A casual visitor to Kingston”™s Ryerson Studio would believe that its president, Michael DelPriore, was building elegant dollhouses for children of very wealthy parents.
Actually, he builds models for his clients ”“ architects, builders and developers ”“ to show to their own clients. His efforts range from multimillion-dollar homes in the tri-state area “that would knock your socks off,” as he puts it, to major developments like the city of Yonkers waterfront and the National Harbor Project, an entire city in Maryland just south of Washington, D. C.
“A single home can sometimes be more time consuming than an entire development,” DelPriore says, explaining that a typical residential model is on a scale of 1/8-inch equals one foot. For the Yonkers waterfront project presently under construction in his studio, the scale is one inch to 80 feet. “The larger scaled models rule out any cheating on details,” he points out.
All roofs come off of the four-unit townhouse created for the Paddler”™s Point Community sales office in West Milford, Pa., on a scale of 1/8-inch equaling one foot, showing room layouts and furniture below.
Then there was the Monticello Motor Club, a private racetrack. “That was a fantastically fun project,” he says.
Using DelPriore”™s model, the city of Yonkers can display the huge magnitude of construction planned for the waterfront and solicit new investment.
DelPriore considers the internally illuminated National Harbor Project “one of the most beautiful we have done.”
The Ryerson website, www.ryersonstudio,com, reveals a wide assortment of projects, including real estate developments, residential, corporate interiors, industrial, educational and health care facilities, liturgical and recreational.
A typical model consists of many layers of materials, starting with CAD-driven elevations, cut and laser etched into acrylic. A wall would have window trim applied to a layer of brick, applied to a thickness of Plexiglas wall, applied to a layer of window mullion, applied to a layer of clear Plexiglas for internal illumination, all custom matched to the client”™s specifications.
In his 25th year as a model maker, DelPriore grew up on a Westbrookville horse farm, son of one of Monticello Raceway”™s first harness racing drivers. After studying architecture for two years at Orange County Community College, he transferred to Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, earning a bachelor”™s degree in architecture. Initially employed by The Space Design Group in New York City, he found the architectural process too slow for his taste.
“By the time you actually got something built, it was two years later,” he remarks. “I got bored with the time line.”
But, he was not bored with Michele Murphy, who worked there. The two married in l990 and settled down in a Brooklyn row house on Ryerson Street, named for the steel family, most of whom survived the Titanic”™s sinking. DelPriore decided to retain the street name for his business.
When the older of two DelPriore sons reached kindergarten age, they decided to relocate. “It was time to leave for a community with good public schools and backyard grass instead of concrete painted green.”
The couple located a home with a boathouse now serving as business home base. DelPriore also maintains a CAD and laser studio in Newburgh. His wife is employed by the Esopus town library. Son Alex is a sophomore at Vassar College, and his younger brother, Daniel, is a Kingston High School sophomore.
Challenging Careers focuses on the exciting and unusual business lives of Hudson Valley residents. Comments or suggestions may be e-mailed to Catherine Portman-Laux at cplaux@optonline.net.
