The art and science of modern cartography will come together in a world premiere exhibit, Mapping New York, at
Hunter College's Bertha and Karl Leubsdorf Art Gallery. Mapping New York will run from February 15 to March 17.The star of this exhibit is the City Map, a state-of-the-art computerized
collection of images of the five boroughs achieved by interlacing aerial photographs with geographic information about the city's surface and subsurface features. Its level of accuracy,
never before achieved, allows users to view structures as small as a foot wide. Created in 2000, the City Map has proved invaluable as a problem-solving and money-saving tool. It is used
by city police and fire departments, planning and construction agencies, and a host of private urban-design firms, all seeking to ensure public safety or locate structures for building and
maintenance projects. The map already contains the locations, shapes, and sizes of buildings, parks, streets, bridges, monuments, and many other details. When fully programmed in 2001, the
City Map will zero-in on "street furniture"—for example, newsstands and phone booths—as well as such other, large features as underground water mains and tunnels. The City Map was created
jointly by the New York City Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications (DoITT), the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), and the Center for the Analysis and Research of
Spatial Information (CARSI) at Hunter College's Department of Geography. At the gallery exhibit, visitors will find blown-up views of several "sections" from New York's five boroughs as seen
from different elevations. Among these will be an overhead shot of the Statue of Liberty, as well as views of Yankee and Shea stadiums. Nine-by-twelve-foot maps of each borough will
also convey the complexity of New York's urban geography. The entire City Map actually comprises nearly 2,000 sections, or "tiles," each measuring 2500 square feet of city land.
Visitors will also learn how the map has been successfully put to the test; one notable application was last summer's targeted spraying to combat the West Nile virus. The City Map
pinpointed important mosquito breeding grounds like wetlands and tire dumps. The exhibit Mapping New York
is made possible through the collaboration of the Hunter College Art Galleries and financial contributions from ESRI Inc. (the chief corporate sponsor), the Hunter College offices of the President, the Provost, and the Department of Geography. Allan H. Dobrin, Commissioner of DoITT, played a key role in making the City Map a reality.
The exhibit coincides with the 97th
Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers
in New York City from Feb. 27 to March 3, which attracts nearly 5,000 geographers from around the world. The Geography Department at Hunter College, the largest geography program in the metropolitan area, is the coordinating host for this
meeting. |
