3D print the Palestra
A free, printable model of the Palestra, a long hall with stepped roof sections and arched windows, among neighboring buildings and lawns, generated from real map data in your browser.
Free, in your browser. Exports a slicer-ready 3MF.
About the Palestra
The Palestra, a historic arena, sits on the University of Pennsylvania's campus, at 235 South 33rd St., in Philadelphia's University City section. It opened on January 1, 1927, and is the Penn Quakers' home gym for men's and women's basketball, volleyball and wrestling. The Cathedral of College Basketball is its nickname, and it is regarded as especially important to the sport's history. William N. Bates, a Greek professor, gave it its name, from an ancient Greek word for a rectangular enclosure beside a gymnasium where athletes competed in front of spectators.
When it was built, the Palestra counted among the world's largest arenas. Its steel-and-concrete construction was among the first of its kind for arenas in the United States, and it was one of the first built with no interior pillars to block the view. It is famed for seating close to the court: the bleachers run right down to the floor, with no barrier separating fans from play. Its first varsity game, on January 1, 1927, saw Pennsylvania beat Yale 26–15 in front of 9,000 people, the biggest crowd then recorded at an East Coast basketball game.
No other facility in college basketball has hosted as many games, visiting teams or NCAA tournaments. For many years the building shared management with Madison Square Garden in Manhattan, and teams that wanted to play at the Garden were frequently obliged to book a game at the Palestra first. The Big 5 of Philadelphia (Villanova, Temple, La Salle, Saint Joseph's and Penn) once played every one of their games here. A $2 million renovation in 2000 added a museum on Philadelphia basketball to the main concourse.
How it prints
Make this print opens the generator on a 600 m square around the landmark. Buildings print at close to true scale, so the landmark grows with the print size.
| Print size | Landmark height | Scale |
|---|---|---|
| 160 mm default | 7 mm | 1:3,750 |
| 200 mm | 9 mm | 1:3,000 |
| 256 mm | 11 mm | 1:2,344 |
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North
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East
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South
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West
- Stepped roof lines
- Long stepped roof sections run the length of the hall. Layers of 0.12–0.16 mm keep each step crisp, and a larger print size keeps the narrow edges between them.
- Arched windows on the ends
- The end walls carry rows of small arched windows and ledges. Print friendly adapts these to the print scale; Full detail keeps them on a larger print.
- One piece with the ground
- The Palestra is joined to the ground in the exported file, and the four-side check found no floating parts, so nothing needs gluing.
- Pick the detail for your nozzle
- In the Buildings settings, set Landmark detail to Print friendly to adapt thin parts and small details to the print scale. Full detail keeps every modeled feature, for larger prints or a finer nozzle.
- Colors
- Buildings, roads, water and ground arrive as separate filament slots in the 3MF. The Palestra takes the building color.
- File format
- You get a 3MF for Bambu Studio, OrcaSlicer or PrusaSlicer. Any of them can save it as STL if you need one.
About this model
The Palestra is one of more than 2,300 landmark models in Mini Skyline. They are made with AI, and each one is checked from four sides in its real surroundings before release. Everything around it is built from OpenStreetMap and Overture map data. If you would rather print the shape from map data, turn off Landmark models in the Buildings settings.
Common questions
Is there a Palestra STL I can download?
Mini Skyline builds the file for you in your browser and exports 3MF, which every major slicer opens. If you need an STL, open the 3MF in your slicer and export it from there.
How big can I print it?
Any print size from 40 mm across. The Palestra grows with the print: about 7 mm tall on the default 160 mm print. For a model larger than your printer bed, Project Mode splits the area into tiles.
Is it free?
Yes. Generation runs in your browser, with no account and nothing behind a paywall.
