The Daily Render by Nikolas R. Schiller

: rendered at 9,000 X 6,000 :
Shirlington Quilt

I’ve been working on this commissioned map for a few months now. It was originally going to be Paris, but we decided to it would be easier to make a map of their house. I spent some extra time transforming the nearby highway into a heart (below) to signify the love between the husband and wife. I think it looks beautiful It will be placed in the client’s home, which is featured within the map.

View the Google Map of the Shirlington neighborhood of Arlington, Virginia.

: detail :

View the rest of the details:
(more…)

Comments Off || ||

9/29/2008 || 11:42 am
Saint Paul Quilt

: rendered at 18,000 X 12,000 :
Saint Paul Quilt

It’s been quite a long time since I’ve made one of my signature quilt projection maps. On one hand I haven’t been inspired lately to make any new maps based on this technique. On the other hand, there are only a few American cities that I have yet to map, and Saint Paul, Minnesota was one of them. I was originally going to make this map during the Republican National Convention, but was sidetracked due to other work. Unlike the previous quilt projection maps that I have made most recently, which involved at least one recursive tessellation, this map employs the original style of my hexagon quilts.

This coming Saturday I will be in New York City for the New York Map Society’s monthly meeting. In preparation for my talk, I don’t expect to be blogging much this week because I intend on spending much of my spare time preparing my notes for the talk. If you are in New York, I hope you can make it!

View the Google Map of downtown Saint Paul, Minnesota.

: detail :

View the rest of the details:
(more…)

Render A Comment || ||

5/23/2008 || 10:43 am
A New & Arabesque Map of the Hirshhorn Museum & Sculpture Garden

:: saved at 6,480 x 5,040 ::

To celebrate the new procedure I decided to get around to editing the Library of Congress‘ copy of Willem Janszoon Blaeu’s Nova totius terrarum orbis geographica ac hydrographica tabula, which was published in Amsterdam in 1606. I removed the original map from the center and kept the decorative border similar to Nova et Accvratissima Totivs Terrarvm Orbis Tabvla, A New Map of the Terraqueous Globe : according to the the Ancient discoveries and most general Divisions of Geospatial Art, America as a Cloverleaf, and A New And Accurate Map of the World by John Speed. However, unlike the previous antique map mash-ups, which usually feature the earth laid out in two hemispheres, this map uses a rectangular space (Mercator?). The beauty of this open layout is that I can place any of my previously made maps inside of this 402-year-old template.

A common naming practice I’ve noticed in old map is the use of “New & Accurate” and since I like to play around with words, I changed Accurate to Arabesque to create a visual pun. The source map was about 6,500 pixels wide, I underlaid a rotated 9,000 x 6,000 copy of Hirshhorn Quilt to fit perfectly in the center of the new map. I think it would be fun to actually hand-color the engravings on this map to match other copies of this map which have the various figures colored in. The LOC’s copy is uncolored which means that its actually easier to add color to it than if it were already colored because pigment matching is not needed.

Below I dissect the border of the map:
(more…)

Comments Off || || Posted One Year Ago: LOLMaps - Submit

5/21/2008 || 10:22 am
Hirshhorn Quilt

: rendered at 18,000 X 12,000 :
Hirshhorn Quilt

Following up on my new procedural idea from last week, I made this derivative map without publishing the intermediate maps. The unseen steps involve the rendering of a pre-Hirshhorn Quilt, sampling a portion of that quilt, and projecting the imagery again to create the map above. The result, as with all derivative maps, is a more symmetrical, arabesque map. This technique will be used again.

View the Google Map of the Hirshhorn Museum on the National Mall in Ward 2 of Washington, DC.

: detail :

View the rest of the details:
(more…)

Comments Off || ||

4/25/2008 || 8:26 am
North End Quilt #2

: rendered at 18,000 X 12,000 :
North End Quilt Quilt #2

Using this portion of North End Quilt, I constructed this derivative Hexagon Quilt Projection map of the area around North End neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts.

After rendering the map, while I was processing it for on-line publication on this website, I noticed that the source tessellation was off by one pixel and subsequently, this map has a slight defect to it. This is not the first time this has happened, but it makes me disappointed because the map is not perfect like the rest.

View the Google Map of North End neighborhood in Boston.

: detail :

View the rest of the details:
(more…)

Comments Off || || Posted One Year Ago: Vermont Avenue Sprocket

4/22/2008 || 12:28 pm
North End Quilt

: rendered at 18,000 X 12,000 :
North End Quilt

Continuing my series of maps of downtown Boston, Massachusetts, today’s map features the North End neighborhood. Settled in the 1630’s, it’s the oldest continuously inhabited portion of the city of Boston.

View the Google Map of North End neighborhood in Boston.

: detail :

View the rest of the details:
(more…)

Render A Comment || || Posted One Year Ago: San Antonio Sprocket #2

4/6/2008 || 11:48 am
Saint Louis Quilt #5

: rendered at 18,000 X 12,000 :
Saint Louis Quilt #5

This map of downtown Saint Louis, Missouri is the first to use imagery from 2006. I have now made maps of downtown Saint Louis that show the downtown area at three specific periods in time in the last 6 years. In the near future, I might made a montage of how the geography has changed using familiar portions of these maps. It think it would look very interesting. As I mentioned before, I like the way that I’ve been able to capture the Busch Stadium’s progression over time.

View the Google Map of downtown Saint Louis, Missouri.

View the rest of the details:
(more…)

Comments Off || || Posted One Year Ago: taking a few days off...

3/28/2008 || 3:28 pm
Vassar Quilt #2

: rendered at 18,000 X 12,000 :
Vassar Quilt #2

Using this portion of Vassar Quilt, I made this derivative map of Vassar College. For more information about this imagery see my previous posting or read the metadata. There will be a third map in this series that is vastly different than the previous two. It should be on-line shortly.

View the Google Map of Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York.

View the rest of the details:
(more…)

Comments Off || || Posted One Year Ago: Comparative Meta-Data of the USGS Orthoimagery of Washington, DC - 2002 / 2005

3/9/2008 || 9:10 pm
Scott Circle Quilt #2

: rendered at 18,000 X 12,000 :
Scott Circle Quilt #2

View the Google Map of Scott Circle in downtown Washington, DC.

View the rest of the details:
(more…)

Comments Off || ||

3/8/2008 || 1:32 pm
Scott Circle Quilt

: rendered at 18,000 X 12,000 :
Scott Circle Quilt

I am in the process of making hexagon quilt projection maps of all the major traffic circles in Washington, DC. I have most of the circles covered and intend on continuing this project as I acquire new imagery of Washington, DC. Of important note is that Dupont, Logan, Washington, and Scott circles all lie with the area that is censored in Google Maps. Also, this is one of the first maps that I’ve made in a few years that features National Geographic’s headquarters. I will probably make a derivative map dedicated to National Geographic.

View the Google Map of Scott Circle in downtown Washington, DC.

View the rest of the details:
(more…)

Comments Off || ||

2/29/2008 || 11:46 am
Washington Circle Quilt #2

: rendered at 18,000 X 12,000 :
Washington Circle Quilt

By using the exact same tessellation process, I was hoping that this derivative map would look similar to Dupont Circle Quilt 2005 #2 and Logan Circle Quilt #2. Alas, I must have not used the EXACT tessellation process because the circle looks slightly different, but I am still pleased with the result. I intend on making maps of the rest of the circles in Washington, DC.

View the Google Map of Washington Circle in the Foggy Bottom neighborhood of Washington, DC.

View the rest of the details:
(more…)

Comments Off || ||

2/26/2008 || 3:36 pm
Washington Circle Quilt

: rendered at 18,000 X 12,000 :
Washington Circle Quilt

View the Google Map of Washington Circle in the Foggy Bottom neighborhood of Washington, DC.

View Details:
(more…)

Comments Off || ||

2/15/2008 || 1:45 pm
87 & 280 Quilt

: rendered at 18,000 X 12,000 :
87 & 280 Interchange in San Jose, California

Similar to the Los Angeles Interchanges Series (LAIS), I decided to make my first San Jose, California map using imagery from the interchange of California State Route 87 & interstate 280. Unlike the LAIS, which used only the Diamond Quilt Projection this map uses a Hexagon Quilt Projection.

View the Google Map of the interchange.

View Details:
(more…)

Comments Off || || Posted One Year Ago: Censored today in theMail...

1/15/2008 || 12:58 pm
Federal Triangle Quilt #2

: rendered at 18,000 X 12,000 :
Federal Triangle Quilt

Using this portion of Federal Triangle Quilt, I created this derivative map. I found myself counting up the total number of Freedom Plazas located with in the map. After spending a few minutes, I counted a total of 80 complete maps within my map– 48 in the map’s center, and 16 along the top and 16 along the bottom. I look forward to seeing this one printed out!

View my previous entry about Federal Triangle.

View the Google Map of Federal Triangle in downtown Washington, DC.

View Details:
(more…)

Comments Off || ||

1/14/2008 || 5:20 pm
Federal Triangle Quilt

: rendered at 18,000 X 12,000 :
Federal Triangle Quilt

Around the time that I made the Google Earth layer featuring the map of 109 brothels within sight of the White House, I downloaded the imagery to make a few follow-up maps. Since the source aerial photography has such high spatial resolution (6 inches per pixel), the area shown in the map is quite limited. It features: the John A. Wilson Building (the DC City Hall), the Ronald Reagan Building & International Trade Center, the I.R.S. Building, Department of Commerce buildings, Old Post Office, and my favorite landmark, Freedom Plaza. And because Freedom Plaza is laid out in the form of a map of DC, this map actually contains numerous maps of DC (but how many?).

Due to my research related to Google’s censorship of downtown Washington, DC, I can claim that this map features newer imagery that one cannot see on the current version of Google Maps or Google Earth.

View the Google Map of Federal Triangle in downtown Washington, DC.

View Rendering Details:
(more…)

Comments Off || || Posted One Year Ago: Austin Quilt #2

12/26/2007 || 2:58 pm
Ballwin Quilt #3

: rendered at 18,000 X 12,000 :
Ballwin Quilt #3

This is a second derivative map based on a portion of Ballwin Quilt #2.

View the Google Map of Burtonwood Manor Condominiums in Ballwin, Missouri

View Details:
(more…)

Comments Off || ||

12/15/2007 || 6:16 pm
Clayton Quilt #4

: rendered at 18,000 X 12,000 :
Clayton Quilt 4

Using the tessellation from Clayton Quilt #3, I made a Hexagon projection version. There is a nice hexagram in the center.

Read more about Clayton, Missouri here

View the Google Map of the Clayton, Missouri

View Details:
(more…)

Comments Off || || Posted One Year Ago: Answering a question from September

12/12/2007 || 11:59 am
Clayton Quilt

: rendered at 18,000 X 12,000 :
Clayton Quilt

Clayton, Missouri is one of the few satellite cities within Saint Louis County that has dense enough development to have a downtown with high-rise office & residential buildings. When I was younger I remember enjoying downtown Clayton. It was probably the first urban environment I ever explored. In Shaw Park (which is not in the map above), I learned how to ice skate in the mid-1980s and in 1998 I had my first ever DJ gig (what a night!). The source aerial photography was one foot per pixel and taken between April 1st & 10th, 2006. In the map above, I reduced the spatial scale by 25% (which gives about 1.5 feet per pixel) so the Forest Park Expressway would show more. From the meta-data I discovered that Sanborn has an office in Chesterfield (near my hometown) which I’d like to visit sometime in the future.

View the Google Map of the Clayton, Missouri

View Details:
(more…)

Comments Off || || Posted One Year Ago: San Diego Quilt #2, Indiana GIS Newsletter - December 2006

10/31/2007 || 12:15 pm
Mount Vernon Quilt #4

: rendered at 18,000 X 12,000 :
Mount Vernon Quilt #3

Using this portion of Mount Vernon Quilt #3, I created a derivative tessellation to create this fractal map.

Up next I have another map of Mount Vernon based off of a fourth dervative tessellation created from this map. I believe that the next map will be the most derivatives I’ve created from one source map!

View the Google Map of the Mount Vernon neighborhood of Baltimore, Maryland

View Details:
(more…)

Comments Off || ||

10/25/2007 || 12:16 pm
Silver Spring Quilt #3

: rendered at 18,000 X 12,000 :

Using a portion of Silver Spring Quilt #1, I made a derivative tessellation and created this fractal map. The “lines” seen above are reflections of the Metro line around the Silver Spring Metro Station.

View the Google Map of the Silver Spring, Maryland

: detail :

View the rest of the details:
(more…)

Comments Off || ||

10/24/2007 || 3:12 pm
Silver Spring Quilt #2

: rendered at 18,000 X 12,000 :

Up next will a a fractal version. It should look pretty cool It’s too bad that the source aerial photograph was taken so late in the afternoon because the shadows obscure a lot of what’s on the ground.

View the Google Map of the Silver Spring, Maryland

View Details:
(more…)

Comments Off || ||

9/22/2007 || 8:24 pm
Pentagon Quilt #3

: rendered at 18,000 X 12,000 :

In light of the album cover, I decided to make a few more maps of the Pentagon. Using new imagery taken in September of 2005 by Aerial Express and released by the USGS at 0.5 meters (approximately 1.6-foot). The first rendered was a botch. Somehow when I was changing the design around I messed up and created an imperfect map, which I prefer not to publish. Howerver, I was able to sample it to make a derivative tessellation that I used for this map.

View the Google Map of the Pentagon

View Details:
(more…)

Comments Off || || Posted One Year Ago: Plan a scenic drive... says Weather dot com

9/12/2007 || 4:03 pm
Los Alamitos Circle Quilt #2

: rendered at 18,000 X 12,000 :

Using this portion of the Los Alamitos Quilt, I created a derivative tessellation to create this map.

View the Google Map Los Alamitos Circle in Long Beach, California.

View Details:
(more…)

Comments Off || || Posted One Year Ago: North, South, East, Westminster

9/11/2007 || 3:42 pm
Los Alamitos Circle Quilt

: rendered at 18,000 X 12,000 :

From the Wikipedia entry:

The Los Alamitos Traffic Circle, informally known as the Long Beach Traffic Circle (or just the Traffic Circle, since there are no other high volume traffic circles in Southern California), is a roundabout at the intersection of Lakewood Boulevard (former California State Route 19), Pacific Coast Highway (California State Route 1/former US Highway 101 Alternate) and Los Coyotes Diagonal in Long Beach, California.

In the coming weeks, I am going to go through my maps and tag all the maps that feature traffic circles. I’ve made quite a few now. I would like to find more traffic circles in the Los Angeles area that are similar to the Los Alamitos Circle. Please contact me if you know of any.

View the Google Map Los Alamitos Circle in Long Beach, California.

View Details:
(more…)

Comments Off || ||

9/7/2007 || 9:06 am
Dupont Circle Quilt 2005 #2

: rendered at 18,000 X 12,000 :

After making yesterday’s map, I thought it would be interesting to expand on the “sister circle” concept and make a similar version of Dupont Circle. The process involved in making this map is something I have never done before. I took the source tile from Logan Circle Quilt #2 and reduced it to the original 3,000 x 3,000 size and opened up Dupont Circle Quilt 2005. Once the opened, I overlaid the source location on to Dupont map and tried my best to place it on the exact same location. This involved an attempt to overlay the circles on top of one another. The assumption was that they were the same in size, so by adjusting the opacity of Logan Circle, I was able to fit them on top of eachother. Of course it wasn’t exact, but what it allowed me to do was to copy the same location and create a very similar tessellation. I know it wasn’t perfect because the circle is slightly truncated when overlapped. You can see this (below) in the way that the fountain does not show up properly. Regardless, I am really pleased with the way the new process turned out.

View the Google Map of Dupont Circle in Washington, DC.

View Details:
(more…)

Render A Comment || || Posted One Year Ago: Williamsburg Quilt

9/6/2007 || 12:42 pm
Logan Circle Quilt #2

: rendered at 18,000 X 12,000 :

Using this piece of imagery, I created a new tessellation to create this map. I find it quite beautiful! The ways in which the circles combine to make new circles is the aspect that I like the most.

View the Google Map of Logan Circle in Washington, DC.

View Details:
(more…)

Comments Off || || Posted One Year Ago: Lower Manhattan Quilt #2

9/5/2007 || 1:00 pm
Logan Circle Quilt

: rendered at 18,000 X 12,000 :

It’s been ages since I made a map of Washington, DC. I’ve been so caught up in the Los Angeles Interchanges Series that I’ve created little else lately.

This map is of Logan Circle which is one of my favorite circles in Washington, DC and is only a 5 minute walk from my house. Unlike Dupont Circle, which I’ve made 4 maps of, this is my first map of Logan Circle (Dupont’s “sister” circle, located EXACTLY .75 miles away). The U St. Quadrant Tessellation series, created exactly 2 years ago, features 4 maps that ‘barely’ include Logan Circle. You can see the circle if you look close enough: U St. SW, U St. SE, U St. NW, and U St. NE
(You can also see how the Quilt Projection has changed in the last two years! Notice the change in scale!!).

Up next is a fractual of Logan Circle created using the 1st derivative tessellation of this imagery.

View the Google Map of Logan Circle in Washington, DC.

View Details:
(more…)

Comments Off || || Posted One Year Ago: Central Park Quilt - North #2, Lower Manhattan Quilt

8/25/2007 || 12:00 pm
Annapolis Quilt

: rendered at 18,000 X 12,000 :

I recently noticed that most of the state of Maryland has been released and now I can make the maps a few people have asked about, but was unable to make due to the lack of availability. Today’s map shows the area around the state capital of Maryland.

I’ve actually been to Annapolis a couple times. The last time was in June of 2006 when I went sailing with a friend of mine who’s from the area. The before that was on my 24th birthday in 2004 when a friend randomly picked me up that Sunday afternoon and drove me there on a whim for dinner. I remember getting a kick out of how the map I was making that day eerily looked like an anchor. And finally the first time I went to Annapolis was for a field trip my freshman year a GWU. We got to go on the nuclear submarine, the USS Pittsburgh. That was quite an interesting experience to say the least.

View the Google Map of Annapolis, Maryland.

View Details:
(more…)

Comments Off || || Posted One Year Ago: Donations to the Library of Congress Geography & Mapping Division

8/3/2007 || 11:42 am
I-35W Bridge Quilt

: rendered at 18,000 X 12,000 :

Like the MacArthur Maze Quilt, this map is a prime example of mapping current events. On August 1st the bridge in this map unexpected collapsed killing and injuring scores of people. Having family living in the Twin City area, I took notice of this bridge’s collapse and decided to make a map.

Last year in October I was in the area for my Grandma’s funeral and remember seeing the bridge off in the distance. I even remember being driven across the bridge when I was a lot younger. So unlike most of the maps I’ve made which feature locations I have yet to visit, this one really hits home for me.

View the Google Map of the Interstate 35W bridge in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

View Details:
(more…)

Render A Comment || ||

7/18/2007 || 3:51 pm
Kennedy Center Quilt

: rendered at 18,000 X 12,000 :

In continuance of my current task of mapping the areas of Washington, DC that Google has chosen to censor, I realzed that I had not made a map with the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

View the Google Map of the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC.

View Details:
(more…)