Mike -
If you are imagining these buildings as being in a real, ordinary,
functioning downtown (as opposed to restored buildings in an historical
preservation district), I would recommend you mostly avoid bright color
schemes during the period you cite.
A couple things to consider: (1) After the Great Depression and World War
II, most of these smaller, older brick buildings were well past their
prime, and many were located in economically depressed parts of the city.
Indeed, by the 1960s, US downtowns already had begun their decline; this
was, after all, the second great wave of American suburbanization. So there
was not a lot of money or incentive to make these buildings look spiffy.
(2) "Modernism" still exerted a lot of influence on the urban aesthetics of
1950s and '60s. These older buildings, with their ornamented cornices,
windows, and doors, were considered "Victorian monstrosities" and
embarrassments to the image of a progressive city. The gingerbread that had
been picked out with such exquisite detail in an earlier day now would have
been painted over to make it look "flatter" and simpler, conforming better
to the clean, straight lines of modernist buildings.
As a child growing up in Chicago during the 1950s I can recall blocks and
blocks of ugly, old, dilapidated stores along 55th Street, most of their
fronts painted a solid color -- grey (from surplus Navy paint, IIRC), a
light institutional green, ugly orange, light yellow -- and all were
bulldozed within a few years. That probably was an extreme case, but not
unusual -- I've heard similar descriptions from friends on the West Coast
and elsewhere. So if it were my model city, I'd give some of the building
absolutely solid fronts (i.e., paint over the brick), and for others I'd
leave the brick in its natural color and pick out the cornice, windows, and
doors, but using relatively simple colors. If that feels frustrating to
your creativity, try directing your painting energy toward making these
buildings look nicely worn; then the simpler color schemes may not bother
you as much. And of course you can always have a couple exceptions --
buildings that are undergoing renovation and redecoration.
Carole Rifkind's Main Street: The Face of Urban America (New York: Harper
Colophon Books, 1978) is one of the most useful sources on urban landscape
and architecture I have found. While the photos are all black & white, they
are terrific and provide a very comprehensive survey of the appearance of
"downtown" in American cities, large and small, from the early Republican
era to the late 20th century.
Happy modeling,
Jonathan
---------
Hey list,
I am having trouble locating any color photos of small downtown buildings
from the late 50's & 60's, similar to the DPM, Magnason or Walthers buildings.
I am wondering if they ever got painted in some of the vivid colors we see
them painted now days.
Most of them were brick so did they leave the natural color of the specific
brick they were built with or did they sometimes paint them to match their
mood or the signage. Just wondering as always.
Mike Langford
SOO Line 1964-67
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