The historic Blithewood Garden on Bard College’s campus is a classic example of a walled Italianate garden (designed circa 1903). Blithewood Garden today remains breathtakingly beautiful, including its awe-inspiring backdrop of the Catskill Mountains and Hudson River. Bard College identified the need to investigate the current state of structural stability of the garden area. ScanX3D was consulted to evaluate the structures and surrounding area while preserving the condition of the historic site.

3D laser scanning services were performed using RIEGL’s VZ400i and tied to existing campus survey coordinates within one typical work day (~8hrs).

Significant deflection was found in the north wall upon taking several sections through point cloud data and coloring by deviation from a plane. A complete report of wall deflection for the structural engineer was generated while simultaneously capturing an accurate true color point cloud model of the garden.