This is one of the first 3D models I created in the capacity reflecting this blog. It started out as a request from a friend of mine, asking if there was a way to make a variant of the Hamilton Plaza shopping center. (See below for a Google map of the location).
View Hamilton Plaza Shopping Center in a larger map
Briefly, I wondered about the request, thinking it wasn't worth it, but as I remembered horrible suburban shopping center after horrible suburban shopping center, I quickly reconsidered. Thanks to this one request, the path of 3D modelling in an urban planning sense truly opened up and unfolded before me. As a slight aside, I'm thankful for that co-worker because without it, none of this would have started. Though, some might regret it as this blog evolves (don't say I didn't warn you).
3D model of existing conditions:
While you could use the streetview function of the above map, I'm kind enough to provide the 3D sketchup approximation of the existing Hamilton Plaza shopping center.
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| Aerial/Birdseye view of the project and the surrounding area |
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| Overall strip center |
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| Time for your closeup Hamilton Plaza |
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| While it looks decent in 3D, I admit that a real life view would be better for this |
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| Epic design from mid to late 20th Century planning and architecture, right? |
Did you have a good look and really absorb the existing conditions? If yes, then good, you are ready to see what I devised for this shopping center those years ago. If no, then, well.... time's up, just continue reading and enjoy the ride.
For the proposal, its primarily for generating thought and ideas for what could be. Usually I approach these things with the thought of "won't happen" (because developers don't want to do this and just want to stay the unimaginative and lazy course of the past half century or so). Still, I'm sharing it and other ideas now with the hope that it'll inspire at least one person, and that person will go on to inspire others, or come up with possibilities of their own.
What I created:
Enough stalling, here is what I fabricated for Hamilton Plaza. The main proposal of this and most of the other models was to take heavily underutilized parking and create buildings in their place.
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| Overall proposal |
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| A closer look |
I'll give a brief explanation of the model. Under suggestion, the new buildings are oriented perpendicular to the shopping, so the old shopping center isn't completely hidden and the orientation of existing parking isn't dramatically affected.
Getting Started:
When I was making this model, part of my thought process focused on the parking lot and how so much more could be done with parking instead of "massive sea of parking" or "put a couple of barely green parking bollards and strips and call it a day". For that purpose, the parking lots have miniature parks based on a theme (the theme as part of a plan to make the proposal unique).
From South to North
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| A mini park made into a public art feature (this one being a theme of a lightning bolt) |
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| Another mini park, this one with the theme of fire |
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| A mini park with a theme of water |
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| A mini park with a theme of earth |
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| The final mini park with a theme of grass, plants and nature |
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Yes, I know, over the top, and perhaps cliche, but it is what it is. It certainly beats an unending asphalt strip that's vacant or underutilized virtually all of the time.
Next post - the model overall.
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