I had a recent feature article published in The National’s weekly magazine on the rise of design hobbyists who have begun creating three-dimensional buildings of Dubai and Abu Dhabi within the Google Earth sandbox.

It was a very fun story to work on but the online story missed a few important elements for readers who would want to try their hand what Google Earth has to offer.

First of all, images like you see above and in the story may not contain the entire library of buildings available to Google Earth users. This is understandable given that the 3D Buildings layer in GE contains buildings which Google itself deems has met their standards

To find those buildings, users have to download the KML file from Google Earth’s 3D Buildings Warehouse file suppository where you can search for buildings in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, respectively.

Furthermore, you can search for the buildings built by Chris Bence and Anis Tumallah, the two guys I profiled in the story. Chris’ version of the Sheikh Zayed Mosque can be found here.

Some personal notes on the story: I know I briefly mentioned this at the end of the story, but the potential for Google Earth to boost sagging tourism revenue is enormous. Dubai may be under the media’s microscope right now as it struggles to maintain its glitzy position as one of the world’s foremost tourism destinations, but if I had a chance to offer a suggestion to the emirate’s toursim heads, it would be to get your city mapped out on Google Earth immediately. I remember the crown of coworkers gathering as I zoomed through the buildings I downloaded littering Sheikh Zayed Road. And the city has only a fraction of its skyline designed, mostly by amateurs. Imagine what it would look like if a design company – or a group of design students – were given a decent budget and a mandate to build out the rest of the city.

Another comment I’d like to make is just how extremely easy it is to make these buildings. Although Chris Bence has a background in design and Photoshop, once you get the hang of Google Sketchup, building something you actually can see in real life and then make for the rest of the world to see themselves is addicting. I haven’t made anything worth uploading yet, but it doesn’t take much effort to digitally erect a structure in Google Earth.

All in all, it was fun to meet some of the people who get to build UAE digitally, emulating in a way the country’s propensity in building soaring skyscrapers brick by brick.

Photo courtesy of Crane Country, as I’m in Beirut right now and don’t really have access to my own stockpile of Google Earth 3D buildings.