Research, records, and regional planning.
Technical documentation, planning chronologies, and visual synthesis for regional infrastructure decisions.
Technical analysis and documented alternatives.
Liam Blank compiles planning records and visual scenarios for transportation, land-use, and regional infrastructure projects.
This practice translates complex agency datasets, engineering concepts, and physical plan documents into structured case pages, visual models, and record-backed narratives designed for public review.
Project documentation and visual analysis.
These studies combine physical scenario planning, document archives, and visual representations to evaluate proposed regional investments against comparable alternatives.
BQE and Off-Ramp NYC
Evaluated financial models, physical cantilever constraints, priority transit corridors, and regional freight movements to contrast highway reconstruction proposals with adaptive corridor-reuse concepts. Visualizations supported technical reviews, campaign briefings, and public policy presentations.
- Client / Partner
- Off-Ramp NYC Coalition / City Club of New York
- Role
- Technical & Design Consultant (financial-model review, corridor analysis, transit-priority & freight visualization).
- Outputs
- Revised fiscal scenario models, corridor concept drawings, Atlantic Avenue transition designs, and marine terminal logistics layouts.
- Usage
- Coalition campaigns, advocate review, CityNerd LIVE at Hunter College, and public analysis video.
- Constraint
- Factoring the structural base of the cantilever and operational limits of single-lane configurations.
Off-Ramp NYC at CityNerd live
When we stop designing our cities around 20th-century concrete bottlenecks—whether it's a highway cantilever in Brooklyn or a dead-end terminal south of Penn Station—we can build an extraordinary, connected public realm.
Middletown Town Commons
Translated proposed 2D layout drawings for a 15-acre parcel into 3D aerial renderings illustrating massing, parking footprints, and public space preservation. Collaborated with local participants to model alternative arrangements that concentrate development on built-up land while retaining existing athletic fields.
- Audience
- Middletown, RI community groups and residents
- Role
- Independent Civic Visualization Contributor (plan translation, spatial modeling)
- Outputs
- 3D proposal renderings, alternative site layout models, comparative graphics, and public presentation boards.
- Usage
- Community workshops, local informational postings, and printed displays for informational public meetings.
- Constraints
- Deed-restricted recreational fields, height limitations, and neighborhood context integration.
Greater New Yorker & Penn Station
Developed comparative regional maps and station expansion visualizations to clarify station capacity options and track connectivity. Scenarios illustrated network integration and Penn Station layouts that balance platform performance with the preservation of surrounding blocks.
- Client / Partner
- ReThinkPennStationNYC / ReThinkNYC
- Role
- Independent Visualization Collaborator (cartography, data graphics, potential bidder renderings)
- Outputs
- Greater New Yorker regional map plates, Penn Station through-running platform and station-area layouts.
- Usage
- Technical presentations, public-interest campaign documents, and policy briefings.
Structured datasets, local profiles.
Some projects require a single site layout, while others involve compiling regional census or transit agency databases into structured overviews for legislative and public review.
MTA Vendor-Spending Compilation · Reinvent Albany
Sept – Nov 2023 · Consultant & DeveloperAggregated and structured multi-year vendor contract databases (2014–2022) by legislative district boundaries. Developed structured summaries for regional reporting and compiled automated, district-level fact sheets representing geographic procurement distribution.
Congestion Pricing Commuter Profiles · Tri-State Transportation Campaign
Dec 2023 – Feb 2024 · Data Analyst & DeveloperProcessed journey-to-work datasets and American Community Survey files to profile commute choices across regional legislative districts, documenting transit reliance and auto commuting patterns to the central business district. Produced 217 district fact sheets and a map interface.
Analysis and synthesis process.
Every diagram or page starts with the source record, maintaining traceability back to the technical source as proposals evolve.
Document compilation
Assemble relevant physical site plans, spreadsheets, records, agency presentations, and historical files.
Technical review
Evaluate capacity, cost, and service assumptions against agency rules, planning constraints, and comparative systems.
Spatial visualization
Construct conceptual maps, diagrams, and 3D models directly grounded in the documented spatial constraints.
Presentation
Prepare findings and alternative scenarios into structured briefs, technical decks, or public-facing documentation.
These studies, maps, and drawings are conceptual visualization and decision-support materials. They do not constitute architectural services, professional engineering drawings, construction documents, environmental impact statements, or official agency plans.
Operations and records archive.
The visual planning studies presented above build upon ongoing research in rail operations, public records compilation, and transit governance.
Analyze alternative layouts or public records.
For research questions, policy briefs, or spatial visualizations of alternative infrastructure plans, get in touch to discuss the technical records.