3D Atlas of Ann Arbor, 3rd Edition
Editor and Principal Author, Sandra Lach Arlinghaus, Ph.D.
with Lauren Leigh Hoffman, Juan Sergio Ponce de Leon, Andrew Walton.
With support from Lars Schumann, Manager, 3D Laboratory, Duderstadt Center, The University of Michigan.
Also, see credits at bottom of homepage.
Copyright 2007, Institute of Mathematical Geography or by authors of documents.

This edition of the 3D Atlas of Ann Arbor  contains virtual reality models for the entire city of Ann Arbor that are geo-referenced to work with Google Earth^® and rest in relation to the underlying terrain in that software. There is geometry for just under 25,000 structures and there are many textured models.  The models run in real time and may all be loaded simultaneously (given good hardware) to have a view of the broad context of the entire city while navigating different elements of the virtual Ann Arbor.  The user of this Atlas should have, at least, downloaded a free, current version of Google Earth^® and have it running on his/her computer desktop.  Then, all that is required to launch the models in Google Earth^® is to click on the links to various .kmz files throughout the Atlas.  Readers are shown static screen shots of the dynamic files so they can get a rough idea of what should come up.  Please, however, do not assume that the static image says it all--think of it as a picture on a cereal box---as a mere indication of what is inside!

• All University of Michigan buildings are included
• All buildings have roof textures
• All buildings have basements so there is no "floating" of buildings
• 56 buildings are fully-textured
• The remaining partially textured buildings are split into components in relation to a textured anchor building and these are labeled using placemarks so the reader knows the names of buildings while navigating the scene.
• There are features present in addition to buildings:  songs (music files), vegetation, golf course, insertion of files from the Google 3D Warehouse.
  
• All buildings in the Downtown Development Authority (DDA) are included:
• All buildings have height set in accordance with information from the Planning Department of the City of Ann Arbor.
• 24 blocks have fully-textured buildings
• A tailored DDA file is present so that the 24 textured blocks fit correctly within the full non-textured (but with correct height) DDA.
• All footprints of buildings outside the university and outside the DDA have been extruded to an arbitrary height and have been geo-referenced and set properly against terrain in Google Earth^®.
  

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...THE THIRD EDITION...

• Arlinghaus is Adjunct Professor of Mathematical Geography and Population-Environment Dynamics, School of Natural Resources and Environment, The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor; also, a member of the Board of Trustees and of the Executive Committee of Community Systems Foundation, Ann Arbor, MI; also, President, Arlinghaus Enterprises, Ann Arbor, MI; and, Director, Institute of Mathematical Geography.  Arlinghaus stands in front of the Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studies (from which she graduated years earlier).
  
• Hoffman is a graduate student working on a Master's degree in Landscape Architecture in the School of Natural Resources and Environment at The University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.  Hoffman stands in the middle of her virtual vegetation.
  
• Ponce de Leon is an undergraduate student in the Program in the Environment in the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts at The University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.
  
• Walton is a graduate student working on a Master's degree in Urban Planning in the Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning at The University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.  As an undergraduate at UM, he was a star of the university golf team and has three times (including the past two summers) been City of Ann Arbor Men's Champion.  Walton's photo shows him on his virtual golf course.
  
• Schumann is Manager of the 3D Laboratory of the Duderstadt Center at The University of MIchigan.  He stands before an image of it.
  

CREDITS:
...the second edition.

• Greatest thanks go to Prof. Klaus-Peter Beier, Ph.D., Director of the 3D Laboratory in the Duderstadt Center of The University of Michigan, for his ongoing advice and support associated with various projects related to this one. The staff of the 3D lab, Lars Schumann, Scott Hamm, Brett Lyons, Eric Maslowski, and Steffen Heise have been helpful in so many ways: 
  

• Peter Beier's remarkably clear and beautifully-conceived lectures in Engineering 477 taught the author concepts in 3D modeling that transcended individual software packages making it feasible for her to leverage a wide range of changing software to follow paths of interest.  His graduate student instructors, particularly Thana Chirapiwat and Bonnie Bao, graciously aided her in learning to master the intricacies of modeling both in high-end graphics packages and in underlying source code (vrml) that later proved of great value in merging files created for the Google Earth^® displays in this book.
  
• Lars Schumann offered wise suggestions concerning the display of the entire set of buildings.  Not only did he initiate such suggestions but also followed through with the testing of their implementation.  In addition he kept the author and others informed, through his constant monitoring  of the Google Earth^® site, of latest developments.  Both he and Matthew Naud originally suggested to the author their interest in placing the existing 3D models into Google Earth^®.
• Scott Hamm offered expert advice on giving demonstrations on the large size display screens available in the 3D Laboratory. 
  

• Kris Oswalt, President of Community Systems Foundation, also helped to make the current work possible with his support of software.  The importance of having Google SketchUp Pro^® and Google Earth Pro^® permitted the transition from GIS files to Google Earth Pro^® and Google SketchUp Pro^® files in a seamless manner using the GIS database to extrude sets of buildings from data appearing in the First Edition.
• Matthew Naud supplied files from the City of Ann Arbor and has been a constant participant in this project from its outset to its present form.  His advice and support have been invaluable.  Both he and Lars Schumann originally suggested to the author their interest in placing the existing 3D models into Google Earth^®.
• Files generously supplied by IT folks, initially for the First Edition but which also play into the Second Edition:
• Merle Johnson of the City of Ann Arbor ITS Department and Chandra Hurd (later Gochanour) of the City of Ann Arbor Planning Department both contributed maps and data:  the former was generous in sharing aerials and maps from City of Ann Arbor files and the latter was helpful in sharing her expertise in analyzing city data and in checking selected files.
• Donald T. Uchman, Coordinator of Space Graphics, Space Information and Planning, Plant Extension--AEC, The University of Michigan, generously shared official University map files on locations and sizes of buildings.
• Current files, and their immediate predecessors, were shown to, or discussed with, various groups to elicit feedback during 2006:
• Community Systems Foundation Annual Conference
  
• Eric Lipson (Vice-Chair, City of Ann Arbor Planning Commission) and Vince Caruso (Chair, Allen Creek Watershed Group).
• City of Ann Arbor Planning Commission
  
• Matthew Naud, City of Ann Arbor Environmental Coordinator
• Community Systems Foundation group:  John Nystuen, Gwen Nystuen, Fred Goodman, Barton Burkhalter, Ann Larimore
  
• Board of Directors of local League of Women Voters (Shirley Axon, Judith Mich, and others).
• Tracy Davis (Ann Arbor News), Vivienne Armentrout (Ann Arbor Observer)
• Group including folks from the City and from the University.
  
• Many thanks to Prof. Michael Batty, Ph.D., of University College London (Director, Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis) for his continuing encouragement in working with Google Earth^®, both as a participant and as a co-author on related projects.
• Software and hardware used:
• Google Earth Pro^®
• Google SketchUp Pro^®
• Adobe PhotoShop^®
• Adobe ImageReady^®
• ESRI software:  ArcView^® GIS with Spatial Analyst^® and 3D Analyst^® (various editions)
• Microsoft Office^®
• Windows XP^®
• Hewlett-Packard Pavilion^® with Intel Pentium 4 Processor^®

Finally, thanks to reviewers for constructive comment, to many others who have observed the development of this project, and to my family:  husband, William C. Arlinghaus; son, William E. Arlinghaus; and, daughter-in-law, Kari Suffel Arlinghaus.   Their patience and kindness have been critical to the development of these materials.

Please note the following caution--while donations of digital material were all current at one time, there is a lag in creating materials from them.  Regular updating of material continues.

To all of the individuals mentioned here, as well as to those mentioned in the 1st Edition, goes deep appreciation.  Remaining errors are those of the editor and principal author alone.

...the first edition
In addition to those above, there are a number of individuals who were either important in the development or the use of the First Edition:

• Development--students from Prof. Beier's course, Engineering 477, Virtual Reality, Fall 2005, 2004, and 2003:
• 2005:  A. Domzal, U. S. Hwang, K. J. Walters, Jr..
• 2004:  R. Ramesh, I. Shani, and N. Nolan.
• 2003:  T. Kwon, A. Lazzaro, P. Oppenheim, and A. Rosenblum
  

• Use--application employed by the Downtown Residential Taskforce:

The First Edition, itself, is the best source of notation of other individuals who have participated in various ways over the past 6 years.

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Copyright, 2007, All rights reserved.  Contact arlinghaus@gmail.com for permissions issues.