Our goal for the project was to develop a virtual reconstruction of a historical landscape using GIS data and 3D models that could be used as a platform for exploring that landscape. To begin the project, we assembled the data necessary to generate building footprints, ground surface, and vegetation/street furniture for downtown Morgantown c.1900.

Morgantown, West Virginia, was a small regional city on the Monongahela River that was experiencing rapid urban growth in the early 1900s due to the expanding coal industry, lead glass manufacture, the coming of the railroad, and related commercial activities. These growing industries spurred a building boom in the downtown area of Morgantown. In more recent years, many of these structures have been lost as the city has undergone urban regeneration.