Offset lithography

39 3/8 x 27 5/8" (100 x 70 cm)

In this horizonless perspective, the streets of New York suddenly fold upward, creating a double view of the city. BERG’s Here & There map of Manhattan is inspired by gaming technology, satellites, and, the designers say, the idea that “the ability to be in a city and to see through it is a superpower, and it’s how maps should work.” The maps, created using sophisticated modeling software, start in the foreground with a three-dimensional image of buildings that graphically bends as the buildings extend into the distance, thus displaying remote areas of the city in plan view. This puts the viewer in two places at once, above and in the city, able to visualize urban space as a continuous medium. BERG has produced two Manhattan maps—one looking uptown from Third Avenue and Seventh Street, and one looking downtown from Third Avenue and 35th Street. The designers hope in the future to explore how enriching the maps with local information, such as bus routes, might make them useful as way-finding devices. For now, the maps present a mind-bending visualization of the city—indeed, one that seems to belong in a dream.