Google Building Maker's Birthday and the Oldest Surviving Aerial Image in the US

Google is on a mission to recreate the world in 3D for its mapping products. That's no small feat, luckily Google can rely on the help of volunteers who, using tools like the Google Building Maker, can easily model their towns for the world to see. And Building Maker is now one year old.

"October 13 is... the first anniversary of Building Maker, and we’re taking the opportunity to celebrate the contributions of a dedicated community of 3D modelers in the 101 cities around the world where Building Maker is available," Nicole Drobeck, Building Maker Community Advocate at Google, wrote.

Google showcased the work of two of its most valued volunteers Peter Sih from San Jose, Calif., and Grant Firl from Fort Collins, Colo., who have been creating high quality models for building around the world.

Both cite their passion for geography and architecture as a main driver but also note Building Maker's ease of use. Being that this is a post about the tool's one-year anniversary and they are two of its biggest users, what else were they going to say.

Still, Building Maker is a very interesting tool. It's web-based and requires very little skill to use, yet the results can be quite surprising.

As an interesting coincidence, Google points out that October 13, Building Maker's birthday, is also the date when the oldest surviving aerial photo in the US was taken, "Boston as the Eagle and the Wild Goose See It" shot from a hot air balloon in 1860.

The interesting part is that Building Maker relies on aerial photography to give users the 3D perspective needed to create the models.

"Technology has come a long way since James Wallace Black took his photo of Boston, and glass-plate-negative box cameras in hot air balloons have given way to airplanes with mounted camera arrays. But what hasn’t changed is how technology gives us new ways to look at out world," Google concluded.