BIRD'S EYE VIEW

I thought I would have some fun today with the 1891 Bird's Eye View of Durham map. I've marked several of the locations on this map that I've previously profiled, so one can see the spatial arrangement of these buildings.

So, what I've tried to do next is as follows: I took photos of the giant aerial photographs of Durham from 1959. I then spliced several of these photos together to make a larger aerial photo of downtown. I've imported this into Google Earth as an overlay. In this photo I've turned it and tilted it to make a pseudo-bird's eye view, and marked similar locations.

And finally, the same turn, tilt, and mark for ~2003.

The irony is the similarity between the 1891 view and the present day photo, particularly if you mentally delete all the parking garages. Like the 1891 map, there is a patchwork of buildings and vacant areas. The 1959 photo is far more densely developed. In the life cycle of a city, what happens next? What do we want it to look like in 2050?