Sustainable Land Development Today - October 2007 - (Page 14)

TECHNOLOGY By Rob Kundert Looking at a New Dimension Three-dimensional animations that bring a touch of reality to drawingboard concepts are finding increased uses in land development. Its value can be found in fleshing out ideas and identifying potential problems, as well as to show investors the look of a developer’s dream. The technology is used extensively by Crosland, a Charlotte, North Carolina, real estate development firm as their plans unfold to transforms a large parcel of land 15 minutes from that city’s downtown area into a sustainable mixed-use community. Working with the architects and engineers in the local office of Indianapolis, Indiana-based Schneider Corp., the project has been brought to life every step of the way since its first sketches to show an environmentally sensitive community targeted at those who savor an active outdoor lifestyle. “The use of the 3-D animation actually becomes part of the design process instead of just a tool at the end to show what it looks like,” said Kevin Foster, Schneider Project Manager. “In a lot of projects, you can see a really nice rendering of a building or something. We’re taking it to the next level for flythroughs and animations to show landscaping, as well as building elevations.” Chad Myers, Director of the firm’s Visualization Department, said such use of 3-D animation has been evolving for a decade or more. Today, the 3-D end product has legs. The animation, made up of 32 separate scenes for every second of video, can be used beyond the design phase and later presentations to builders or buyers. “We’re producing high-resolution images that can be use in print materials, websites, billboards. Video files can be published to a website or to DVDs,” Myers said. Crosland’s Rich Reichle, General Manager and Project Manager for Whitewater said he relied on Schneider to use the 3-D tech tool from the beginning. “It’s been commonly used to do fly through tools and marketing videos. The whole presentation relied on using the 3D renderings and virtual tour, to actually select a lot, put a house on it and use that as a sale tool and a tool for the builders,” Reichle said. Using 3-D animation can help a developer and his team showcase and bring a project to life before it even begins. The 770-acre Whitewater project is located near its namesake, the U.S. National Whitewater Center, a nonprofit outdoor recreation facility for whitewater rafting, canoeing, and kayaking which opened in 2006. Construction on the first phase of the mixed use complex is just getting underway. The estimated ten-year build out will result in approximately 2,500 residences ranging from single family detached homes to apartments, as well as some mixed commercial uses. “Our main focus for the community is an active outdoor lifestyle,” said Reichle. Thirty-percent of the land is set aside for green space. It will feature nine miles of trails that will interface with an extensive system in surrounding Mecklenburg County as well as those in the 300-acre Historic Tuckaseegee Park and the US National Whitewater Center property. The firm is also working with a local mountain bike group to craft trails tailored for their sport. It will be a sustainable community, with sustainable technology built into all aspects of the project. Uses of other technologies came into play to solve a distance issue. The project involved designers and consultants from different parts of the country. “We have a project desktop site that we host at Schneider for this project. All the consultants, from different states, have a password to this site,” Foster said, which addressed the issues of files too big for e-mail. “Any of them can put drawings, post messages. Anything that anybody does on the project can be uploaded to this site.” There was also a healthy use of video conferencing. “We can have the client in our Charlotte office, sit down there and have a video conference with us up here and it’s almost like you are sitting in the same room. You can pull drawings up that you wouldn’t be able to do otherwise,” Foster said. “There’s no substitute for sitting in a face to face meeting, but the next best thing is to be able to sit on a video conference and talk back and forth.” 14 October 2007 Sustainable Land Development Today

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Sustainable Land Development Today - October 2007

Sustainable Land Development Today - October 2007 Contents Our Voice Your Voice Editorial Board Mapping the Development Process Looking at a New Dimension The Environmental Liability Continuum GPS System Makes the Grade Regulations: Reactions Mixed Trends: Communications Easements Business Management: Recycling Sustainable Practices: LEED-ND Energy: Community Propane Systems Transportation: Mountain Solutions Recommended Reading Calendar Products/Services Showcase Classifieds Advertiser Index The Last Word

Sustainable Land Development Today - October 2007

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