AMNH Explorer

For this project, I was asked to design 2D and 3D maps to help visitors find their way around the world-famous American Museum of Natural History in New York City. It was a massive task, considering the museum contains 46 exhibit halls over 1.6 million square feet. For the 2D maps, I was able to work from architectural blueprints, but there was very little in the way of reference material that would allow me to create 3D maps with the level of detail needed to be truly useful.

The solution turned out to be a lot of fun. I flew to New York and spent two full days videotaping every nook and cranny of the Museum – from the triceratops bones to the meteor fragments. Using the footage for reference, I built 3D models in Google Sketchup, then added extra detail in Photoshop. I then handed the maps off to the fine folks at Spotlight Mobile where they worked their magic and incorporated them into a very cool wayfinding app for iPhone. It was nominated for a 2011 Webby award and Gizmodo called it, “Nothing less than state of the art.”

Try the app! It works at home too.