Cathedral Unveils 3D Virtual Tour Built with Cutting-Edge Technology
Washington National Cathedral unveiled a new online virtual tour of the world’s sixth-largest Gothic Cathedral, allowing visitors to soar through the architectural masterpiece and examine its art and iconography in stunning detail.
The project, developed by a team from CoStar Group — a global leader in commercial real estate information, analytics, online marketplaces and 3D digital twin technology — is built from 8 billion data points that were collected with aerial drone footage and Matterport (a CoStar Group brand) technology, which is familiar to many Americans who have toured potential homes for sale.
The result is a stunning visual experience that captures the building’s intricate details down to the centimeter level. CoStar Group engineers say it is one of the largest, most complex digital models ever made using Matterport technology; using the Cathedral as a test case, the building’s sheer size and complexity pushed the technology to its limits.
The new virtual tour allows visitors from anywhere in the world to interact with some of the Cathedral’s most beloved features, including the soaring vaulted ceiling, a piece of moon rock embedded in the iconic Space Window, and to wander the landscaped gardens on the Cathedral exterior.
“One of our highest priorities is creating a best-in-class experience for the thousands of visitors who walk through our doors, and now thanks to the CoStar Group team, anyone can experience the majesty of this building from anywhere in the world,” said the Very Rev. Randolph Marshall Hollerith, Dean of the Cathedral. “The CoStar Group team poured thousands of hours into this project, and the result is nothing short of remarkable.”
Over the course of 2024, CoStar Group teams spent three full days shooting aerial drone footage on the Cathedral’s interior and exterior — which required special permission from the Federal Aviation Administration and the Transportation Security Administration in Washington’s highly restricted airspace. Working with Dr. Sonia Coman, the Cathedral’s Director of Digital Engagement, crews plotted 2,750 separate Matterport points inside the Cathedral, allowing visitors to make their own journey through the vast interior. Informational tags were added to enable visitors to learn about featured Cathedral highlights.
The drone footage and Matterport data were stitched together to create a truly immersive digital experience. Engineers developed new Matterport tools to allow online visitors to enter and exit the Cathedral, explore rooms inside the newly renovated Virginia Mae Center and meander through Cathedral gardens.
For Andy Florance, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of CoStar Group, the project allowed the CoStar Group team to push the limits of technology — skills and tools that can now be deployed on the company’s other projects.
“Washington National Cathedral is not only one of the most iconic and architecturally complex landmarks in the United States — it’s also a testament to history, artistry, and craftsmanship. Capturing the Cathedral using CoStar Group’s most advanced imaging and 3D technologies was both a technical challenge and an honor,” said Florance, a former Chair of the Cathedral Chapter (governing board). “This project exemplifies how our innovation in digital modeling can serve both cultural preservation and the future of real estate visualization.”
With the desire to expand the technology, the CoStar Group team, led by Gian Lorenzo Ferretti, a Senior Architectural Photographer and Dave Gedney, a Senior Cinematographer, stitched the Matterport and drone footage together using animation tools, which created an exact “digital twin” of the Cathedral. The experience allows users to see the Cathedral rise from the ground far faster than the 83 years (1907-1990) that it took to construct the building. Engineers said the results allow users to digest “massive data presented in a viewable format.”
The project is also a key part of ensuring the Cathedral’s long-term physical viability. Similar LiDar technology was used to help rebuild the Cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris after a devastating 2019 fire, and the highly precise digital scan of the National Cathedral can be deployed to help rebuild, if ever needed.
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MEDIA CONTACTS
The online experience is available to visitors here, and a downloadable animation of the digital twin model is available here.
Kevin Eckstrom, Washington National Cathedral
202-390-0240; [email protected]
Matthew Blocher, CoStar Group
202-346-6775; [email protected]
About Washington National Cathedral
Grounded in the reconciling love of Jesus Christ, Washington National Cathedral is a house of prayer for all people, conceived by our founders to serve as a great church for national purposes.
About CoStar Group
CoStar Group (NASDAQ: CSGP) is a global leader in commercial real estate information, analytics, online marketplaces and 3D digital twin technology. Founded in 1986, CoStar Group is dedicated to digitizing the world’s real estate, empowering all people to discover properties, insights, and connections that improve their businesses and lives.
CoStar Group’s major brands include CoStar, a leading global provider of commercial real estate data, analytics, and news; LoopNet, the most trafficked commercial real estate marketplace; Apartments.com, the leading platform for apartment rentals; and Homes.com, the fastest-growing residential real estate marketplace. CoStar Group’s industry-leading brands also include Matterport, a leading spatial data company whose platform turns buildings into data to make every space more valuable and accessible; STR, a global leader in hospitality data and benchmarking; Ten-X, an online platform for commercial real estate auctions and negotiated bids; and OnTheMarket, a leading residential property portal in the United Kingdom.
CoStar Group’s websites attracted over 130 million average monthly unique visitors in the first quarter of 2025, serving clients around the world. Headquartered in Arlington, Va., CoStar Group is committed to transforming the real estate industry through innovative technology and comprehensive market intelligence. From time to time, we plan to utilize our corporate website as a channel of distribution for material company information. For more information, visit CoStarGroup.com.