A Baltimore schoolteacher uses his phone and his bicycle to construct whimsical sketches on digital maps of the city, Nate Berg reports.
In what is half eccentric hobby, half conceptual art project, Michael Wallace has been riding his bicycle in elaborately planned, zig-zagging, wayward loops through the streets of Baltimore, using a GPS tracking feature on his phone to record his path. These routes, when displayed on a map, form doodles of animals, constellations, scenes from history, and even video game screenshots.
An eighth-grade science teacher, Wallace uses his breaks to sketch out new routes on printed maps of his neighborhood.
"To make these drawings, Wallace brings a detailed map of the city, with arrows and paths marked to keep him on track," Berg writes. "It's not always perfect, and one missed turn can ruin what can sometimes be hours worth of work. A one-block misstep had a huge impact on an early drawing of a giant rat."
"My rat ended up looking sort of like an armadillo," Wallace says.
Numbering over 200, Wallace's pieces have appeared in local art galleries, and are becoming more refined and complex. This summer, he has plans for at least 50 more drawings, including depictions of tectonic plate boundaries, Steve Irwin, and Martin Luther King, Jr.
FULL STORY: Bike as Paintbrush, City as Canvas
Seattle's Weirdest Intersections Make a Fetching Design
One artist capitalized on the quirks of Seattle's street grid.
Geospatial Technologies for a Healthier, Sustainable, and Increasingly Urban Earth
Penn IUR Co-Directors Genie Birch and Susan Wachter write about the promise of geospatial technologies in promoting sustainable urbanization.
Farewell to the Trusty Map Book
From the years roughly spanning the invention of the automobile to the invention of the smartphone, every driver in Los Angeles traveled with a Thomas Bros. map book. Those days are gone, but nostalgia for physical maps remains.
How the Trump Presidency Could Impact Urban Planning
An analysis of potential changes in federal housing, transportation, and climate policies.
Research Affirms Safety of ‘Idaho Stop’
Allowing cyclists to treat stop signs as yield signs does not negatively impact safety and can help people on bikes more effectively navigate roadways.
Midburbs: A New Definition of Suburbs
When the name “suburb” just doesn't quite fit.
The Urban Heat Divide: Addressing LA’s Thermal Inequities
LA's thermal inequities leave low-income, minority neighborhoods disproportionately hotter and more vulnerable, prompting advocacy and policy efforts to address these disparities through green infrastructure and equitable climate investments.
Healing the Land: Collaborative Effort to Reclaim Orphan Well Sites
The Well Done Foundation and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service are partnering to plug over 110 orphan wells across four National Wildlife Refuges, restoring habitats, protecting ecosystems, and reducing methane emissions.
The Apartment Through History
The humble apartment, as a typology, has been with us for millennia.
Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools
This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.
Planning for Universal Design
Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.
Placer County
Skagit Transit
Berkeley County
Chaddick Institute at DePaul University
HUDs Office of Policy Development and Research
M-NCPPC Prince George's County Planning Department
HUDs Office of Policy Development and Research
NYU Wagner Graduate School of Public Service