Representing Pasts – Visioning Futures

Abstract

Several well defined methods exist for creating historical digital 3D spatial models. Largely absent in these methods are the means to embed scholarly annotation. To this end the outcomes of the 3D modeling process is seen as highly interpretive at best and unscholarly at worst. This submission presents an application of HBIM using custom scholarly citation attributes. This system embeds and preserves specific visual and textual resource citations on an object by object basis. Paired with an IFC viewing application these citations become model footnotes that aim to create citable, scholarly 3D models. The case study in this submission is the main waiting room in the original Pennsylvania RailRoad Station in New York City. Constructed in the early twentieth century this station was demolished in the 1960’s sparking the historic preservation movement in the city. The HBIM model has been developed based largely on historic design drawings from the architects McKim Mead and White. These resources are housed in the archives of the New York Historical Society alongside textual and photographic resources. Components in the 3D HBIM model are attributed to specific historic design drawings through the scholarly annotation. In this way a viewer of the published 3D model may query specific components for citations and footnotes. Scholars may critique interpretive decisions and build academic debate and discussion directly from these model annotations. These features are imperative to position historical 3D models as the rigorous academic endeavors they represent.