gigapanorama.org

The Pittsburgh Gigapanorama project originated at the STUDIO for Creative Inquiry in Carnegie Mellon University’s College of Fine Arts during the High Point Pittsburgh Investigation, an exploration into the idea of transforming the one-acre rooftop of the U.S. Steel Tower, Pittsburgh’s tallest building, into a publicly accessible viewpoint.

In 2009, seeking a way to convey the incredible perspectives available from this 841-foot-high platform, we created the first Pittsburgh Gigapanorama, a 10.49 gigapixel image that captures the entire 360-degree panorama of southwest Pennsylvania as seen from the building’s perimeter.  Based on that experience, in 2010 we are in the process of creating the second Pittsburgh Gigapanorama.  We also mounted an exhibit New Perspectives of Pittsburgh: Interactive Urban Panoramas, which was displayed in the Upper Lobby of the U. S. Steel Tower.

The project has evolved into an effort to develop and explore Gigapanography, the creation of massive gigapixel, 360-degree urban panoramas.

On a regional level, the Pittsburgh Gigapanoramas will be important tools for documenting the city and influencing public perceptions of it, as well as a resource for travel and tourism purposes.

Implementing these principles across the country and around the world will result in an entirely new form of urban portraiture with myriad implications and applications.

Pittsburgh Gigapanorama project credits

The Pittsburgh Gigapanorama project was conceived and has been produced by David Bear at the STUDIO for Creative Inquiry in the College of Fine Arts at Carnegie Mellon University (412-268-3453 or bear7015@andrew.cmu.edu) with the support of:

Paul Heckbert of CMU’s Create Lab, who has helped manage and coordinate the project.

Art Wetzel of  the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center, who helped organize, adjust, and assemble the massive image files.

Ruthe Karlin, who has provided extensive post-production Photoshop artistry and digital graphics.

Gursimran Koonjul of CMU, who has assisted with computers, camera equipment, gigapaning as well as printing.

Fran Flaherty of CMU’s Digital Print Lab, who has printed the gigabanners.

Thanks also to:

The STUDIO for Creative Inquiry (Golan Levin and Marge Myers)

Create Lab (Illah Nourbakhsh, Randy Sargent, Dror Yaron, Clara Phillips)

Gigapan Systems

The Pittsburgh Gigapanorama project has also received funding support from the Heinz Endowments and a Seed Award from the Sprout Fund.