Google Street View pays a visit
Google is putting Concordia on the map.
The software giant was in Montreal this summer to take hundreds of pictures of Concordia for Street View, part of the Google Maps and Google Earth online services. The last time a crew visited Concordia was in the spring of 2009 and since that time both campuses have undergone a tremendous transformation.
Street View sent a two-person team to photograph Concordia locations. Both exterior and — for the first time — interior views of key Concordia buildings will appear on Google Maps next year, providing a virtual campus tour online, allowing the viewer to “enter” a building and take a look around.
“If prospective students want to get a 360-degree view of some buildings on our campuses, this will be an ideal way to do so,” says Lucy Niro, Director of Web Communications. “We have a unique, vibrant and rich campus life and enjoy the benefit of having two campuses that are distinct and diverse.”
Photos were taken using a device known as the Street View Trike, a large tricycle with a nine-lens camera mounted more than two metres above the ground. The trike takes multiple shots from every angle, which are stitched together to form a panoramic, 360-degree street level view for Google Maps.
The Google team photographed key locations that included the exterior and interior of the John Molson School of Business, the J.W. McConnell Library Building and the bookstore on the Sir George Williams Campus. Photos were also taken of the Hive Café, the Quadrangle, the Richard J. Renaud Science Complex and the Communication Studies and Journalism Building on the Loyola Campus.
The project was a dream summer job for the Toronto students, Jonathan Chang and Julio Tang, who landed the gig through an employment agency. Google flew them to California for training and then they drove back to Canada with all their equipment.
“A lot of students get lost when they first come to a new university — sometimes you can’t even find the registrar’s office,” says Tang, who studies international business at Seneca College. “Now they can use Street View to scout out the campus beforehand.”
Related links:
• More on Concordia’s buildings
• Google Street View