San Francisco: Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP (SOM) has created a digital 3D model of San Francisco that is featured in San Francisco Planning and Urban Research (SPUR)’s Urban Cartography exhibition. Open through February 6, 2015, Urban Cartography examines how mapmaking has transformed with changes in the digital media landscape over the past 20 years.
To date, SOM’s digital model has been used in dozens of projects throughout the city. The usefulness of the comprehensive tool, which visualizes urban form, zoning, and environmental factors such as wind and sunlight, extends beyond the firm’s San Francisco office to architects, planners, and policy makers throughout the Bay Area.
Allison Arieff, SPUR Editorial Director and curator of this exhibition, says “it was fascinating to see how engaged people became while taking a close look at all the buildings in San Francisco. The three dimensionality provides a level of understanding that is hard to replace.”
SPUR’s mission is to promote good planning and good government in the San Francisco Bay Area through research, education and advocacy. The exhibition is free and open to the public.
About Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP (SOM) is one of the leading architecture, interior design, engineering, and urban planning firms in the world, with a 75-year reputation for design excellence and a portfolio that includes some of the most important architectural accomplishments of the 20th and 21st centuries. Since its inception, SOM has been a leader in the research and development of specialized technologies, new processes and innovative ideas, many of which have had a palpable and lasting impact on the design profession and the physical environment. The firm’s longstanding leadership in design and building technology has been honored with more than 1,700 awards for quality, innovation, and management. The American Institute of Architects has recognized SOM twice with its highest honor, the Architecture Firm Award — in 1962 and again in 1996. The firm maintains offices in New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., London, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Mumbai, and Abu Dhabi.