CyArk Digitally Reconstructs 16th Century Portal

by Elizabeth Lee
August 1, 2008
CyArk recently partnered with the University of San Francisco, Leica Geosystems, and INSIGHT to digitally reconstruct a 16th century stone portal. The portal was originally part of the monastery of Santa Maria de Ovila in northern Spain. It was purchased by William Randolf Hearst, although it was never reassembled. In 2002, the stones of the portal were given to USF as a gift from the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. The portal will be installed as the backdrop for an outdoor student amphitheater at USF’s Kalmonowitz Hall.

When the construction team needed an accurate profile of the portal in three dimensions to design appropriate rear support structures, they looked to CyArk to help with a digital reconstruction of the portal. CyArk and partner Leica Geosystems laser scanned the 93 pieces of the portal in order to digitally reassemble it.

Then CyArk partner INSIGHT modeled each individual stone and virtually reassembled the portal. The portal is scheduled to be physically reconstructed at the end of this summer.
Artist rendering of the finished amphitheater.
Scanning the stones in a warehouse in San Francisco.
The finished digital reconstruction of the portal.