How to Model the Sean Collier Memorial in SketchUp | Step by Step
1.6K views · 2026-10-31
Space & Architecture
Learn how to model the Sean Collier Memorial at MIT in SketchUp step by step, using Bezier curves, Push/Pull, Follow Me, and Solid Tools to recreate its complex architectural form.
In this SketchUp architecture tutorial, we start from the memorial’s site plan, trace its unique curved geometry, build the five-way form, create the central curved openings, and use Solid Tools to shape the final model.
The Sean Collier Memorial is a remarkable piece of MIT architecture designed by J. Meejin Yoon / Höweler + Yoon. Its real structure uses interlocking granite blocks to create a complex five-way stone vault — making it an excellent project for learning advanced curved modeling techniques in SketchUp.
If you’ve ever wondered how to model complex architecture from a reference plan or photograph, this workflow shows how a seemingly difficult form can be broken into a series of manageable modeling operations.
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WHAT YOU’LL LEARN
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• How to recreate complex architecture in SketchUp
• How to model the Sean Collier Memorial from a site plan
• How to create accurate curves with the Bezier Toolbar
• How to connect multiple curved profiles
• How to extrude the main architectural form
• How to create a smooth sphere using Follow Me
• How to increase segment count for smoother geometry
• How to scale, rotate, and position cutting geometry
• How to use Solid Tools Subtract
• How to create curved architectural openings
• How to build complex organic geometry with simple SketchUp operations
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CHAPTERS
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00:00 Sean Collier Memorial – SketchUp Overview
00:44 Starting from the Site Plan
00:57 Creating the Form with Bezier Curves
03:19 Extruding the Main Structure
03:44 Creating & Positioning the Cutting Sphere
05:44 Using Solid Tools to Carve the Openings
06:21 Final Sean Collier Memorial Model
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
TOOLS & RESOURCES
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
SketchUp Plugins & Tools:
https://nicetowerpro.com/sketchup-free-plugin/
Nice Tower SketchUp Plugins:
https://nicetowerpro.com/nt-plugins/
SketchUp 3D Models & Files:
https://www.nicetowers.com/sketchup-3d-models
Join Nice Tower to access this project file, previous SketchUp files, courses, and member resources:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCK_0AfnQY3I_wUsF24Ik_3w/join
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ABOUT THE PROJECT
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The Sean Collier Memorial is located on the MIT campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Designed by J. Meejin Yoon and Höweler + Yoon Architecture, the memorial combines traditional stone vaulting principles with digital design and fabrication.
Its five radial elements converge around a central opening, creating one of the most recognizable contemporary memorial structures on the MIT campus.
In this tutorial, we focus on recreating the overall architectural geometry and modeling workflow inside SketchUp.
Subscribe to Nice Tower for more SketchUp tutorials, architectural modeling workflows, plugins, complex geometry tutorials, and practical 3D modeling techniques.
@NiceTower
@nicetowerpro
#SketchUp #SketchUpTutorial #Architecture #ArchitecturalModeling #SeanCollierMemorial #MITArchitecture #3DModeling #BezierCurve #SolidTools #NiceTower
In this SketchUp architecture tutorial, we start from the memorial’s site plan, trace its unique curved geometry, build the five-way form, create the central curved openings, and use Solid Tools to shape the final model.
The Sean Collier Memorial is a remarkable piece of MIT architecture designed by J. Meejin Yoon / Höweler + Yoon. Its real structure uses interlocking granite blocks to create a complex five-way stone vault — making it an excellent project for learning advanced curved modeling techniques in SketchUp.
If you’ve ever wondered how to model complex architecture from a reference plan or photograph, this workflow shows how a seemingly difficult form can be broken into a series of manageable modeling operations.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
WHAT YOU’LL LEARN
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
• How to recreate complex architecture in SketchUp
• How to model the Sean Collier Memorial from a site plan
• How to create accurate curves with the Bezier Toolbar
• How to connect multiple curved profiles
• How to extrude the main architectural form
• How to create a smooth sphere using Follow Me
• How to increase segment count for smoother geometry
• How to scale, rotate, and position cutting geometry
• How to use Solid Tools Subtract
• How to create curved architectural openings
• How to build complex organic geometry with simple SketchUp operations
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
CHAPTERS
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
00:00 Sean Collier Memorial – SketchUp Overview
00:44 Starting from the Site Plan
00:57 Creating the Form with Bezier Curves
03:19 Extruding the Main Structure
03:44 Creating & Positioning the Cutting Sphere
05:44 Using Solid Tools to Carve the Openings
06:21 Final Sean Collier Memorial Model
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
TOOLS & RESOURCES
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
SketchUp Plugins & Tools:
https://nicetowerpro.com/sketchup-free-plugin/
Nice Tower SketchUp Plugins:
https://nicetowerpro.com/nt-plugins/
SketchUp 3D Models & Files:
https://www.nicetowers.com/sketchup-3d-models
Join Nice Tower to access this project file, previous SketchUp files, courses, and member resources:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCK_0AfnQY3I_wUsF24Ik_3w/join
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
ABOUT THE PROJECT
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
The Sean Collier Memorial is located on the MIT campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Designed by J. Meejin Yoon and Höweler + Yoon Architecture, the memorial combines traditional stone vaulting principles with digital design and fabrication.
Its five radial elements converge around a central opening, creating one of the most recognizable contemporary memorial structures on the MIT campus.
In this tutorial, we focus on recreating the overall architectural geometry and modeling workflow inside SketchUp.
Subscribe to Nice Tower for more SketchUp tutorials, architectural modeling workflows, plugins, complex geometry tutorials, and practical 3D modeling techniques.
@NiceTower
@nicetowerpro
#SketchUp #SketchUpTutorial #Architecture #ArchitecturalModeling #SeanCollierMemorial #MITArchitecture #3DModeling #BezierCurve #SolidTools #NiceTower