Carillon Redux: Lantern Deck and Upper Dome

carillon_render_20170114-2
Now we’re getting somewhere: Rendering of (nearly complete) lantern exterior with deck, railing, and the library’s upper dome.

We’re going to leave the lantern behind for a while and focus on the part of the library that holds it up: the upper dome. This section is somewhat plainer and more traditional, and provides a bridge between the baroque fussiness of the lantern with the Greek Revival façade below.

carillon_dome_08
The well, or floor of the lantern, includes the bases of the 12 interior columns.

First we have a few details to attend to. The well-shaped floor of the lantern provides a drainage system for rain and snow, and support for the interior structures that, in turn, support the carillon bells. The 12 columns match the 12 interior columns of the lantern.

The transmission wires pass through an opening in this floor, connecting the bells to the keyboard below. More on this later.

carillon_dome_01
The space between the two scrolls is bridged.

To create the exterior lantern deck, we’ll cut down the lantern again to a single section, and bridge the space between the scrolls and extend it.

carillon_dome_02
The section is duplicated, and the edge of the deck is extruded again to form the base for the railing.

After the section is duplicated back out and the full lantern mesh is restored, we extrude the edge polygons vertically to create the railing base.

carillon_dome_03
The railing begins as a 120-section ring.

The railing consists of three rings connected by 120 upright posts, with every sixth post extended to provide support. So we’ll start with a 120-section polygonal ring.

carillon_dome_04
A single section of the ring is duplicated and connected.

All but one of the sections are deleted, and that one is duplicated twice, vertically. Two of the copies are connected with a short vertical post.

carillon_dome_05
The sections are duplicated to make a six-part panel.

The sections are duplicated horizontally to make a six-section panel, and one vertical post is extended to connect all three rows.

carillon_dome_06
The panel is duplicated and merged to complete the railing.

The panel is now duplicated 19 times – for a total of 20 panels – and merged to build out the entire railing. The three horizontal railings are positioned vertically to move the railing into place.

carillon_dome_09
The copper cladding for the dome is added.

The cladding for the dome consists of 70 copper sections. This is a simple shape and can be put in place quickly.

carillon_dome_10
The upper level and windows of the main dome are added.

As for the dome wall, we’ll concern ourselves with only the top level – very little of this will appear in the final rendering. The dome has 14 sections instead of 12, resulting in a remarkable optical illusion that makes it appear to match the geometry of the lantern. Instead of a dodecagon, the dome is a tetradecagon. But when viewed from below it’s almost impossible to tell that the plans are different.

The flat tops of the columns will eventually support 14 carved owls. But we’ll leave those for later. It’s time to install the carillon bells.