3D Floor Illusions and Real Glass Skywalks (8 Photos)

Two real drops, then six ways to fake one

The first two photos show real drops: a glass balcony in Chicago and a cliff walkway in China. In the next six, the drop is painted or printed on flat ground. Either way, the ground is hard to trust.

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🎮 Gears of War — By Kurt Wenner in Los Angeles, USA 🇺🇸

Armored creatures climb out of a pit in the middle of an exhibition floor. Kurt Wenner made this floor illusion for Microsoft’s Xbox at the E3 Expo in Los Angeles in May 2006, to promote the game Gears of War.

💡 Event Fact: Wenner worked on the piece in full view on the E3 2006 show floor, where a camera took periodic shots of the work in progress for a time-lapse montage. He had already spent about 10 hours on it when Engadget reported from the show.

📂 Artwork File · Sourced factsGears of WarKurt Wenner · 2006 · E3 Expo, Los AngelesLos AngelesE3 ExpoXbox commission1Wenner’s own image library lists the work as Gears of War, client Microsoft X-Box, location Los Angeles, California.Kurt Wenner image library2His résumé says the work was also prepared as a floor graphic and point of sale advertisement.Kurt Wenner résumé20067 MayEngadget: the mural in progress on the E3 floor20069 MayReuters photo: Wenner drawing it at E3201212 MayGamingNow recalls the 2006 E3 drawingRead the full file →

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⛰️ Tianmen Mountain Walkway — Zhangjiajie, China 🇨🇳

This one is real, too: a line of visitors follows a narrow walkway along a sheer cliff on Tianmen Mountain. Trees cling to the rock above them, and the valley drops away below.

💡 Place Fact: The mountain’s summit stands 1,518.6 meters (4,982 feet) above sea level, and kilometers of paths run along its cliff faces. In August 2016, a glass-bottomed walkway replaced a 100-meter section of the Coiling Dragon Cliff path, about 1.4 kilometers above sea level.

📷 Photo: xiquinhosilva / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)

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🏛️ A Room Beneath the Floor — By 3D Joe and Max

Painted columns and a mosaic floor appear below a broken opening. The illusion gives a plain concrete floor the depth of a sunken hall.

💡 Gloucester Fact: A version with water painted over the mosaic is labeled “Gloucester Baths” in the 3D Joe and Max gallery and lies on Westgate Street in Gloucester. Gloucester Civic Trust links it to a Roman column found beneath No. 4 Westgate in 1971.

More: Amazing 3D Art By Joe and Max (8 Photos)

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🐼 Pandas Over a Night Sky — By Nikolaj Arndt

The street appears to open onto a moonlit night sky. One panda naps on a branch, another sits on a swing over the drop, and a woman poses on the painted platform. The houses and onlookers behind her stay on the real street.

💡 Artist Fact: Russian-born Nikolaj Arndt paints his illusions with chalk and pigment. The real animals are scarcer than the painted pair: fewer than 1,900 giant pandas are thought to remain in the wild, in the bamboo forests of central China’s mountains.

More: This Feels Too Real (22 Illusions by Nikolaj Arndt)

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🚲 Towpath Illusion — By Joe Hill and Max Lowry in London, England 🇬🇧

A cyclist appears to balance on a plank above a hole beside the canal. The gap is a painting laid on the towpath of Regent’s Canal at City Road Basin in Islington, and the ground under it is intact.

💡 Campaign Fact: The British Waterways commission was laid out in 2009 for the “Two Tings” campaign, a code of conduct for cyclists and pedestrians sharing the towpaths, to get cyclists to slow down. The painting was spread over two canvases, and the local paper called it a “canyon.”

📂 Artwork File · Sourced factsRegent's Canal Towpath IllusionJoe Hill and Max Lowry · 2009 · Regent’s Canal, LondonLondonBritish WaterwaysNational Bike Week1British Waterways commissioned the illusion for National Bike Week, hoping the image would make riders slow down.Evening Standard2The canyon was painted on canvas and placed on the Regent’s Canal towpath in Islington.Evening Standard200917 Junroad.cc: the hole on the Islington towpath200925 JunWaterways blog writes about the live campaign201117 JunCamden New Journal recalls the towpath craterRead the full file →

More: Amazing 3D Art By Joe and Max (8 Photos)

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🎩 A Heart Below the Pavement — By Eduardo Relero

A painted man in a top hat pushes a heart in a wheelbarrow across a narrow plank. Below him, a much larger anatomical heart fills the apparent pit. Just beyond the painted edge, a woman bends toward a black dog.

💡 Artist Fact: Relero is an Argentine artist based in Madrid, and his work has been shown in Rome, Tokyo, New York and Buenos Aires. Some of his 3D pieces have served civil-society campaigns, including a 5-by-10-meter street painting that Amnesty International showed at the 2019 Hannover Messe.

More: Street Art by Eduardo Relero – A Collection

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⬛ Mind Your Step — By Erik Johansson in Stockholm, Sweden 🇸🇪

Here the drop is an illusion. Erik Johansson’s 2011 installation at Sergels torg was a printed photographic illusion rolled out over the paving, and it made the square’s black-and-white pattern appear to split open.

💡 Artist Fact: Johansson made the piece as one of seven creative talents chosen for Microsoft’s “Generation 7” project, and it lay on the square only from June 7 to 12, 2011. He had graduated as a computer engineer from Chalmers the year before, and his own website lists the piece as a large-scale perspective illusion.

📂 Artwork File · Sourced factsMind Your StepErik Johansson · 2011 · Sergels torg, StockholmPrinted photo illusion32 × 18 m (Chalmers blog)Sponsored by Microsoft1According to the Chalmers alumni blog, the bottomless abyss was really a 32×18 meter mat rolled out on the square.Chalmeristbloggen2An Italian report described it as a sheet printed with the “opened” paving, laid on the ground.Blitz Quotidiano20118 JunHolger.Ellgaard photographs the installation (Wikimedia Commons)20119 JunBlitz Quotidiano reports the illusion at Sergels torg201114 JunRemoved after 7–12 June, Chalmers blog reportsMore photos2011 The whole square with the illusion, seen in the rainPhoto: Holger.Ellgaard / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)Read the full file →

More: Mind Your Step – 3D Street Art in Stockholm, Sweden

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🏙️ The Ledge — Chicago, Illinois, USA 🇺🇸

This drop is real. Visitors stand on glass with Chicago’s streets directly beneath their feet. The Ledge projects from the 103rd floor of Willis Tower, 1,353 feet above the city.

💡 Place Fact: The Ledge opened in July 2009, after a year of engineering design and six months of construction. Its glass boxes can retract into the building, which lets staff reach them for cleaning and maintenance.

📂 Artwork File · Sourced factsThe LedgeSkidmore, Owings & Merrill · 2009 · Willis Tower, Chicago1,353 ft up, 103rd floorFour glass boxesOpened July 20091Skydeck says the idea came from the hundreds of forehead prints visitors left on its windows every week.Skydeck Chicago2When the floor coating cracked in 2014, the building said the coating is designed to crack to protect the glass.NBC Chicago20092 JulThe Ledge opens to the public (National Geographic)201020 MayEngineering case study published201319 JulRoy Luck photographs the view through the floor · camera date201430 MayReopens after a cracked coating is replaced201913 JunABC7 reports the coating cracked again and was replaced201922 JunThe four boxes photographed from outside · camera dateMore photos2019 The four boxes seen from outside the towerPhoto: Abequinn14 / Wikimedia Commons (CC0 1.0)Read the full file →

📷 Photo: Roy Luck / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)

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