The following 3D representations of 5 Towns nurture memories of our visits to these towns. Our visits were at least for a Month. Long enough to get some feeling for some of it. We took public transportation when not walking, visited parks, museums, social gathering places, restaurants, and anything of interest. The models are made possible because a person with the thingiverse handle of ‘Jarvizar’, found a way into satellite data sources containing altitude information (probably Lidar). Was then able to convert that data into STL format for our 3d printers. I find no reference to how or where the data was located, but I do know of one source:
https://touchterrain.geol.iastate.edu
through the University of Iowa, but the resolution is limited.
In any case; I express many thanks to ‘Jarvizar’, to the Maker movement and to the many who have contributed their creations to the community for further improvements and enjoyments.
Manhattan – Midtown
Getting into it:
Music – iTunes/Songs/…/New York Songs/Bobby Short/Manhattan and others
Birds Eye View – Google Maps/Manhattan NewYork, NY/Empire State Building (Zoom In & Hover)
Introduction – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manhattan
Getting Obsessed:
Here’s how to make one of your own!
Download STL files @ Thingiverse/“New York City Manhattan Mini v2.0” by Jarvizar
Print the first few % in street color (blue) then pause & change to building filament color (red/gold)
CAUTION: It took several days of continuous printing on my 3D printer
That takes care of the 3D map model
Go to a good cigar store and choose your Empty Box
Go to Thingiverse.com and find things related to Manhattan and download STL files
Go to TinkerCad.com and create your signs and export STL files
NOW; 3D print everything and create your diorama
That takes care of the things that tell your story
My story is composed of 3 surfaces: the Box Top, the Box Top Underside, and the Box Walls and Floor
SURFACE 1 – Box Top
Open with Caution
Begging rat – most likely is well fed, and possibly not even a rat
don’t be fooled by imposters
Rat with glasses – blending into the shadows, disguised and hiding
don’t be fooled by imposters
Pigeon with Rat tail – “fur n’ feather frolics” Saturday night in park attendee
highly discriminated against cast
Caution signs everywhere – many making no sense,
unknown languages, assumptions, or …
Legal limits in unfamiliar units – furlong / fortnight
Speed Limit: (10K), 10,000, f/fn (Furlong/Fortnight) =~ (37.2 Miles/Hour)
Love celebration, a NYC promise – Keith Haring
Turtles supporting it all – it’s turtle on turtle, all the way down
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turtles_all_the_way_down
SURFACE 2 – Box Top – Underside
Manhattan Rembrandt?
Keith Haring samplings containing things from Thingiverse.com:
“keith-haring-stand” by cyrus
“Best Buddies Logo by Keith Haring” by lukemitchell5
“Bat X Man” by RicoOBJ
“keith haring dance” by cyrus
“Keith Haring Tribute Dog” by pkittle
“Magnet Keith Haring” by odesch
“Baby tribute to Keith Haring” by GRIMEAU
SURFACE 3 – Box Walls and Floor
Signs Everywhere – helping you?
Explaining some of the signs …
Columbus Circle is our Central Point of Reference at:
40.769 North Latitude and 73.982 West Longitude Degrees
Uptown Side Wall identifies walking distance and time of a Street walk
Downtown Side Wall identifies the Avenues Crossed on a Street walk
East River Side Wall identifies walking distance and time of a Avenue walk
Hudson River Side Wall identifies the Streets crossed on an Avenue walk
Floor pointers identify directions to locations of interest
Mega Obsessed:
Production – make a mold of finished 3D thing & enter the mass production, souvenir business.
First Get a nod from Jarvizar
My Disclaimer – I’m just holding the flashlight; Officer
Digging Deeper …
http://www.actforlibraries.org/the-geology-of-manhattan/#:~:text=The geology of Manhattan can be seen in,of the Manhattan formation stands firm beneath them.
https://www.usgs.gov/media/images/nyc-region-geologic-map-northern-manhattan-and-bronx
https://www.usgs.gov/media/images/nyc-region-geologic-map
https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/d09eb5b0-f3af-0130-46b4-58d385a7b928
https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidbressan/2020/05/27/how-geology-shaped-new-york-citys-skyline/
https://pubs.usgs.gov/publication/dr1176
CHICAGO
Chicago was built in/on a swamp and is still trying to correct for the mistake. Here’s the story; as I see it. Water flows downhill. ‘Water flow divides’ happen a lot at high points. It always flows downhill, but the hill has sides. I thought that the United States had a single continental divide somewhere along route 66 in Arizona. I envisioned water on the western slope of the Rocky Mountains flowing into the Pacific Ocean and to the Atlantic on the other side. Way to simple! Imagining Lewis and Clark’s journey, I saw them paddling hard until they got to the ‘Continental Divide’ and floating from there on. The reason that I’m digressing is because; the City of Chicago sits at the entrance of a divide between water flowing to the Atlantic in one direction through the Great Lakes and to the Gulf of Mexico by way of the Mississippi River in another direction – downhill both ways:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_Portage
It’s called a portage because at one, you’ll have to carry your canoe and stuff around a waterfall or over a hill or …
Native Americans knew well of sites like this. They were the freeway interchanges of the day, for canoe travel. There is even one site where you can go easily in 4 directions to far away lands. That site is in Montana on a Blackfoot Reservation:
Back to Chicago. a favorite author (Allen Eckert), who has researched the Chicago portage probably as much as any, and has a wonderful way of explaining things:
I doubt that anyone will ever know the drama, engineering and politics related to water problems that perpetually plague Chicago. Number 1; being the Plague! They got their drinking water from Lake Michigan … but they also dumped waste into the same lake. After the plague, they built a network of under water piping to separate the two functions … didn’t work. Waste was going directly, without processing … So … waste treatment required pipes between, around, through, under, … buildings. So … because the buildings are sitting on the ground with no space for pipes; we’ll have to raise the buildings long enough to lay our network of pipes:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raising_of_Chicago
https://chicago.curbed.com/maps/chicago-most-iconic-buildings-map
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tallest_buildings_in_Chicago
https://chicago.curbed.com/maps/chicago-iconic-buildings
Wow; that was a lot of work! But, soon it was realized that all was not working as hoped.
The 2 needs (drinking water and waste disposal) were incompatible and must be separated. Natural designs speak to this; very loudly. The ‘Natural’ flow of the Chicago river is toward Lake Michigan – away from the ‘Chicago Portage’. Just over a small land divide at the portage, are water ways leading south to the Mississippi river. A plan develops: Drink the Lake water and send waste to St Louis. The birth of ‘Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal’, which changed the direction of water flow in the Chicago river.
It wasn’t all so peaceful either. Being at a strategic transportation hub for one travel media (water) make it easier to continue to the next media – trains. And with it commerce and trading and all that jazz …
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_historical_passenger_rail_services_in_Chicago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_Stock_Yards
https://www.choosechicago.com/articles/architecture-and-history/tour-frank-lloyd-wrights-chicago/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Chicago_Fire
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Second_City
https://www.bigstarchicago.com/
https://www.wttw.com/dusable-to-obama/the-great-migration
Interesting places outside the 3D map area:
Our Stay – 1627 N Western – NW 2x
FLW Home – 951 Chicago Ave – W 4x
Fire Start – 558 W DeKovan St – S 3x
Stock Yard – 42nd & S Halster St – S 2x
Nick’s Birth – 3717 Lexington – W 2x
Chicago Portage – S Harlem & 47th Lyons Ill – SW
PHILADELPHIA
We stayed at an Extended Stay Motel near the Airport and took a very inexpensive train into the Philadelphia Train station where we found fresh vegetables, Phili Cheese Stake sandwiches, wonderful Amish pastries; besides Philadelphia Cream Cheese. Senior people could ride public transportation for free … so we explored the area via bus.
My thoughts go to Ben Franklin, a very special hero of mine. But first …
Something about Lightening:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightning
Lightening is all about electrons on the ground wanting to get back with like kinds in the clouds. This is how I understand it …
If you are in an open field on a cloudy day and the hairs on your arm don’t feel right – fall quickly to the ground!
Electrons don’t travel too well through thin air, they prefer ‘conductors’ like metal towers, people, church steeples, and other tall objects, especially with sharp points. Well; when electrons pass through a conductor they heat it up a lot. Water in trees will boil and pop the bark off in an explosive manner. If the conductor is flammable, things catch fire. Living things cease to live.
Well Philadelphia, at Ben’s time, had lots of lightening, and lots of churches catching fire. The ‘wisdom’ of the day was that God was displeased, and was signaling worshipers to change churches. A balance and acceptance of sort was reached.
Along comes Ben, fascinated with electrons, doing experiments and discovering the lightening rod; that would give the electrons a better path and protect the church and whatnot. You’ve got to suspend logic here for a moment. By some ‘thought’ process; it could be interpreted (or miss) that Ben was interfering with God’s plan. The faithful don’t that too kindly to that kind of behavior … another challenge for Science!
https://bigthink.com/the-past/benjamin-franklin-lightning-rod
Science won and saved the Churches!
WASHINGTON D.C.
It has been said that the westward expansion of the United States was driven, in large part, by the desire to get as far away from Washington DC and the federal government as possible. Be that as it may; they put on a great ‘dog and pony show’ for visiting school children. The network of Smithsonian museums is certainly worth a visit. Eye candy for propaganda purposes, or not. The town is certainly full of me-me people, selling themselves with impossible promises and fantasies. But we love our experiment in representational democracy.
We stayed in a furnished apartment in Arlington Virginia, just across the river. I walked our dog through the massive cemetery and explored museums, impressive buildings and the Library of Congress – after getting a library card. Our month stay was still not enough time to fully appreciate everything. We even found a restaurant decorated with one of my favorite art forms – Oaxacan fantasy animals. We left, wanting more.
TORONTO
Three China towns!
60% Visible Minorities
3 Million Immigrants
Terminal of the Underground RR for thousands of US slaves
And most speak English; only 1% speak French.
They need a statue of liberty! A truly diverse, comfortable and integrated town.
We stayed in an AirB&B upscale apartment overlooking the Gardiner Expressway. Our stated purpose for being there was to attend the convention of Association of Science and Technology Centers (ASTC), being hosted by the Ontario Science Center. They provided us with a VIP backstage tour of their facilities. Wonderful Center! While there we ate Elk at the CN Tower, saw an amazing Cirque du Soleil performance, attended a ComicCon gathering, and got around rather well despite my being wheelchair bound.
BARCELONA
We lived in Barcelona for about 9 months, in the L’Eixample district, at about 80 Carrer de Provenca. On the Menu selection above; see blogs discussing Gaudi and Saint George. Our railroad car shaped apartment was wonderful.
I became a graduate of the ‘Learn Gaudi’ on-line course. I learned how he used gravity to design the towers of Sagada Familia, by modeling them upside down and allowing gravity to form the curves. I wandered about town a lot & used a hand held translator to functioned quite nicely, using English alone. We had been unable to get a year visa, … so planned to take the 3 month entry the passport provided, go out and come back for another 3 … and … We ended up staying illegally, avoiding the police, while being robbed frequently by savvy gypsies. Our many ‘being robbed’ stories have entertained many a dinner guest. We were there at the time of the ‘Madrid bombings’. Backpacks of explosives were left on Madrid trains and exploded remotely. The Basques were blamed, Barcelona is strongly Basque, so lots of candle vigils, pot banging, and general upset. We also saw the whole Christmas season, human castling, and happy things. No bull fights or bull runs. We learned to shop daily at the wonderful outdoor markets, that were everywhere. We discovered the used clothing stores (Humana) and soon had genuine Spanish costumes – fine silk, leather, wool, … My daily task was to keep our home in fresh baguettes, usually twice a day. We acclimated to the daily rhythm of siestas and late dinners. Pans and Company was a favorite sandwich shop. Public transportation was everywhere, reliable, clean and somewhat safe. We made numerous visit to neighboring regions and towns by train. We discovered artists like Picasso, Dali and Miro. Even got to the point of somewhat understanding television news. They have socialized medicine, making it hard for a visitor to get a flu shot – I asked for one at a clinic and was given a needle and vile and sent home for a family member to administer it. Merle frequented a McDonalds for their coffee and ice cream 1 euro special. We tried, with little success, to do ‘language exchange’ with locals. They were more interested and serious about learning English than we for learning Spanish. Actually very few people in Barcelona wanted to speak Spanish – they preferred Basque or English. I visited every Gaudi building within a reasonable travel from Barcelona and appreciated them all.
CREDITS and THANKS and …
I truly love this thingiverse community! The sharing of thoughts, plans, designs, tricks, prototypes, … is very important for our health and education. One day the knowledge will spread, and squishware copyrights will be frowned upon. In the meantime … My name on thingiverse is GeeEaZy. I have, and will continue to contribute … and use downloads freely.
Here is a list of the components that I used for the Cities exhibits; each donated to/by the thingiverse community:
Picasso’s dog by Z0333
Picasso’s Sancho & Don Quixote by DK7
Dali Clock by Microstrat
St George by joan61
Free Catalon by Gabip
Sagrada Familia by manuecs
Tim Horton by jayyoung3
Sherrif by Hackens
Gravel by knottysWoodshop
Wishing Well by PrimedBlack
White Castle by Bclar3
Church by RMB
Flanes by FialDarg
Lightening by PwTrull
Portage by efisch06
“New York City – Turtle” by FiveNights
Keith Haring sampling:
“keith-haring-stand” by cyrus
“Best Buddies Logo by Keith Haring” by lukemitchell5
“Bat X Man” by RicoOBJ
“keith haring dance” by cyrus
“Keith Haring Tribute Dog” by pkittle
“Magnet Keith Haring” by odesch
“Baby tribute to Keith Haring” by GRIMEAU
Rat collection:
“Rat holding a bowl” by ClayRade
“Banksy 3D Glasses Rat” by Chalter
“Trash Gryffons – Pigeon Rat” by EndDaysEngine
Signs, made by me using Tinkercad:
Thin rectangular (or… ) base
TEXT added to base (thing or hole) – raised …
Combine into one thing
Export as “STL” file
Additional Information
Items to carry, remember, or use when exploring:
Comfortable shoes – make walking fun
Metro Pass – unlimited for entire visit period
Metro Map – available free at some stations
Consider Using Elevator Accessible Subway Map – https://www.mta.info/node/5346
Use Courtesy – always and everywhere
Plan to be out late – over dress
Uber/Lyst… have one account active – use taxis when available
Cash/Credit/Debit Card – Check for latest currency options & requirements
A Cell phone is essential
Street Numbers increase going UPtown; the opposite for going DOWNtown
Avenue Numbers increase going West (toward the Hudson River) CROSStown
Take a hop on/off bus tour – early in visit
Google your many passions and dreams
Use Google/Image search to identify and describe everything
Use Google/Translate for signs, menus and all – https://translate.google.com/?sl=auto&tl=en&op=translate
Take a hop on/off bus tour – early in visit
Google your many passions and dreams
Use Google/Image search to identify and describe everything
Use Google/Translate for signs, menus and all – https://translate.google.com/?sl=auto&tl=en&op=translate
Have Fun …
Apr 17, 2025 @ 12:07:21
I was here….