New Extensive Model in Barranco, Lima, Peru

SketchUp Islander Auquicu of Lima, Peru, has shared with us his latest (and very extensive) model of Barranco, a district in Lima, Peru. Auquicu writes

After 5 months I’ve made a huge model. Actually, are 7 models that cover 7 blocks... I had to take more than 800 pictures to be able to reproduce with detail all buildings included.

Auquicu goes on to explain

Once a town located south of Lima and accessed by train or tram, [Barranco] is now its bohemian district, full of old houses where there are restaurants, pubs and art galleries. Among its most prominent buildings, we find the City Park (1898), The Municipal Library (1922) and the Holy Cross Church (built by architect Humberto Guerra between 1944 and 1963).

Auquicu worked alone and completed the project because of his strong feeling for the architecture in Barranco. He explains

This is an independent project. No person or organization has supported or sponsored its creation, and is intended to call attention of institutions and authorities to preserve the monumental architecture of the district and that is in some cases very neglected and damaged.

He adds that although the models of each city block are very large and detailed, "modeling techniques were used to keep all models' sizes as small as possible, all under 1 mb, some even less than 500 kb."

Good job, Auquicu! Be sure to watch the Google Earth tour of the site (very relaxing with music included) at the top of the post. Click HERE to see the actual models.

Building Maker: It's ALIVE! It's ALIVE!

Piazza San Marco, Venice, Italy. Work in progress at the time of writing...

Woo-hoo! Today I saw my model re-texture itself in Building Maker.

This is one of the cool new functions of the Building Maker program... as you build more, the program senses what buildings obstruct the view of others, and what vantage point offers a clear view (and texture) and then re-applies textures accordingly.

In my case I am making a model of the Piazza San Marco in Venice. A wall was incorrectly textured but as soon as I built the part of the building blocking the view, Building Maker found a better angle and fixed the texture. Cool.

I Won Something Part II

Hello Everyone. A while back, I won something and announced it prematurely by accident (oops, sorry!). So today, I can announce it officially because it was posted HERE at the Monopoly City Streets blog and HERE at the Google SketchUp blog.

What did I win? I entered a competition to design a new building with SketchUp, to be used in game play for the Monopoly City Streets online real estate trading game. I made and submitted about a dozen buildings, and the one pictured won second prize. It's called Revolving Restaurant and it is a tower with a blimp attached.

The Hasbro artists refined the design and did an imaginative rendering as seen in the illustration (I love the shiny chrome top reflecting the sky and blimp-- this can be seen during game play). You can see the original model by me below:




My prize is the inclusion of this building in the online the Monopoly City Streets game. There you can buy and trade this building along with many others, including the two additonal winners. Thanks to Hasbro, Monopoly, SketchUp, and Google for sponsoring the contest!