Interview with the Trump Soho Spa Architect Anthony Diguiseppe

Our latest guest on TMG’s Engineering and Architecture Video Show was the architect who designed the soon-to-be-opened, spectacular spa at the Trump Soho Hotel in New York City.

Anthony J DiGuiseppe, member of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and a charter member of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) talks in depth about the challenges his firm faced in the project and the outstanding features of this hammam (Middle Eastern bath) in the middle of one of the world’s busiest metropolises. Do not miss this 10-minute tour-de-force!

3D Visualizations: How Can You Tell Them from Photographs?

For quite some time, computers have been producing 3D visualizations (also called “renderings”) that are similar to photographs. In many cases it is difficult to discern a visualization from a photograph. But the experienced eye knows what to look for. Here are the signs of a 3D visualization, compiled by an expert visualizer (it often “takes a visualizer to catch a visualizer ”… )

For the purposes of this explanation, we categorize 3D visualizations into two types: interior visualizations and exterior visualizations.

Recognizing an Interior Visualization

Any three of the following criteria prove that an image of the interior of a building is a 3D visualization and NOT a photograph:

• Lighting not consistent: objects next to each other are illuminated to different degrees
• Shadows of objects are entirely missing (!)
• Furniture legs cast no shadow on the floor near their feet
• Objects (especially people) do not have depth
• People have zombie-like expressions
• People are all dressed very neatly
• People are the same height and no one’s overweight (!!)
• Plants are identical to the last leaf
• Objects are not scaled consistently: some pieces of furniture look out of proportion to others. Some of the people look out of proportion to one another and out of proportion to the ceiling height or furniture (use this to judge people’s heights: door openings are usually seven feet high)

Recognizing an Exterior Visualization

Any three of the following criteria prove that an image of the exterior of a building is a 3D visualization and NOT a photograph:

• Trees and plants are repetitive
• Lawns look like astro-turf… no loose leaves, no color or texture variation, no bald spots
• Objects next to each other are illuminated to different degrees (as in the case of interior renderings)
• People have zombie-like expressions and lack visual depth
• People are all dressed very neatly
• People are the same height and no one’s overweight (!!)
• There are not enough people in the scene (populating the scene greatly increases the time a computer takes to create the visualization)
• Objects (especially people) are out of proportion (use this to judge people’s heights: door openings are usually seven feet high)
• Trees in the foreground cast no shadows
• People cast no shadows
• Shadows of objects are cast in different directions or to in different proportions to their parent objects
• There are no blemishes on road asphalt or on sidewalks
• There are no loose leaves on the ground near trees
• The interiors of buildings are not visible through any windows (if the image is a close-up)
• Window panes appear painted

If you use the above criteria, you will never again mistake a computer-generated 3D visualization for a photograph!

To your image expertise,

Drafting Services: Going Off-Site for a Wildly Swinging Work Volume

Drafting services are subject to fluctuations in work inflow just like everyone else. The work inflow also fluctuates wildly, a situation that only some producers are subject to. TMG has its own way of dealing with this situation.

For starters, we maintain a constant slack in our in-house workforce to absorb moderate increases in client assignments. Whenever this slack is completely utilized, we resort to overtime. If we find that over time occurs too often, we decided that it’s time to augment our workforce.

We can augment our workforce in two ways: either add people in-house or set up off site contractors.

Adding people in-house entails advertising, interviewing and training. Adding off-site contractors involves the same steps, only we usually ask for external drafting services with specific experience, thus obviating the time and expense of training.

The off-site drafting services whom we identify as contractors are of course firms who have the necessary skill but are unable to project themselves into the international market. But India has a large number of such firms and finding them is only a matter of time.

The fact is that computer penetration in India is constantly increasing, and it is getting the point where having an office with in house staff is becoming less and less required. Reliable online contractors are becoming less of an option and more of a necessity for all drafting services active in the international marketplace.

This is just one of the several state-of-the-art methods that TMG employs to ensure a rapid, timely response to its valuable clients. Why not become a client?