Down Town re-do -(Edited Link to PDF)

jim smith · 24 Jun 2010, 18:53

I have posted a few stills of the Griffith down town, but have the whole thing together now and the Town said it was okay to go public.

Since my Slide share seems to be welded to Linkedin I have posted the PDF to Google Docs - hope this works http://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0B3dq-kvzWbW7N2Q5OGY1NWEtOTYwNS00ODVmLTk4MGQtOGFlNjJkNWQyYTRh&hl=en

All done with GSU 7.1 and Google Earth maps. No third party rendering or post work. Hard to judge the time line. Did some field measurements, lots of photos and owner-shopkeeper interviews. Did the whole area as an existing model, then used a copy to develop each storefront. Maybe one work day + average per front. I did a rough pencil sketch to rough out an idea and then went directly into SU. Overall it took about 5 months - including some down time at the first of the year when I broke my leg! without a doubt, my largest SU undertaking ever. One block is about 70MB. Lots of textures.

It has been a fun project. A small town, fair amount of history but mostly built in the 1940's -60's, a bit run down but a good spirit and good number of viable business. They need a shot in the arm to see what their small DT (about 2 1/2 blocks) could look like. LOTS of traffic THROUGH town, but not enough people stop to do business. If this catches on,that should change. One project completed so far, one more underway and several planned for this summer. The Town has a matching grant for the fascade work and have been holding block parties, farmers market, festivals etc. to get some excitement going. Between money being available, the activities and the "pretty drawings", it seems to be working I did 24x36 color ink jet prints of 8 scenes that they have on display at the Town Hall and show at events. I was pleasently suprised at how good they looked blown up that much.

Would love to have some comments. The document will be updated as more people sign on and as the area expands and if I (we) can come up with any other brilliant ideas. This summer my local AIA group will be hosting a design Charette to do an adaptive re-use of a soon to be closed school building in the 200 block of the DT. I will keep you posted on that.

jo-ke · 24 Jun 2010, 20:24

sorry your link is closed by password

jim smith · 24 Jun 2010, 21:20

@jo-ke said:

sorry your link is closed by password

Thanks for the heads up. I have de-linked my slide share from "Linkedin" so it should be accessible now.

boofredlay · 24 Jun 2010, 22:10

Nope.

pyroluna · 24 Jun 2010, 23:40

I can acces it no problem.
Nice to see how improving the facades can upgrade the atmosphere of an area so drastically!
But what I always wonder when I see such pictures: does it look as good when it's not sunny? Also; if you put stuff in your text about the lighting, it would seem logical to also show how the lighting improves the situation.

jim smith · 25 Jun 2010, 03:13

@unknownuser said:

I can acces it no problem.
Nice to see how improving the facades can upgrade the atmosphere of an area so drastically!
But what I always wonder when I see such pictures: does it look as good when it's not sunny? Also; if you put stuff in your text about the lighting, it would seem logical to also show how the lighting improves the situation.

Thanks for the comments. Doing some evening renderings is a good idea especially for the outside dining areas. I didn't have a large enough budget to do as much as I would like on the study, but my hope that as it catches on and I get to develop more individual store fronts I can experiment with lights and evening views.

d12dozr · 25 Jun 2010, 04:12

I can't see the slideshow, its asking for a Linkedin password...sounds like a neat project though!

dale · 25 Jun 2010, 04:15

Jim
My thoughts were, Jim and I share the same real world impositions, where you would like to go so much further, but your clients budget simply won't allow. After all this is a project which involves a whole town revitalization
I think you have done an excellent job of getting your vision across. I certainly respect what you were trying to accomplish, which if I am reading it right was a cross between a set of full Design Guidelines, and a presentation to convince the client of the potential.
It certainly shows how SketchUp can help in this visualization process, and I commend you on it's use.

KarinaGM · 25 Jun 2010, 06:37

Oh I can't see the slide. It's asking me the password to me too.
Could you post some images directly here?

flipya · 25 Jun 2010, 08:13

Same

jim smith · 25 Jun 2010, 12:35

@dale said:

Jim
My thoughts were, Jim and I share the same real world impositions, where you would like to go so much further, but your clients budget simply won't allow. After all this is a project which involves a whole town revitalization
I think you have done an excellent job of getting your vision across. I certainly respect what you were trying to accomplish, which if I am reading it right was a cross between a set of full Design Guidelines, and a presentation to convince the client of the potential.
It certainly shows how SketchUp can help in this visualization process, and I commend you on it's use.

Dale, thank you for the kind words. Your observations are right on target. The committee that started this whole program has gone up against a great deal of political "Inertia" and were not taken seriously. I think they were all shocked (and so was I) to see what a difference these sort of changes can make in the overall impression of the town. These sketches have given the "Revitalization Committee" credibility and the grant money that comes along with participating seems to have caught the town folks attention.

Jim

dale · 25 Jun 2010, 15:30

I don't know if you are familiar with the Town of Chemainus on Vancouver Island B.C., but it is an example of what an initiative like this can do for a perishing community. Here is a link for you, and maybe some more ammunition to convince the nay sayers.
http://www.chemainus.com/arts/murals/index.htm
They have taken it one step further and developed a Live Theater venue which is bringing a lot of people into their community as a destination,(although not to the extent of Stratford)
Keep us posted.

d12dozr · 25 Jun 2010, 17:00

Excellent presentation Jim, its clear you put a lot of thought into the designs...it looks sooo much more appealing

jim smith · 26 Jun 2010, 00:13

@dale said:

I don't know if you are familiar with the Town of Chemainus on Vancouver Island B.C., but it is an example of what an initiative like this can do for a perishing community. Here is a link for you, and maybe some more ammunition to convince the nay sayers.
.....

Dale, thank you for the link. I just now glanced through it and it is quite remarkable. I will share this with my Griffith friends.

@d12dozr said:

Excellent presentation Jim, its clear you put a lot of thought into the designs...it looks sooo much more appealing

Thank you Marcus, yes much more appealing.

pbacot · 26 Jun 2010, 03:42

Jim,

Thanks for posting this. What a great project to be able to do! It's a lot to look at, but what I've seen looks really good.

We don't have those drive up ATM's around here. I'd say dynamite it, but I like how you respect what is there, and what people have done over the years.

One of the first assignments I had in environmental design studio was to find a facade downtown and try re-designing it. There's more there than meets the eye.

I'll be browsing your pdf for a good while.

Peter

jim smith · 26 Jun 2010, 20:28

@pbacot said:

Jim,

Thanks for posting this. What a great project to be able to do! It's a lot to look at, but what I've seen looks really good.

We don't have those drive up ATM's around here. I'd say dynamite it, but I like how you respect what is there, and what people have done over the years.

One of the first assignments I had in environmental design studio was to find a facade downtown and try re-designing it. There's more there than meets the eye.

I'll be browsing your pdf for a good while.

Peter

Thanks for looking and commenting Peter. The ATM is a wonder. There was a bank on the site, it was torn down to build a new one but never happened so they plopped an ATM. Vast waste of the prime downtown corner and the bank doesn't want to part with it, nor build on it. Dynamite option? I'm not sure, but could be a good solution. It has been a challenging project.

KarinaGM · 28 Jun 2010, 07:01

Thanks for posting this, (and to take the time to pm me). This is an extensive project, and is nice to see SU used in the workflow when working with real projects.
It is downloading slowly so I haven't checked it all.