Model that dirty water

May 9, 2018 7:04 PM

The Boston Planning and Development Agency has built a 3D online city model that includes every building (and many trees) in the city.
posted by ChuraChura (10 comments total)

The viewer is pretty terrible and there are trees growing through buildings, but very cool. Now if the dataset is downloadable and could be imported to GTA one could reproduce the chase scenes in The Town. (which actually had very authentic chase scenes through the narrow streets of the North End)
posted by sammyo at 8:37 PM on May 9, 2018 [2 favorites]

HOLY SHIT, THIS IS AMAZING!!!! Nothing gives me pleasure about living in the future, then realistic 3D models of reality!

Now if only there were 3D models of the landing sites off-world. Hook a brotha up Google!
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 5:43 AM on May 10, 2018

You can't construct a building that casts a shadow on Boston Common for a certain period of time, hence the daylight slider.
posted by robocop is bleeding at 6:02 AM on May 10, 2018 [4 favorites]

This is so cool, thanks for posting!

I love that it opens up at that oblique angle - there are a lot of earlyish American maps of cities with a pictorial perspective (the Normal B. Leventhal Map Center had a really cool-sounding exhibition of birds eye maps of Boston a few years ago, found while searching for a comparison to illustrate this comment, but how could I possibly choose just one). It's a great design choice, as it gives the blocky 3d renders a more familiar, illustrationy feel.

Also it's super fun to swoop around and play with how the shadows behave at, like, a negative eye alt!
posted by everybody had matching towels at 6:31 AM on May 10, 2018 [1 favorite]

The Town is such an underrated Boston heist movie.
posted by ChuraChura at 7:12 AM on May 10, 2018

This can come in handy for my rare Fenway visits. I can see whether I need a jacket or hat depending on where my seats are.
posted by terrapin at 7:19 AM on May 10, 2018

Ah, the BPDA. They can't/won't correct errors and omissions in the online version of the city's zoning code, but they have time to do this. It's actually a pretty cool viewer, and thanks for posting the link, but jeez, the BPDA is my weekly work headache and it drives me nuts that they can't manage their basics but they can do splashy website things.
posted by banjo_and_the_pork at 8:06 AM on May 10, 2018 [1 favorite]

If Fallout 4 has taught me anything about Boston, it's that Jamaica Plain is rife with feral ghouls.
posted by SonInLawOfSam at 8:10 AM on May 10, 2018 [6 favorites]

There are also - in this post-Hancock-Building era of more awareness of wind stresses - scale models of downtown Boston that are used to verify that a new building won't have unexpected windows popping out or something.
posted by rmd1023 at 11:55 AM on May 10, 2018 [1 favorite]

Thanks for the post and kudos on the title. SLYT
posted by drinkmaildave at 4:26 PM on May 11, 2018