Black Rock City#

Maps of BRC#

• 1998 Black Rock City Map (PDF) — One of the earliest published BRC maps (PDF) (burningman.org)
• 1999 Black Rock City Map (PDF) — Classic pre-2000s BRC plan (PDF) (burningman.org)
• 2000 Black Rock City Map (PDF) — Early clock-face grid; legend and services (PDF) (burningman.org)
• 2001 Black Rock City Map (PDF) — Official 2001 city map (PDF) (burningman.org)
• 2002 Black Rock City Map (PDF) — Nautical-themed annular streets; printable (PDF) (burningman.org)
• 2003 Black Rock City Map (PDF) — Official 2003 city map (PDF) (burningman.org)
• 2004 Black Rock City Map (PDF) — Official 2004 map file (PDF) (burningman.org)
• 2005 Black Rock City Map (PDF) — Official 2005 map file (PDF) (burningman.org)
• 2006 Black Rock City Map — 2006 plan archive (burningman.org)
• 2007 Black Rock City Map — 2007 plan archive (burningman.org)
• 2008 Black Rock City Map — 2008 plan archive (burningman.org)
• 2009 Black Rock City Map — Official 2009 plan archive (burningman.org)
• 2010 Black Rock City Map — Archive page for the 2010 map (burningman.org)
• 2011 Black Rock City Map (PDF) — Official 2011 city map (PDF) (burningman.org)
• 2012 Survival Guide (Map in Guide) — 2012 BRC plan included in the Survival Guide (PDF) (survival.burningman.org)
• 2013 Black Rock City Plan — 2013 plan page with specs and map (burningman.org)
• 2014 Black Rock City Map (PDF) — “Caravansary” year plan; print‑ready PDF (burningman.org)
• 2015 Black Rock City Map (PDF) — 2015 grid; street widths and block depths (burningman.org)
• 2016 Black Rock City Map (PDF) — Official 2016 map file (burningman.org)
• 2017 BRC for web — Official 2017 Black Rock City map (PDF) (burningman.org)
• 2017 City Plan (sneak peek) — Journal preview of 2017 layout and street naming (journal.burningman.org)
• 2018 Black Rock City Plan — Reduced plaza diameters; Rod’s Ring Road rename (burningman.org)
• 2019 Black Rock City Plan — Official city plan for 2019; archive reference (burningman.org)
• 2022 Black Rock City Plan — Official city plan for 2022; archive reference (burningman.org)
• 2023 Black Rock City Plan — Official city plan for 2023; archive reference (burningman.org)
• 2024 Black Rock City Plan — Official city plan for 2024; archive reference (burningman.org)
• 2024 Black Rock City Placed Camps — Public Map (PDF) — Public-facing placed camps map for 2024 (PDF) (burningman.org)
• 2025 Black Rock City Plan — Official city plan for 2025; current year map (burningman.org)
• BRC Registered Placement Sectors & Streets — Official map and explanation of BRC placement sectors and street grid (burningman.org)
• 2023 Wet Playa Survival Guide — Notes on public Wi‑Fi zones and on‑playa map usage in 2023 (burningman.org)
• 2024 City Plan — Survival Guide Entry — Survival Guide pointer to the 2024 BRC map (survival.burningman.org)
• 2025 City Plan — Survival Guide Entry — Survival Guide pointer to the current BRC map and guide (survival.burningman.org)
• Streets Ahead: The 2019 BRC Plan Is Here! — Context and rationale behind the 2019 plan (journal.burningman.org)
• Streets of BRC 2023: Cavalcade of Cryptids — Street naming key for interpreting the 2023 map (journal.burningman.org)
• Black Rock City — Topographic Map — Elevation overlays centered on BRC (en-us.topographic-map.com)
• Google Earth Blog: Burning Man Goes 3D — KML/3D buildings for viewing BRC in Google Earth (gearthblog.com)
• Google LatLong Blog: “Hot off the Satellite: Burning Man 2010” — Fresh imagery of BRC with Google Earth viewing pointer (maps.googleblog.com)
• Loupiote Aerial (KML link) — Aerial photo with BRC KML download for map apps (loupiote.com)
• Dust App Blog — App surfaces camp and art locations on a seasonal BRC map (dust.events)
• Garmin GPS Map of Black Rock City — Loadable background map for Garmin units (wkeller.net)
• iBurn — Map & Guide (Android) — Unofficial offline BRC map, compass and guide (play.google.com)
• OpenStreetMap Wiki: Black Rock City — OSM notes/history on mapping the ephemeral city (wiki.openstreetmap.org)
• Reddit: Building the Next Unofficial BRC Map — Background on the community crowdsourced map project and tooling (reddit.com)
• Reddit: Vector Graphic of the 2024 BRC Map — SVG/AI assets for 2024 plan (reddit.com)
• Unofficial BRC Map (Showcase) — Community-contributed Google My Map of camps and POIs (innovate.burningman.org)
• Walk-in Camping Area — City map highlighting the Walk‑In Camping area (PDF) (journal.burningman.org)

Archive index#

• Black Rock City Plan Archive (index) — Year-by-year index to historical city plans (burningman.org)

Data about BRC#

• 2022 Golden Spike & General City Map Data — 2022 center coordinates and related plan links (innovate.burningman.org)
• 2024 Golden Spike & General City Map Data — 2024 Golden Spike coordinates and map package links (innovate.burningman.org)
• Burning Man Innovate — Datasets Page (Index) — Central hub for Golden Spike, GIS layers, MBTiles, porta plan, and more (innovate.burningman.org)

Civil Engineering and the Playa#

• Adapting to Growth and Limits in Black Rock City (2024) — Capacity limits, open camping preservation, and ops tradeoffs (journal.burningman.org)
• DPW Safety Meeting (2007) — Spires/signs as early wayfinding; safety culture framing daily build ops. (journal.burningman.org)
• A Stake in the Ground (Golden Spike, 2024) — The ceremony that starts city build and kicks off survey; anchors the build‑week timeline. (journal.burningman.org)
• Getting the Lay of the Land (2018) — Survey kicks off immediately after Spike; who does what and when. (journal.burningman.org)
• Golden Spike (2013): kickoff cadence — Use Spike day to anchor your camp’s day‑by‑day build schedule. (journal.burningman.org)
• The Golden Spike (2012) — Origin story of using Spike as the survey reference; city layout follows. (journal.burningman.org)
• The Point Where It All Begins (Golden Spike, 2023) — Why Spike matters to every downstream crew’s sequence. (journal.burningman.org)
• Zac, HEaT & Big Art (2017) — How heavy equipment ops and large art crews coordinate during build. (journal.burningman.org)
• And Just Like That, There’s a Fence — Early timeline notes: first fence in 1996; materials and layout (journal.burningman.org)
• Asked & Answered: Year-End Fundraising (2024) — Where the BRC budget really goes: staging, equipment and infrastructure (journal.burningman.org)
• Big Art, Early Art (with Spire work) — Spire alignment and why “the streets are the largest art project” (journal.burningman.org)
• Black Rock City Municipal Airport (88NV) – 2017 Airport Ops — Crew scaling, runway management and airfield safety (burningman.org)
• Black Rock City Municipal Airport (88NV) – 2018 Airport Ops — Ops from a “second busiest” airport week in NV (burningman.org)
• Black Rock City Setup (2013 AfterBurn) — Spire Crew, water truck road‑packing, airport layout and runway grading (burningman.org)
• BLM Draft EIS Response (2019): Why Infrastructure Matters — Federal permitting constraints on barriers, dumpsters and security (journal.burningman.org)
• Department of Public Works (DPW) – What They Build — The workforce that surveys, builds and deconstructs BRC infrastructure (burningman.org)
• Designing Black Rock City — Rod Garrett on city geometry, growth and practical constraints (journal.burningman.org)
• DPW Handbook 2022 (PDF) — Practical protocols for building BRC in harsh conditions (dpw.burningman.com)
• DPW Handbook 2024 (PDF) — Safety, methods and expectations for ops crews constructing BRC (dpw.burningman.com)
• Event Operations: City Infrastructure (2014 AfterBurn) — Coordination of Roads, Plumbing, Tech and Construction teams (burningman.org)
• Fence (Aug 10th Build Day, 2007) — The eight‑mile perimeter fence set by hand at the start of the permit window (journal.burningman.org)
• Fence Down (2005) — Takedown logistics and lifecycle of the perimeter system (journal.burningman.org)
• History Note: 271 Spires, 700 Lanterns — Quantifying night‑lighting scale in early years (burningman.org)
• How the Fence Began — History of the trash fence; scaling to wind and MOOP control infrastructure (journal.burningman.org)
• Labor (2006 AfterBurn) — Work phases and scaling the crew to build and restore the city (burningman.org)
• Lamplighters (2003 AfterBurn) — Scaling administration and logistics with growth; council model for operations (burningman.org)
• Lamplighters (2004 AfterBurn) — Lessons on overbuilding vs right‑sizing village infrastructure (burningman.org)
• Lamplighters (BRC Guide) — City lighting without a power grid; nightly operations and routes (burningman.org)
• Lamplighting: Function Becomes Ritual — Kerosene lanterns on spires as street lighting; operational ritual and lineage (journal.burningman.org)
• Managing Diversity: The Zoning of Black Rock City (Metropol series) — Placement and zoning mechanics for compatibility and civic harmony (journal.burningman.org)
• Moving Day (2005): Pre-Event Fence Weekend — DPW work weekend setting up the city boundary (journal.burningman.org)
• Operations (2001 AfterBurn) — Survey, fence, comm towers, buried cabling, power distro and airport ops (burningman.org)
• Placement: AfterBurn 2005 — City-scale placement objectives to reduce Esplanade congestion (burningman.org)
• Powering the Playa (2015) — ~250 kW Center Camp, distro and generator strategy (journal.burningman.org)
• Season Premiere (2017): City Plan as Social Engine — Why the radiating waves of density matter for interaction (journal.burningman.org)
• Setup & Cleanup (2005 AfterBurn): Fence Methods — Seven‑mile perimeter by hand; T‑stake pounders and twine ties (burningman.org)
• Setup & Cleanup (2006 AfterBurn) — Construction tempo, teardown and Playa Restoration cycle (burningman.org)
• Sustainability Initiatives (2022) — OFF program; solarizing DPW ops and the Man (journal.burningman.org)
• Spires to the Sky — ~300 wooden spires aligned and pounded in to mark safe wayfinding (journal.burningman.org)
• Survey Lays the Lines of Black Rock City — How Survey “draws” BRC with lasers at 15° increments (journal.burningman.org)
• System Administration (2010 AfterBurn) — City IT: shielded Cat5e with the power grid; microwave backhaul (burningman.org)
• The City of Burning Man — BRC as a civic machine; infrastructure and social fabric intertwined (journal.burningman.org)
• Urban Renewal in the Center Camp Café (BRC 2024) — Iterating civic space in a rebuild‑from‑zero city (journal.burningman.org)
• Welcome to Metropol – The Story of a City — Series intro framing BRC as an urbanism laboratory (journal.burningman.org)

Civic Culture Interfacing with Engineering#

• Playa Experiments to Global Solutions (2024) — BRC as a proving ground for infrastructure and sustainability beyond the playa (journal.burningman.org)

Signage, Streetscapes & Civic Fixtures#

• More Signs of the Times — The design/production pipeline for city signage (journal.burningman.org)
• Sign Shop: The Signs Are Good — Wayfinding, warnings, and civic communication across the grid (journal.burningman.org)
• The Gang’s All Here for Early Man — Night cityscape systems test: spires, lamplighter routes, and Man Base lighting (journal.burningman.org)
• Sign Shop & Spires (via DPW Safety post) — Street ID/signage sequencing so your camp can orient/route gear. (journal.burningman.org)

Extra: Official Guides & Reference PDFs#

• Burning Man Survival Guide 2017 (PDF) — The classic: water, waste, traffic, power, safety — all anchored to BRC realities (survival.burningman.org)
• Burning Man Survival Guide 2024 (PDF) — Current civic rules, pulsing, airport hours, infrastructure contacts (survival.burningman.org)
• Survival Guide 2022 (PDF) — Solar notes — “Solar-powered Man,” fewer fuel gensets, more batteries/solar; culture + ops context. (survival.burningman.org)
• Survival Guide 2025 (PDF) — Current sustainability messaging and pointers to Earth Guardians resources. (survival.burningman.org)

Playa Restoration & Environmental Engineering#

• BLM Post-Event Inspection Report 2023 (PDF) — Official PEI methodology and results for BRC in a wet year (journal.burningman.org)
• MOOP Map 2017 – High-Resolution — Visual accountability for camp-by-camp performance (journal.burningman.org)
• MOOP Map 2018 – High-Resolution Environmental Accountability — DA’s deep-dive on standards and outcomes (journal.burningman.org)
• We Did It! 2019 BLM Inspection — Greenest MOOP Map to date under tougher standards (journal.burningman.org)

Policy, Permitting & Macro-Ops (Civil Context)#

• Fact-Checking BLM EIS: Barriers & Playa Impacts — Why K-rail/Jersey barriers would create dune fields; restoration implications (journal.burningman.org)
• Save Black Rock City! (2020) — Maintaining heavy equipment and key staff to preserve city-building capacity (journal.burningman.org)

Airport and Airfield#

• Marc’s Flight Log to 88NV (2012/2022) — GA pilot’s ops notes and comms setup at the pop-up BRC tower (marc.merlins.org)
• Burning Man Airport – Video: LOVE Project — Short overview of BRC’s municipal airport and seasonal intensity (youtube.com)

Other Playa Infrastructure#

• Center Camp Plaza crew (build happens in Build Week) — Volunteer pipeline and the specific Build‑Week window for Center Camp decor crews. (burningman.org)
• Fence Day/Flagging photo set (2013/2023) — Visual cue of what city infrastructure should exist before your heavy lifts. (journal.burningman.org)