wolverine

College is going really well. I will be soon applying to grad school, which I don't know where. But I've been pretty busy this summer working at an architecture firm in downtown Saginaw. But I've made it down to Detroit a few time this summer to watch them Tigers. Thanks everyone for offering to help. I'll probably take you all up on those offers. What I really need to do is get Ford Field from Gmax to 3ds. Yes, I know of the quake III plugins, milkshape and all that stuff to get it imported, but it never seems to work because the shapes get seriously distorted. If anyone is willing to get this moved to 3ds without any problems I'd be really happy.

Pretty much almost everyone is here or around who was building previous models. I'd love to release many of them, as some are almost close to completion. But now since I'm working an 8-5 an architecture firm + college this fall, I'm incredibly swamped. Here is what I had been working on. A few of these may be unfamiliar to some of the BSP members as well: Ford Field (Detroit) needs domed portion Dime Building (Detroit) (needs back wall) Architects Building (Detroit-New Center) (needs textures) Hudsons Department Store (Detroit) (needs textures) Packard Motors (Detroit) needs a ton of work Brush Park Apartments (half done) Here is a building I plan on working on because it's entirely CADed: Michigan Central Station.

Downloading any copyrighted music without paying is illegal. I would suggest buying them off iTunes or some other online music vendor's website. If you don't have a credit card and really want them badly, You might come across them on some online radio station. Sometimes I cannot find the music I want on iTunes, so I typically go to a flash-based streaming radio station that lets me select the artists I want to hear. Because its flash based, the music is usually stored on your computer's temp folders (which typically most users don't even know it's there.). Eventually those files get deleted. But, if your above songs happen to play, you can retreive them imediately there, but they might have a strange file name. Reguardless they'll be mp3's so it should not be hard to find. It's a big loophole, and as far as I know it's legal to retrieve and save anything that has already legitimately reached your computer under the home recording act.... that is..as long as you are doing it for your own personal enjoyment. At most it's a violation of the user agreement of the online radio station (if they have one). But yeah, basically it's like those days when I used to record songs off the radio onto cassettes.

Holy crap, it's the BSP revived! Whatup fresh as I return!

Keep up the great work Jason. Speaking of Eminem, I always enjoy watching the movie "8 Mile" and have parked a couple times now in the parking structure/abandoned theater where one of the battle scenes was filmed. It's also featured in the music video (Don't Lose Yourself" The building's name is "The Michigan Building," part of Bagley properties LLC I also think this would be a cool building to create and isn't too complex. Unfortunately, it has a weird footprint geometry that would probably look strange in SimCity. I'd like to take a stab at it sometime. BTW, maybe we can BAT all of those Shady Records billboards you see all over the city, LOL BTW x 2, I plan on being downtown next week if you need any pictures. I have a couple of parking tickets I need to pay before they become a bit more epxensive.

THE CITY RISES Will the Real Detroit Skyline Please Stand Up says this Detroit Free Press Article . If the links doesn't work, it basically gives the impression that Detroit is not quite ready for the 2006 superbowl. In the artistic rendering of the cityscape, buildings, currently with missing roofs and broken windows, are depicted as vibrant and brightly lit. That kind of makes me wonder how much is going to be done in the two years that Detroit has until the Superbowl. Most of the conflict arises around the surrounding buildings near Ford Field where the game will be hosted. Some people on city committies would simply like to demolish buildings while others don't. It would be sad to see these buildings go because it would rob the city of much of its architectural character. However, if these hollowed shells remain when the media spotlight shines on the city, it will be a serious embarassment. Although I live in Ann Arbor (Detroit Metro area), it pains me to see these architectural jems mowed over to make parking lot space or to hide these abandoned hulks from the public eye. This really concerns me because I don't think all these buildings in the Grand Circus Park area surrounding Ford Field and comerica park can be completed on time, and if they aren't they will likely be demolished. Although great efforts are visible along the Woodwaard District, it isn't within view of the stadium, and thus I think more effort needs to be done in areas of closer proximity to the stadium. What do you all think, do you think many of Detroit's buildings face doom as Superbowl XL lurks closer? Below is some photos I recently took and a few are from detroityes.com. You can find more pictures of Detroits buildings at detroityes.com ^ This building, the Madison Lenox, is just across the street from Ford Field, the epicenter of Superbowl activity. It is just on the brink of demolition, but a local group has saved it yet again, for a few weeks at least. A good before and after a picture. To the left is the Hudsons Building being imploded, the biggest one ever, and today stands the new Compuware Headquarters at that location. That center plaza is called Campus Maritus, and it's taking forever to finish. The abandoned Stalter Hotel is another building within view of the stadium, however, it's going nowhere fast. Absolutely no effort was made to make the Michigan Theater look more like a parking ramp. This will be a horrible if this is not restored back to its primary purpose by 2006. This building is still salvagable, although the artistic deocor and Lions heads have been removed from the building by a Chicago Housing Developer. Greektown was one of the surviving neighborhoods when Detroit was in its worse period of decline. Today it continues to thrive, which will be a popular area during the Superbowl. In general, it's looking better in most areas, but not a lot of cars or people on the streets. Hopefully, the city will get the economic stronghold it needs when the biggest game in the NFL comes to town.

150 West got lost in the abyss of the BSP thread. I think I was given the file, but can't find it. But yeah, it was completley modeled and needed textures. Maybe it will have to be rebuilt. I think the blow that ended it all was when I decided to not renew the websapce for the BSP as of a couple months ago. Believe me, I'd love to see it revived. I'm working for an architecture firm now and we are working on several projects that have many Detroit buildings modeled. I'm allowed to use them or do whatever I want with them, so they could end up being available here!

The funny thing is p2p networks, bit-torrents, and whatever are becoming increasingly dated and innefficient ways of getting data. Not to mention, ILLEGAL. As stream capturing, and stream downloading applications are appearing more frequently on the internet, more people are using these instead because there's isn't a way to get caught. It's like the old fashioned way of recording the radio onto the cassette. The data is legally brought into your home by reputable free music streaming services, and the user merely converts that live data into a file. But you could always consider buying music. I'll admit I downloaded music in all different ways before, but I've since rediscovered how great it is to hold the official CD or DVD in my hand that is recorded at the highest quality available. Not to mention, I'm supporting the artists I love.... yeah, they're on contract and not losing money, but there's no contract when the record company is broke.

Does this mean I get work off? It's been two hours and I'm sitll waiting for the apocolypse to occur.

Deeeeeeeeeeetroit Baaaasketbaaallll!!!!!

Very cool Jason. The marquee looks awesome.

Before reading, please note that this takes place in downtown Birmingham, one of the places in the world I could never picture this happening. It's kind of a rich, yuppie, and not to mention very safe suburb of the D. METROTIMES ARTICLE Who gives a shirt? Warning to Detroit youth: if you want to avoid altercations with dangerous rappers, stay away from the mean streets of downtown Birmingham. No, really. Birmingham resident Niles Heron, 19, says he was accosted by members of rapper 50 Cent

Nice!

Why not just use flickr? You get 20 Mb of free image hosting each month That means you can upload a 20 Mb image in one session (if it's really that big). Additionally there are NO ads, and you are permitted to link that image anywhere you want.

Unfortunately, in states with extreme freeze/thaw conditions, asphault is not effective. In fact, it has a decent lifespan of 3 years here in Michigan, despite the fact that it's used a lot. In nearly all places, asphault fails as an effective base layer for a road, especially for rural roads. Usually gravel is placed down, and then several layers of asphault. Over time, it does not take ground shifting conditions well, and cracks. The advantages of asphault as far as cost and "feel" are excellent though. It is cheap**, and definitely smoother. But I highly disagree with whoever above said asphault is less slippery. In fact it's quite the opposite. Usually concrete is slightly raked to create more friction. The surface also make it less likely for ice to freeze on it. Asphault does the opposite. It's smooth surface allows water to puddle up in certain areas and freeze. Although its black surface can absorb heat to melt ice, it will work against it at night when the wet surface cools down again and freezes in the morning. Concrete is good in that it will withstand extreme temperature changes effectively. Concrete is also stronger, does not sink like asphault, and doesn't have to be repaired frequently. It also tends to "age" nicer than asphault. Additionally, there are available techniques for shaving the top surface off to eliminate bumps, pock marks, and heaved slabs at expansion cuts. The Department of Pavement Preservation is inventing new and innovative ways to repair concrete. **Additionally the long term maintenance costs of asphault are far more expensive than concrete (even when constructing the surface is taken into account) Recently a new type of conrete was developed that can last longer than conventional concrete. It has a minimum lifespan of 200 years. It can also bend if necessary. It withstands expansion and contraction far more effectively, and it's not that much more expensive than conventional concrete. When the product becomes mass marketed. It could have the potential to drive many asphault producing industry out of business since governments and municipilities will opt toward smarter long term strategies that are also most cost effective. In short, asphault sucks.

The Superdome is such an ugly stadium It also has a bunch of bad memories attached to it. Why is there any logical reason to save it. It's insured value is enought to build new. Tear it down and give New Orleans something new that it deserves!

Currently there is no EFFECTIVE way to get gmax files in 3ds. I've tried all sorts of methods. I'll continue to figure out other ways to do it. Hopefully, I find a catch.

Just to let you all know, I'm going to let the account for the BSP site expire since there's no use for paying $55 a year for 100 Gb of server space that is hardly ever used, or even visited. The domain name will be masked over my university address. I'll move the site there. Hopefully it will open someday. A busy life I live LOL.

Graffiti has been an issue in Detroit. In fact, it is a reason some very historic early 20th century buildings have been demolished. Some kid under the tagname Money Eggs/Eggs Money painted his name all over the top of the building so that you could see it from blocks away. The building was then deemed an eyesore for the Superbowl, despite the building showing very little signs of decay, and was immediately demolished. That doesn't mean I hate graffiti. I think it has a place in areas that are out of public eye. I do a lot of urban exploration and see it all over the walls of abandoned factories and abandoned viaducts. This graffiti is virtually impossible to find unless you go into these places, and because they are not visible to law enforcement, they are well executed art that has usually taken the creator weeks to do. If the factory was to be renovated into condos or something, the grafitti would be sandblasted or painted over... no harm done.

Welcome to Detroit Superbowl XL!! I will be downtown for some of the festivities going on since I can't get a ticket to the game. So I figured I'd welcome you all to the Motor City with some photos. A couple are from last summer and spring, but I will update you with more pics of the action going on downtown this weekend. Enjoy the scenes! From the streets and sightlines downtown....... To Our Neighborhoods.......... And let the spirit of Detroit be with you! More to come!

Yeah, it's so wonderful using 3ds, everything goes much faster. Although, keep in mind those fast renders are without lights. It's just smoothing with raw shadows. Some of the big stuff I do for architecture school that requires realistic daytime lightings can take up to an hour for one 1024 x 768 render! And that's just one view, LOL But as far as checking to make sure your details will render correctly, 3ds renders normally in less than a second.

I think it's open again now. You usually can't get up there until around 5:00 pm. Oh and I did take all of those pictures, I'm glad you like them!

Finally, a downtown block of buildings that's has some real density. And a chunk of the Detroit Citay.

Jason, these are incredible. I just love this kind of architecture.