Archive notice: This article was originally published on May 26, 2010. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
Not Shanghai, New York or Berlin, but Frankfurt am Main. Last Friday, a special kind of premiere took place in the banking metropolis: together with the City of Frankfurt, maila-push GmbH presented the world’s largest high-resolution 3D city model to the public for the first time.
At a press conference, Markus Frank (City of Frankfurt Head of Economic Affairs) and Kim Jung-Grüttner (Managing Director of maila-push GmbH) jointly presented the Frankfurt city model.
According to the company, in future the 3D city model will offer urban planners, architects, real-estate operators, business-development agencies and engineering offices the opportunity to present their construction projects clearly. Potential investors, for example, can fly through virtual Frankfurt on a computer screen and experience and walk through the Hessian metropolis in all its diversity.
The virtual 3D city model also heralds a new era for public information and participation: in future, major projects can be presented clearly to Frankfurt’s citizens and “architectural sins” avoided. The city model also makes an important contribution to political mediation because decision-making processes at political level are accelerated by up to 60 percent nowadays through the use of 3D city models, since planning processes can be discussed with citizens.
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For the 3D city model, large parts of Frankfurt’s city centre, with all buildings and streets as well as details such as fountains, lamps and trees, have so far been recreated realistically on the computer. The surveying office provides maila-push GmbH with the geodata, which the 3D specialists then meticulously process into a virtual city model with the aid of photographic material. The plan is to expand the model through support from companies so that a complete city model of the banking metropolis is available by the end of 2011.
The virtual 3D model was created by maila-push GmbH. The Darmstadt-based company is the market and technology leader in virtual 3D city and environment modelling – Virtual Urban Engineering. maila-push GmbH thereby supports business partners such as urban planners, architects, real-estate operators, business-development agencies and engineering offices in urban development and in planning, renting and marketing building complexes.
Kim Jung-Grüttner, Managing Director of maila-push GmbH, emphasises this aspect: “Virtual 3D models represent the future of ‘Urban Engineering.’ They sustainably support a building’s life cycle – from planning and renting through to marketing. The Frankfurt city model heralds a new era for city and location marketing in the Main metropolis.”
Further Links:
- Further information
Virtual city tour – Pr
