Would it be possible to reconstruct a building using GSV/photospheres?

[TheGrassGuy]

Take any building in the world with Google Maps coverage of its interior (doesn't matter whether it's GSV, custom SV, or even photospheres). Let's hope this doesn't happen, but let's say our building gets destroyed: a fire, a tornado, or some other disaster. Real life examples would include the National Museum of Brazil, and the cathedral of Notre-Dame in Paris.

What I'm interested in knowing is if it would be possible to reconstruct a building, either virtually or in real life, using only Google Maps imagery.

[formulanone]

Fascinating idea, would probably need a good team of architects to figure it out and work around lens distortion, et cetera. If it was a very famous structure or one by a famous architect, they'd probably have an extensive breakdown about it elsewhere (books/photos/internet).

In the case of the National Museum of Brazil, the contents were probably much more valuable than the structure, and I'm guessing whatever new structure is erected will probably be different, but that depends of norms and expectations of the area.

[hotdogPi]

GSV doesn't have imagery of maintenance rooms as far as I know.

[TheGrassGuy]

Some examples of buildings that would probably be reconstructable:
- This countertop store in Edison, NJ
- This preschool in Mahwah, NJ
- This salon in Nanuet, NY
- This produce wholesaler in Philadelphia, PA
- Manufacturer & Business Association, Erie, PA

[Scott5114]

This isn't strictly on topic because it doesn't have to do with the interiors, but there was a guy in Russia who built an accurate scale model of downtown Oklahoma City, sight unseen, before GSV was a thing. There was an architecture blogger who lived in Oklahoma City and ran a blog where he posted pictures of every building in the core from several angles. The Russian chose Oklahoma City for his model because of that imagery and because of the variety of architectural styles. I want to say the city heard about it and paid for him to come over and have the mayor give him a tour of the real thing.

[TheGrassGuy]

This isn't strictly on topic because it doesn't have to do with the interiors, but there was a guy in Russia who built an accurate scale model of downtown Oklahoma City, sight unseen, before GSV was a thing. There was an architecture blogger who lived in Oklahoma City and ran a blog where he posted pictures of every building in the core from several angles. The Russian chose Oklahoma City for his model because of that imagery and because of the variety of architectural styles. I want to say the city heard about it and paid for him to come over and have the mayor give him a tour of the real thing.

Reminds me of Project "Build the Earth" in Minecraft.

[CtrlAltDel]

What I'm wondering is if Google Street View's data is precise enough to do so.

I know that a few years before the fire, Notre Dame cathedral in Paris was measured and imaged from top to bottom with lasers and other state-of-the-art technical gizmos, and all that has apparently been quite helpful in the reconstruction effort, in combination with various drawings and written records.

So, with GSV, I think you might be able to reconstruct something in a way that will resemble the previous version, but whether it would be identical past that, I don't know.

That said, where there's a will, there's definitely a way. The Frauenkirche (another church) was destroyed in the bombing of Dresden in the Second World War, and they rebuilt that stone by stone, more or less, over the course of about twenty years, and so, even if they did it without GSV, it stands to reason it could definitely make things a lot easier.

[kphoger]

Why wouldn't they just use the blueprints instead?

[cwf1701]

Why wouldn't they just use the blueprints instead?

Blueprints can get lost sometimes.

[TheGrassGuy]

What about artifacts? (Ex: the Iraq Museum in Baghdad, which IIRC is the only official GSV imagery in Iraq)

[Scott5114]

What about artifacts? (Ex: the Iraq Museum in Baghdad, which IIRC is the only official GSV imagery in Iraq)

You probably could reconstruct artifacts from photos (and in fact some archives have started taking full 3D scans and imagery of items in their collections). However, it would, of course, not have the same value as an original piece.

[TheGrassGuy]

This question might be all the more relevant nowadays, since Ukraine has GSV.

[jeffandnicole]

Maybe they can reconstruct the facade of the building and certain rooms, but GSV wouldn't provide any detail about below ground, structural components, or details that can't be seen from the view.

Buildings that need to be reconstructed would also need to follow modern requirements which may differ from when the building was originally built.

[Scott5114]

And architectural tastes may have changed since the original building was constructed, such that there's not much appetite to replace it with an exact duplicate anyway.

This may well be the case in Ukraine. I doubt there's much desire to recreate any destroyed buildings that date from the Soviet era and have the 1980s USSR aesthetic.

[SEWIGuy]

Would it be possible?  No.  As people have said, there is just too much "unseen." 

[HighwayStar]

Would it be possible?  No.  As people have said, there is just too much "unseen."

This, for anything more complicated than maybe a small building GSV cannot give enough detail to figure out structural support.

[TheGrassGuy]

If the extent of the damage is heavy enough, will they pull a Warsaw/Dresden or a Hiroshima/Rotterdam?