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In-class workshop

Townscape Workshop

Read the town through its buildings, streets, blocks, and open spaces. Compare a Virginia community with a regional approximation of its ancestral communities, then test what you see through sketching and GIS.

Download all ten maps (PDF)Choose a community pair

Print on 11 × 17 inch paper, landscape, at Actual Size / 100%. One inch represents 400 feet. Do not use Fit to Page.

Start with a pencil

  1. Choose a community pair and compare the maps at the same printed scale.
  2. Trace a block, a street connection, and an edge between the settlement and countryside. Look for enclosure, gaps, crossings, and routes people might use.
  3. Discuss what each place makes easy or difficult. Which patterns could inform your project, and which depend on local geography or history?

Then test it in GIS

  1. Download the GIS ZIP for your community and extract it before opening QGIS or ArcGIS Pro.
  2. Add buildings.shp and streets.shp. Keep each shapefile with its accompanying .shx, .dbf, .prj, and .cpg files.
  3. Use solid black building fills with no outline, thin light-gray streets, and a white background. Street names are in the name field.
  4. Use the supplied local map CRS for measuring and print layout. At 1 inch = 400 feet, set the layout map to 1:4,800. Changing page or map-frame size changes the area shown, not the meaning of that scale.

Maps and GIS files

Map PDF opens the corresponding page of the ten-map packet. Print the full packet or select just your community pair. Each GIS ZIP includes building footprints, named street lines, their original GeoJSON files, projection information, and source notes. These are bounded workshop extracts, not complete municipal inventories.

Bluefield, Virginia and Grantham, England

Regional approximation of ancestral communities

Grantham, England

Figure-ground map of Grantham, England: black building footprints, light-gray road centerlines, street names, and pale aerial context.
Map PDFGIS ZIP

Clintwood, Virginia and Nantwich, England

Regional approximation of ancestral communities

Nantwich, England

Figure-ground map of Nantwich, England: black building footprints, light-gray road centerlines, street names, and pale aerial context.
Map PDFGIS ZIP

Haysi, Virginia and Whalley, England

Regional approximation of ancestral communities

Whalley, England

Figure-ground map of Whalley, England: black building footprints, light-gray road centerlines, street names, and pale aerial context.
Map PDFGIS ZIP

Clinchco, Virginia and Carterton, England

Regional approximation of ancestral communities

Carterton, England

Figure-ground map of Carterton, England: black building footprints, light-gray road centerlines, street names, and pale aerial context.
Map PDFGIS ZIP

Nora, Virginia and Dorton, Buckinghamshire, England

Regional approximation of ancestral communities

Dorton, Buckinghamshire, England

Figure-ground map of Dorton, Buckinghamshire, England: black building footprints, light-gray road centerlines, street names, and pale aerial context.
Map PDFGIS ZIP

Read the map critically

These are Nolli-inspired figure-ground maps, not maps of publicly accessible interiors. A black footprint does not tell you a building’s use, condition, rights holder, or whether you may enter it. A blank area does not prove that no building exists.

The European places are regional approximations, not verified ancestral hometowns or proof of direct design influence. Use the comparison to discuss urban form, not to claim a documented family history.

Sources include FEMA USA Structures, OpenStreetMap contributors, and Overture Maps where used. The printed maps include pale Esri imagery for context; that imagery is not included in the GIS downloads. Layer-specific attribution, dates, licenses, field descriptions, and limitations are included in each ZIP.

Prepared for the September 30, 2026 workshop. The GIS ZIPs contain shapefile exports of the GeoJSON sources used to make these maps, not original shapefiles supplied by a locality.