'Don't fall behind': Vancouver scale model business continues to innovate while on the brink of extinction

Projects AB Scale Models have created include the new Oakridge Centre, Downtown Vancouver's 60-storey "Jenga" tower at 56 Leonard St. and the Shangri-La Penthouse.

Published Sep 02, 2024  •  5 minute read

Ming Yang and Sharon Xie with their real estate models at AB Scale Models in Vancouver Aug. 29, 2024. They're the go-to team who create miniature models of real estate developers/architects big projects. Photo by Arlen Redekop /PNG

On a recent summer evening, after the sun had set, passersby couldn’t help but pause and stare through the windows of a nondescript office building in Mount Pleasant in Vancouver.

Inside, Ming Yang, 67, was hunched over, applying delicate strokes of paint to a miniature tree that he was adding to a model of a highrise building.

For more than three decades, Yang and his wife, Sharon Xie, 71, have been turning blueprints for architects and developers into micro-size, tabletop realities. Their company, AB Scale Models, one of just a few in the city that specialize in this work, have attracted clients from around the globe, including New York City, Shanghai and Dubai.

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“They’ve been an important part of this experiment that is Vancouver, by building little Vancouvers ever since they started,” said Derek Newby, the managing director of architecture firm Perkins&Will.

“If you look into their office windows, you get a peek into what buildings are coming most often before it even becomes public.”

While their scale model business has kept up with the times, incorporating technology to help build their models, they face the threat of extinction as preferences shift toward digital renderings.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, cities, including Vancouver, started to permit 3D digital renderings instead of physical models as part of its review process for all development projects that go before its urban design panel. Now, only major redevelopments require a physical model.

This has meant fewer companies commissioning work from businesses like AB Scale Models.

“We’ve gone from having 70 to 80 projects on the go at a given time to now only 30 or 40,” said Xie, who also attributed the decline, in part, to high rates of inflation.

“Developers have been extending deadlines for their finished models to a few months because the market is not so good. Nobody wants to invest in real estate right now.”

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Yang, who grew up in Malaysia, was introduced to model making in his teenage years through a family friend.

In those days, model replicas of buildings were constructed by hand, out of materials such as paper, staples and cardboard. In the wake of Expo 86’s real estate boom, Yang found employment in Vancouver.

The pair met in 1989, working at the city’s oldest model making firm, B+B Models. “I was making $5 an hour at the time,” said Xie, who grew up in China.

After marrying, the couple started their scale model business in 1991 in a Yaletown basement. They initially struggled to generate clientele, making sales pitches knowing only a few phrases in English.

The family business grew into a booming enterprise of 30 employees working out of a two-storey office on the corner of West 5th Avenue and Ontario Street, attracting developers, architects, marketing teams and engineers.

Some of the high-profile projects they’ve created models for include the new Oakridge Centre, Downtown Vancouver’s 60-storey “Jenga” tower at 56 Leonard St. and the Shangri-La Penthouse.

“We realize that the housing in many of these buildings is not something a young couple can afford. Not even my two children — both who make good salaries as doctors — could purchase a unit right now,” Xie said.

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Innovating has been a means of survival for the company, the couple said.

In the early 2000s, the pair invested in a 3D printing machine, expediting the fabrication process and completing engraving, that used to take hours by hand, in just minutes. It also reduced their labour costs.

Since 2020, AB Scale Models has used internal lighting systems to liven up its models. Bulbs inside each room turn off and on to mimic the patterns of human activity in residential and commercial buildings.

“You always have to think ahead so you don’t fall behind,” Xie said.

One plastic building model typically takes AB Scale Models staff an average of four weeks to complete, the owner said.

While 3D printers and laser cutters are required for bigger tasks, they still use tweezers, files, fine knives and paint brushes for furniture and landscapes.

It’s a meticulous process that, depending on the model’s size and features, can come with a price tag of hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Most of the physical scale models made by the company are largely for promotional purposes, commissioned by those wanting a model to present to prospective buyers.

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Newby, who has commissioned work from AB Scale Models and built models himself, says the craft remains “fundamental” to the architectural design process.

“There’s nothing like a physical model. They activate your brain differently and ultimately lead you to a better understanding of the design problem you’re tackling,” Newby said.

“Firms that do not carry out the time-consuming process of modelling their designs are trying to take a shortcut or save a little bit of money — it’s a shame.”

One of B.C.’s largest developers, Anthem Properties, says it plans to continue purchasing works from Yang and Xie.

“The models they create play a key role in our sales centres, giving potential buyers a bird’s-eye view of their future home, inspiring them in a way images and video cannot,” said Krista Whitelock, Anthem’s vice-president of marketing.

“We trust their vision and commitment to innovate alongside us as the sector and its needs evolve.”

AB Scale Models also continues to receive work from cities such as Surrey to replicate commercial and residential buildings that have yet to break ground for the cities’ for-profit real estate development arm.

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On a recent morning, staff at AB Scale Models were adding the final touches to a presentation model of Surrey’s The Manhattan, a highrise that is to be built at 133A Street and Central Avenue, comprised of 418 condos, 94 apartments, eight townhomes and a ground floor of retail space.

“Ming was at the office working until 11 p.m. last night,” said Xie.

“Some days, we go home and all we talk about is work and all the surfaces of our Yaletown apartment are covered in Ming’s small tools — but it brings us so much joy.”

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