CSU students get settled in 3-D
As Colorado State University students moved into their dorms last week, they could plot out their routes with a special interactive “Moving Day” campus map locating 30-minute loading zones and temporary parking lots.
The mobile-friendly map, developed by Boulder’s Concept3D, shows what’s inside buildings such as the two-story Durrell Dining Center. One can easily spot the location of the elevator and bathrooms on each floor and the late-night Durrell Express, which offers togo sandwiches and sushi. In other buildings, students can explore the layout of dorm rooms and gauge where to stash their junk in a room with two twin beds, wardrobe closets, a desk and a chair.
“I had a freshman moving into Westfall Hall, my youngest son, so we used the move-in day map to see which way the little red arrows were telling us to drive to this parking lot,” said the school’s facilities management geographer, Martha Coleman, who helped pick and
set up Concept3D’s CampusBird mapping technology. “Even if you’re familiar with the campus, it’s nice to see how to navigate around (during busy events).”
The technology combines 3-D rendering with virtual tours and lots of data. Concept3D began building 3-D maps for Google and Disney before launching CampusBird in 2012. Today, the 3-D software is used at 250 schools, including University of Colorado Denver; University of Colorado at Anschutz; Denver Seminary; Regis University; University of Denver; and Metropolitan State University of Denver.
For CSU, Coleman was able to link building and geography databases and campus web pages together with one URL: maps.colostate.edu. Construction zones, which exist on the facilities page, now show up on the map. Customization allows the school to highlight certain features around campus, such as solar arrays (under the “Sustainability” category) and all-gender restrooms (under “Inclusive Resources”). The school can also create temporary categories, such as “Moving Day,” that end after a certain period of time.
“The way (Concept3D) integrated the types of tools that are specific to a university campus was unlike anyone else,” said Coleman, who tried and tested campus maps for “many years.”
Not every element of every building will be mapped (residence halls, for example), and not every building is mapped. CSU started with 14 buildings, those with the most classrooms. It plans to add more 3-D floor plans as the year goes on. Coleman has big plans for the new mapping technology, including adding bike routes for alternative transportation and a sustainability walking tour. There’s also a possibility that the school can link the software to available parking spots to help visitors.
“In getting spatial information, it’s helping a wider range of people. I’m a geographer and have that viewpoint of the world,” she said. “We’re connecting things together in ways that make it useful.”