New York City: The Ultimate Accent Wall

In 2020, we produced this 1:5000 scale 3D-printed map of Manhattan, parts of New Jersey, Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx.  It forms an accent wall in the conference room of Brookfield Properties' marketing suite on the 52nd floor of One Manhattan West.

The finished map is 14.5 feet wide by 9.3 feet tall. It’s set back roughly six inches into the wall to protect the tallest buildings, which protrude – at most – around 4.5 inches.

The map is composed of 160 removable one foot square panels, with buildings in Brookfield's portfolio called out in dark blue.  As the portfolio – and the rest of the city – changes, new, updated panels can be printed and swapped in.

Print production used over 125 kilograms of PLA (poly-lactic acid) material and took a bit more than two months. Preparation of the wall surface and final installation took an additional month.

Although this custom model is divided into one foot square panels, it is the same in terms of scale and detail as the model available in the form of six-inch square panels on the Microscape website. Using those 6-inch panels, anyone can potentially create a similar installation in their own home or office.

And while this model cuts off the northern end of Manhattan in order to fit within the available wall height, Microscape’s aerial photogrammetry-based data does include the remainder of the island (for those who want a map that captures all of Manhattan).