We reported on this several months ago when we were involved in the shooting of this project.  Artists Ben Kinsley and Robin Hewlett collaborated with the Google Street View team to create “Street with a View”.  This project involved months of planning, a cast of hundreds of Pittsburghers, and the cooperation of the Mattress Factory.  Here is the Official Street With A View Web Site.

This performative easter egg is, hands down, the coolest and most elaborate easter egg that google has ever snuck in to one of their products. Check it out!

Driving Directions:

Start Here

KEEP CLICKING THE FORWARD ARROW TO CONTINUE DOWN THE ROAD.

Go ’bout half a mile dawn sampsonia

If yinz get to the park, yinz guys went too far.

Pretty cool huh?  It almost didn’t happen.

Video from the shoot.

A day before the shoot was supposed to go down, I received a frantic call from Ben Kinsley.  The story about the project had been leaked to the Pittsburgh Tribune Review (they don’t deserve a link).  Staff scumbag, F.A. Krift ignored the artists’ requests to sit on the story until after the event in order to prevent its undoing by jerks. Instead, he took it upon himself to contact the City Public Works inspector and notify them that a permit had not been secured. He then ran the story, the day before the event, citing the specific location and time of the shoot. This was a bad thing.

Google is very hush hush about their Street View projects in general, and they expressly prohibited any public announcements about the project. All extras and actors for the project were supposed to be involved by invite only. This was understandable, as the entire project could have been ruined by any number of ne’re do wells, whether their agenda was privacy rights or just to get maximum online exposure for their genitals.

OK, here’s the link to the article… but the link is nofollow all the way, and the anchor text is totally irrelevant. Please do not click on their ads. Ha, take that PG!

Luckily, Google either didn’t know about the early announcement, or didn’t care due to the fact that the Tribune Review is such a horrible news paper. All of the visitors that showed up as a result of the publishing of the article cooperated and were very enthusiastic to be involved in the project. The bullet was dodged and Krift’s plans to thwart fun and online chicanery were quelled.

The weather was rainy and the BBQ was late, but aside from that, everything went off without a hitch.  There are many hidden treasures, so look closely.   Did you find the tripod dog, the firemen rescuing a cat, the ham hock, the medival warriors, the… Oh, I don’t want to spoil it all for you.

Mini documentary about the making of the project:

If you want some help finding SOME of the hidden items, use this cheat sheet:

Written by Jake Peterson - Contact