Blog Post 3: How to design a building with limited info

8/08/2025

Background

When I first started printing one of the Brownsville downtown buildings I was able to find dimensions online as it was in the process of being restored. The building is called the El Jardin Hotel. Built in 1927 then closed in the early 80's and stayed vacant and decaying for decades after. Finally it got renewed life as a low income housing but what ever the current use it's better than letting the building die by demolition by neglect, refers to the practice of allowing a building to deteriorate to the point that demolition becomes necessary or restoration becomes unreasonable.

This was the first building I designed and printed as a miniature stand alone for selling at vendor events. It didn't have much detail and primarily guessed at the dimensions. Also, I didn't have a color printed as today so I had to print in white then hand paint them.

The hand painted El Jardin hotel miniature model for selling at vendor events. Notice the lack of detail.

Then one day I decided to print the El Jardin hotel larger. Luckily I found dimensions of it online called Brownsville: Funding Comes In for Historic El Jardin Hotel Renovation, since it's currently being restored. With this I was able to improve the dimensions of the building as seen below. But in reality I hadn't chosen a specific scale as discussed in the previous post - Blog Post 2: My Downtown Replica Model...Talk About Unique! I didn't think about the actual scale until later. I also added a few more details to the building to give it more character.

A larger sized El Jardin hotel. But not to any specific scale. Notice I also added some detail to it.

Elevation of the El Jardin hotel as seen in Brownsville: Funding Comes In for Historic El Jardin Hotel Renovation

Using a Ruler to Scale Factor

After printing the model show above, I decided to try the building next to it called Ross as seen below. I realized quickly that I would need some type of scaling if the two buildings are to match is size and scale. Since there were no dimensions I could find online for this building I had to find another method for determining dimensions (length, width and height). One method I thought of was using a ruler I would measure the total length, width or height of the building. Then I could use this to measure other features such as windows, doors, etc using scale factor. This worked out pretty well but the image had to be straight on. Otherwise if the image was at an angle the measurement would be skewed.

Ross building in downtown Brownsville next to the El Jardin Hotel.

Using a ruler I would measure the total length, width or height of the building. Then I could use this to measure other features such as windows, doors, etc using scale factor.

In Comes Google Earth!

This was no bueno. By this time I wanted to add more buildings including blocks and streets so this method would become very frustrating indeed. So I did an online search and eventually found a YouTube video that discussed exactly what I was looking for! How to Measure Distances in Google Earth. And just like that I was now able to quickly determine dimensions without breaking a sweat. What a relief. With this newfound knowledge, I was able to measure buildings, blocks and streets for this new endeavor. See more in the caption below.

In this Google Earth image you see the Ross building's top view. I circled in yellow the horizontal ruler measurement. Bottom right-hand corner gives you the height of the building according to sea level. To find the actual height of the you hover your mouse over the part you want to measure in this case the roof of the building. In this case you see 19 m (meters). Then measure the street and in my case it will be 10 m above sea level. To find the floor height subtract roof height with street value and in this case comes out to 9 m.

The El Jardin hotel along the Ross and block designed on Autodesk Inventor.

THe 3d printed result of the El Jardin hotel, Ross building and the block

The Ross building designed on Autodesk Inventor.

The block designed on Autodesk Inventor.

Next blog...

Designing a building on Autodesk Inventor