I decided on the width of the model and I took the old photo I have and sized it proportionally in CAD, then I decided to experiment with making the sides “torn” so I could get a better idea the effect. I think with the right amount of “tear” texture it will be just what I had in mind.
Maybe adding about 50% more raggedness and rounding/curving the tear here and there on the clay model will do it, the CAD version is just a real quick/easy use of polygon hiding.
Oh and if anyone is wondering about the street name “Desbrosses” street and how it might be pronounced, this explanation from an 1880 book should do the trick:
In the city of New York there has been of very late years a remarkable change of name effected by this rule of spelling-book. “What,” said to me an elderly gentleman, a member of a highly respected old New York family, “what do these people mean by Dezbros-sez Street? There’s no such street. The name is De Broose Street.” He then informed me that the street was named after a family whose name was spelled ” Desbrosses,” but pronounced De Broose, and that until it appeared on the street cars it was always so pronounced. I myself have been astonished to hear the family name of an old friend and college classmate of mine—Van Schaick, which time out of mind was pronounced Von Scoik — lately spellingbooked into Van Shake. This solicitude to conform sound to letter has become a disease among us. It exists in no other country; and here it is due chiefly to common school teaching.