A Few Details About Russian Sam

Posted by Steve Lackmeyer

on October 31, 2010M at 5:36 pm

Now that “Russian Sam” – real name Elijah Shvetsov – is set to attend the Creativity World Forum in Oklahoma City, let’s learn a bit more about the man and his project.

Elijah Shvetsov has never visited America. He has never visited Oklahoma City. But that didn’t stop the 25-year-old St. Petersburg hypermarket worker from attempting to build a minature model of downtown Oklahoma City – a project that earned him the admiration and friendship of hundreds of Oklahoma Citians half a world away.

Shvetsov started his hobby gluing pieces of paper together into buses at age 6. He assembled his first building model of the World Trade Center in 1997. After building models of prominent landmarks from around the world, he decided to build an entire downtown. After surveying cities worldwide, he chose Oklahoma City because of its density and relative compactness of its central business district. He sought out photos online and provided a glimpse of his project at www.skyscrapercity.com. It was there that some Oklahoma City residents found out about his work, and he was introduced on local community forum www.okctalk.com. Dennis Wells, an architect with Miles Associates, is leading the effort to bring “Russan Sam” (Elijah’s online handle) to Oklahoma City and is working with Creative Oklahoma to have him attend the Creativity World Forum on Nov. 16.

Creative Oklahoma will be extending free admission to the forum and a helicopter ride over the city if this mission is successful. Wells is set to host Elijah at his home – one of the new modern architectural residences popping up in an area known as SoSA – “South of St. Anthony (Hospital).”

To find out more about this project, email Dennis Wells at DWells@milesassociates.com. Contributions can be sent to Creative Oklahoma at 133 W Main Street, No. 100, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma 73102. Creative Oklahoma is a 501c3 non-profit that promotes and catalyzes creative idea generation in individuals and institutions.

Now let’s learn about how “Russian Sam” built downtown Oklahoma City from the man himself:

1. How much money I’ve spent?
- $ 2 (20 white smooth sheets of paper)
- $ 12 (20% inks of 4 colors) Printer Canon iP3500
- $ 60 (6 months Internet)
- 2 cents for wadding
- free felt-pen
2. Officially model including 2024 parts (really about 2100)
3. 811 “trees”
3. 99 buildings & structurs (without skywalks)
4. First model was made March 10, 2010. It’s been Chase Tower
Last model was made August 12, 2010.
5. I used:
www.maps.google.ru
Google Earth by Google for measuring dimensions
www.bing.com/maps
Also 860 photos from:
www.pbase.com
www.flickr.com
www.panoramio.com
www.emporis.com
www.skyscrapercity.com
www.skyscraperpage.com/forum
www.city-data.com/forum
and other sites
Information (height, floors):
www.skyscrapercity.com
www.skyscraperpage.com
www.emporis.com
and official sites of some buildings (ex. www.101parkave.com)
6. Tools
- computer (standart graphical redactor Microsoft Paint)
- needle (for glue)
- scissors
- tweezers
- blade
- paper
- pencils
- office glue
- colored felt pen
- wadding
- brain & hands

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Russian Sam

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