BOMA Awards of Excellence

A couple of weeks ago, we attended the BOMA Toronto (Building Owners and Managers Association) Awards Dinner. We continue John Zsolt's tradition of selling the lottery tickets for the evening. The BOMA Scholarship has been renamed ' the John Zsolt BOMA Toronto Scholarship' in his honour.

It was great to see all of the teams of building managers get recognized for their hard work. Click here for all of the results.

We were delighted to see the large number of our clients' buildings that won awards. We don't mean to take any credit for our clients well deserved, hard earned success, but it's nice to see that our services are so often part of the management systems of well-run buildings!

Here's a list of our clients' winning buildings:

The Outstanding Building of the Year (TOBY) Awards

• 5500 Explorer Drive, Mississauga Managed by Menkes
  
• 5520 Explorer Drive, Mississauga Managed by Menkes
  
• 5560 Explorer Drive, Mississauga Managed by Menkes
  
• 5580 Explorer Drive, Mississauga Managed by Menkes
  
• 5600 Explorer Drive, Mississauga Managed by Menkes
  
• 5800 Explorer Drive, Mississauga Managed by Redcliff
  
• 3760 14th Avenue, Markham Managed by Redcliff
  

Certificate of Excellence

• 1 Toronto Street, Managed by Redcliff
  
• 40 University Avenue, Managed by Redcliff
  
• 123 Commerce Valley Drive East, Managed by Redcliff
  
• 41 Adelaide Street West, Managed by Redcliff
  
• 165 Commerce Valley Drive West , Managed by Northam
  
• 320 Bay Street, Managed by Redcliff
  
• 5500 Explorer Drive, Mississauga Managed by Menkes
  
• 5520 Explorer Drive, Mississauga Managed by Menkes
  
• 5560 Explorer Drive, Mississauga Managed by Menkes
  
• 5580 Explorer Drive, Mississauga Managed by Menkes
  
• 5600 Explorer Drive, Mississauga Managed by Menkes
  
• 5800 Explorer Drive, Mississauga Managed by Redcliff
  
• 3760 14th Avenue, Markham Managed by Redcliff
  
• 2200 Yonge Street, Managed by Northam
  
• 260 King Street East, Managed by Northam
  
• 120 Adelaide Street West, Managed by Oxford
  
• 130 Adelaide Street West, Managed by Oxford
  
• 85 Richmond Street West, Managed by Oxford
  
• 65 Queen Street West, Managed by Redcliff
  
• 375 - 393 University Avenue, Managed by Manulife
  

Peter Masens

Wendy worked at Space Database for many years and she has many friends here.  We've got some very sad news that her husband passed away last Sunday.  There will be a funeral in Newmarket on Friday, May 18 in Newmarket.  Here is the obituary from the Star:

MASENS, Peter Glenn - Passed away peacefully on Sunday, May 13, 2012 at Southlake Regional Health Centre, Newmarket. Beloved husband of Wendy (nee Smith); Loving father of Victoria and Stephanie; Much loved Grandpa of Caleb and Isabella; Cherished son of Hannelore and the late Paul. Peter was a compassionate caregiver at Southlake Village and will be greatly missed by his co-workers and residents. A memorial service will be held on Friday, May 18 at 11 a.m. at TAYLOR FUNERAL HOME, 524 Davis Drive, Newmarket (905-898-2100). In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to the Canadian Cancer Society .


The Obituary and Guest Book are here

How do you get window views into a 3D model?

How do we get a photographic view out the windows in an animated video?  We can't simply paste the view onto the windows.  We would lose the sense of distance because there would be no parallax.  Here's a quick and simple way to make the view behave realistically:

1. First we take several pictures across the horizon. We need to make sure we have enough vertical coverage to present everything you can see when you are close to the window.
2. Next, we stitch these photos together into a panoramic view.
3. Inn the 3D model of the space, we create a large barrel shape around the space we have built.
4. We paint this barrel with the panorama. We have to scale the image to line up the views correctly.  The height of the image should be such that the horizon is at eye-level when seen from within the model.
5. Now, when we record the animation, you'll see a very realistic view!

The above is a simple, low resolution rendering, check out the photo-realistic version here: 

Interactive Multimedia in PDF Files

You may think of PDF files as electronic versions of printed material, but they can be so much more! PDF files can contain various types of interactive content. For the purposes of real estate marketing, the inclusion of panoramas and 3D models is the most exciting application of this multimedia capability.

Here are two examples of what can be done:

Download this interactive 3D floor plan. Manipulate the model with your mouse, or access saved views with the buttons on the lower right.

Download this enhanced floor plan. Click on the camera icons to see 360 degree panoramas. Click on the cube icons to see view of the embedded 3D model from these location in the plan.

N.B. These features work in Adobe Reader 9 or later. Download a free copy here.

Photo Realistic Video, Views out the Windows!

Here's a new computer animated, video office tour. This is truly photo-realistic. Textures, shadows, reflections and ambient lighting have been included to make this as realistic as possible. To prove how accurate this is, we've included real photography as well. It's sometimes hard to tell which parts are rendered and which parts are photos. Take a look:

Admittedly, we're showing off here! We wanted to demonstrate what can be done. The quality of this video would be over-kill for most office leasing purposes.

In an existing building, would you really need a 3D animated walk through? If the space is in good shape, conventional photographs and panoramas would adequately communicate the character of the space. But if it's not in good shape; if a substantial amount of construction is required, then a video might be just the tool to help prospects understand the potential.

Linked Panoramas in HTML5

Here's an interactive panorama. Click and drag on the image to look around. When you see a red dot, you can follow a link to another view.

You've seen panoramas before. What's so special about this one?

• HTML 5. This panorama works on the iPad and iPhone. Use your finger to drag around and pinch to zoom. If your browser does not support HTML5 (Microsoft IE still does not), the page will gracefully substitute a flash version. This will work on a wide range of devices and browsers.
• Links. The panoramas are linked together. The links can extended to an indefinite number of views so that a complete walk through can be developed.

These panoramas can be done very quickly while we're onsite measuring. Expect to see more of these on marketing sites around the web!

Website 'Skins'

We've put together a little presentation of the websites skins that we have developed using our API.  This slideshow will give you a taste of how we can adapt our data feed to various branding requirements:

Building Leasing Website Gallery

View more presentations from Mikael Sandblom

Here's the same content in a movie format, if you prefer!