CAPTAIN'S CABIN

A place where visitors can sit in comfort while conversing, or simply taking in the view.
You can also sit on the counters, and there are cupcakes for the sweet tooth.

     Recruiting a little house into an extreme remodel which enlarged it significantly, the Captain’s Cabin becomes the third corner of a usable triangle of buildings at Venice Under Glass. Earlier visitors might remember that at first, this network of canals was arranged as a set design, with only one focal building containing an interior: the Orange Gallery. The next to come was the Peace Gallery to house images of Lilia Artis’ exhibit “The Cruelty of Peace”. In order to balance the habitable space, I began work the past week on the café now called the Captain’s Cabin.

These three walls were only one hollowed out prim.

Molding was added at the floor and ceiling, and the alpha texture for walls
was removed. The pillars and arches are prims with non-alpha textures.

     The two pictures above show the progress of the build. Thank goodness for the alpha wars inherent in transparent textures. It was for this reason that I didn’t settle for the first draft of the walls. The building’s upper exterior gave precedence to the alpha glass floor above it, rendering the typical ghost effect. Though this kind of blending is often desired, in this case I felt it weakened the overall look of the building. I took a deep breath and decided to spend the extra prims necessary to construct non-alpha walls. Going from one prim to about 20 is the result. That wasn’t so painful after all thanks to the savings with convex hulling.

     To acquire an Italian look, I take inspiration from Loggias. If you notice the pillars, they are a device to call on classical architecture, and are actually photos I took of an iron building in New York. It seemed to fit the bill, though a continent away. The wide open arches on three sides allow an extraordinary amount of light to engulf the interior, and afford the opportunity for a panorama looking out. The Captain’s Cabin is one among the choice spots for a view at Accentaury, so the generous windows were essential.

The counters are arranged as an oval, to suggest the shape of a ship.

     Venice Under Glass is not a copy of its namesake in any manner. No buildings are copied from the real life city. It is simply a fantasy adaptation, yet still has the gondolas and poles to show for it. However, Venice, whether in real life or in a virtual world, is indebted to its glass. Wanting to include this aspect, I sculpted some glass pieces which are given for free to visitors when they click on them. I might make variations in the near future so anyone who wants can build up a collection. 

There was a wall of rock facing this doorway. Yesterday I removed it,
and just by chance, the view looks onto the shipwreck, which has
been a part of ACC Alpha since its early days. It was not
touched to accommodate the view, it remains steadfast.

XXX