Comments on: NYC From Above: 1924 vs. 2008

By: Hyperakt » Play » Maps and Charts for Info Junkies

Hyperakt » Play » Maps and Charts for Info Junkies — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 23:40:52 +0000

[...] data are being devised every day for a spectrum of different uses. Recently, I wrote a piece on the 1924 New York City aerial photography map courtesy of NYC.gov, a fascinating way to explore how the city has changed in some ways and [...]

By: Omar

Omar — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 14:52:06 +0000

Awesome post! Now I know what the endless hours of laptop time yields… Sweet job, D.

By: Arkady N

Arkady N — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 21:44:37 +0000

Here are some more old maps “rectified” against the current ones : http://maps.nypl.org/warper/

By: Arkady N

Arkady N — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 21:41:36 +0000

“Union Square, one of the greatest public spaces in the world, was laid out in 1832 and rebuilt in 1882. It was looking pretty bare in 1924.” Maybe the photo was taken in the winter time?

By: Steven Romalewski

Steven Romalewski — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 15:30:11 +0000

Deroy, thanks for your feedback. Soon we’ll be adding historic land use overlays, so you can see parcel-by-parcel or citywide what the land use patterns looked like in the city going back to the late ’90s. I think it’ll be helpful for urban planners and anyone interested in changing development in New York.

Colin, it’s interesting you should mention the timeline, because OASIS does, in fact, pre-date both Google Earth *and* Keyhole. Led by the USDA Forest Service in partnership with our team (then at NYPIRG) and several city agencies (including DoITT), nonprofits, academics, and businesses, the OASIS project was conceived in 2000 and the website was launched in March 2001. It was the first online mapping site to display the city’s aerial imagery (from 1996), interactively and in conjunction with dozens of other data layers. Here’s a NY Times article about OASIS from then: http://www.nytimes.com/2001/03/25/nyregion/new-york-online-mapping-the-city-down-to-the-last-hydrant.html You can also read more background about the project, its history, and its future potential at UrbanOmnibus (http://urbanomnibus.net/2009/09/a-new-oasis-for-new-york/).

By: Colin Reilly

Colin Reilly — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 15:05:52 +0000

Great post and exactly the type of interest we were looking to garner.

We are certainly looking to add more historical aerials so check back periodically. Thanks for the positive feedback and we are glad it is a useful resource.

@steve- a shameless plug for your site. Perhaps you should consult blogging etiquette 101. As for the timeline, I guess Oasis must pre-date Google Earth – formerly Keyhole.

By: Deroy

Deroy — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 01:10:17 +0000

Slava, thanks for the link. They should totally put them online. I would totally buy a bunch.

Steven, thanks for sharing the OASIS links. The tool looks super robust and I loved seeing how lovely the Gowanus Canal looked in 1609. Regarding NYC.gov, they say imitation is the highest form of flattery. Do you guys plan to include any further historical aerial views?

By: Slava Frid

Slava Frid — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 21:25:48 +0000

Did you know that “Between 1939 and 1941, and again in the mid-1980s, the city photographed every house and building in the five boroughs” ?

every house and building in 5 boroughs!!!

http://www.nyc.gov/html/records/html/taxphotos/home.shtml

And they did not need Google to do it

I just wish they would put them online.

By: Steven Romalewski

Steven Romalewski — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 16:57:46 +0000

Great post. The city’s historical photos is a great feature, and I’m thrilled the city’s map developers liked our OASISnyc historical timeline slider enough to use it on their site as well!

Here’s the background. A few months ago we completely upgraded the OASISnyc mapping site (see http://www.urbanresearchmaps.org/oasis/map.aspx ). One new feature was our aerial timeline slider — see upper left corner of the map. You can use it to travel back to 1609 anywhere in Manhattan (in partnership with the Mannahatta Project). And you can see aerial imagery anywhere in New York from 1996 to 2006 to see the impacts of recent development.

For example, here’s a view of pristine land on Staten Island circa 1996 (http://bit.ly/SIopenspace96), here’s the same spot after big box stores have been built (http://bit.ly/SIopenspace06). Here’s a view of Steeplechase Park in Coney Island in 1996 (http://bit.ly/ConeyIsland96) and in 2006 after KeySpan Park had been built (http://bit.ly/ConeyIsland06).

The OASIS site is community-driven and focused on providing tools for local groups to participate more meaningfully in the planning process (and we provide mapped data from multiple levels of government, private sources, several partnerships, etc). The NYCMap site is great, though more focused on city services. It’s nice they copied our aerial timeline tool, and hopefully you’ll post some comparison photos from OASIS as well!