Encompassing the Virtual Watershed

As we get bombarded with news of tragic global warming and climate change in general, it becomes more and more irresponsible to discuss the man-made world without considering the natural. So, I am sold on the idea that any virtual city had better be clearly modeled on the virtual watershed. The EPA provides a Surf Your Watershed application and the USGS provides some lovely GIS Watershed Layers in a KML format (nice for Google Earth presentation). The next step is to generate a complete 3-D model and place our cities within the watershed so we can better appreciate how much we affect the natural world with our building.

Kudos to Erica Naone

Erica's on-line article, entitled '3-D Design for the Masses', is the kind of article I think captures the promise of virtual city building by the masses. She reviews Dryad as the killer interface for mass participation and suggests the interface can only help companies like Everyscape catch on. I only wish I had responded to her e-mail message sooner to add a few quotes of encouragement to you all!

Getting the Word Out

Not too many readers have been engaging me on the concept of virtual cities as a community-builder and eco-friendly resource-saver. Let's see how many of you come to engage through my Technorati Profile.

Supposedly Technorati is the way to go, no? Sure sounds right. Thoughts?

That's What I am Talking About

There is no doubt that we have over-reacted to the filth of industrialization that plagued our cities early in the industrial age. The information age has let us stay in suburbia and remain connected through fiber optic cables and a strong information infrastructure that means we don't have to be downtown to know what is going on. But, is our lifestyle sustainable? Should we not feel the shame of abusing the rest of the planet for our spacious sense of freedom? Take a look at James Howard Kunstler's video, The tragedy of suburbia, and think it through. James' language gets a little risque at times, but I share his anger at what we've done. As a result, I find great comic relief in his presentation.

Virtual cities can let us experience the difference between a suburban emphasis on life in America versus an urban emphasis. Let's walk about in the virtual and see which life we prefer more. Sure James includes some slides on how to retrofit our suburban wastelands into places we'd like to spend time in, but the transition is not as obvious as it could be with a virtual city platform, eh?

Virtual Sculpture Within our Virtual Cities

Outdoor art is accessible to so many. Our virtual cities can push that accessibility out beyond the community through virtual representation of our urban works of sculpture. Seattle's new Olympic Sculpture Park is a source of great debate in the Pacific Northwest. And yet, it provides an opportunity for a community to come together in one of the most beautiful natural settings intermixed with an urban environment anywhere on Earth. How do we capture the design to inspire others to support urban art?

Historical Walks Worth Visualizing

Consider the story of the Smith Hill neighborhood in Providence, Rhode Island. The neighborhood grew up along a major road heading from downtown to the northwest corner of the city. Since it grew up over decades, the architecture follows time in documenting phases in American architecture. Different immigration waves came at different times adding to the diversity of designs reflected in residential housing.

Although various ethnic churches were torn down as the populace changed texture and economics and changing values meant the spiritual neighborhood centers were no longer sustainable, the historical society was able to preserve representative homes of each major architectural era. The Rhode Island Historical Preservation Commission captured the imagination of the historical significance in its History of Smith Hill series of on-line publications.

The significance is another example of man's interrelationship to nature. Many such neighborhood grew up along the flow of waterways that powered the mills that brought jobs to those who decided to settle there. Virtual cities are not just about the physical structures man has created. The ability of man to manipulate his environment, for better or worse, is also demonstrated through interactive visualization.

Example of Virtual City Values

When urban design project competitions have a significant physical, spiritual, economic, and emotional impact on a community's sense of itself, an existing virtual city model can help the public visualize the goals of competing submissions. The Providence Waterfont Park project that recently was awarded to its design submitters makes a major improvement to a desolate section of land along the west bank of the Providence River. As part of a slew of upcoming opportunities to improve the livability of downtown, the changes to the physical city can be a source of community pride. Before and after visualizations through a interactive temporal virtual city model show great promise in building and emphasizing that pride in anticipation of change.

Next for Providence comes the I-195 interstate relocation and update project which will open up 40 acres of downtown property for creative and beneficial reuse. What are Providence's options for use? How do decision-makers and residents decide which options to support? Maps are OK, fixed-perspective
movies are even better, but why not let an interactive 3-D virtual city provide unencumbered exploration?