Bird’s-Eye View : Miniaturist Reduces Downtown Long Beach to Table-Top Size
Fernand Martel has this city’s downtown literally spread out on a table in his apartment building.
There are, of course, such recognizable structures as the World Trade Center, Sheraton Hotel and City Hall. Then there are other, less prominent ones, including a major expansion of the convention center unlikely to exist for another two years and the Landmark Square building scheduled to open in December.
“I finished it two months ago,” boasted Martel, a 70-year-old retired opera singer and organist who five years ago embarked on a new career creating detailed miniature buildings, particularly historic structures of Long Beach, out of balsa wood and glue.
His latest project is even more ambitious: reconstructing the entire downtown area, including buildings that have been approved but not yet built, on a base that will eventually cover an area of 225 square feet.
“I want people to appreciate the value of what they are living in,” Martel said. “This is a beautiful city.”
According to Martel, the work was suggested by a city official who believes the model-in-progress can help planners visualize their architectural goals for the downtown redevelopment area.
“As the city grows and we monitor its growth, to be able to see a three-dimensional model is vital,” said Bob Ringstrom, urban design officer for the city’s Department of Planning and Building. “This model is not a mantelpiece or a lobby display for the purpose of announcing our exploits; it is designed as a study model so that we can give serious attention to the relationship of the buildings and the streets as it relates to the entire urban fabric.”
Constructed of modular pieces, Ringstrom said, the model could eventually be stored at City Hall, where architects and planners would be able to reconstruct existing city blocks or construct new ones to measure the visual and aesthetic effects.
“When you just look at a site plan that is flat you have to go through the additional mental effort of realizing the vertical height of the building,” Ringstrom said. “With a model you can do that instantaneously; it helps you understand the developing personality of a street.”
Although the city has yet to make a formal arrangement to reimburse Martel, Ringstrom said he hopes that the elderly artisan, after making the model available to city planners, can eventually be retained to periodically revise it to reflect new developments.
Martel said he is not working for money but for the love of his craft. Despite the lack of a formal contract, he said, he has already spent more than five months on the project and expects to put in at least 10 more before he is finished. Working from plans supplied by the city, he said he has spent about $2,500 of his own money on supplies, an amount that could eventually double.
“When you are retired and have nothing to do,” Martel said, “you want to do something that will stay a while after you’re gone. So why not do something beautiful for the population of your city?”
Martel did not begin building miniatures until 1985, when he retired from a musical career that had spanned several continents. Born in Quebec, Canada, he entertained troops during World War II in a Canadian army show and eventually attended Juilliard School of Music in New York City. Later he sang with the City Center Opera Co. of New York, studied in Paris and appeared in the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. productions of “Doktor Faust,” “Carmen,” “Tosca,” “Barber of Seville” and “Romeo and Juliet,” to name a few.
Eventually, Martel became a hotel and nightclub performer, accompanying himself on the piano. Thirty years ago he began playing the organ in cocktail lounges, including some in Long Beach.
Fascinated by architecture, the elderly organist--he still gives occasional recitals around town--said he did not begin a serious study of the subject until after settling into a retirement home in downtown Long Beach.
The city is the perfect setting for such a study, he said, because it is well planned and its architecture is varied.
Beginning with commercial modeling kits that included detailed instructions for the construction of small-scale government buildings and European castles, Martel gradually taught himself the miniaturist’s art. Then, embarking on his own designs, he began working on the first of 21 detailed replicas of historic Long Beach buildings--many with working lights and plastic shrubbery.
Among the buildings that Martel has copied are the Breakers and Lafayette hotels, downtown Farmers & Merchants Bank, the city’s first City Hall, the Jergins Trust Building and the old Pacific Coast Club.
While some of the models have been exhibited at the Queen Mary and elsewhere, Martel said, most remain stored on the floor and in the closets of the small downtown apartment in which he works. “I have to tiptoe like a dancer in my apartment,” he said, describing the care he takes to avoid damaging the models that take as long as a year to complete.
It is the downtown model, however, that he considers his crowning achievement.
Built to a scale in which one-eighth of an inch equals one foot, the model is a metallic gray complete with sidewalks, streets, shops and parking spaces. Some of the buildings have windows intricately carved with an Exacto knife. And after taking pictures from various rooftops to help visualize spatial relationships, Martel has fashioned skyscrapers from glue and wood that feature all the markings of the real things.
“I think this should be seen by people,” he said. “They just don’t know how beautiful the city is.”
