Save the Bay's Vegetative Roof

Save The Bay Roof in Narragansett Bay

We took this photo in mid August near the end of the day. It's not a bunker dug into a grassy hill overlooking Narragansett Bay. It's actually a high tech and beautifully designed building which houses a world class champion of green causes, namely Save the Bay. It only looks like a bunker from this angle. It's north wall is set into a grass covered berm about 10 feet high. The roof extends upwards from there and is covered with vegetation.

It's an old idea made new. I remember a childrens' story about an old woman who had a cow on her roof. I believe it really happened! Save the Bay probably couldn't graze a cow on their roof. They might manage to nest a few birds however. Vegetative roofs have made a comeback among the green crowd and Save the Bay is certainly that. They're quite energy efficient in the summer among other things. I can't expound further without doing research so I'll have to leave it at that. If you want the full story about vegetative roofs and why Save the Bay wanted one on their new building then you'll have to visit their website and find out more.

To take this photo we set up our 40' tripod in the building's main entrance on the north side near the end of the day. Our camera was high enough to see over the top of the roof to the beautiful view looking south over Narragansett Bay. The north side has the main entrance but it's not considered the front of the building. The front faces south and looks out upon that fabulous view. How clever of that architect eh?

We intend to photograph the front of the building next .... "in the morning light" .... in October if all goes to plan. Our little sunlight study says that's when it'll be best. You'll be able to see the front of one of the most unique buildings in Rhode Island and then spin around and see their eelgrass restoration project and the dock where the mighty Alita Morris revs her engines before delivering schoolchildren to an out of classroom educational experience they won't soon forget. It's all in the plan.

Fair Journey,

Brian Shriver

Aerial Vr - "Your location in high definition virtual reality." email us with your comments and ideas at btshriver@aerialvr.com & cblake@aerialvr.com For more about our services see our website at www.aerialvr.com

Newport's Cliff Walk - Rough Point

Rough Point in Narragansett Bay

I've been hearing about Newport's Cliff Walk for years. I finally made it there with Aerial Vr as my official excuse. It was well worth it. We walked along with the ocean to one side, amazing architecture on the other and the bluest of skies arcing above us. We took 5 panoramas at various spots along the 3.5 mile path in the company from tourists from all around the world and took a glimpse into Newport's gilded age. This text below is from www.cliffwalk.com and sums it up nicely:

"The Cliff Walk along the eastern shore of Newport, RI is world famous as a public access walk that combines the natural beauty of the Newport shoreline with the architectural history of Newport's gilded age. Wildflowers, birds, geology ... all add to this delightful walk."

I've embedded just one of the panoramas of the Cliff Walk in this blog post. It's the one of Rough Point and my personal favorite. You can use the control features (white arrows or thumbnails) in the panorama to move from one panorama to another. You can also try another one of www.360cities.net's very cool features ... the map, to conduct your tour. Use the "Cliff Walk Map" link below and a map of the Cliff Walk should open up with blue links for entering panoramas. The 5 on the right are on the Cliff Walk. The 3 on the left are of Goose Cove.

If that doesn't work for reasons known only to web mavens, don't give up. Try the series of text links below to see each and every one. You'll have completed a virtual tour! It's great but frankly, it pales in comparison to the real thing. This walker's advice: wait for a sunny day, lace up your sneakers, pack a sandwich and an attitude that says "I'm a citizen of the world" and head on down to Newport to see the real thing! You'll feel like a million bucks, no matter what's in your pocket.

Cliff Walk Map
Ledge Road
Rough Point
Ochre Point
Salve Regina
40 Steps

Fair Journey,

Brian Shriver

Aerial Vr - "Your location in high definition virtual reality." email us with your comments and ideas at btshriver@aerialvr.com & cblake@aerialvr.com For more about our services see our website at www.aerialvr.com

St. Anne's Church

St Anne in Narragansett Bay

We did it! We pushed our 50' tripod into the sky to capture an unforgettable image of the facade of St. Anne's church in Fall River, MA. We screwed our robotic mount and camera into the top pole and sent it into the sky to see the world from a bird's eye view. It wasn't the eye of an eagle, more that of a songbird in the tree tops but no matter .... we were high enough to live up to the aerial part of our name: "Aerial Vr" and it felt fine.

We set up in Kennedy Park behind a row of trees which border the park and lifted our camera high enough to see over them and capture the entire facade of St. Anne's Church down to the steps. We had to work quickly to use the warm rosy light from the setting sun that illuminates the stone of St. Anne's facade to such good effect at this time of day. The tripod went up easily enough with the legs adjusted to plumb the center pole. We screwed the camera and its robotic mount into the center poles and began to slide them upwards, clamping as we went. Everything went quite smoothly up to this point.

We'd attached nylon rope to a collar at the top in the hope of guying the top of our contraption to the legs of the tripod. As the camera went upwards it became obvious that our pole wasn't stiff enough near the top and that our arrangement of guy ropes had to be altered. The camera began to sway back and forth in the light breeze and though breakage or toppling seemed very unlikely it was nerve racking to see our expensive equipment sway through space 40' or more above the ground. We scurried around with our ropes and were relieved to find that if we backed into the breeze until the rope formed an angle of 30-45 degrees with the pole that the arrangement began to stabilize.

We "pulled the trigger" on our pc and soon had the 8 images that we could stitch into a virtual reality photograph. You see the result of our efforts above. I feel safe in saying that the beauty of St Anne's, an amazing song in stone and one of Fall River's iconic buildings has never been celebrated from that particular vantage point. Spin the image around and look downwards and you can see the baseball game going on in the corner of Kennedy Park. The sweep of the park down to the head of Mount Hope Bay with the Braga Bridge behind is somewhat obscured by light. The vastly differing amounts of light encountered as one turns towards and then away from the setting sun taxed even our electronically enhanced ability to compensate for huge contrasts within a single image. Still, the park and the church and the lovely experience it provides the residents of Fall River on a warm summer evening is there in our virtual reality image. I think the park's designer, Frederick Law Olmstead would be pleased.

Our equipment made a few people curious. A 6 year old boy stood looking upwards, full of questions. The baseball coach from the game came over to retrieve him and ask what we were doing. Fall River born and raised, he made it clear he liked to see his city's most beautiful locations celebrated this way. He'd done his share of surfing the web as well and had already seen the "Street View" panoramas that can be found in Google Earth." I explained that our work was similar but of a much higher quality and resolution. Most of the panoramas we do can also be found using Google Earth. Simply turn on the 360 Cities layer that appears in the tree on the left of the page under the heading of "Gallery." Navigate on the map to Fall River and the panoramas we've done will appear as red circles with "360" inside of them. A click on the circle icons brings up the panorama. Be sure to try "full screen" for the full affect!

Fair Journey,

Brian Shriver

Aerial Vr - "Your location in high definition virtual reality." email us with your comments and ideas at btshriver@aerialvr.com & cblake@aerialvr.com For more about our services see our website at www.aerialvr.com

Blithewold

Blithewold Mansion in Narragansett Bay

Blithewold ... it means "pretty wood" in old english and it's an apt name for a beautiful home by the sea, built in Bristol, RI around the turn of the century by the Van Wickles. The Van Wickles didn't just have a cute name and lots of money. They had great taste in architecture and a real fascination for horticulture. We've attempted to capture both in a series of panoramas we've done of their house and grounds. Our virtual tour starts at the front of the house in the panorama I've embedded in the page above and continues to the veranda in the back of the house and the sweep of grounds down to the sea. Try the "full screen" option and then use the thumbnails which will appear at the bottom of the image to move on to the view of the frog pond and the daffodils in the woods.

You'll like the creation of the Van Wickles, we can assure you. They were good people. Money didn't rot their souls and turn them into mean hearted Scrooges. It enabled their spirits to capture and create beauty. It's not just my fanciful imagination. It's on the books ... or in this case on the website ... all in one telling factoid from their history page. The mansion you see today is the second of two. The first one burnt to the ground in 1906, only 10 years after it was built. It was a slow moving fire that they were apparently powerless to stop. The telling part ... many of the people of Bristol were there trying to help. When they realized they couldn't stop the fire they decided to save as many of the furnishings as they could, "even fireplaces and bathtubs." Now I ask you, would you get up in the middle of the night to risk your life carrying some rich person's bathtub down the stairs of their burning mansion if you didn't like them? The VanWickles obviously inspired some degree of devotion in the good people of Bristol.

The good news is that the devotion is alive and well today. The house and grounds are cared for by a lean non profit organization that has weathered several financial storms in their quest to keep the Van Wickle's dream alive. They direct the efforts of over 200 dedicated volunteers who work on the house and grounds. They oversee a membership of over 1300 and an endowment of 3.2 million. Most importantly, they've succeeded in sharing the beauty that the VanWickles created with over 35,000 visitors each year! We think you'd do yourself a favor if you decide to be one of them. For more information you should visit their website at www.blithewold.org.

Aerial Vr - "Your location in high definition virtual reality." email us with your comments and ideas at btshriver@aerialvr.com & cblake@aerialvr.com For more about our services see our website at www.aerialvr.com