Trigger warning: this post references a project affiliated with the University of Oklahoma. If you suffer strong negative feelings about that institution, then please proceed with caution.
I feel dirty linking to anything related to 0U, ever--but particularly just a day after our paddling in GIA. But this is really cool. It is a series of overlays of precisely-aligned aerial shots of cities, with one layer being 'before' massive projects like urban renewal and interstates, and the other being a current image. You slide a bar to 'wipe' from past to present. They have a series for cities in Southeast.
As you might imagine, St Louis and Detroit are among the most stunning. For almost every shot, however, you can see the impact of interstates---just wiping out entire sections. One aspect is a little misleading: the past photos are in black-and-white, while the current ones are in color. This de-emphasizes greenery in the past, and over-emphasizes it in the present, which gives a distorted sense of clearance.
You'll like playing around with the images, if you're an urban planning or spatial history nerd like me. Just try to ignore the webpage header.
This post was edited on 2/1 12:25 PM by Anodyne
I feel dirty linking to anything related to 0U, ever--but particularly just a day after our paddling in GIA. But this is really cool. It is a series of overlays of precisely-aligned aerial shots of cities, with one layer being 'before' massive projects like urban renewal and interstates, and the other being a current image. You slide a bar to 'wipe' from past to present. They have a series for cities in Southeast.
As you might imagine, St Louis and Detroit are among the most stunning. For almost every shot, however, you can see the impact of interstates---just wiping out entire sections. One aspect is a little misleading: the past photos are in black-and-white, while the current ones are in color. This de-emphasizes greenery in the past, and over-emphasizes it in the present, which gives a distorted sense of clearance.
You'll like playing around with the images, if you're an urban planning or spatial history nerd like me. Just try to ignore the webpage header.
This post was edited on 2/1 12:25 PM by Anodyne
