The Greatest Great Wall

This souvenir encapsulates everything I love about miniatures. It is  crudely made, out of scale, looks nothing like what it is representing, but is undeniably the Great Wall. My friend got me this directly from the source at the base of the wall in China. Price unknown but I bought him a few beers.

Gateway Arch

The Gateway Arch, or Gateway to the West,^[5] is an arch that is the centerpiece of the Jefferson National Expansion Memorialin St. Louis, Missouri. It was built as a monument to the westward expansion of the United States. At 630 feet (192 m), it is the tallest man-made monument in the United States,^[4] Missouri's tallest accessible building, and the largest architectural structure designed as a weighted or flattened catenary arch.^[4]

The arch is located at the site of St. Louis' foundation,^[6] on the west bank of the Mississippi River where Pierre Laclède, just after noon on February 14, 1764, told his aide, Auguste Chouteau, to build a city.^[7][8]

The Gateway Arch was designed by Finnish-American architect Eero Saarinen and German-American structural engineerHannskarl Bandel in 1947. Construction began on February 12, 1963, and ended on October 28, 1965,^[9][10] costing US$13 million at the time^[11] (approximately $95,900,000 in 2012^[2]). The monument opened to the public on June 10, 1967.^[12]

Collecting Souvenir Buildings

Hampton Court Palace

A well-known curiosity of the palace's grounds is Hampton Court Maze; planted in the 1690s by George London and Henry Wise forWilliam III of Orange.^[36] The maze covers a third of an acre and contains half a mile of paths. It is possible that the current design replaced an earlier maze planted for Cardinal Wolsey. It was originally planted with hornbeam; it has been repaired latterly using many different types of hedge.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hampton_Court_Palace

John Hancock Center

Including its antennas, the John Hancock Center has a height of 1,500 feet (457 m), making it the fifth-tallest building in the world when measured to pinnacle height. 

 One of the most famous buildings of the structural expressionist style, the skyscraper's distinctive X-bracing exterior is actually a hint that the structure's skin is indeed part of its 'tubular system'. This idea is one of the architectural techniques the building used to climb to record heights (the tubular system is essentially the spine that helps the building stand upright during wind and earthquake loads). This X-bracing allows for both higher performance from tall structures and the ability to open up the inside floorplan (and usable floor space) if the architect desires. Original features such as the skin have made the John Hancock Center an architectural icon. It was pioneered by Bangladeshi-American structural civil engineer Fazlur Khan and chief architect Bruce Graham.

Little White House

Warm Springs, GA


Today the Little White House is part of Georgia's state park system and is open to visitors; it’s been preserved to look almost exactly as it did the day FDR died. Items on display at the facility, besides the Unfinished Portrait, include his customized 1938 Ford convertible (in the bottom floor of the garage/servant house) and his stagecoach.

This was made in Japan

Machu Picchu

Machu Picchu is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Since its discovery in 1911, a growing number of tourists visit Machu Picchu, reaching 400,000 in 2003. As Peru's most visited tourist attraction and major revenue generator, it is continually threatened by economic and commercial forces

Sydney Opera House

The Opera House covers 4.5 acres of land. It is 183 meters long and about 120 meters wide, at its widest point.

Manneken Pis

This photo was found among my Grandpa's things and we presume he took it during World War II.  

 He bought the replica Manneken Pis below about 20 years ago and displayed it proudly for years. I have it now and continue the tradition. It is a concrete cast piece. The head was cast separately and it has metal tubing running from the middle of the base to the junk.  

They get me

How can I compete with this?

The Crown Point Vista House

Got this salt shaker on a vacation in Oregon for a mere $16.50. It is ceramic with a rubber plug in the base. For some reason the holes in the top really bug me. I kind of resent dual purpose miniature buildings.

From Wikipedia:

The Crown Point Vista House was built in 1916 and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. With its marble interior and brass fixtures, some Oregonians at the time derided it as "The $100,000 Outhouse".

The building serves mostly as a public restroom

Trevi Fountain

Trevi Fountain

A traditional legend holds that if visitors throw a coin into the fountain, they are ensured a return to Rome.

Sunsphere

A March 1996 episode of The Simpsons, "Bart on the Road," features the Sunsphere.Bart and three friends travel to Knoxville to visit the World's Fair, only to learn they are over a decade too late. The Sunsphere has become a dilapidated storage warehouse for a wig store, known as "The Wigsphere." Nelson then topples the Sunsphere after he throws a rock at it causing it to land on top of and completely crush their rental car, stranding them in Knoxville.

Stonehenge

Yet another stonehenge model. This was a small scale test run but I still like the results. I am glad to know that I am not the only copy cat. People who do this make me smile. And now, some history.

Stonehenge is a prehistoric monument located in the English county of Wiltshire, about 8 miles (13 km) north of Salisbury. One of the most famous prehistoric sites in the world, Stonehenge is composed of earthworks surrounding a circular setting of large standing stones. Archaeologists believe the standing stones were erected around 3200 BC and the surrounding circular earth bank and ditch, which constitute the earliest phase of the monument, have been dated to about 3100 BC.

Thanks as always to wikipedia!

Fort Sumter

This was a gift from the pro miniature building hunter. I still love free buildings!

The fort was a five-sided structure (although not a regular pentagon but more like the home plate used in baseball). It was a brick structure, 170 to 190 feet long, with walls five feet thick, standing 50 feet over the low tide mark. It was designed to house 650 men and 135 guns in three tiers of gun emplacements, although it was never filled near capacity.

Fort Sumter was built after the War of 1812 as one of a series of fortifications on the southern U.S. coast. Construction began in 1829, using slave labor, and the structure was unfinished in 1860, when the Civil War began.

Cave

This is a cave and NOT a miniature building...just so we are clear!

Stonehenge

I made this amatuer Stonehenge.

Basilica of the Sacré Cœur

The Sacred Heart.