Friday Eye Candy: 'Crayon the Grids' City Mapping

Artist-scientist Stephen Von Worley is taking on a new project— mapping the world's city streets based on a complex set of algorithms and psychedelic colors.

1 minute read

November 7, 2014, 5:00 AM PST

By Maayan Dembo @DJ_Mayjahn


Canyon the Grids

Steve Von Worley / Canyon the Grids

As discussed on Urbanful by John Benjamin, Stephen Von Worley's newest project is called Crayon the Grids. It uses a variety of colors like hot pink, lime green, orange, and deep purple in correlation "to the angle of each street and the city’s cardinal points, with visual weight being added to avenues that serve as anchors to each grid. Different colors, in other words, mean different orientations; different thickness signifies the importance of the road as a thoroughfare."

While grid-oriented cities such as New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles boast maps that are predominantly one color with other splotches mixed in, older radial cities like Paris, Berlin, and London are awash with intersecting colors and lines.

The maps provide insight on the cohesion of city streets, and the expansion of the city over time. Worsley has created maps for a variety of different cities, which can be found here.

Tuesday, November 4, 2014 in Urbanful

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I love the variety of courses, many practical, and all richly illustrated. They have inspired many ideas that I've applied in practice, and in my own teaching. Mary G., Urban Planner

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