Giant Isometric Pixel-Art Map of New York City

Andy Coenen has created this amazing gaming style map of New York City.

Using a combination of Google Maps 3D tiles and artificial intelligence, he was able to extract a model of the entire city as well as parts of New Jersey.

You can read about the entire process here. The upshot is that if you really understand how .ai models work and how to work with these tiles, you can do a massive job with minimal coding and in a relatively short time frame. These buildings look even better than most gaming models I’ve seen though if you zoom way in, you can see his complaints about how the trees look. I did a deep dive into some places of personal interest, like where my sister lived in Brooklyn for decades before moving last summer,

to my brother’s building, mostly obscured by the taller one to the south.

One appealing, but also disconcerting aspect of this map is the lack of people and their imprint. There’s no trash on the streets, no distressed property and very few cars, mostly in parking lots. The scaffolding that you see everywhere is missing. Ugly urban details like razor wire, construction fences and fire escapes are also gone. Everything looks happy and empty.

Here are more areas; Coney Island,

and some interesting details at LaGuardia Airport.

For a taste of the suburbs here is part of Cliffside Park, New Jersey with some fancy houses and their million dollar views overlooking the fancy Alexander building.

Liberty Island,

and Central Park.

Explore the whole thing online here. Enjoy!