Trompe-l’œil, or Trick of the Eye, is a long-established art technique where an artist uses very realistic imagery to create the illusion that the things shown in the image are actually three dimensional.

The technique has been popularised on the Internet in recent years by pavement artists such as Julian Beever and Edgar Mueller, but as far as we’re aware, their creations have never lasted long enough to be captured by any of Google’s cameras. However a number of buildings around the world have been adorned with large Trompe-l’œil murals, many of which which can be seen on Street View – if you can get to exactly the right spot…

This massive mural on the Lani Nalu Plaza building in Honolulu features Hawaii’s last monarch, Queen Lili’uokalani, alongside Duke Kahanamoku, the father of modern surfing. The figures are shown on a towering wave that threatens to crush three onlooking children.

Mana Nalu mural by John Pugh

From the right angle the effect is so realistic that when some passing firefighters first saw the mural, they actually rushed over to save the children. Don’t believe this isn’t 3D? Look how the illusion is completely shattered by moving only a few metres down the road!

Mana Nalu mural by John Pugh

Sometimes trompe-l’œil can have practical applications too. In Paris, the Saint-Georges Theatre was transformed from a featureless modern carbuncle into a stylish original building, simply with the addition of some convincingly realistic paintwork.

Saint-Georges Theatre by Dominique Antony

Some of the largest murals in the trompe-l’œil style have been made by Richard Haas, such as at 1211 North LaSalle Street, Chicago, where in 1980 he converted a plain 16-story 1929 building into a gargantuan tribute to Chicago School architecture.

Three sides of the building are covered in trompe-l’œil – here we can see the south face, which uses elements from several Louis Sullivan creations and includes a “reflection” of the Chicago Board of Trade Building in the painted windows.

Homage to the Chicago School by Richard Haas

Another artist working in the same medium is Eric Grohe, who converted the plain exterior wall of a shopping wall into a realistic sweeping vista onto a stunningly realised Niagara Falls.

Niagara by Eric Grohe

However in terms of sheer realism, we’ll have to come back to John Pugh, whose publicly visible work we’ve managed to find in several other places.

Siete Punto Uno (7.1) by John Pugh (created to commemorate the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake)

Bay in a Bottle, Santa Cruz, California, by John Pugh

Standin’ on the Corner Park, Winslow, Arizona, by John Pugh

There are hundreds more examples around the world – what other trompe-l’œil murals do you know of?

Continuing on from last week’s look at the mountain venues, today we’ll explore the city venues of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics.

The Games’ opening and closing ceremonies, along with nightly ‘Victory Ceremonies’ (which we assume means medal presentations) will be held at BC Place in downtown Vancouver.

North America’s largest air-supported roof will ensure all these festivities can proceed without interference from inclement weather. For the opening ceremony in particular, a vast security cordon was in place to ensure planned protests¹ did not disrupt proceedings.

Right next door is Canada Hockey Place, perhaps the focus of this hockey-mad nation’s attentions for much of the next few weeks.

Olympic naming regulations mean the arena has to be stripped of its usual branding as General Motors Place, despite the fact that GM is one of the IOC’s largest sponsors. Also the arena’s usual tenants – the Vancouver Canucks – have been forced to go on the longest road trip in NHL history because of the Games.

Some hockey games will also take place at the University of British Columbia’s Thunderbird Arena.

East of downtown, the Pacific Coliseum will house the figure skating and short-track speed skating events.

Dating to the 1960s, this arena has undergone significant renovations to prepare it for the Olympics.

A number of new venues have been constructed for these Games, including the spectacular Olympic Oval with stands beside the Fraser River in the suburb of Richmond.

While emphatically non-oval in shape, the building is named for the long-track speed skating course inside, which will hold close to 8,000 spectators. The $178 million construction project includes an elaborate rainwater collection pond and associated sculptures known as the Water Sky Garden.

There has been a minor controversy regarding practice time at this venue, with allegations that Canadian athletes are benefiting from privileged access.

Another new venue is the Vancouver Olympic Centre which will host the curling competitions.

This building is conveniently surrounded on all sides by baseball diamonds, should the athletes want a change of sport. It will be converted into a community centre after the Games.

As part of an effort to stage the ‘greenest’ Games ever, both new buildings were constructed to high levels of LEED certification. The wood used for the roof of the Richmond Oval came from forests killed by a pine-beetle infestation, rather than cutting down live trees.

The 2,700 athletes participating in the Games will be housed in the Vancouver Olympic Village on the south-east shore of False Creek.

Construction of these buildings hit serious financial difficulties courtesy of the same investor that may have to sell the Whistler resort during the Games, as mentioned in the Mountain Venues post. They were finally finished at a total cost of $1 billion, and will be sold off after the Games to recoup some of that money.

Meanwhile, the thousands of media representatives will work in the Media Centre located in the Canada Place / Convention Centre complex on the waterfront.

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The port and harbour will host a significant number of cruise ships for the duration of the Games – providing accommodation for visitors unable to secure a hotel room, as well as members of police and security forces.

To the west of the harbour, near Stanley Park, a 14m tall set of Olympic rings lights up every evening.

The Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Games start today and Google has treated us to excellent new imagery of many of the venues¹, particularly those in and around Whistler, the mountain venue about 120 km north of the city.

Earlier this week Google really pulled out all the stops to give us the first ‘Slope View’ – ski trail images from Whistler captured by snowmobile – along with trike views of the village and a couple of other venues².

The brand-new Whistler Sliding Centre can hold 12,000 spectators for bobsled, luge and skeleton events. From the upper and lower start houses athletes will go through as many as 16 turns on the 1,450 m long track. A maximum incline of 20% propels sliders towards the finishing area at speeds of up to 140 km/hr.

Alpine skiing events will take place at Whistler Creekside which will accommodate 7,700 spectators near the finish line. Street View gives us an idea of how steep the course really is.

One slight concern regarding this venue is the financial status of its owner Intrawest, or more specifically its financiers missing debt payments, which presents the possibility that Whistler may be put up for sale during the Games.

A few kilometres west of the town in Callaghan Valley we come to Whistler Olympic Park, a brand new $117 million CAD venue constructed to host ski jumping and two nordic events, with up to 12,000 people attending each of the three sports.

The ski jump towers are modestly called the ‘normal’ (bottom) and ‘large’ (top) hills, but with launch speeds approaching 100 km/h and jump distances up to 140 m, I don’t think they’re fooling anyone about how utterly terrifying they must be to experience.

Cross-country skiing events start and finish in this area, with the longer races (up to 50 km) taking the tracks off through the surrounding woods.

Biathlon events are focused just to the north, with the rectangular area being the firing range where, very shortly after climbing lung-bursting hills, athletes have to swiftly steady their pulse and breathing to be able to shoot straight.

Athletes in all these sports will be housed in Whistler Olympic Village a short distance south of the town. Google’s new images show the housing mostly complete but the rest of the facility still under construction.

The world’s media will be based in the Whistler Conference Centre in the centre of town, while nightly medal ceremonies will take place in the new Medals Plaza, which is seen under construction in these images.

The one weakness of Whistler as a venue is the single access road – the infamous Sea to Sky Highway which often has a cliff on one side and ocean on the other. The province has gone to great expense – approximately $600 million CAD – to widen the road and straighten the more dangerous sections, but bad weather or landslides could easily cause disruption to the thousands of people travelling between city and mountain.

While Whistler has been enjoying near record snowfall, the other mountain venue for these Games has been suffering through one of the warmest Januarys on record. Cypress Mountain is due to host the snowboard halfpipe, ski/board cross and freestyle skiing competitions.

While Google’s images do show snow, other than at the very top of the mountain, constant rain has currently washed most of it away. A massive effort is underway to transport snow from other areas, with straw bales being used to shape the various features needed for these sports.

Today, February 3rd, is the 51st anniversary of the death of Buddy Holly.

The day before his death, Buddy Holly and associated acts Dion & The Belmonts, Ritchie Valens, and J. P. “The Big Bopper” Richardson, had played the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa. After issues with their tour bus, and due to appear in Moorhead, Minnesota the next night, the group decided to charter a small plane from the nearby Mason Airport.

There was only space on the small plane for 3 passengers, so there was much debate as to who would fly. Dion DiMucci of Dion & The Belmonts had turned down a seat on the plane, and Ritchie Valens won his seat in a coin toss. One of Holly’s bandmates had given up his seat for J. P. Richardson, jokingly saying “I hope your plane crashes”.

And tragically, shortly after take off, the small plane crashed into a nearby field, killing all 3 musicians and the pilot. A memorial at the crash site depicts Holly’s trademark glasses.

Holly was buried in his hometown of Lubbock on 7th February 1959, where there is now a 8/12 ft bronze statue.

The crash is referenced in Don McLean’s 1971 hit American Pie as “the day the music died“.

Today is Groundhog Day, a North American festival which reckons that:

if a groundhog emerges from its burrow on this day and fails to see its shadow because the weather is cloudy, winter will soon end. If the groundhog sees its shadow because the weather is bright and clear, it will be frightened and run back into its hole, and the winter will continue for six more weeks.

So in celebration, we’re posting Woodstock, Illinois, the location where most of the scenes from the excellent Bill Murray comedy of the same name were filmed (although it was actually set in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania). And yes, in our thumbnail of the town square you can actually see “Gobbler’s Knob”…

For fans of the movie, the official Woodstock website has a PDF map which identifies all the locations used.

Previously on Google Sightseeing: Groundhog Day, Groundhog Day.