The Grand Hall

[RedKettle]

THE BACKSTORY

This map is starting from about 3-4 different places. I think it starts with Bearwood Mansion, that I had started digitally tracing a while ago.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bearwood_College

I was watching a web series of an RPG and at one point the characters visit a steampunk/victorian mansion, but do not really explore it. I thought, hmmm, what would that look like? So I dug out the old trace of Bearwood and started reworking it to fit the Steampunkiness (all the staff are robots, so bedrooms changed to 'charging rooms'. etc.). The Main areas of the mansion ended with only minor changes, but the Services side got reworked a bit:

At this point I started getting into the project and got lost drawing floor patterns for a bit, and then added in the windows so you could really feel how the plan would work. And then I wanted to start adding some color and other objects, maybe some clockwork gears for a border... and then realized that my walls were still all a generic diagrammatic thickness.

So not wanting to deal with redrawing all my floor patterns and windows again once the wall widths were corrected I decided to abandon the project and move on to another plan. I checked my ever-expanding list of things-I-would-like-to-draw-one-day to see if I could find another plan to satiate my plan-drawing cravings.

I found on my list a mansion in an alternate world that needed a dance hall. The reason I needed to draw it out is because it needs parking for enough rickshaws (this part of the world does not have the right animals for urban animal-powered transportation) to fill the dance hall.

THE MAP (FINALLY)

I had another digital trace of a plan started, this time it was of Buchanan Castle.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buchanan_Castle
So I finished the walls for the ground floor

and then did a quick look in Wikipedia for dance halls. The smaller ballrooms for the US list seemed to be around 4000 sf, and after a little finagling it fit! Almost. By my estimates (10-15sf per person depending on how tight you want to pack people), our mansion owners should be able to entertain 250-400 people, max.

I ended up keeping the Service end very close to the original, but the Main areas got shuffled around a bit. I am a bit disappointed I could not keep the food service room connected to both the Luncheon Room and the Dining Room, and I am annoyed that the Drawing room is not centered on the corridor adjacent, so there is still a little tweaking to go. I've only managed to fit in rickshaw parking for about 150 guests so far, but I got a little distracted drawing different rickshaw models. Those take a little more space than I thought!


Anyway, I now have enough of a plan I might as well finish it as a drawing. I am not sure how much motivation I have to finish the upper floors (The great hall has an upper floor, the Drawing-Entry-Luncheon L is 4 stories, the Servery-Butler-Stage L is 3 stories, and the rest is one story), but I might develop an elevation to help show its character. We will see.

[Bogie]

That is a very elaborate floorplan!

[Meshon]

I love the way you've shown the highly decorated floors in the the Reed Estate map.

[RedKettle]

That is a very elaborate floorplan!

Thanks, I can only imagine what it would be like to live/work there...

I love the way you've shown the highly decorated floors in the the Reed Estate map.

Thanks, if you try hard enough, one can almost imagine what it would look like if I started coloring it... :p

[J.Edward]

These are really well done and well laid out Red.
Much respect, as I do a lot of involved floorplans and know just how much goes in there.

[Larb]

Those are some pretty and intricate floor mosaics/tiles!

[RedKettle]

Thanks J.Edward and Larb. I also have a lot of respect for both of your styles, and appreciate the good words.

This one has been worked on a little bit, but most of that work has not really gone anywhere. I wanted to redo the middle area of the plan, to try and get the still off the grand terrace, and to get the servants out of the back hallway when the ballroom is being used. I tore things up quite a bit, and even at one point tried to add a church/chapel as well, but the plan was not playing nice at all.


In the end I have gone back to something very similar to what I already had. I guess this means I need to stop meddling with the internals and move on to other elements, at least for a while. I'm not very excited about how the Terrace Gallery is right now though. I had wanted to reduce its size some, but I think I overdid it and lost some of the 'Grand' gesture.

[RedKettle]

I had to take a break from mapping due to Real Life stuff, but I thought since I was stopping by I would give you guys an update on this one. I got the upper floors probably ~80% figured out, but there is still room to tighten up the plans more if I ever come back. The title is just in to fill up the empty space right now, I am still not sure what the end composition will look like.

[J.Edward]

It's looking really good RedK
The layout is nice. I like the grand hall.
And all the windows - many wouldn't do all that are needed.
Splendid stuff.

[Falconius]

Wow, this is a really incredible project. Absolutely wonderful.