Tag: sounds of the city

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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 PUBLICATION >

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The time-lapse history of Manhattan in two minutes

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This two-minute time-lapse film illustrates the 400-year transformation of Lower Manhattan from a Dutch village to a modern metropolis, highlighting the impact of new technologies on evolving methods of urban representation. The film draws from seventeenth-century drawings to modern photography, showcasing how each generation perceived and depicted through art the city’s growth and the changing world around them. VIEW PUBLICATION >

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Here Grows New York City

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Here Grows New York is an American urban planning film directed by Myles Zhang and advised by urban historians Kenneth T. Jackson and Gergely Baics. The data visualization uses time-lapse cartography to follow the history of New York City’s infrastructure and street system development from 1609 to the present day. The video quickly went viral, gaining over five million views. The film is used in dozens of architecture and urban planning classes about the history of the urban form. VIEW PUBLICATION >

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The Urban Development of Newark: 1660-2016

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As Newark celebrated the 350th anniversary of its 1666 founding, I created this series of time-lapse drawings based on historical images and maps. As Newark develops from a small town to a bustling and industrial metropolis, the sounds of my animation shift from quiet woodlands to the din of the vibrant city with rising skyscrapers. This two-minute film aims to represent history as a living, fluid process. VIEW PUBLICATION >

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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 PUBLICATION >

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Mount Pleasant Cemetery

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Mount Pleasant was the resting place of Newark’s leading industrialists, politicians, and first families. Opened in 1844 and landmarked in 1988, it fell into neglect as Newark’s wealth flowed away to foreign factories and Newark’s people fled to suburbia. Memories and histories carved in the text of century-old tombstones erode away as slowly as murky waters flow past in the nearby Passaic River. VIEW PUBLICATION >

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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 PUBLICATION >

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The Old Essex County Jail

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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 >