SF Tech Company Creates VR Rendering Of Proposed Navigation Center
SAN FRANCISCO (KPIX 5) -- As the fight between the City of San Francisco and neighbors in South Beach opposed to the proposed Embarcadero Homeless Navigation Center continues, one start-up company has created a virtual mock-up of what that facility could look like.
The augmented virtual reality rendering was created by Geo Pogo.
"We felt that a lot of the discussion on it was a lot of hypotheticals; what it might be, what it might not be. We thought it might help to kind of show it -- create a visual representation to see what it would actually look like," said Mac Dean with Geo Pogo.
With a set of VR glasses, Seawall Lot 330 -- currently a parking lot -- transforms into the navigation center.
"We had looked at what other centers this city had done, we looked at the basic plans the city had proposed and we decided with our skills that we would model it," Geo Pogo's Michael Hoppe told KPIX 5.
Despite the rain threatening on Thursday afternoon, a few folks stopped and took the virtual reality tour.
"I think it's great. I think its something the city should've done a long time ago. I'm glad that they're finally doing something about it," said San Franciscan Ben Atal.
"It looks nice from what I could tell. Design really isn't a concern for the neighbors. It's really safety and the possibility of drug use and crime that the navigation center would bring," said Wallace Lee from SAFE Embarcadero.
The VR tour was made available less than 24 hours after another heated community meeting on the center.
"We are still hoping to engage with the city in a serious manner, so far what we've seen is the city is trying to educate us rather than engage without legitimate concerns," said Lee. "We're going to try to get the city to listen to our concerns and find a solution that works for everyone."
