In celebration of the 200th anniversary of the Manhattan Grid, Mapping the Cityscape focuses on the ways in which mapping influences our perception of the environment. Historically, cartographers created maps to document the built environment to ease navigation and ensure the safety of both city dwellers and travelers. With developments in desktop publishing, mapmakers were empowered with tools to create diagrammatic and interpretive maps that conveyed more layers of information. Maps began to move beyond the pure documentation of our surroundings to a more holistic understanding of place.Technological advances, including the advent of GIS (Geographic Information System), Google maps, and smart phone technology, have further expanded the scope of the medium to embrace user-generated input. This has also enabled the juxtaposition of more complex datasets, resulting in more publicly accessible information.Mapping the Cityscape addresses the state of mapmaking by showing some of the most provocative maps of Manhattan from 1609 – 2011, including ecological, historic, transportation, planning, cultural, civic data and aerial maps. We encourage design professionals from all disciplines and the general public to explore and engage these new methodologies to better shape our urban landscape.

Center For Architecture

Los Angeles has always defined itself by the extreme physical beauty and perfect climate juxtaposed with the tenuous fragility of its natural setting. The builtscape rests on the time bomb of the San Andreas Fault. The landscape can turn into a tinderbox in an instant with a mere shift in the wind. Hemmed in by the natural barriers of the mountains, desert and ocean, the land itself was essentially built out in the 80’s into a 22-mile carpet of small buildings forcing the city to grow by expanding deeply into the desert and densifying everywhere else.This is a city that is in many ways shaped by its water. With no natural harbor, the port at Long Beach is virtually entirely manmade. What water could be pumped from the LA River and the aquifer was depleted decades ago, leaving the city little option but to transport the water it needed over increasingly longer distances to serve the city. At the same time the Venice Beach and the endless summer it represents has come to define the laid-back California culture.This is also a city that pioneered and perfected the freeway and then firmly committed to it without looking back. In the process, it decommissioned much of its mass transit only to face the unintended consequence of smog that began in the 60’s followed by the endless traffic jams clogging and choking its arteries that exist now. Recently there is a movement back to a more comprehensive mass transit system as old solutions are becoming new solutions and the city is investing in its infrastructure of transportation. The railroad has become a commuter rail, the street cars are gone, but the metro rail is expanding with the Gold Line.Much has been written about the culture and the cultural history of Los Angeles which has been amplified in our national theater of movies and television. Events that have happened here have gone on to have a far wider influence than might be thought possible at the time. The Case Study Houses, for instance, have spawned an architectural and cultural legacy quite out of proportion to the handful of houses that were actually built as they redefined the suburban house and the suburb itself while creating a modern residential aesthetic that is still with us sixty years later.Mapping is both the oldest and newest way of visually conveying complicated information and layering data at the same time. The confluence of architecture (the built environment), public art (the cultural insertions) and history (the events that happened in that specific location) in the public realm are the most significant components in describing the story of a city and its people in a manner that transcends pure documentation. The snapshot of Los Angeles that is possible in the era of Google Earth is a picture that can frame a dialogue about architecture and urbanism, ecosystems and resiliency, cultural assets and cultural history allowing multiple perspectives and mashups at the same time.With smartphone technology, it is possible to expand well beyond the gallery walls into the places themselves in Los Angeles and use the tools to begin to look at the archeology of the sites. One can listen to the voices of the architects and artists, historians and planners who shaped this city itself and hear them tell their stories at the physical place. One can layer photos and drawings both historic and recent. One can search for more work by the architect or places of note nearby being an historian and a cultural tourist at the same time. This is a technology that is only in its infancy but it is developing rapidly. Beginning with about 550 of LA’s most significant and interesting sites and over 100 podcasts, the exhibition both here and in the city outside is a work in progress. It is updated constantly.

AIA Los Angeles

September 17, 1787 marks the signing of the US Constitution. George Washington wrote a cover letter explaining to the states why they should ratify it. &nbsp;The first printing was in the Pennsylvania Packet and Daily Advertiser 2 days later. Notably, on display there will be a rare copy of the Constitution and the United States District Court for the District of New York was the first court to convene after the passage of the Judiciary Act of 1789.&nbsp;Please join us for an afternoon symposium about our Constitution and its ratification.

The job of the 55 delegates sent to the Constitutional Convention was to &nbsp;propose and report back to Confederation Congress suggested improvements to the Articles of Confederation. The delegates spent the summer sweltering in Independence Hall in Philadelphia as windows were closed for security as they argued about how to structure the government. &nbsp;With the Convention’s work completed on September 17, 1787, the first copies of the Constitution were printed through the night. &nbsp; On the morning of September 18th, William Jackson took the proposed &nbsp;Constitution, the covering resolution and a letter signed by George &nbsp;Washington, along with the unsigned printed copies to Congress then sitting at City Hall (now Federal Hall National Memorial) in New York City. The next 10 days were spent in heated debate before the Confederation Congress voted to send the document as written to the states for ratification. To that end, &nbsp;Charles Thomson, the Secretary of Congress, ordered the issuance of the &nbsp;printed archetype for sending to the legislatures of the original states for &nbsp;ratification. &nbsp; It is that resolution with Thomson’s signature, that makes this the true official ratification edition of the Constitution. North Carolina’s copy which is one of only eight remaining known will be the highlight of a special program to &nbsp;celebrate Constitution Day.

Howard Chandler Cristy’s 20' x 30' painting was commissioned in 1939 for the sesquicentennial. The painting depicts Independence Hall in Philadelphia on September 17, 1787. To achieve the greatest possible accuracy, Christy searched for portraits by the best artists of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, such as Charles Willson Peale and Gilbert Stuart. He located &nbsp;portraits of 37 out of the 39 delegates and the Secretary, William Jackson. Christy took some liberties in composing his scene: John Dickinson, whose signature was added by proxy, is included, and three men who were present but did not sign are not shown. He obscured the faces of the two signers (Thomas FitzSimons and Jacob Broom) of whom no portraits were found. &nbsp;The original is located in the U.S. Capitol Building.

The process of ratification was extremely contentious as each state convened a special convention and there were many articulate people advocating for each side. &nbsp;The Federalists published 180 essays supporting the constitution including the 85 that Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison wrote known as the Federalist Papers. &nbsp;Shown here is a timeline of the dates each state adopted the Constitution. &nbsp;There are two maps; the one on the left shows the country at that time; on the right is the country 40 years later. &nbsp;

Daniel Patrick Moynihan United States Courthouse

Mapping controls our perception and impacts the way we understand our environment. In the past, the map itself was a precious object. Used by property owners to define boundaries, by the military to fight wars, by explorers for navigation, and by municipalities to fight fires - the map embodied an extraordinary investment of time and resources that gave the owner the power to shape the world. With technological advances like GIS, Google Maps and smart phone technology, the relationship between the map and its user changed dramatically. No longer a precious object, new maps are generated constantly and instantaneously. Access has been expanded from several hundred to millions. Even the ownership and creation of maps has shifted toward the user with the advent of customization and consumer input. This new technology marks a fundamental shift not only in the map as object but also in its power to influence perception.Mapping controls our perception and impacts the way we understand our environment. In the past, the map itself was a precious object. Used by property owners to define boundaries, by the military to fight wars, by explorers for navigation, and by municipalities to fight fires - the embodied an extraordinary investment of time and resources that gave the owner the power to shape the world. With technological advances like GIS, Google Maps and smart phone technology, the relationship between the map and its user changed dramatically. No longer a precious object, new maps are generated constantly and instantaneously. Access has been expanded from several hundred to millions. Even the ownership and creation of maps has shifted toward the user with the advent of customization and consumer input. This new technology marks a fundamental shift not only in the map as object but also in its power to influence perception.Map-making is an exercise in choice. The vast information available on a given site’s historical and cultural make-up presents a unique and challenging task: how to capture the essence of a place and communicate that intangible quality to an audience. By definition, the process necessitates a curatorial and selective approach. Layering, comparison and mash-up are effective tools, juxtaposing historical data with current cultural trends, but even complex data is limited to what the mapmaker's can feasibly incorporate. Before the internet, a map was an object frozen in time by the printing process, the mapmaker's choices fixed permanently in place. Today, instantaneous access to a mobile database — the app — has fundamentally altered this problem. Choice, while still a curatorial exercise, is no longer static: it is a dialogue between the city, the user and the mapmaker.Many cities and organizations are embracing this wealth of digital technology to make their environments more accessible. Downloadable maps are readily available to the casual tourist, cell phone tours have proliferated in the historical districts, and QR codes are plastered on the side of buildings and products, all in an attempt to engage both the visitor and the resident in the built environment. cultureNOW has collapsed these tools into one seamless program, allowing the user to navigate a city with text, photos and audio at their fingertips.This exhibition views Boston through the lens of cultureNOW’s Museum Without Walls. Merging historical data with the power of smartphone technology, the gallery highlights Boston's development, while also capturing the city in the moment. It allows the user to meet some of the artists, architects, historians, planners and visionaries who have shaped Boston, and in so doing, understand the shape of Boston itself. Like the Museum Without Walls, this map is a work in progress. In conjunction with the cultureNOW app, it is part of the continuous process of defining a city. As cultureNOW expands its database and deepens its understanding of Boston, this map will change and adapt. This is a snapshot of BostonNOW.

Exhibitions