Thursday, December 22, 2016

Mapping New York's Shadows


Yesterday the New York Times honored the shortest day of the year with its own mapped homage to the sun. In Mapping the Shadows of New York City the NYT has created a truly beautiful map which shows the extent that the city's tall buildings block the sun throughout the year.

The Times says that most Manhattan neighborhoods will remain in shadow for at least half of daylight hours. They also claim that the amount of time a location spends in shadow during daylight hours can affect everything from apartment rental prices to the flow of foot traffic on the city's streets.

To calculate the extent of building shadows in winter, summer and spring/fall the NYT used 3d building data provided by the city. With the help of the Tandon School of Engineering at New York University they then calculated the total number of minutes that a given point spends in shadow over the course of a day based on the height and location of nearby buildings.

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