We all know Seattle is changing rapidly, but it’s another thing to see it happen in under four minutes right in front of your face. Ricardo Martin Brualla, fascinated by the Space Needle’s 360-degree webcam, decided to put together a time-lapse video of what the camera captured over the past two years—embedded above. The results are staggering.
Brualla detailed the method in a Medium post. First, more than 2,000 panoramic images were collected—two per day from 10:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. starting from January 2015, when the camera was installed. Then Brualla stabilized the images to compensate for the camera’s movements over time.
Editing the video together, Brualla separated the 360-degree view out into segments, showing the growth of South Lake Union, the Denny Triangle, and downtown, plus a distant view of Capitol Hill. With the view stabilized, buildings like Amazon’s Day One go up in a flash like automated miniatures.
Learn more about the process—and some of Brualla’s favorite moments of the video—over here, or watch the extremely brief making-of demonstration below.