Basemap study A
42nd Street straightened into a single axis. Distance along the street runs left to right, Hudson to East River. Distance across the street runs up and down. Every lot is drawn at its true frontage and depth from the city’s own records. Nothing here is in its geographic position, and that is the point: at true scale this street is 1.97 miles long and 200 feet deep, so a conventional plan can never show all of it at once.
The distortion is declared. Length and depth are drawn at different scales so the street reads on one screen. A section drawing does this and says so. A planning map usually does not distort, and so it usually shows you four blocks and calls it the street.