(Left) A four-and-five-eighths-inch-tall replica of Marina City finished in pewter by a company in Allentown, Pennsylvania. InFocus Tech has been making pewter replicas of buildings throughout the world since 1999. Other Chicago structures they have built in pewter include Marina City neighbors Tribune Tower, Wrigley Building, 35 East Wacker Drive, 75 East Wacker Drive, and Carbide & Carbon Building. (Click on image to view larger version)

After studying photographs and drawings of a building, technicians at InFocus Tech create a three-dimensional model on a computer. A rapid prototyping machine then makes a master model in plastic, from which a rubber mold is made. Liquid lead-free pewter – an alloy of tin and bismuth – is then poured into the mold. The piece is hand-finished after the pewter solidifies.

The Marina City piece, offered at $100, is not a big seller for InFocus Tech, according to owner Mike Merwine. “The only ‘big sellers’ we have are those that are picked up as commissions,” he says. “Marina City is not one of those.”

Pewter is not always the final form. A building owner in Los Angeles, recalls Merwine, “bought one of our replicas and had a chocolate mold made from it.”

 Web site: Replica Buildings by InFocus Tech