SAD LOVE QUOTES: New York man campaigns to resurrect Twin Towers... with an iPhone app

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

New York man campaigns to resurrect Twin Towers... with an iPhone app

Last updated at 8:28 AM on 20th July 2011

As construction continues on Manhattan's towering One World Trade Center, one New York man has his sights set on resurrecting the city's famed Twin Towers, with the help of an iPhone app.

Brian August has devised a way to superimpose the buildings that once defined the city's skyline from anywhere on the grid, helping users to imagine what they would look like if they were still standing.

If his Kickstarter campaign, 110 Stories, is successful, Mr August plans to launch the application in under eight weeks - in time for the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

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Innovator: Brian August has devised a way to superimpose the Twin Towers onto Manhattan's skyline to scale using an iPhone application

Optical illusion: Mr August has made the Twin Towers visible from his rooftop in Greenpoint with this wire installation, which mimics the programme

Mr August is working with developers at [zero] innovates to design the free application.

Any user who aims their smartphone at Ground Zero will be prompted to orient a scaled image of the towers into the existing skyline, showing what the buildings would have looked like from their point of view.

His Kickstarter campaign had so far raised $14,948 of its $25,000 goal at press time, thanks to 107 backers.

Mr August, who has installed copper tubing on his roof in Greenpoint, Brooklyn to create a similar illusion, says the project has been ten years in the making.

Three stages: Users point an iPhone in the direction of Ground Zero to orient the programme

Superimposed: An image of the Twin Towers is composited onto the users' picture of the skyline

Dialogue: The application allows people to connect by commenting on the images they have created

'110 Stories started about ten years ago when after the events of September 11, 2001,' he says in his campaign video. 'I started to think about the fact that the towers, which were a big part of my life - because I've lived in New York my whole life - the towers were gone. And I started to think about all of the iconic views I had of the towers and all of those views being lost.

'It occurred to me that there are going to be a while generation of people growing up and people who never visited New York who will have no conception whatsoever of how big the towers were, how beautiful they were and how iconic they were - how many different vantage points there were where you could see them,' he said.

Now, with the tenth anniversary of September 11 looming he is pouring his efforts into making his vision a reality, and for those would have otherwise never seen the twin towers soaring into the skyline

Majestic: The Twin Towers soar above the Manhattan skyline from the southern tip of the city

'One day I said to myself... if you don't complete this project you will be kicking yourself... for the rest of your life and you will say if I'd only done that I would have been able to do something really special and give something back to the world and that's what I'm trying to create for this project,' he continues.

Money raised for the project will go directly toward building the application, which is a non-profit endeavour.

Mr August has said if he is able to raise the money and build the application in time he will dedicate up to the next two years developing the idea into a public art installation.

He plans to find 110 viewpoints within the tri-state area from which the towers could once be seen and build outlines of the buildings with copper tubing so that it appears they are still standing.

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