Project Plan
By Carrie Hanson, Kevin Grow, and Colin Pi
In our project, we will explore the creation of buildings between 1880 and 1915. The buildings we will include are Gridley, Goodsell, Laird Grandstand, Laird Hall, Sayles, and Burton. We hope to present facts about these buildings, as well as the social factors that led to the creation of each one, using 3D models and an interactive map of the campus.
We will search the Carleton archives, yearbooks, and newspapers from that time period to find information surrounding the time of each buildings’ creation. We will have two types of data: images of the buildings in order to create SketchUp models and factual information about each building, found in the archives. We will also look at the history of each person that the buildings were named after, if the information is available.
As mentioned, we will use SketchUp to create 3D models. We hope to use an interactive mapping software for a birds eye view of campus (maybe Google maps) of the past and present. The interactive portion will be that when a user clicks on the building, they go to a page with the information. On that page there will be stories about the building’s creation, about the people involved with it, and additional images of the building’s exterior and interior. We will store our data using Google Drive – documents and spreadsheets. Any articles information we find we will share with each other on Zotero. If we need help finding the information, we will be sure use the archivists as resources.
We will use all this information to create narratives about the time of each buildings creation. They will not necessarily be directly connected to one another, but they will each be their own cohesive story. One form of transformation that will take place is changing 2D images into 3D models.
The final product will (hopefully) be a Google map with an image of the current layout of the campus, that allows us to interact with the history of the buildings, by clicking on the noted location of these buildings (whether they still exist or not) the user will be taken to an information page about building. This page will have the 3D image about the building, and if you hover over certain spots, fun facts about the building will appear. To the side of this image, we will have information about the factors that led to its creation, as well as people that may have been involved.
Timeline
End of 5th week: Know what parts of the plan are feasible, and what ideas we might need to modify. Find interior and exterior photos of each building. Start doing research about each of our buildings in archives.
End of 6th week: Have a definite project plan. Start creating SketchUp models of the buildings. Continue research about buildings/social factors.
End of 7th week: Finish SketchUp models. Finish research.
End of 8th week: Create the interactive Google map and incorporate our images and information
9th week: Due, edit
10th week: Present.
DH projects for inspiration
http://maps.msu.edu/interactive/index.php?location=TE5L This project uses the interactive map feature we were hoping to use. We will add a link to a page with more information about the buildings.
http://www.maps.vt.edu/interactive/ This map has similar features to the one above.
Hey Team 3D campus! Your project sounds interesting, and I’m sure you can come up with an interactive web map application that will allow people to explore the historic campus in its first 50 years. A few comments, questions and suggestions below:
1) Make sure you have a rationale for including the buildings you have included, and that this is clearly spelled out in the project writeup. Remember that there should be a strong narrative component, so think of what story your choice of buildings helps you tell.
2) On a related note, I might suggest prioritizing those buildings that no longer stand for modeling and researching (Gridley and Laird Grandstand are both on your list, but the also demolished or moved Williams Hall, Old Observatory, and Seccombe House are not…). Still extant buildings have already been modeled in their current incarnations by some of the GIS student workers, and you could use their models for some of your chosen buildings, and focus your modeling energy on recreating those that no longer stand.
3) We’ve discussed this, but I think you’re right to focus on ArcGIS Online instead of Google Maps. It will give you many more easily implemented options and there is good support for it on campus. In particular, I would suggest you try to create a 3D Scene on ArcGIS.com. You can check out the examples in the Scene Gallery for inspiration; I think this Visualize Urban Development scene would be an excellent model to try to emulate. For starters, why don’t you try to create and save a 3D extruded version of the 1916Buildings shape file we worked with in class, then publish it as a feature layer and add it to a new scene. If you don’t have publish privileges let me know, and I can publish the layer for you and share it with you so you can edit it.
Also, you need a catchier title! What are you naming your project?