The Lego taxi company

The fates decreed that I should have four grey Mercedes sedans. The first I had bought on purpose to have that colour variation next to the sole white example already present. And then three more turned up in quick succession, in two lots with other goodies including a few of the little garages these cars were also sold in way back when. Four luxury cars in the same colour make a nice fleet, so I decided this would be my taxi company.

As it happens, Lego had come up with a building for this very purpose. Although it doesn't say so on the illustration above, this design is often seen with the word Taxi in some language or other above the central door. The illustration is from the 1960 Idea Book. 

Since I had a number of the little garages, I decided to incorporate two of them in the building. Where their side walls could be imagined not to exist, allowing free passage inside. To keep them attached, the base plates were arranged differently from the drawing. 

In the original design the two wings on the sides aren't actually attached to the central block, so I added an extra edge around the top of the roof to keep these wings in place to at least some degree.

The base plates under the garages make for a steep threshold. But this way all the elements of the building are at the same level which looks a lot better than if the garages had been sitting at ground level. And the Great Hand From The Sky is always there to get the cars safely in and out!