@Stereo Not sure about downloading the database, but there are many fascinating datasets to explore at https://data.cityofnewyork.us and https://www1.nyc.gov/site/planning/data-maps/open-data.page that might give us some shortcuts.

It looks like the NYC GeoSearch API would get us halfway there. I could have quickly found this building’s BIN with the query https://geosearch.planninglabs.nyc/v1/search?text=1021 bedford ave brooklyn.

In theory, I should then be able to find the height and geometry by using the BIN to query the Building Footprints dataset via its API: https://data.cityofnewyork.us/resource/7w4b-tj9d.json?bin=3414286. Disappointingly, this data is out of date. It describes a small 10-foot-tall building that I assume used to be on this lot.

If there’s an accessible up-to-date public dataset with correct building heights, I haven’t found it yet.

Looking at the DOB Job Application Filings dataset, it might be possible to query by BIN and determine the application job number, and use that to construct the query url so we could go directly to the “Application Details” page in the third screenshot. Querying BIS only once instead of three times would be a definite improvement in workflow. And monitoring new activity in the Job Application Filings dataset might also be a a way to detect new or demolished buildings. But I don’t know how current or accurate this dataset is.

Nice work! Harken, though, to the spring sounds of your home-in-exile – the cacophony of car horns and bike bells, the buzzing of the first thaw’s mosquitoes, the melodious murmuring of the pizza rats emerging from their winter dens. New York longs for your expert mapper’s hand!

Beautiful work! Could you do a post talking through the process of locating other villages suitable for this treatment? I tried exploring the NARA archive but couldn’t make much headway.

Also, it would be great to hear more details about how to translate the written architecture descriptions into 3D building tags.