@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.

@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.

James,

I tried Draftsight, opened and saved a drawing in Acad-11 then and had no trouble opening it in Draftsight. Didn't seem to loose anything in translation and preserved the fonts and viewports, which some freebies don't do. Thank you for the heads up, I am always looking for things like this to point my students to, since they can't afford the ACAD software used in class to work at home.

Toshiba A300 Satellite, 2 years old dual core intel, 3 gig ram, 32 bit windows 7, ATI mobility card

@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

@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.

@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.

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.

I have seen references to "Rhino" on the forum in the past, but have never taken a serious look at the system. It seems they are working on modules for BIM-like functionality and have released one module for structural work. I saw their display at the AIA convention in Miami last week but didn't have time to look into it and their display was rather confusing with all the "Zoo" references for their multiple modules- I found it to be a bit overcomplicated and put-offish.

I did get to talk a bit with Rich Hart from Render Plus who was sharing the Rhino booth area.

Anyone have any recent experience with Rhino with the BIM slant? I just wonder if there is something to be learned that might transfere to GSU

You have a good eye Simon. Thank you for sharing these glimpses into your travels It must be nice to have work that takes you to such beautiful places.

Welcome Freddie, you will find quite a few illustrators among the architects, woodcrafters and engineers. Browse through the gallery if you haven't already. Don't hesitate to ask for help, you are here with a friendly and well informed group.

Nice to see they made it adaptable for those of us in the left handed world.
I could have really used this a few months ago while laid up with a broken leg!

Thanks Oli - very useful

There is a free and powerfull photoshop alternate -- "GIMP"

301 Moved Permanently

(www.gimpshop.com)

Has a significant learning curve, but the price is right.

Edit--(didn't see Leedeetee beat me to this alternate)

Welcome from the other side of the pond.

I think we would all like to see the "product" designed from the ground up.

Big thanks in advance for creating this plugin. Frank Gehry will probably be switching to GSU pretty soon if Fredo keep this up

I didn't see these the first time around. Really great----thank you

From the AIA exhibitor schedule, Cadalog/Podium, RenderPlus and Google SU will be there.

Great attention to detail and lively well lit and well textured renders. My only comment(and I only mention it because you have been so very detailed) the recessed flourescent lights and the ceiling grid need to be lined up better.

Anyone going to be at the AIA convention? Maybe a mini sub-convention of SU'rs might be possible?