The Provident Mutual Insurance Building (2)

The Provident Mutual Insurance Building

This facade was captured and rendered into a single measured line drawing, enhanced by four additional sheets bearing a mosaic of rectified photographs to convery additional detail about the building’s existing conditions.

New York Times

from the New York Times May 4 1995

This article about the rejuvenation of the Williamsburg Savings Bank in Brooklyn featured a line drawing that was created with the aid of photogrammetry. Unfortunately the article presents the drawing only as “George B. Post’s winning design” and did not mention that is was made by Ben Frombgen and myself.  Oh well, after all we didn’t design it!

Federal Triangle

The Arthur Mellon Auditorium (ICC Building) 1994

Here is a composite drawing of the first really huge (HUGE) building that i used photogrammetry to measure and draw back in 1994.  This work was completed with Ben Frombgen at IAT when we were based in New Haven, CT. We did a complete set of elevations, eleven building profiles (that were later turned into building sections by our client, RTKL) plus a window schedule. It hurts for me to remember how little we charged for this work!  But it was one of our first big commissions and it seemed like a lot at the time.

This is also the first project on which I used a laser measuring device.  If I recall correctly, we were asked to deliver this project in metric units.  I remember being thrilled that the Leica Disto that we bought back then (which was as big as a large box of spaghetti) could switch between units.

I remember also that we had access to a great set of San Francisco based architect Arthur Brown Jr.’s original design drawings (from the 30’s) that were just stunningly beautiful and provided such a contrast to the general level of quality in CAD drafting at the time. Not only was the quality of drafting so great (a beautiful hierarchy of line weights, crisp fluid clarity of description) but the organization of the drawing set was so intelligent and efficient.  We resolved to find a way to draw as well with a computer and have been trying to do so since!

Arthur Brown Jr. also designed the san Francisco City Hall and Coit Tower.

Cosmos Club Ballroom Rectified Photography

Title Sheet for a set of 14 sheets documenting this beautiful ornate ballroom

 

Reflected Ceiling Plan

Principal Wall Surface (sample)

Foreshortened surfaces

contact sheet of rectified images

Columbia Lecture Series

Columbia Lecture Series Announcement

http://www.arch.columbia.edu/event/gsapp-event/hp-inquiry-lecture-peter-aaslestad

The Provident Mutual Life Insurance Building

Assembly of rectified imagery and line drawings in progress

Another new project for 2010 is the documentation of the East elevation of the Provident Mutual Life Insurance Building, located at 46th and Market Street in Philadelphia, PA.  Shown here are two sheets in progress one week in.

Line drawing in progress

Detail

Progress at the Cosmos Club Ballroom

Ceiling Painting at Cosmos Club

One week in: with all of the photos analyzed – and a “smart point cloud” generated – the process of rectifying photographs using the precise 3-D coordinates in the point cloud as reference/control.  Screen capture from using Elcovision inside of AutoCAD below.

screen capture

The Cosmos Club Ballroom

Ballroom at the Cosmo Club

Here is a new project that I shot last week: documentation of the existing conditions of the interior surfaces in the ballroom at the Cosmos Club in Washington DC (formerly the Townsend Mansion). This is going to be a great opportunity to show what the photo + measured line drawing approach to documentation can yield (with a limited budget).

Malcolm X Park aka Meridian Hill Park

Meridian Hill Park

I just completed this project today, which was somewhat unique in its large footprint. The task was to make drawings of the perimeter wall around the entirety of Meridian Hill Park in Washington, DC.  Below is a satellite image showing the size of the park relative to its neighborhood.

Meridian Hill Park

I prepared drawings at eighth scale and organized them onto seven sheets.  This model required well over a hundred photographs. Below are a few sheets showing the linework.

Emmanuel Truss Layout

Emmanuel Truss Layout