Red Brick Cafe

My latest city building, the Red Brick Cafe:



Design inspired by the center building in this photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jeremyfountain/5720351703/in/faves-rgb/

The "Cafe" sign is an old Duplo brick I had as a kid. I have several other old printed Duplo bricks I can hopefully integrate into future MOCs.

Rob,

Very nice. I think this is my favorite of the newer MOCs you have built.

Tony Sties

Looks good! I like how you alternated the two reds looks very nice.

Thanks. I like the alternating brick-plates technique. It used it for my Starbucks too (brown bricks and dark tan plates). I'll probably try different color combinations to use in future buildings as well.

I like the roofline, the circular lights ("lights" = "small window," not "lantern") above the side windows (inverted-arch and tiles, right?) and the pillars alongside them, the Duplo "Cafe" sign, and the red pillars.

I assume the side walls are (a) flat to accommodate adjoining buildings, but (b) nonetheless striped because it was easier to continue the scheme?

The two levels of pillars are separated by four bricks of height. Maybe you could visually tie them together by replacing the flat bricks along that axis with slightly-textured bricks? Log, slot, headlight with tile, something.

The large second-floor windows mean the unfinished interior is visible, which IMHO is a bit off-putting. Solid wall of black brick behind them? Underside of large black plates behind brick-built curtains drawn mostly-shut?

I'm not sold on the double front doors, although I can't recall how common they are on eateries in downtowns (I work in one) vs. single doors. Maybe it's just the solid chunk of white that looks odd to me, versus a single door with lights to each side. Also, in West Chester there's usually a front stoop (probably a tradition dating to the era before paved sidewalks) -- the ground floor is slightly elevated above sidewalk grade. (That would require a boost of at least one plate for the entire building; not an attractive proposal, I know.)

The blue/white striped awnings look a little short relative to the height of the windows and figs. Maybe a hanging fringe? 2x1 45° inverted-slope bricks on the sides, 1x1 bricks along the front to continue the slope. (IIRC, the 1980's Castle sets had stalls with striped awnings and sawtooth fringes, but the stripes were two bricks wide.)

The al fresco tables: Maybe two plates taller? Furniture proportions with minifigs are always tricky, but with the feet of the diners pressed against them, these look more like hassocks.

Most of my buildings are designed to go between other buildings, but I try to make the sides look decent enough that they could be used on corners if they had to. For this one and the Starbucks, it was easier to keep the striped pattern going around the entire building, especially since I have a lot of dark red and dark tan 1x2 plates to use.

I was originally going to use clear doors for the entrance, but I'm running low on them. They used to show up in PAB regularly (and we even bulk ordered them once) but I haven't seen them lately. Most of my commercial buildings use them, so I'm going through them quickly.

I should raise the tables a little more. I'm fine with the awnings, other than the fact that my Persian Arms Apartments use the same ones (from the Tan Creator House). I tried using 8x6 blue slopes, but they looked too big and dull.