WIP: Kirkbride style Insane Asylum Foorplan for Mystery Game

[Robbie]

Well I'm just wondering how if the second story has a 12' ceiling in the ward and 16' ceiling in the admin section then how does the floor of the third story admin section mate up with the third story of the wards? I originally thought there'd be a hallway at the 12' level that went across from female side to left side with a landing at the 16' height, but that's only a 4' high vertical space. So it just doesn't add up when looking at the floorplan either in my map or the book plates. If you or anyone else wants to take a look and maybe sketch out a possible solution or visualization that would be awesome! I have no idea how I'm going to do it and also factor in ceiling/floor thickness.

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[Mouse]

Hmmm....

I think... and this is only thinking....

The floors in the wings could have been thicker to allow sufficient depth for drainage and sewage pipes - which need a drop on them so that they don't constantly block, though I can't remember for the life of me what the magical gradient is, its a noticeable slope. These things might not have been necessary in the central part?

Its also possible that since the building predates H&S laws about steps and stairs in public buildings, there might have been a couple of steps up and down to get through the central part of the building. Its not likely that there was ever a clear runway through from end to end, since they were trying to keep male and female patients apart, so there would have been doors, and quite possibly steps down into the wings on each side.

Like I say - only thinking out loud

[Robbie]

Interesting. That could very well be a way to look at it. In find it a little disturbing that Dr Kirkbride didn't address it in his texts or the plates. That's why I'm still on the hunt for some more floor plans that show more info about the admin section.

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[Mouse]

I have been keeping a look out for a source of actual architects plans, but haven't come up with anything just yet.

Have to go to bed now, Robbie - its 2 am over here.

I'll have another look for you in the morning

[Robbie]

Oh dang, yeah go to bed, lol

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[Mouse]

I've been all over the place on a very interesting mystery tour this morning

No explanation for the difference in room height, but a lot of pictures of interiors here on flckr for later on when you get to the stage of fixtures and fittings. (I know - that doesn't really solve the problem!)

I did a bit of reading as well (that's actually quite rare for me, since I tend to look at the pictures!), and discovered that one of the major concerns was adequate ventelation. Having worked in a Victorian building being used as a care home for the elderly with dementia, I can say it would have been extremely useful to have 4 ft of space above a false ceiling for boxed venting, and some of the pictures I've seen of the derelict hospitals might suggest that was the case in at least a couple of them.

A couple of other resources that might prove useful once the structure has been resolved:

This YouTube footage was one of the few that wasn't all silly with tales of the supernatural, or filmed by trespassers in a hurry prior to demolition, and shows amazing detail of interior décor and equipment - if you don't mind the fuzzy bits between the interesting bits. Details here of wall and ceiling textures, door locks and latches if you decide to go for total period authenticity down to that level of detail...

If you decide to change the plan and make it more of a modified Kirkbride layout, this page explains the history and development of Kirdbride's plan, going from the early hospitals that adhered most closely to the plan (Trenton State Hospital and Dixmont State Hospital), explaining how the basic plan was changed over time. There was a later edition of the book I linked to before, in 1880, where Kirkbride described an improved layout. Sadly, I have not been able to locate a scanned copy of that book!

[Robbie]

I'm glad you brought all that up about the improved and modified Kirkbride buildings, I actually prefer the improved plan, but didn't have any completed reference material, but now that I have my own hybrid plan, I realize I could pretty easily improve my own layout. I originally was targeting the one in Dayton Ohio because it's down the street from me but your finding of that book became my primary driver to start mapping. I think I'm going to make some changes. Also, good find on the interiors! I'll definitely need that later!

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[Mouse]

Now that I've absorbed so much detail about all the different hospitals that were built over the period when Kirkbride was still the vogue, I think it would be fairly easy to design your own detail and move things around quite a lot - yes. Even it if ends up being really quite different to the original plan, the same is true of many of the later hospitals. I really like the flying corridors that link the wards in the later buildings

It may be more important to get the flavour of the architecture right, rather than the accuracy. Convincing building materials on the outside, and period décor on the interior will probably have some visitors thinking your model is one of a real Kirkbride building no matter what shape it ends up being

[Robbie]

Actually separating the wards by flying corridors answers the question on how to deal with the ceiling height issue.

I'll give that some serious thought. It also gives me an opportunity to have a 3d performance boost by not having to have more than one ward in memory at a time.

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[Robbie]

My wife and I just talked out the stairway concept of the second to third to fourth story celing height transition, and I think I understand how it works now. She's a good help for stuff like that...An intelligent sounding board.

So with that, I think I'm going to leave my layout as it is as far as overall building structure...It will make it easier to model I think. I may create some more offset to the wards, but not flying corridors like you mentioned...

At this point, I think in order to start modeling out buildings and such, I'm going to use layers to line up all the stories on top of each other and start exporting each story as a separate image...That will also lend well to modeling.