect Ronnette Riley's collection which lives in her office on the 74th floor of the Empire State Building. It will be interesting to see what impact might come from the media attention. Will the stories spawn new collectors? Will more people join the SBCS and attend our annual conventions? What do you think of the stories and what may happen as a result of this latest focus on our collective hobby? Let us know via the comments link below.
1 comment:
I thought the WSJ article seemed to suggest the only people interested in collecting miniature building models belonged to the organization -- "membership in the society has risen to about 200." Or perhaps that simply referred to those with "an obsession." I've collected buildings for years as I traveled, and have lamented that they are harder to find in tourist shops.
The concept of small models goes back to the days of the Grand Tour through Europe -- and helped the wonders of the classic tour achieve iconic status by allowing tourists to bring home a version and spread the word.
I'd love to see cities select their most historic or iconic buildings and promote them with metal miniature landmark editions -- at a more approachable cost than InFocusTech's business model currently allows.
If our buildings tell us about who we are and where we are from, then why not make that identity a souvenir anyone can take home?
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