Statement
"Manhattan Timeformations" invents an interactive method for presenting 1) a layered, cartographic history of the lower half of Manhattan Islance with 2) an exploded timeline chronicling the real estate development of high-rise office buildings which constitute the skylines of Midtown and Downtown Manhattan. The unusual and hybrid character of this computer model allows one to correlate the cartographic history of 370 years of urban development of the island with the peaks and valleys of office building speculation. The project developed as an electronic outgrowth of Brian McGrath's "Transparent Cities," a folio published by SITES Books in 1996, which provided 24 maps on clear acetate for readers to assemble, transform and contemplate the ever-evolving urban spaces of almost any city. The Timeformations team, working from digital files related to "Transparent Cities," were challenged to combine 2D and 3D data simulatneously, tell six meta-narratives about the city of New York, and make it all interactive. This sheet of notes shows a moment late in the six-month design process, after the overall structure was in place, when many graphic and narrative details were still being decided. The process not only involved the coordination of the author and the web designer, but also of two interns modeling 3D data, bi-weekly critiques from the hosting curator, and twenty open-house design sessions with the public during the summer of 2000.

Bio
Brian McGrath has been a practicing architect licensed in New York State since 1985. His current work is an outgrowth of "Transparent Cities," a folio published by SITES Books with support from NYSCA in 1996. Over the past seven years as an Adjunct Associate Professor at Columbia University's Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, McGrath has integrated computer-aided design into the Masters of Urban Design curriculum. Additionally, he has integrated the computer as a design tool in both the BFA and Master of Architecture programs at Parsons School of Design. McGrath's work in this vein has been exhibited in the Queens Museum's City Speculations exhibit of 1996 and at Parsons School of Design in a solo exhibition called Urban Diaries in 1997. McGrath has just completed a Fulbright Senior Scholar Fellowship at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, Thailand, where he consulted on curricula and computer technologies for a new Master of Urban Design Program for the Faculty of Architecture. Exhibitions: "Vacant Lots, New Schools for New York." Publications: The Transparent City, Rome Exposed, Towards a Unifying Principle in Architectural Education. BArch. Syracuse University; MArch. Prince University.

Mark Watkins is a designer of web sites for The Skyscraper Museum (www.skyscraper.org) and the Department of Architecture at Parsons School o Design (www.parsons.edu/architecture) and an adjunct illustrator of digital design courses in architecture, animation and web design at Parsons School of Design. Project involving video production, 3d modeling and animation and graphic design have been completed in collaboration with clients such as Duany Plater-Zyberk & Company, UrbanData Solutions, Morris Sato Studio, Team for Environmental Architects, Baratloo Balch Architects, Marpillero Pollack Architects and Saks Fifth Avenue. Some of these projects have led to exhibitions at the Queens Museum ("City Speculations"), the Gray Art Gallery ("The Luminous Design World of Shiro Kurumata") and Parsons School of Design. BA, University of Southern California; MArch, Parsons School of Design.