Not sure if this is viral marketing, unintentional or unauthorized, but over on Google Earth Hacks somebody has posted some excellent 3D architectural models of HCI bank’s buildings in Miami, Chicago and Hamburg, adding some boilerplate about HCI in the description.

If you’re going to turn on 3D buildings, then you might as well have these as well… which makes for an interesting advertising opportunity for companies with signature headquarters. It would even make good PR, being able to show potential clients directions to your office via a model in Google Earth downloadable from the corporate website.

From another perspective, this “donation” of 3D architecture to Google Earth is not at all surprising, if the application is meant to become an accurate virtual representation of the real world, over time. Companies should be dolling up “their” real-world equivalent spot, then, lest cybersquatters or protesters get there first with their own popular but unflattering renditions of HQs.