This document provides planning steps for a student to design a Roman city tunnel book project. It involves selecting a site for the tunnel book, deciding which Roman buildings would have survived to modern times and what their modern equivalents would be, adding modern elements, and planning the foreground, middleground and background of the selected site. Reference images are to be gathered and drawings are to be made in preparation for the tunnel book construction.

1. Roman City Tunnel Book
Stage 1: Planning
BEFORE YOU BEGIN: Write your first and last name on a piece of notebook paper and
title it: Roman City Tunnel Book Planning. Answer the following steps on your notebook paper;
numbering your answers along the way.
Step 1: Select the Site: Pick an area of your Roman city plan you’d like to draw for your
tunnel book. Draw or trace a small picture of the site and the buildings you’ll use under number
1 on your worksheet. Think about if you were to stand on the street what would be in the
foreground; middleground and background. Pick from:
- a view down a certain street
- an intersection of roads with interesting buildings
- a dynamic section of the city with a variety of structures
Step 2: Surviving Buildings: Decide what would survive for 2000 years. Make a list
under number 2. Some ideas on what would survive are:
–larger buildings
–buildings that are architecturally important
•Triumphal Arches •Amphitheatres
•Fountains •Sculptures
–buildings that are culturally important or have religious significance
•Temples •Basilicas
♦Take it the extra mile! Think about what buildings could have survived from other time
periods before or after the Romans. Use your creativity, the blog and the Internet for help
searching!
Step 3: Modernizing: For the pieces that didn’t survive decide what would be the modern
equivalent, List these under number 3. Some ideas include:
–Marketplace would become a modern mall
–A bathhouse becomes a spa or salon
–A tenement house becomes a large apartment complex
–A tavern becomes a chain restaurant - Applebee’s; Chilis; McDonald’s
–An amphitheatre becomes a football stadium
–Stables become a car dealership or a gas station
–Use your creativity to come up with many, many more!
♦Put in extra effort! Think about what famous buildings or buildings influenced from other
cultures you could add to your city. A Taj Mahal inspired office building! A British Big Ben
inspired clock tower! Use your creativity; the blog and the Internet for help!
Step 4: Adding the Extras: List all extras to make for detailed, modern city under Step 4.
–Skyscrapers
–Streetlights
–Cars
–Buses
–Trains (Subway stations or elevated trains too!)
–Airplanes

2. - Use your creativity to think of many more!
FLIP TO THE BACK OF THIS PAGE TO CONTINUE YOUR PLANNING!
Step 5: Foreground; Middleground; Background; Atmosphere Planning:
Using the lists you’ve created in Steps 2, 3 and 4 as well the section of the city you’ve selected in
Step 1 make a list of what you’ll have in the:
•Foreground (try for at least 5 buildings, structures or objects)
•Middleground (try for at least 6 buildings, structures or objects)
•Background (try for at least 8 buildings, structures or objects)
•Atmosphere (try for at least 2 objects. This may include the sun; moon; stars; birds;
aircraft; etc.) Also decide what kind of weather you want; the type of land you’d like and
the type of day. Think about how this will affect some of the choices you’ve made in Step
4.
♦NOTE – some of your extras may be made separately and then attached later on in between
the pages of your tunnel book. For example, a car may be drawn separately in perspective and
pasted into the book in between the foreground and middleground at the end of the project
EXAMPLE: Please note this is my example. You’ll have many more buildings in yours. Make yours
different and much more creative than mine!
Foreground
•Courthouse •Sculpture •Temple •Street Lights
Middleground
•Library •School •Triumphal Tower
Background
•Skyscrapers •Elevated Train •Water Tower
Atmosphere
•Airplanes •Helicopters
Step 6: Visual References: Using the list of buildings you’ve developed in Step 5 gather
images to use as references for your tunnel book. Copy and paste them into a Microsoft Word
or Power Point document. Try to print to the laptop printer or save to the Dropbox (see
directions under the Greek Research directions) and ask me to print it for you.
–Use the blog for Roman City Links (you’ll need to scroll to the bottom of the blog
then click on older posts to locate the Roman City Links post)
–Use the Internet for modern buildings and objects
–Do some observational drawing on the bus; in the car or while you’re
daydreaming!!
Step 7: Drawing References: Take a look at the links on the blog under Cool City
Drawings to get some inspiration for drawing your modern Roman city.