Success Stories

Amherst, Massachusetts produced a 3D city model and encouraged greater citizen participation in town government.

To meet citizens’ ever-increasing expectation for an open and digitally accessible government, the Town of Amherst, Massachusetts maintains a rich collection of geographical information resources. The Amherst Geographic Information Systems (GIS) office has created a map-centric website that features links to these resources, including Amherst in 3D, a virtual model of Amherst Center that anyone can explore using Google Earth.

Approach

Amherst takes an active approach to encouraging civic participation. To help residents visualize proposed changes that would take place as part of a new community master plan, the town government commissioned the development of a 3D model of Amherst Center. Created using Google 3D Warehouse, which means that anyone can explore or add to it, and view the results in Google Earth.

"Our goal is to make it so that people from all walks of life can be better informed, and get involved...I can't say enough about how powerful the 3D Warehouse is for sharing information quickly and easily. It's been invaluable for us."

- Mike Olkin, GIS Administrator for the Town of Amherst, Massachusetts

"Our goal is to make it so that people from all walks of life can be better informed, and get involved,” explains Mike Olkin, Amherst's GIS Administrator. "When everyone is looking at the same information, it helps level the playing field. With these tools, you can show what a development would look like in two minutes, rather than explaining it for hours. And it's not 'black box' technology. You don't need expensive software or equipment, and you don't need to ask GIS staff for help. Anyone can use this data to make their case."

Google SketchUp is available for free, and was designed for ease-of-use, enabling beginners and experts alike to quickly render 3D models without using traditional computer-aided design or CAD software. According to Olkin, publishing these models to the Google 3D Warehouse is quick and easy.

"I can't say enough about how powerful the 3D Warehouse is for sharing information quickly and easily. It's been invaluable for us," says Olkin. "We've been able to tie it in with our public GIS viewer, so we have a link to the 3D Warehouse page for each building that has a model. It works seamlessly."

The ability to upload models to the 3D Warehouse also encourages local architects to get involved. "When it's easy to place your model in a real-world context, you no longer have to go from project to project recreating the context for your proposal," explains Olkin.

In addition to helping citizens participate in town planning, the Amherst GIS office strives to meet the needs of people interested in learning more about the town. "Amherst is a college town, and there are thousands of students living here, and hundreds of parents come to visit on a regular basis," says Olkin. "It's a highly educated population, and the demographics suggest that we'll start to see more people using these tools to do things like explore campuses, investigate places to live, or even plan tours and trips."

Result

Soon after the Amherst Center model was added to the Google 3D Warehouse, citizens began putting it to use. Gavin Andresen, an Amherst resident actively involved in town government, stood up during a November 2007 town meeting to argue in favor of a re-zoning proposal. He used screenshots of the model in Google Earth to illustrate his points.

"I've had several people tell me that the Google Earth and GIS data maps I presented at the meeting were very helpful, and I like to think that they helped convince people that the zoning changes they were illustrating are a good idea," says Andreson. The re-zoning proposal passed.

"The world is in 3D, and when you're able to see plans in 3D, it makes a huge difference. What Google is doing now will help blow the 3D planning movement wide open."

- Niels la Cour, Physical Planner, University of Massachusetts, Amherst

"This is exactly what we were hoping to accomplish," says Niels la Cour, who spearheaded and launched the Amherst in 3D project when he was Senior Planner for the town. "In this particular case, there was an area in Amherst where the buildings had been falling into disrepair. Re-zoning will make it a much more economically viable and visually pleasing area with more appropriately scaled buildings that can help to define the open grassy area that is historically part of the East Amherst Common. So this is a way to enable people to envision economic development that's about what they really want, versus something like a strip mall."

According to la Cour, having the ability to create and view visually powerful 3D models could also help citizens make choices that benefit Amherst and save money.

"Five years ago, there was heated discussion about whether to build a three-story parking garage in downtown Amherst," he says. "People were afraid it would be a blight on the landscape. We didn't have the technology that could show things like shadows, how the garage would look from every angle, and whether it could be hidden behind other buildings. The plan was voted down, and in 2002, they built a single-level, underground parking garage on the same site. It was expensive to build, the underground level is under-utilized, and it fails to meet our parking needs. We can only imagine what would be there today if we'd had better tools for visualizing plans in 3D."

Amy Lash, a graduate student in the Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning program at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, used Google SketchUp for her Master's thesis, an investigation of how effective 3D tools are in aiding the decision-making process. Lash presented six different scenarios using the Amherst Center model to the Amherst Comprehensive Plan Committee, asking members to choose among them. The most popular scenario, says Mike Olkin, was Scenario 6, which was based on a proposal from the early 1990s that was voted down at the time. "The committee members weren't told that this was a 'failed' proposal, so this was an unbiased perspective," says Olkin.

Olkin believes that in the future, more towns will use products like Google SketchUp and the Google 3D Warehouse to develop 3D city models that are viewable by everyone at no extra cost. "These tools have eliminated expensive processing power and software issues," he says. "Now we have an easy way to create, view, and share building models, without the need for major software or expensive equipment."

Niels la Cour agrees. "I've been working in this field for 20 years, and I've always pushed for tools that help people visualize change. The world is in 3D, and when you're able to see plans in 3D, it makes a huge difference. What Google is doing now will help blow the 3D planning movement wide open."

About Google Earth and the Google 3D Warehouse

Google Earth combines the power of Google Search with satellite imagery, maps, terrain, and 3D buildings to put the world's geographic information at your fingertips. The Google 3D Warehouse enables a collaborative approach to building the 3D representation of a locality on Google Earth. Local governments can publish a collection of textured 3D models so that anyone with 3D modeling experience, and an interest in creating an accurate representation of their locality, can contribute by enhancing and adding to the models. Access to Google Earth and contributing to the 3D Warehouse is free. Learn more about the Google 3D Warehouse and Google's Cities in 3D program for local governments.