For a few weeks, it was the biggest mystery at city hall, triggering playful public appeals for help.

The observation deck of the CN Tower in Tiny Town TO — the miniature model of the city’s downtown core that draws 100,000 visitors a year — was missing. So was the antenna.

Had someone taken them? It wouldn’t be the first time a tourist walked off with a piece of Tiny Town — it used to happen so often that for a time, touching the tiny CN Tower would trigger an alarm. A Plexiglas perimeter was installed to help protect the city from looting — some people, it seems, just can’t resist trying to make off with little handmade pieces of Toronto.

The city’s planning department tweeted for help. Hours later a CTV reporter and cameraman showed up and while shooting close-ups of the miniature, discovered the observation deck wedged between buildings on Front St. The antenna was resting along fake Bay St. A little girl visiting city hall, with keen eyes and wee fingers, agreed to burrow under the model city — which is built on tables resting on castors so it can be broken up into sections and moved around — and popped out close enough to rescue the pieces from the streets without further damaging Tiny Town.

“Her tiny hands were perfect for plucking the pieces out safely,” said Carolyn Humphreys, a program manager in Toronto’s planning division and caretaker of the model town.

It’s not known whether the observation tower and antenna fell off or were knocked off, but the incident highlighted a sad truth about Tiny Town TO.

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On display for 30 years, the town without pesky people, taxes or traffic jams, is 1,000 buildings out of date and needs to be replaced. Over the years, the model has been updated sporadically but not comprehensively.

“It was built really as a planning tool. We never imagined it as a tourist attraction,” said Humphreys, who began working at the city at about the same time the model town was finished.

And yet the three-dimensional, topographical scale model in the rotunda of city hall continues to hold interest, even among crowds equipped with smartphones connecting them to infinite visual possibilities.

It took 4,000 hours of work, according to creator Rollo Myers, now manager of the Architectural Conservancy of Ontario. It cost $128,000 to build, according to a news release from 1990.

The estimated cost of replacing it today is about $200,000, Humphreys said. Funds have not yet been allocated for the project and the city is looking for a partner in Tiny Town’s redevelopment.

Humphreys is thinking big: something that perhaps incorporates augmented and virtual reality technologies and has an online life as well as a physical presence at city hall. She’s also thinking small — perhaps the parts can be built on trays that can be brought to community meetings where new developments are being discussed. Developers could bring mock-ups of their projects to the meeting and situate them in the miniature neighbourhoods, so residents could gain a better understanding of what is being proposed.

“The 3D physical model really sticks with some people. Not everybody can think in 3D or on paper,” said Humphreys.

It’s no easy feat to make a model city to scale, according to civil engineer and modelling expert David MacLean, a member of the team behind Our Home and Miniature Land, a collection of miniature Canadian cities being painstakingly built by hand in Mississauga as part of an attraction expected to open in Toronto in 2020.

“What parts of the city do you include? What parts do you leave out? That’s the first challenge,” said MacLean.

Finding the right tools and people with the right skill set is another one.

Even today, most miniatures are made by hand — although 3D printers and laser engravers are also used — and working to scale means working with pictures and maps and building plans.

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Human fascination with miniatures goes back to antiquity, according to MacLean, and they seem to be having a moment worldwide.

Miniatur Wunderland in Hamburg opened in 2001 and is now the most popular attraction in Germany, with 17 million visitors to date. Grand Maket Russia in St. Petersburg features Russia in miniature and quickly became one the city’s most popular attractions after opening in 2012.

There are mini worlds in Lyon, The Hague and Vienna and plans for miniature worlds in Korea and Japan, according to Jean-Louis Brenninkmeijer, founder of Our Home and Miniature Land.

“It’s a global trend that I believe is here to stay and become a mainstay in the attractions markets,” said Brenninkmeijer.

Tiny Town TO is not nearly as detailed. While each building was handmade in the shape of the actual footprint of the structures they represent, they lack some of the specifics — including, for example, steeples on all the churches. There’s no TTC buses on streets or boats floating in the harbour. Heritage buildings are pink and some of the city’s more iconic buildings are easy to recognize, but neighbourhoods are made up of little houses that call to mind Monopoly hotels.

“When you can see your whole city, I would see that as a really powerful psychological experience,” says Sally Augustin, a practising environmental design psychologist and principal at the firm Design with Science, in Illinois.

“There is something called place attachment — people attach to their home cities. They link their emotions to things that happened in those cities.

“If you have the opportunity to look out over that area, you might be reminded of positive links to your city.”

Looking down over the city could also create new and positive associations, Augustin said.

“You’d see the street grid in a whole new way, because usually you’re in the street grid, maybe dodging trash cans and bicycles, and you don’t see the orderliness of it.”

She compared the view to the view from a hot-air balloon, or a low-flying plane.

“You’re getting this unique experience, an opportunity to understand your city comprehensively at no risk to you.”

Models can help people better understand how to navigate the city, and could even serve to encourage tourism, Augustin believes.

“You could send your miniature Toronto to New York City to encourage people to visit Toronto,” she said.

MacLean agrees. While Our Home and Miniature Land is not yet up and running, they have had people through to look at the work in progress, who have been inspired to take a trip, based on the pretty buildings in miniature.

“We’ve had that happen a few times,” said Maclean. “It’s a four-dimensional tourism ad.”