3-D simulated waterfront tour debuts

Jun. 10--Researchers helping to imagine what the future of Buffalo's waterfront could look like have developed a 3-D computer simulation that lets viewers fly through neighborhoods.

The simulation -- created by the University at Buffalo's Center for Computational Research and unveiled Wednesday

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-- will help engineers and planners determine how to better connect the city to its waterfront.

The program also will give the public a chance to explore the future of the inner and outer harbors from any angle as the Erie Canal Harbor Development Corp. moves forward with its plans.

"In the system that we have, you can fly around any view that you want to see," said Martins Innus, lead scientific and urban visualization specialist for UB's Center for Computational Research.

The center was contracted by the engineering firm Parsons Brinckerhoff to develop the 3-D simulation for the firm's study of a proposal to build a harbor bridge that would connect downtown to the outer harbor. Parsons Brinckerhoff was contracted by Erie Canal Harbor Development to complete the bridge study, Innus said.

UB specialists have spent the last year creating a 3-D world with varying degrees of detail that shows what the waterfront neighborhoods currently look like and how they would change with various bridge designs.

The simulation was unveiled at UB's Partners Day in Adam's Mark Hotel.

Unlike a traditional conceptual drawing or other planning tool, the 3-D simulation gives viewers a way to see the proposals from any angle.

Innus, along with urban visualization and multimedia specialist Adrian Levesque and others, created the virtual world with three-dimensional data of downtown Buffalo gathered by Erie County. They then used aerial photographs to add details of existing buildings and features.

To re-create the Skyway, they pulled original paper blueprints of the bridge, scanned in those drawings and created an exact computer model of the structure.

The simulation, which will continue to be updated as the bridge study progresses, also can be used for other waterfront development projects such as the Canal Side project.

"Once we develop this area for the bridge project, when they have the Canal Side final plans, we've already got this area modeled," Innus said. "We can just put those plans in there and use it for a variety of different uses."

djgee@buffnews.com

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