Tag: ruins

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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 PROJECT >

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Envisioning Seneca Village

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This collaborative project by Gergely Baics, Meredith Linn, Leah Meisterlin, and Myles Zhang. The project showcases a historically-accurate and archaeologically-informed 3D model of the historic African American community of Seneca Village, which was demolished in 1857 to build Central Park. The project combines digital reconstruction with extensive research, as public-facing tools to commemorate the village’s history and legacy. The project was recognized with multiple awards, widespread use in classrooms, and publicity by the Central Park Conservancy.

Visit: EnvisioningSenecaVillage.github.io VIEW PROJECT >

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The Detroit Evolution Animation

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Old maps were layered and animated to reveal the scale of Detroit’s transformation from French colonial trading post, to 19th-century boom, to 20th-century decline. Cartography highlights how political policies, technological changes, and the Great Migration accelerated racial segregation and the decline of mass transit. Detroit reflects broader trends seen in American cities. Project developed with historian Robert Fishman for an exhibit and lecture, funded by Egalitarian Metropolis grant from Mellon Foundation. VIEW PROJECT >

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Newark Metamorphosis

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This exhibit created for the Newark Public Library uses postcard comparisons of past vs. present to showcase Newark’s architectural evolution from 1916 to today. The project highlights the loss of cultural heritage due to urban renewal and demographic change. The resulting interactive map presents 150 comparative views, which illustrate the progressive loss of human-scale small structures that were central to the city’s vanished neighborhood identity. VIEW PROJECT >

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Murphy Varnish Lofts in Newark

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Murphy Varnish, built in 1886, is one of Newark’s oldest factories still standing. Its brick walls, terracotta ornament, and intricate brickwork reflect a time when industrial structures were more than just functional. Murphy Varnish reflects a time when industry was central to Newark’s wealth and key to its future success. It is a monument to industry, built to last. Recent renovation efforts promise to turn this derelict structure into a community of apartments. VIEW PROJECT >

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The Vanishing City of Newark

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Vanishing City is a visual documentary and photo essay about architecture and redevelopment in Newark. An abandoned barge sinks in murky waters.  A former factory tumbles before the wrecking ball.  A sea of weeds lays siege to a vacant home. An empty lot is a gaping hole, a missing tooth, in the urban body. As a wall crumbles to the ground, a tree, anchored to the wall, reaches for the sky. VIEW PROJECT >

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Pictures of Newark

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I spent much of the past few years painting and photographing my changing city. This short film features a selection of my work, complemented by classical music. Five of Modest Mussorgsky’s pieces from his composition Pictures at an Exhibition are selected, each of which represents the feel of a certain part of Newark. VIEW PROJECT >

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Renaissance City

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Growing up in Newark, I was inspired and saddened by my inner-city environment: I am inspired by Newark’s hope of renewal after decades of white flight, under-investment, and urban neglect. I am saddened by the loss of my city’s historic architecture and urban fabric to the wrecking ball of ostensible progress. My photo and art series titled Renaissance City depicts the Newark of my childhood with garish signage and decayed structures blanketing the city in a medley of color and consumerism. VIEW PROJECT >

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Urban Garden in Newark

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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 PROJECT >

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Public Speech: parking vs. preservation

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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 PROJECT >

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The Legacy of Vitruvius

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Essay selected from successful 2014 application to the Telluride Association Summer Program at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.

In this essay, I reflect on the Roman architect Vitruvius and ask: Rome left a footprint on the built environment. What will our society leave? VIEW PROJECT >