FEATURE ARTICLE, MAY 2006

TOTAL IMMERSION
Virtual Sciences’ products allow everyone involved in a project to get in the same mindset early in the process.
Bobbin Wages

Visualization tools help people who can’t read architectural drawings experience a project prior to completion.

With the communication solutions that Short Hills, New Jersey-based Virtual Sciences offers, prospective tenants and buyers can not only view images and animations of projects but also “visit” those projects before construction has even begun. “We take the technology that Hollywood has made famous and bring it to businesses for their use,” says company president Steve Baum. “Our visualization services allow architects, developers and real estate professionals to envision their projects in various stages in a more intuitive and engaging way than with traditional 2-D documentation.”

Virtual Sciences’ communication solutions cater to a wide array of real estate professionals. With products that help people envision what a final development will be like, everyone involved in a project can get in the same mindset early on.

The Virtual Sciences team comprises professionals from an array of backgrounds: real estate, architecture, graphic design and programming. “We play off each other,” says Ted Plenge, director of sales and marketing with the company’s Rochester, New York, office. “We try to formulate what’s best for a project and to come up with a solution, whatever the problem is.”

Most of the firm’s clients are interested in creating high-resolution images of a project taken from multiple vantage points. Clients may also invest in animation that includes photorealistic effects such as wind, which generates movement amongst a presentation’s trees and other foliage. People that match the demographic profile that the project is targeting are also inserted in the animation, along with music that matches the intended audience’s taste.

The most innovative of Virtual Sciences’ products is called RealTime technology, which far exceeds the limited interactivity of still images and animations that artists create and users merely watch. With the game-like RealTime technology, users are completely engrossed in a facility and can navigate it themselves in a computer-generated virtual tour. “RealTime is perfect for large-format projects that someone couldn’t possibly capture with one or two images,” Baum says. “It gives the user the control to experience a project’s architecture and design from an immersive point of view.”

Large-scale condominium complexes drive the bulk of Virtual Sciences’ business. By illustrating a multifamily property and its immediate surroundings, potential tenants and community members can see how the property will fit into the neighborhood. The project’s common areas, amenities and individual units also can be replicated with the company’s visualization tools. “We can give people the experience of what it might be like to live in that building,” Baum says.

Camera matching is also useful when demonstrating how a project will mesh with pre-existing site conditions. Using an aerial photo or video of the site, a future project can be superimposed into a video or still image, creating an aerial file with the property in place. “We can match the two worlds together seamlessly,” Plenge says.

For example, one of the firm’s clients was planning to develop a resort on the beach in Cancún, Mexico. Because the site was completely destroyed by Hurricane Wilma, the client called on Virtual Sciences to reconstruct the beach and virtually build the resort, all before the land is restored in reality.

Virtual Sciences’ products are not just useful in a development’s marketing stages, though. The firm also works hand-in-hand with developers throughout a project’s planning phase; if the building materials must be changed in order to meet the budget, another image of the property can be generated, visualizing the new end result. “We don’t help clients evaluate costs,” Baum says. “We help them evaluate the architectural ramifications of value engineering.”

RealTime technology also helps developers avoid issues that a rendering might not reveal, such as a blocked view that needs to be adjusted early on.

Such high-tech presentations are invaluable when developers are facing opposition to a project. Because architectural documentation can be perceived in various ways, 3-D visualization helps put everyone on the same page. “The emotional value of a project is very much up for interpretation,” Baum says. “We can put people on the ground looking at these structures, helping them make an informed decision about whether or not any oppositions are valid.”

Once Virtual Sciences completes a presentation, the client isn’t left with just a picture or animation to turn into a useful means of communication. Virtual Sciences incorporates those products into brochures, pieces of direct mail, web sites, DVDs and posters, which the company also mass-produces.

From gaining governmental approval, to remaining within budget, to drawing in tenants, Virtual Sciences’ communication solutions run the gamut. With these value engineering strategies and more competitive marketing tools, better-planned properties might delight even the most demanding tenants.

©2006 France Publications, Inc. Duplication or reproduction of this article not permitted without authorization from France Publications, Inc. For information on reprints of this article contact Barbara Sherer at (630) 554-6054.