Manhattan Timeformations looks like a series of interactive schematics from a video game, but really it's a computer model that allows you to look at the relationships between the developments of the lower Manhattan skyline and other urban factors like farms, urban renewal, subways, and commercial zones. The visualization provides different views in the form of the traditional 2-dimensional map views as well as rotations, fly-throughs, and layers.

It's nice to step out of that Google mashup look every once in a while.