Category: Featured

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Time-Lapse Evolution of Istanbul’s Urban Form: 330 AD to Present

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This film project utilizes historical cartography and GIS to create a time-lapse animation of Istanbul’s urban development over millennia. It illustrates three significant periods: Byzantine rule (330AD-1453), Ottoman rule (1453-1923), and modern metropolitan growth (1923-present). The animation visualizes changing coastlines and showcases the evolution of 200 archaeological sites, churches, aqueduct routes, and early Roman roads. Viewers can explore the film with the accompanying soundtrack or pause the map and zoom into a high-resolution map of individual places. VIEW PUBLICATION

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Auschwitz-Birkenau Interactive Map

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Georeferenced historical maps and time sliders between past vs. present reveal the transformation of the region around Auschwitz from 1945 to today Launch Map Link opens in new window Briefly describe the problem you are solving with GIS: Describe your solution to this problem and its potential impact How is this solution innovative? Auschwitz-Birkenau: Time-lapse Maps of Past vs. Present Aerial photos and georeferenced maps reveal the varying states of preservation, decay, and demolition of sites linked to the Holocaust. VIEW PUBLICATION

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Civil Rights Rebellion in the Essex County Jail

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Season 13, Episode 6 of the series Abandoned EngineeringStreamed June 2024 in Britain, July 2024 in America  For British audiences, view the full series here on SkyTV.For U.S. audiences, view the full series here on AppleTV.The series is also being syndicated and translated into 20+ languages for international audiences. A film crew visits and explores the decaying remains of old Essex County Jail in New Jersey, a facility that became a powder keg of injustice that was set to explode in the 1960s Newark rebellions. Learn more about this historic building in our digital exhibit and the oral history video… VIEW PUBLICATION

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Envisioning Seneca Village

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A project by Gergely Baics, Meredith Linn, Leah Meisterlin, Myles Zhang In collaboration with the Central Park Conservancy and the Institute for the Exploration of Seneca Village History Email project authors   Envisioning Seneca Village depicts what this significant nineteenth-century village might have looked like in the spring of 1855, about two years before it was destroyed by the City of New York to build Central Park. It features an interactive 3D model, a non-interactive tour through the 3D model (A Tour through the Visualization), a printable PDF guide with maps (A Map-based Tour), and supplementary materials. The project is anchored… VIEW PUBLICATION

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University of Michigan Campus Drawing

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I made a map of each place where I lived an extended period of time: Newark, New York City, Oxford University, Columbia University, and now the University of Michigan. This map depicts almost every major landmark on the University’s central campus and took about 300 hours to create over the past 18 months. Click the image for full resolution or scroll down for details. Medium: ink on paper with watercolor washDimensions: 26 by 45 inches (66 by 114 centimeters)Sources: synthesized from Google Earth, satellite images, maps, and street view Please contact mylesz@umich.edu to order artist quality prints of this image…. VIEW PUBLICATION

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Jersey City: Urban Planning in Historical Perspective

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This project in two parts is a brief history of city planning in Jersey Cityand a building-level interactive map of the entire city in 1873, 1919, and today. Read / download book as PDF Download opens in new window  Jersey City: Urban Planning in Historical Perspective A booklet about the history of the master plan Over its four-century history, the evolution of Jersey City mirrors the larger history of the New York region. Each generation of Jersey City residents and political leaders have faced different urban challenges, from affordable housing, to clean water, to air pollution, and income inequality…. VIEW PUBLICATION

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Mapping Manhattan Chinatown’s Public Realm

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阅读简体中文版 Created with architect and urbanist Stephen Fan for City as Living LabFunded by the University of Michigan’s Rackham Program in Public Scholarship View full size image. Chinatown’s Public Realm Along Mott Street, boxes of fruits and vegetables from the US, Latin America, and China flow from the private open storefronts and onto the public sidewalks and curbs. Forklifts navigate around crates and delivery trucks as vendors, residents, tourists, and shoppers–from regional Asian restaurant owners to West-African immigrants–animate the narrow walkways. After business hours, private produce stands become public places to sit, chat, people-watch, or nap as a sidewalk masseuse… VIEW PUBLICATION

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Time-lapse Animation of Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire

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Based on court transcripts, eye witness testimonies, primary sources, and historical maps, this animation reconstructs the workplace conditions and abuses that caused the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire. This fire on 25 March 1911, killed 146 garment workers and represents a turning-point moment in the history of organized labor in America. This project is the first – and only – accurate-to-the-inch virtual reality model of the entire factory floor. VIEW PUBLICATION

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Newark Changing: Mapping neighborhood demolition, 1950s to today

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Launch interactive mapping experience > Newark Changing is a first-of-its-kind visual encyclopedia of 2,400 photo comparisons of almost every street corner​​​, home, and building ​​demolished by urban renewal and the social forces behind urban decay.​ Through an interactive and text-searchable historic map, any visitor can travel in time to explore their street and their building as it appeared in the period 1959-68 vs. today. Thousands of old street photos are brought to life with contemporary 360-degree panoramic photos of the same street scenes today, taken from identical camera angles to the old photos. This is the most extensive collection of… VIEW PUBLICATION

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Cathedral of Beauvais: Sublime Visions; Thwarted Ambitions; A Sketch

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Of all the stories of the greatest Gothic cathedrals, the tale of Beauvais is the most exciting. Construction of the Gothic cathedral began in 1225 at a time of bitter turmoil when France was establishing itself as a nation within its familiar modern geographical bounds. Beauvais, the tallest cathedral in France, was never completed, having endured two major collapses and a series of structural crises that continues to this day. Our Sketchup animation follows this dramatic narrative, allowing the viewer to experience and understand the famous collapse that brought down the upper choir in 1284 as well as the underlying… VIEW PUBLICATION

Historical Reconstruction of Ford Model T Assembly Line

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Based on extensive archival documents, this historically-accurate film showcases the assembly of the 1915 Model T Runabout at Ford’s Highland Park factory. This projects represents the first complete visual and cartographic documentation of this manufacturing process from 1908 to 1927. It highlights Ford’s innovative yet evolving assembly line techniques, which revolutionized car production, contrasting with previous methods. VIEW PUBLICATION

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Notre-Dame of Paris Construction Sequence

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Created with architectural historian Stephen Murray . 1. Construction time-lapse Music: Pérotin, Viderunt Omnes  /  View animation with music only. This construction time-lapse illustrates the history of Notre-Dame from c.1060 to the present day, following ten centuries of construction and reconstruction. Model is based on actual measurements of the cathedral and was peer reviewed for accuracy by scholars at Columbia University’s art history department and at the Friends of Notre-Dame of Paris. The film was created in the computer modeling software SketchUp, based on hand-drawn image textures. The ink drawings of nineteenth-century architect Viollet-le-Duc were scanned and applied to the model surfaces,… VIEW PUBLICATION

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The time-lapse history of Manhattan in two minutes

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Sound effects from Freesound / Water and cloud effects from YouTube This two minute time-lapse reconstructs the 400 year evolution of Lower Manhattan’s skyline. Watch as the city evolves from a small village into a glistening metropolis. This is also a film about the history of technology. Changing methods of representing urban space influence our perception of time and the city. When New York City was founded, Dutch settlers captured their town’s appearance through seventeenth-century drawings and paintings. As the city grew, people started using printing presses to reproduce images of the city in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. In… VIEW PUBLICATION

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All New York City in one drawing

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The scan above is suitable for viewing but not for large-format printing. Please request access to the full-size scan at ~400dpi View full size Opens in new window This ink on paper drawing represents 800 hours of work over several months. The dimensions are 45 inches high by 79 inches wide (114 cm by 201 cm). This panorama shows NYC looking northwest from above Governor’s Island and Red Hook. The Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, and Staten Island are outside the frame. The view is accurate as of summer 2017 and does not include buildings built after this time.View on… VIEW PUBLICATION

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St. Paul’s Cathedral Dome: a synthesis of engineering and art

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This time-lapse construction sequence in film and historical essay analyzes how architect Christopher Wren synthesized engineering and art to create this cathedral. The essay analyzes St. Paul’s Cathedral, highlighting its architectural significance through the lens of Eugène-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc’s thesis-antithesis-synthesis framework. St. Paul’s is a blend of advanced engineering and artistic expression reflective of Enlightenment thought, showcasing innovation in design and construction while mirroring cultural shifts in London at the time. VIEW PUBLICATION

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Architecture of Redemption?

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Master’s thesis in architecture at the University of Cambridge: This research explores the contradictions of solitary confinement at Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia. The prison initially experimented with prolonged solitary confinement in the 1830s to inspire the moral redemption of inmates. By analyzing Jeremy Bentham’s panopticon plan for the ideal prison, architect John Haviland’s design for this specific prison, and visitor accounts of the prison’s daily operations, the thesis examines the builders’ philosophical assumptions about utopia, architecture, and human nature. VIEW PUBLICATION

Virtual Reality Computer Model of Jeremy Bentham’s Panopticon

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Created at the University of Cambridge: Department of ArchitectureAs part of my Master’s thesis in Architecture and Urban Studies, as featured by: – Special Collections department at University College London– Open Culture– Tomorrow City– Aeon: a world of ideas 1. Animation This project translates Jeremy Bentham’s architecture for the digital age. Since the 1790s, Jeremy Bentham’s panopticon remains an influential building and representation of power relations. Yet no structure was ever built to the exact dimensions Bentham provides. Based on Bentham’s panopticon letters and drawings he commissioned at University College London, I followed his directions and descriptions to construct an exact… VIEW PUBLICATION

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Here Grows New York City

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 Music: “The Language of Cities” by Maserati 1. The Animation Here Grows New York visually animates the development of this city’s street grid and environment from 1609 to the present day, using geo-referenced road network data, historic maps, and geological surveys. The resulting short film presents a series of “cartographic snapshots” of the built-up environment at intervals of every 20 to 30 years in history. This process highlights the organic spurts of growth and movement that typify New York’s and most cities’ development through time. The result is an abstract representation of urbanism. Featured in: – Wikipedia – Laughing Squid  … VIEW PUBLICATION

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Exhibition Design for the Old Essex County Jail

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Developed in collaboration with Newark Landmarksand the master’s program in historic preservation at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation Since 1971, the old Essex County Jail has sat abandoned and decaying in Newark’s University Heights neighborhood. Expanded in stages since 1837, this jail is among the oldest government structures in Newark and is on the National Register of Historic Places. The building needs investment and a vision for transforming decay into a symbol of urban regeneration. As a youth in Newark, I explored and painted this jail, and therefore feel a personal investment in the history of this… VIEW PUBLICATION

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Columbia University Artwork

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Featured in: – The Columbia Daily Spectator in September 2016 – The Columbia student newspaper in October 2016 – The 2018-19 edition of the Asia Pacific Affairs Council journal – And the Columbia College Today alumni magazine in winter 2019-20 (last page) and summer 2022 (pages 18-22) A map of campus This ink and watercolor drawing shows every building, window, and architectural detail on campus. The number of windows on each façade are faithful to reality. There are at least 2,000 windows. The perspective was formed from Google Earth satellite and street view images. The image measures 26 by 40… VIEW PUBLICATION

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Amiens Cathedral Construction Sequences

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Created with architectural historian Stephen MurrayAs featured on Columbia University’s Art Humanities website Section of choir from north Section of southern facade Section of choir from south Along with the Parthenon, Amiens Cathedral is introduced each semester to students in Art Humanities. This seminar has been taught since 1947 and is required of all undergraduates as part of the Core Curriculum. Through broad introductory courses in art, literature, history, music, and science, the Core aims to produce well-rounded citizens of Columbia University students. Amiens was chosen as representative of all Gothic architecture, and as a lens through which to teach… VIEW PUBLICATION

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New York Chinatown: time-lapse drawing

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As featured by the blog Kottke.org Chinese music: Feng Yang (The Flower Drum) This time-lapse of Manhattan Chinatown took sixty hours to complete and measures 26 by 40 inches. Chinatown’s tenements are in the foreground, while the skyscraper canyons of Lower Manhattan rise on top. This shows the area of Chinatown bordered by Bowery, Canal Street, and Columbus Park. VIEW PUBLICATION

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Walking in Manhattan

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Featured in this March 2019 interview from RatrockAnd in this July 2016 article from The Edublogger Strolling in New York City is a world tour. The street fairs of Spanish Harlem mesh into college town Columbia. Columbia gives way to the shabby chic of Harlem. A few blocks farther and I am drowned by the tourists of Times Square. Further still and I reach the bustle of Wall Street brokers. I stroll and try to identify the passing languages. Spanish in the outer boroughs. Polish in Greenpoint. Russian in Brighton Beach. Cantonese in Chinatown. French and German shoppers in SoHo…. VIEW PUBLICATION