Today I stumbled upon this article in the Chicago Tribune about a new virtual reality exhibit at the Museum of Science & Industry featuring the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893 which has come to commonly be known as the "White City" due to its massive classically styled buildings executed in white plaster (that ultimately led to the style of the 1904 Worlds Fair that we here in the Lou so love to worship).
The virtual reality presentation was created by Lisa Snyder of UCLA's urban simulation team using photographs, plans and maps of the exposition. One sentence in the article jumped out at me, and that is: "the technology normally is used to record buildings, streets and infrastructure as they exist now, giving planners a way to visualize tearing down or restructuring the areas".
I thought to myself - wow wouldn't it be nice next time someone proposes to demolish the next landmark building to have this technology at arms reach to present to the powers that be what an awful idea it is to allow this to occur? I would think that in many cases this could be a very powerful tool.
You can check out some of the virtual reality of the Chicago exhibit here.
