Blog 7 – Final Project Proposal

Members: Jennifer Wen, Esther Yun, Osareme Davis, John Hurtubise, Fenan Gudina

Topic: Historical Northfield buildings

Objectives: 

• Use modeling to represent historical Northfield buildings
• Map the Northfield Area 
• Include colorized images of downtown buildings

Sources: We are going to cultivate a collection of both aerial and street-level photos to provide a top-down map overlay. Street-level photos will be used alongside our 3D models to better visualize and interpret the changes over time in Downtown Northfield. To get these photos we will use a combination of sources. These will include Carleton’s Digital Library, The Northfield Museum archives, and The Northfield-Rice County digital collections site. For the creation of the project, we will use a host of tools that we have covered in class including ArcGIS, Colorizors, and Fusion 3D. 

Processes: 

1. Gather maps and photographs by visiting Gould archives and requesting Northfield History Center materials, etc.
   • The database materials are mostly cleaned up/ we are looking at photos instead of numbers so there should be minimal data cleaning
2. Select buildings for 3D modeling
3. (simultaneously) compile ArcGIS map with photographs and models overlaid
4. Create a webpage to host the ArcGIS map

Presentation: We’re going to make 3D models of selected current and past buildings and then (maybe) overlay them onto our ArcGIS map. We will present this interactive map and our individual models on a webpage with our colorized images and other related content. 

Timeline: 

Complete Research: Week 8 Tuesday, Feb 25th

Complete 3D models: Week 9 Thursday, March 6th

Complete Georeference Map: Week 9 Thursday, March 6th

Aimed Compile Completion: March 12th 

Final Project Due:  5:00 pm March 17th

Link to Predecent DH projects

https://www.greenestreet.nyc/map

Personal Interests in the Project

Jennifer: I’m interested in the 3D modeling aspect- I’m hoping that through modeling I will notice/discover something about the old Northfield buildings vs the newer/renovated buildings. I wonder what features were preserved and what were taken away. 

Esther: I thought the idea of exploring the old Northfield area was interesting as it would allow us to observe any similarities or differences between now and then.

Osareme: I am particularly curious about the time aspect of this project. Seeing how the downtown area changed and trying to relate it with events around the time could give some insight to the history of Northfield. The interactive map also seems like it would be fun to implement.

John: I am interested in using machine learning models to colorize images. It is also in a setting relevant to Carleton and NorthField meaning it is applicable to our community. I think that including this aspect into our project allows us to better connect historical photos and places to other aspects of the project such as maps and 3D models. 

Fenan: I’m interested in seeing how the Northfield area has changed over time, comparing old buildings to what they are now. Turning this into an interactive map would be a fun way to visualize these transformations.

Potential Sources:

Armory Square Event Center

https://digital.stolaf.edu/archives/asset/viewAsset/5fc7294a29b2660c6161fe80

East side of Division Street, looking at Scriver Building

https://cdm17227.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/NfldHistSoc/id/3173/rec/142

Buncha Carleton Floor plans and architectural maps

https://archive.carleton.edu/Detail/collections/33107

Maps of Carleton property (places on campus, acquisitions, includes maps of the Arb too)

https://archive.carleton.edu/Detail/collections/182792

More Campus maps

https://archive.carleton.edu/Detail/collections/74

Includes photographs of buildings

https://archive.carleton.edu/Detail/collections/538

The Northfield Public Library

https://digital.stolaf.edu/archives/asset/viewAsset/5fc7294a29b2660c6161fe77