

By Myles and Maia Zhang
Our family’s reflection and photo essay on the annual tradition we have of planting flowers in a vacant lot.
“In time, we will wind our way and rediscover the role of architecture and man-made forms in creating a new civilized landscape. It is essentially a question of rediscovering symbols and believing in them once again. […] Out of a ruin a new symbol emerges, and a landscape finds form and comes alive.”
– John Brinckerhoff Jackson VIEW PUBLICATION >


From left to right: clock tower at Newark Broad Street Station, backyard of my childhood home, imaginary factory scene at night

Growing up in struggling, inner city Newark, the gritty urban environment inspired me. Newark’s abandoned factories and rust belt industries are fuel for my imagination and inspiration for me to reflect on the passage of time through my art.
A visual essay of my photos and watercolor paintings. Work examines the themes of industrialization, decay, and mass production in the consumer landscape of warehouses and shipping docks at Port Newark. VIEW PUBLICATION >
Excerpt from the Common App essay I wrote in 2015. This essay on my childhood experiences and struggles of growing up in the majority-black, inner city of Newark, NJ accompanied my successful undergraduate application to Columbia University. VIEW PUBLICATION >
As featured by NJ.com in spring 2019 Update: Following a case filed by New Jersey Appleseed Public Interest Law Center on behalf of PLANewark, Edison Parking admitted that they demolished this building without seeking proper permission from city and state agencies. Edison was in negotations out of court with PLANewark about ways to mitigate the damage they caused. On a warm Sunday in August 2014, bulldozers started tearing away at a historic, turn-of-the-century loft space. Although the first floor was sealed with cinder blocks, the upper floor was adorned with large Chicago-style windows, intricate white terracotta carvings, and Greco-Roman ornament…. VIEW PUBLICATION >
A visual essay featuring some of my watercolors, pastel images, and ink line drawings of the New Jersey Meadowlands. These images – both real and imagined – were inspired by industrial scenes I saw outside the train window when commuting between home in Newark and school in Hoboken, NJ. VIEW PUBLICATION >
Created in middle school out of wood, cardboard, and pastel cutout drawings of building silhouettes, preserved online as souvenir. Length: 6 feet / 1.8 meters VIEW PUBLICATION >
Seeing the old Essex County Jail as a middle school student was one of my first exposures to architecture. In this series of drawings and visual essay, I reflect on the building whose history and power later went on to shape my studies of architectural history. VIEW PUBLICATION >
A visual essay of my ink drawings and pastel paintings. Visual reflections on de-industrialization, decay, and the destruction of the natural environment along the Passaic River that flows through Newark, NJ. VIEW PUBLICATION >