The Bayside Canning Company

Goals for last week

We are officially back on track. Last week, I integrated Photoshop into my methodology and was able to complete my model of the Bayside Canning Company, an endangered building in San Jose’s Alviso neighborhood.

Methodology

Just a recap of my methodology, now with Photoshop. To spare some time, I won’t be going into depth about Artlist and Blender. If you are curious about those softwares, check out my blog from last week.

Artlist

Artlist is an image to image AI model that allows me to combine images together. I use it to create images of a building’s past state by combining its older photo with its more detailed newer photo, which gives the perfect balance of quality and historical accuracy. The left photo below is the Bayside Canning Company’s current state, while the right photo is the “Artlisted” version.

Photoshop

Photoshop is an image editing software that will serve as the bridge between Artlist and Blender. The central problem with Artlist is that it leaves out some of the finer details on its created images. Photoshop will allow me to add those finer details and fix Artlist’s potential mistakes.

Blender

Blender is a 3d modeling software that can generate a 3d model from 2d images, which allows me easily and efficiently create a model from my modified photos.

Below is the prototype Blender model of the Canning Company.

The model

Here are various angles of my finished model. My end product will be a digital exhibit with all my models, but that’s for a later blog.

A discussion on ethics

Honestly, there’s not much for me to talk about here, so I’ll instead dedicate this space to talking about the history of the Bayside Canning Company and its founder Thomas Foon Chew.

Born in 1889 in China, Foon Chew emigrated to the United States when he was very young. He overcame the harsh anti-Chinese sentiment of the Bay Area at the time to found the Bayside Canning Company, eventually turning it into the third largest cannery in the United States.

However, Foon Chew was better known as a philanthropist. His kindness and honesty impacted pretty much the entire Bay Area. He famously provided Alviso with free water as long as he was alive, and was deeply involved in San Francisco’s Chinatown. The most telling sign of his reputation was that, upon his death, 25,000 people, including his biggest competitors, attended his funeral.

I personally believe Foon Chew deserves a place in our history textbooks.

Goals for next week

• Begin model of the South Bay Yacht Club