3D rendering of a modern brick multifamily building complex on a hillside with autumn trees and cars.

Hillside Multifamily Renderings for a Planning Commission in Michigan

A downtown development authority in a Michigan village needed to present a two-building residential proposal on a steep hillside to its planning commission and neighbors. We rendered it from the air, from the street and in a side profile of the slope: five views, each in two brick options.

3D rendering of autumn tree branches with orange leaves against a blue sky with light clouds.

3D rendering of a collection of autumn leaves in shades of brown, red, and green, overlapping.

Client & Market Context

A Village Presenting New Housing on a Hillside

The client is the downtown development authority of a village in Michigan, USA, working with the contractor behind a two-building multifamily proposal. The site rises steeply from the road beside a residential street, with mature trees between the new buildings and the existing homes.

Making a Steep Slope Readable in a Picture

The planning commission and the neighbors needed to see the real scale of the project: how high the buildings stand next to the existing houses, how the terrain steps down to the road and how much of the development the tree line hides. The team had PDF site plans, facade references and photos of the site, but no CAD files, so the slope, the floor levels and the neighboring homes were built from those drawings and checked with the client.

Visual Results

Hillside Renders in Light and Red Brick

Five views of the proposal in light brick, the same five views in red brick from the same cameras, and the first aerial version from July, before the extra viewpoints and the sidewalk corrections.

3D rendering of two modern buildings surrounded by trees with autumn foliage and a parking lot. — 01

3D rendering of two brown brick buildings surrounded by trees and parking lots from an aerial view. — 02

3D rendering of a modern brick building with large windows, surrounded by autumn foliage, under warm sunlight. — 03

3D rendering of a modern multifamily building complex on a hillside with trees and streetlights under a blue sky. — 04

3D rendering of a modern, multi-unit residential building with beige brick exterior and large windows. — 05

3D rendering of a modern brick multifamily building complex on a street corner with autumn trees. — 06

3D rendering of a modern three-story brick building with large windows, surrounded by autumn trees. — 07

3D rendering of a suburban street with modern buildings, trees, and cars on a sunny day. — 08

Aerial view of a multifamily complex surrounded by trees and parking lots on a sunny day. — 10

Aerial view of a proposed multifamily complex surrounded by trees and parking lots on a sunny day. — 11

3D rendering of a multifamily housing development on a hillside with trees and blue sky. — 12

3D rendering of a proposed multifamily development on a hillside with trees and blue sky. — 13

Cover of the guide on the pre-sales image set for a residential development

Free guide: off-plan buyers decide on 8 images, developers pay for 22

The frames above are the kind an off-plan buyer decides from, and there are fewer of them than most orders assume. In our priced composite, a developer paid $22,600 for the original image set, a film and panoramas, plus two missing campaign images ordered later. The guide gives you the eight-image real estate rendering set, staged from launch to construction, and the one-page brief to send instead.

Free
Instant download
No sales call

Thank you, your guide is ready.

If it didn't open, download it here.

Download the PDF

Remote studio, your time zone

Planning a similar project?

Book a 30-minute call. Tell us about the project, and we will tell you which views it needs, how long it takes and what it costs.

Estimate on the call

A price range on the call, not a follow-up questionnaire.

Any stage of the project

From concept sketches to a finished model: we start from what you have.

Book a 30-minute call

Day
Time
Email

Times in

Which day suits you?

What time?

Where should we send the invite?

30 minutes
Free, no obligation
Invite by email

The call is booked. The calendar invite is on its way to your inbox. Need another time? Just reply to it.

Results

10
Final renders: five views, each in light and in red brick
5
Views: two aerial, two from the street and a side profile of the slope
2
Brick options rendered from the same cameras
4K
Resolution of the final renders, 3840 px wide

A planning commission weighs scale, not style. On a sloped site, the honest answer to “how big will it look” is a set of views from the places where people actually stand.

Services Provided

FAQ

FAQ About Renderings for Planning Commissions

Didn’t find your question?

Ask it here. A producer replies within one business day — with an answer, not a sales call.

Got it — thank you. Expect an answer in your inbox within one business day.

Can renderings help present a project to a planning commission?

Yes. Renderings show a planning commission and residents what drawings cannot: the height of new buildings next to existing homes, the view from the street and the effect of trees and terrain. In this project we rendered a two-building hillside proposal for exactly that presentation.

How do you show a building on a sloped site?

We model the terrain from the levels on the site plan and render views that make the slope visible: an aerial view, eye-level views from the street and a side profile that cuts through the ground. Here it showed why three-story buildings read as two stories from the uphill side.

What is an aerial photomontage?

An aerial photomontage places a 3D model of the proposed buildings into a real drone or aerial photo of the site, matched to the camera angle and the light. The roads, roofs and trees around the project are real, which makes the image easy to trust in a planning presentation.

Can you render the same views with different brick or facade colors?

Yes. Once the scene and the cameras are set, the facade material can be changed and the same views rendered again. In this project all five views were delivered in a light brick and a red brick, so the two options can be compared side by side.

What do you need from a developer or contractor to start?

Site plans and elevations as PDF or CAD, photos of the site and any facade or material references. CAD files help but are not required: this project was built from PDF plans, facade images and site photos, with heights checked with the client during the work.

Do you work with developers and municipalities in the US?

Yes. This project was for a downtown development authority in Michigan, working alongside the project contractor. We work fully remotely: plans, photos and feedback come online, and the renders are delivered in the sizes needed for presentations, printed boards and websites.

Explore Similar Exterior and Multifamily Rendering Cases

Street view of a beige townhouse with a white double garage door and a dark solar array on the steep upper roof, framed by mature trees

Townhouse Solar Panel Rendering Matched to a Real Street Photo

Real photos carry proposals in other projects too, and townhouse solar panels rendered into a street photo place new panels into a client’s own picture of a New Jersey community.

Birds eye rendering of a panoramic villa community set in forested hills with roads and scattered homes

Birds Eye Rendering That Helped Sell the Full Residential Story

Aerial views often come first, and bird’s-eye renderings for a residential complex grew from three aerials into a full visual system for the sales launch.

Render of a condo residents' lounge in the evening, with green armchairs, a kitchen bar and oak-clad columns behind street-side windows

Condo Amenity Renderings for a 300-Unit Project in Canada

Multifamily work goes past the facade, and amenity renderings for a Canadian condo show the redesigned lobby, lounge, coworking room and gym of a 300-unit building.