iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Riley Champine @rileydchampine.com · 28/03/2025

Directly in front of me is the site of Edward Valentine's sculpting studios — which are annotated on the 1905 Sanborn map. Today it's the GRTC transfer center.

A screenshot of a Sanborn map from 1905, focusing two buildings that were sculptor's studios. Each building has an annotation indicating that they had skylights.

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Riley Champine @rileydchampine.com · 28/03/2025

Nice view from my temporary office over Leigh St. #RVA

A view of downtown Richmond VA behind a laptop screen showing Sanborn maps.

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Riley Champine @rileydchampine.com · 18/02/2025

🚲🌊 When the James River and your evening commute become one (Riverside Dr between Rockfalls Dr and the Z Dam).

A video showing the James River flooding over Riverside Drive at sunset.

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Riley Champine @rileydchampine.com · 16/02/2025

The outfall events are a huge bummer but there are positive changes in the works to mitigate them. These maps are from the CSO 2024 Final Plan – worth skimming on a torrential day like today. rvah2o.org/wp-content/u...

Map and table showing 4 projects selected for the Richmond Combined Sewer Overflow plan. The plan aims to reduce untreated wastewater overflow by 785 million gallons per year.

Map and chart of the Combined Sewer Overflow system showing that the Shockoe and Southside outfalls contribute 91% of bacteria load.

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Riley Champine @rileydchampine.com · 16/02/2025

Today's combined Sewage Overflow map AKA "Richmond's Map of Shame" — 12 of 25 outflows currently spewing our raw wastewater into the James and Gillies Creek. apps.emnet.net/richmond-pub...

A map of the James River in Richmond showing that 12 of the 25 Combined Sewer Overflow outfall sites are overflowing on Feb 16, 2025.

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Riley Champine @rileydchampine.com · 11/02/2025

We're one step away from a beautiful Mayo Bridge... #RVA richmondbizsense.com/2025/02/11/l...

A Star Trek Geordi meme stating that an unprotected bike lane shown in the latest Mayo Bridge design is not it — the bike lane needs a proper barrier.

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Riley Champine @rileydchampine.com · 11/02/2025

Latoya Gray-Sparks gave an excellent (and heartbreaking) talk about Urban Renewal history in #RVA tonight. RPL Memory Lab was a great host and put together these fantastic Sanborn map displays with monopoly pieces to show homes razed for Gilpin Court, I-95, and the downtown expressway.

Latoya Gray-Sparks presenting maps and images of north Jackson Ward before its destruction to make way for public housing in the 1940s.

A table with a collage of Sanborn maps and photos. Small plastic houses from a monopoly set are placed on top of the maps to represent the dwellings destroyed in the 1940s and 50s to make way for public housing and the Richmond-Petersburg Turnpike.

A man looks through a magnifying glass at a table with a collage of Sanborn maps and photos. Small plastic houses from a monopoly set are placed on top of the maps to represent the dwellings destroyed in the 1940s and 50s to make way for public housing and the Richmond-Petersburg Turnpike.

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Riley Champine @rileydchampine.com · 29/01/2025

Ever since the @richmondkickers.bsky.social brought out the old '90s logo in 2022 I've been toying with ideas for a new crest that brings back that OG soccer feel in a fresh way. I'm not sure I cracked the code but I wish the new crest went in this direction instead of old-timey baseball.

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Riley Champine @rileydchampine.com · 26/01/2025

Wild ice falls in #RVA — at the back of the quarry loop off of the Buttermilk trail. These cliffs seem to have the perfect mix of runoff (possibly spring water?!) and no sun.

Cascading ice frozen in 8-12 foot tall icicles on a sheet rock face.

A forested cliff with frozen ice falls. In the background the sun sets behind a few houses.

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Riley Champine @rileydchampine.com · 03/01/2025

Sanborn detail of #Detroit, 1949 — Carstens Elementary School — one of 195 schools closed in Detroit between 2000 and 2015. This section of the city's east side suffered from heavy abandonment, typically attributed to white flight and auto industry consolidation. historicdetroit.org/buildings/ca...

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Riley Champine @rileydchampine.com · 20/12/2024

Explore 1952 #Baltimore on Old Insurance Maps: oldinsurancemaps.net/viewer/balti...

Screenshot of Sanborn maps of showing hundreds of brick row houses on the gridded streets of West Baltimore.

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Riley Champine @rileydchampine.com · 20/12/2024

Sanborn detail of #Baltimore 1952: "Public School No 176" aka "Francis M Wood [School] For Handicapped Colored Children". This block and ~20 others would be cleared to build West Baltimore's "Highway to Nowhere". Read more: www.baltimoremagazine.com/section/busi...

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Riley Champine @rileydchampine.com · 18/12/2024

If this is how Disney feels then they should sell ABC and any another entity reporting on the administration. I guess journalism isn’t “family-friendly” 🐀 www.nytimes.com/2024/12/18/b...

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Riley Champine @rileydchampine.com · 10/12/2024

I’m a big fan of these candy cane flex posts now bringing some cheer to Blanton Ave 🎄🚲

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Riley Champine @rileydchampine.com · 04/12/2024

Great find! I found Cave St also on this map made from an 1858 survey. Looks like it went down a long embankment to access Shockoe Creek... so perhaps some evidence for there being an actual cave??? Map lives in Library of Congress here: www.loc.gov/resource/g38...

Screenshot of a map showing how Cave St extended from Duvall St in the west to Shockoe Creek in the east, following an embankment or perhaps a ravine.

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Riley Champine @rileydchampine.com · 04/12/2024

Sanborn detail of Richmond, VA 1950 — Jackson Ward. I am so intrigued by this so-called "Cave" street that cut diagonally across the center block here. Was there an actual cave at some point? This block, like so many around it, was razed to make way for the Richmond-Petersburg Turnpike. #RVA

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Riley Champine @rileydchampine.com · 02/12/2024

Screenshot from an alternate reality — the Google Maps search result for "Shockoe County". After reading today's editorial by @times-dispatch.bsky.social, I imagined this fictional county formed by the dissolved boundaries of Chesterfield, Henrico, and Richmond. Article: richmond.com/opinion/edit...

Fictional screenshot of a Google Maps search result for "Shockoe County" which shows an image of the James River and the 9th Street Bridge and a fictitious map of a county formed by the dissolved boundaries of Chesterfield, Henrico, and Richmond. The image contains the following important text: "Shockoe County is a county in Central Virginia home to the Commonwealth’s capital, Richmond. The county is bounded by the Chickahominy River to the north and the Appomattox River to the south. Its name is derived from the native Powhatan word for stone, shacahocan, which was used to describe a creek and prominent rock landing at the Falls of the James. According to the American Community Survey of 2023, the county’s total population is 947,883, making it the second most populous in Virginia and ranking 57th among all counties in the United States. Sources: VGIN, Shockoe Examiner, U.S. Census Bureau. Photo: @jamellebouie.net. Fictional map illustration: @rileydchampine.com"

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Riley Champine @rileydchampine.com · 30/11/2024

Sanborn detail of Philadelphia, PA 1950: Dock Street. It's nutty to me how much building density has changed here in 75 years. Check out this lovely history by NPS on the entombed creek beneath Dock Street and how it was pivotal to the city's founding. npshistory.com/publications...

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Riley Champine @rileydchampine.com · 26/11/2024

Shout-out to this restaurant, Herby-K's, in operation since 1936. It's the tiny red building in the bottom left corner of the animation above. From Streetview you can see an abrupt dead-end at I-20 but there are still a few houses. Someone please report back if the Shrimp Buster is worth the trip.

Closeup of a Sanborn map showing a restaurant and two dwellings on Pierre Ave in Shreveport, LA.

Google Streetview image taken in October 2024. The image shows a restaurant called Herby-K's, which has an awning and several classic American signs advertising Budweiser, mixed drinks, wine, beer, "Shrimp Buster", steaks, sandwiches, and liquors. The dead end of Pierre Ave at I-20 is also visible.

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Riley Champine @rileydchampine.com · 26/11/2024

Sanborn detail of Shreveport, LA 1963: Two annotations, "ALL BLDG'S IN THIS BLOCK REMOVED", record the destruction of a neighborhood in progress. This area, now beneath the interchange of I-20 and I-49, once contained over a hundred dwellings (marked "D" on the maps). It now has almost zero.

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Riley Champine @rileydchampine.com · 24/11/2024

This camera operator's cheat-sheet for the NWSL final is fascinating to study for its layout and design. Really impressive amount of quickly legible info and I like the use of varying grids. Bummed the Spirit couldn't pull off the win! Seen on reddit here: www.reddit.com/r/NWSL/comme...

This image shows a piece of paper attached to a broadcast television camera. The page has extensive information about the 2024 NWSL finalists, the Washington Spirt and the Orlando Pride, including photos of their star players, and what the camera operator should do during specific moments in the match.

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Riley Champine @rileydchampine.com · 22/11/2024

Sanborn detail of Tacoma, WA 1950: "Stadium High School". Initially designed in 1891 as a château on Commencement Bay, the partially constructed building was repurposed as a public school in 1906. It later appeared in the 1999 film "10 Things I Hate About You". oldinsurancemaps.net/viewer/tacom...

Mosaic of Sanborn maps showing several buildings and a stadium that resembles a horseshoe built into a steep slope.

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Riley Champine @rileydchampine.com · 21/11/2024

Sanborn map detail of the day — Buffalo, NY 1950: "New York State Hospital for the Insane". Note the varying construction materials indicated by color fills on the interconnected buildings. This is now the Richardson Olmstead Complex and home to a boutique hotel. oldinsurancemaps.net/map/sanborn0...

Mosaic of Sanborn maps showing many interconnected buildings sprawling across a wide open campus.

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Riley Champine @rileydchampine.com · 19/11/2024

Sanborn map detail of the day — the Valentine Meat Juice Co. Richmond Abbatoir in 1952. Yes that Valentine. This site is now home to the Richmond Animal Control and Care building on Chamberlayne Ave. More maps here: oldinsurancemaps.net/viewer/richm...

Mosaic of Sanborn Fire Insurance maps from the Northside of Richmond, Virginia showing several streets, buildings, and railroad spurs.

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Riley Champine @rileydchampine.com · 18/11/2024

I am convinced that the TForce Parcels are the ideal spot for a the coveted Manchester grocery store + more housing right by the North/South Pulse. In my wildest dreams it would be like what Wegman's did in DC: dcist.com/story/22/07/...

A satellite image with three highlighted city blocks along Semmes Ave and W 11th St in the Manchester area of Richmond, VA

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Riley Champine @rileydchampine.com · 18/11/2024

I made some maps for a new book on the history of #RVA. I’ve never produced anything for a print medium like this — just 5 shades of grey allowed! Link to get the book here: uncpress.org/book/9781469...

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Riley Champine @rileydchampine.com · 15/11/2024

UR #GIS Day cake competition is on point. 🕷️🗺️🥮

A table with an assortment of map-themed cakes.

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