Reddit reviews The HDRI Handbook 2.0: High Dynamic Range Imaging for Photographers and CG Artists
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Used Book in Good Condition
As I understand it, the probes are taken of the real city, and they positioned these by having accurate GPS assisted position data.
You can find mirror ball around in home accent or garden supply stores, I got mine at walmart for like 15 bucks a few years ago. Basically, you take something like that out and shoot it HDR, and you can build those 3d spheres using those images. Typically, this is used for a radiance lighting rig of some sort, or for a reflection map, not for texturing, since the image will drop of in resolution in places.
It's an enormous amount of work to do the number of HDR probes that they did. My guess is that they cut the sphere maps along the hard edges of the buildings so they wouldn't have to contend with the blending issue, but I have no idea if that's the case.
Here's a comprehensive resource on shooting HDRs and HDR probes.
http://www.amazon.com/The-HDRI-Handbook-2-0-Photographers/dp/1937538168