Evolution of Bricktown in Google Earth 5.0
February 4th, 2009Google Earth 5.0 has been released and it is a very worthy upgrade! The coolest new feature of the program is that it allows you to search historical aerials. With Oklahoma City, there are approx. 10 different aerial sets dating back to 1991, though only a few are from before 2002. Still, it is great to have access to a tool that records urban transformation. For instance, check out the clips I took of Bricktown over the last 15 years:
1995
2003
2007
Google Earth 5.0 is available to download completely free of charge. Google Earth Pro adds some valuable features, including large format image exports, but costs $400 – making it almost exclusively for commercial users. Regardless, the free version is great and is only getting better. I can’t wait to see how this is used in the future as the time between aerials decreases and the recorded length in the database increases. Imagine a future in 2050 where you could watch – like a movie – the changes that occurred in an area following some type of intervention – like the introduction of a new transit line! Certainly something I look forward to watching happen in OKC!
February 4th, 2009 at 11:25 am
What strikes me is how little has been demolished between 1992 and the present. Bricktown had a great stock of older buildings to start with and they’ve been reused rather than demolished.
February 4th, 2009 at 11:34 pm
Yeh, great observation. That building stock is a real strength of the district.
I love the way the ballpark fits in there. Anyone know what the buildings that were torn down for its construction were like? Hopefully no great losses and the ballpark has certainly been a tremendous success. Looks like there is still plenty of room for development along its eastern edge. Maybe we will see it put to use in the next development cycle!
By the way, it is interesting to note that the biggest change over time – at least land area wise – has been the addition of a ton of surface parking.
February 5th, 2009 at 3:04 am
Google Time Machine…
Blair Humphreys has downloaded the latest version of Google Earth, 5.0, and reports a feature that will delight urban historian types: The ability to go back in time to earlier images. The coolest new feature of the program is that it allows you to sea…
February 6th, 2009 at 12:49 pm
[...] has hit another homerun with his post on aerial photos of Bricktown, past and present, to be found through Google. I am very, very impressed. His site is [...]
February 7th, 2009 at 6:15 am
This is a great post Blair. I’m going to post links to this on my blog and on my site..
February 7th, 2009 at 11:40 am
Nice job B-Man. What a transformation MAPS made. You can see that MAPS really tripled the size of the invested Bricktown area (or 4x) with the Ballpark and the south canal.