The Shops at Crystals is an indoor retail center that spans about 262,000 square feet. The upscale shopping mall consists of high-end retailers / luxury brands, gourmet restaurants, and art galleries. Among the artists who contributed to the centers art installations was James Turrell. In order for his work to be installed, the architect of record / art design architect needed accurate as-builts of the interior facades.

Architectural Resource Consultants (ARC) was hired to provide HDS (High Definition Survey) 3D laser scanning and modeling services to scan and document portions of the existing facility. The data capture included both scan data (point cloud) and photo imagery.

The areas of interest for this project included four wall niches, the escalator area, and the APM monorail loading area.

Since these areas of interest consisted of open spaces and good reflectivity, the scanning process was quick and only required one day on site. The building’s unique design featuring skewed angles and surfaces made for a complex 3D model.