Context Explorer NYC

Created by Edbert Cheng & Yiwen Che
Launch Project

^Tags:

Map New York City Python Real Estate

This project allows users to visualize building lot and zoning data in order to facilitate architecture and real estate development. Users can review city-wide zoning data, then zoom into addresses to query neighborhood, district, lot, and building information.

How I Started

Context Explorer NYC helps designers, architects, and citizens become more acquainted with urban and building data. This app aims to visualize zoning and site research needed to jump-start preliminary design projects.

Used Data

How I Built This

We both come from an architecture and real estate background, and we see a demand for more user-friendly visualization tools for urban information. We looked at New York City, where we have both lived and worked. Starting with the Zoning Tax Lot database, we were able to collect lot and building information. The data was then cleaned and reformatted into JSON files using python. Additional zoning and neighborhood information comes from MapPLUTO and other public APIs. The map viewer uses Mapbox, and the web architecture is created with React, with Figma for UI prototyping.

Edbert Cheng & Yiwen Che

Edbert @urbandesign09 is an architect and front-end developer from St. Louis. He is a multidisciplinary designer interested in translating spatial experiences between physical and digital environments. Some of his recent projects include an animated weather app and a query database for building specifications.

Yiwen @YiwenChe is a design technologist from New York. She enjoys using data-science lexicon to redefine contemporary visual art. Trained as an architect with a specialty in psychology, Yiwen enjoys substantiating intangible concepts through visual communication. Some of her recent projects include mapping social media trends and coworking space design automation.