Tag: time-lapse cartography

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Interactive time-lapse map about construction of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp

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This project utilizes georeferenced historical maps and time sliders to document the transformation of the region around the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp from 1945 to today. The interactive map highlights the selective preservation, demolition, decay, or adaptive reuse of significant camp structures linked to the Holocaust. The project uses interactive time-lapse cartography to inform public understanding of the Holocaust and the landscape of tragedy it produced. VIEW PUBLICATION

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Jersey City: Urban Planning in Historical Perspective

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This project was commissioned by the Jersey City Public Library to be used as an educational tool about the history of land use law and city planning, from 1900 to today. The project overlays citywide maps of every building in 1873, 1919, and today – to reveal changing land use patterns. The project also includes a PDF booklet about Jersey City’s six master plans, each of which captures the spirit of the city and the governing philosophies of city planners at the time. These documents reveal the city’s evolution in response to urban challenges and broader themes in U.S. urban history. VIEW PUBLICATION

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Newark Changing in Maps: 1889, 1927, 1930

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This project overlays historical city-wide fire insurance and tax maps above the contemporary geography to reveal change over time. Detailed maps of building footprints from 1889, 1927, and 1930 reveal different patterns of land use, community life, and walkable streets. Find your building, your workplace, or any site in Newark – and identify who lived there a century ago with the unique tool of this interactive map. VIEW PUBLICATION

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Time-lapse History of the United States

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This animation visualizes 272,000 data points spanning 220+ years of the U.S. census since 1790. With data from the National Historical Geographic Information System (NHGIS) at the University of Minnesota, I geo-referenced racial dot maps for all ten year intervals since 1790. Overlaying and fading time-lapse cartographies into each other reveals the scale of environmental and urban change. ● Each dot represents 10,000 people. Top ten largest cities for each decade are labeled in orange. Musical accompaniment by Philip Glass from the 1982 experimental film Koyaanisqatsi. In the Hopi language of the indigenous peoples of Arizona, the word koyaanisqatsi means… VIEW PUBLICATION

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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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The Berlin Evolution Animation

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Abstract: The Berlin Evolution Animation visualizes the development of this city’s street network and infrastructure from 1415 to the present-day, using an overlay of historic maps. The resulting short film presents a series of 17 “cartographic snapshots” of the urban area at intervals of every 30-40 years. This process highlights Berlin’s urban development over 600 years, the rapid explosion of industry and population in the nineteenth-century, followed by the destruction and violence of two world wars and then the Cold War on Berlin’s urban fabric. VIEW PUBLICATION

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California Waterscape: time-lapse history of water supply

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This time-lapse film visualizes the evolution of this state’s water delivery infrastructure from 1913 to 2019 through geo-referenced data on aqueducts, reservoir capacities, and land use. The animated film showcases population growth, urbanization, and agricultural demands, presenting cartographic snapshots that reflect the state’s increasing water needs over the decades. 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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24 Hours in the London Underground

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Audio effect: Heartbeat from Freesound Through analyzing 25,440 data points collected from 265 stations, this animation visualizes commuting patterns in the London Underground over two weeks in 2010. Each colored dot is one underground station. The dots pulsate larger and smaller in mathematical proportion to the number of riders passing through. Big dots for busy stations. Small dots for less busy stations. Dot color represents the lines serving each station. White dots are for stations where three or more lines intersect. Each dot pulsates twice in a day: Once during the morning commute; and again during the evening commute. By… VIEW PUBLICATION

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Railroad commuting patterns in New Jersey

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View my data visualizations of New Jersey’s suburban growth here. Created with data from NJ Transit on weekday and weekend rail ridership. Or download my data from Tableau Public. NJ Transit carries over 90,000 commuters per day to and from New York Penn Station, the busiest rail station in the Western Hemisphere. The construction of this rail network in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries was focused around New York City. Like spokes on a wheel, these rail lines radiate from the urban center. Hover over stations to view statistics. Dot color corresponds to train line. White dots are for… VIEW PUBLICATION

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Northeast Corridor railroad time-lapse

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Audio effects from Freesound; music is Metamorphosis by Philip Glass The Northeast Corridor is the busiest passenger railroad in North America. This drone flight follows a high-speed Acela train making this 456 mile journey from Washington D.C. to Boston via Baltimore, Wilmington, Philadelphia, Trenton, Newark, New York City, Stamford, New Haven, and Providence. This animation was created from Google Earth satellite imagery. I traced the Northeast Corridor route onto the ground, and I then programmed the computer to follow this route. I then added the inset map, sound effects, and clock in post-production. The above animation is condensed. View the full… VIEW PUBLICATION

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New York City Subway Ridership

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Created with data from the MTA.Published by Gothamist on 22 January 2019.Related: my data visualization of London Underground commuting patterns. The visual language of data addresses a deeper need to humanize and soften the concrete jungle. Sounds of breathing, heartbeat, and subway from Freesound In this animation based on subway ridership statistics by station: ● Dots are color-coded according to the subway lines they serve. ● White dots are for junctions between two or more lines of different color. ● Dot size corresponds to the number of riders entering each station within a 24 hour period. ● Larger dots are for… VIEW PUBLICATION

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A History of Historic Preservation in New York City

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Developed with historian Kenneth Jackson. Data analysis of NYC landmarks since 1965 reveals trends and biases in the landmarks preservation movement. The data analysis of NYC landmarks from 1965 to 2019 shows evolving trends in historic preservation, highlighting economic disparities and biases favoring wealthier neighborhoods. The study indicates a higher concentration of preserved sites pre-1945, challenging the preservation movement’s effectiveness against gentrification and questioning its responsiveness to modern architectural significance. VIEW PUBLICATION

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The Geography of Art History

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According to the Metropolitan Museum of Art Related: Data analysis and visualization of 120,000 works in the Museum of Modern Art In this film, each colored dot indicates one location represented by art in the Met’s online database. Dot location indicates artwork provenance. Dot size indicates the number of objects from this place. The time each dot appears corresponds to the year this work was created. This data is assumed to be an accurate sample size. Over the past few years, the Metropolitan Museum has catalogued over 25% of its holdings online. This represents ~590,000 objects, covering over 5,000 years… VIEW PUBLICATION

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New York Chinatown: time-lapse drawing

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This time-lapse of Manhattan Chinatown took sixty hours to complete and measures 26 by 40 inches. The artwork features Chinatown’s tenements in the foreground, with Lower Manhattan’s skyscrapers towering above. This panoramic map depicts Chinatown’s urban core, as bounded by Bowery, Canal Street, and Columbus Park.

Drawing is shared online in lower resolution. Email me for the full-size file. Custom size prints will be mailed to your home address on request. VIEW PUBLICATION