Client
Lakeland Economic Development Council and Community Redevelopment Agency
Collaborators
The Lunz Group, The Apiary Studios, The City of Lakeland Economic Development Council, Voyager Industries
Skillsets
Architectural Conceptualization, Architectural Visualization, 3D Modelling, World Building
The Challenge
Available properties in Downtown Lakeland belonged to a combination of government agencies and private entities. To support and stimulate meaningful and logistically sound development in downtown, The Apiary Studios created a fully immersive, digital twin of Lakeland as a unique,
immersive urban planning tool.
Brief
As one of the fastest-growing cities in the nation, Lakeland’s downtown offers highly desirable locations for developers. Catalyst: A Vision for Lakeland offers an immersive and interactive approach to urban planning by strategically visualizing what Downtown Lakeland could become by allowing users to freely navigate the web-based platform from four viewpoints.
The Story
At its inception, The Apiary joined forces with the Lakeland Economic Development Council, Lakeland city officials, and key stakeholders to pioneer a unique tool that would help stimulate and spur conversation about urban development in Lakeland with not only developers and city planners, but the public.
Collaborating with Experts
In collaboration with key stakeholders, we took into account the zoning regulations, parking density requirements, and fiscal implications regarding different development options for each opportunity site. Using this data, we began creating a 3D
modeled experience of each project site, available to the user from four viewpoints within the platform.
Laying the Foundation
Using a 3D rendering as a base for a layer of data, we created renderings for each site that allowed our team to visually guide users through each phase of construction. With extreme accessibility to visuals and key information, there came an opportunity for developers and city planners to utilize this tool to see how future development would interact and engage with surrounding sites.
Bringing the Vision to Life
Catalyst: A Vision for Lakeland provided downtown with a clear, unique vision for several sites. Developers will be able to see their projects happening, and as growth in downtown continues to boom, the vision for Catalyst will continue to grow and
expand.
Extending the Capabilities
Currently stretching four square miles, from Central Lakeland’s historic Florida Southern College to North Lakeland’s new Bonnet Springs Park, Catalyst has the opportunity for expansion. Lakeland’s footprint encompasses nine square miles of seven historic districts and noteworthy destinations, allowing Catalyst room to model everything from traffic patterns to virtual tours. Our plan to increase the capabilities of Catalyst: A Vision for Lakeland includes simulating alternate traffic patterns to alleviate congestion in highly populated areas, planning future utility development (underground), providing hyper-realistic visualization services for event planning as the city grows, supporting public transportation in underdeveloped areas of Lakeland, and more.
Expanding the Application
This urban planning tool possesses capabilities stretching into the realm of complex and interactive world-building. With seemingly endless applications, this tool allows clients to virtually tour the streets of their city, promote a campus to prospective students, visualize a region for urban planning, engage with a potential theme park, and more. As a web-based platform offering complex 3D modeling, the user experience can be tailored to fit the unique vision of each and every client.
Visit catalystlakeland.com to see the Swan City in a whole new way.
